\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat weight a \u2018Carlisle peck\u2019 was \u2013 or how come Carlisle had its own variation of this measurement \u2013 isn\u2019t stated.<\/p>\n
The sloop Henry Brougham had brought a cargo of cotton from Liverpool. She was then loaded up with a cargo of barley, and set sail again on March 14 for Glasgow.<\/p>\n
The Henry Brougham was a sloop, built three years earlier by Walter Neilson, Annan. She was 53ft 2 inches long, and 16ft 11 inches wide. Which gives an idea of what the flotilla that made the maiden voyage along the canal must have looked like to folk in an inland city.<\/p>\n
The Henry Brougham was apparently lost in 1849, but I can\u2019t find a report to confirm this.<\/p>\n
According to details of a public auction in December 1831 (part-shares in several ships), the Miss Douglas (75 tons), the Nancy, (73 tons) and the Isabella (80 tons) were schooners. And the John (51 tons) and Crown (50 tons) were smacks.<\/p>\n
A random \u2018arrivals\u2019 list (in the Carlisle Patriot of November 19, 1825) gives an idea of just how busy Port Carlisle was in the short heyday of the canal.<\/p>\n
Arrived: Ulysses, from North America, timber; the John; the Eden; the Miss Douglas; the Rosina; the Carlisle; the Crown; the Bridget; the Bella; Prosperity; the Ann; the Allonby; the Breakwater; Lively; the Kitty; the Isabella.<\/p>\n
Sailed: the Peggy; the Kitty; the Bridget; the Isabella; the Eden.<\/p>\n
Full steam ahead<\/h2>\n
In 1825, a steam company was set up in Carlisle, in conjunction with one in Liverpool.<\/p>\n
In February 1828, the arrivals at Port Carlisle include the steam packet Cumberland, bringing goods and passengers from Liverpool. The Carlisle Patriot<\/em> listed all the goods she brought in. Too long to detail here, but they included: \u2018manufactured goods\u2019; cotton; sugar; tobacco; coffee; wine; nuts; dried fruit; pig iron\u2026 And when she steamed back away from\u00a0 <\/span>Port Carlisle, she was carrying: manufactured goods; yarn; grates and fenders; flour; bacon; cattle and sheep.<\/p>\nIn 1834, a new passenger ship began ferrying people from Carlisle to Port Carlisle and vice versa. She was called the Arrow, and is described thus:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nshe is drawn by two horses, one of which is ridden by a boy (the horses are changed halfway). She iss 66 feet long and but 5ft 8 ins wide. There is no deck, for she consists of two cabins, six feet higth inside, the roof of which is about four feet above the edge of the boat. The first holds 25 passengers or more and is very handsomely fitted up, with seats covered with hair cushions, the sides blue damask. The second will contain perhaps 40 passengers and is neatly, though more plainly furnished. A row of windows each side open down from the top and render the cabins extremely light and airy. The boat is made of wrought iron, the upper parts are composed of wood and painted canvas. The time alloted for the passage is an hour and three-quarters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe sloop Prosperity and the schooner Isabella belonged to Port Carlisle ship owner Peter Irving. He later owned a brig named the Robert Burns. You can read a lot more about this real Cumbrian Character (and the tragic fate of the Robert Burns) in my book: Port Carlisle a history built on hope<\/p>\n
The main image is a list of Solway ships from 1810, so before the canal.<\/h4>\n