Village rowers bring 140-year-old gig back to the water, by Rosie Trelawny
An original contemporary newspaper article.
A wooden rowing boat built in 1885 has returned to the sea after a four-year restoration by volunteers from Porthcarrow Gig Club.
The boat, named ‘Merlin’, is a Cornish pilot gig: a long, narrow boat once used to race pilots out to sailing ships approaching the coast. The first gig to reach a ship won the job of guiding it safely into harbour, so speed was everything. Today the boats are raced for sport, with crews of six rowers and a cox who steers.
‘Merlin’ was found in 2020 rotting in a barn near Truro, with a hole in her hull large enough to put a leg through. Club members bought her for one pound from the farmer who owned the barn. The restoration was led by retired boatbuilder Graham Polglaze, 78, who taught younger members to steam and bend narrow planks of elm. In total, around forty volunteers gave up their evenings and weekends.
Hundreds of people lined the harbour wall on Sunday as the gig was carried down the slipway on the shoulders of twelve club members. Her first crew, all aged between sixteen and nineteen, rowed her across the bay and back while the crowd cheered.
‘She is older than anybody here,’ said club captain Lowenna Hart. ‘Now she is going to teach a whole new generation to row.’
The club hopes to race ‘Merlin’ at the county championships next spring.
(a) How much did the club pay for the boat? (b) How many rowers are there in a gig crew? (c) What kind of wood did Graham Polglaze teach younger members to steam and bend?
120 exam-style questions on Eduqas GCSE English Language 2.1.1 Two unseen non-fiction texts, 19th and 21st century. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.