In my family Barging goes back generations. As far back as I can remember, I have had the love of barging in my blood. In all the years I have been around barges, the love has never faded. The only regret of barging I have had, that I was not born early enough to do it in trade with my father and grandfather. Many times that I have sailed with my father there was not a day that he did not teach me something new. If I could have sailed the rest of my life with my father, I would still not have learnt everything,. My father used to preach this everyday that you will never learn evey thing because everyday is a new day.

This barge is called the Esther, the Esther was the only barge built with a racing bottom.

My grandfather was the longest serving skipper in a barging trade

My father and I used to spend many times aboard our Thames sailing barge called the Decima and he used to tell me the stories of the old days and the days he used to sail with his father. The stories were so interesting, I used to be amused for hours. I would ask him all sorts of questions about different barges, that were in trade years and years ago. He could tell me all about each skipper of each barge, and where each barge was build and even which company owned it. he had so much knowledge I would have loved to earn all the knowledge he had .

When my father first started taking me away on different barges, the first barge I stood aboard (which was the C I V), I stood on her decks as a small boy, I looked from stem to stern, from the top of the topmast and I looked at all the ropes and I thought to my self how am I ever going to learn what each rope and part of the sails were called. My father walked up behind me and he must of known what my father was thinking he put his hand over my shoulder and said with a little patience you will learn this.

The barge CIV

He was right, I did learn it I learnt it so quickly. Because of the patience my father had I learnt it so quickly. He learnt me everything I needed to know about and barge and its surroundings. The one thing he used to put into my head was to treat a barge with respect and the sea .

I will never be able to thank my father for the knowledge he has passed on to me. The shameful part of, all of this is, that I will never be able to pass it on to one of my family, and to the day I die no one will understand how much love I have for barging.

The sailing barge Decima when she was first rigged out from a motor barge, not long after finishing trade.

(My father, mother and I were so proud in the way Decima looked).