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Building a 1920/1930's Style Barge
We started building "Saul Nomad" in 2002. The Fit-out began in 2004. The ship was finished in 2005...and most of the shots below are as she is in 2012. We have become a sort of Boating Blog...a kind of World View from the Wheelhouse! We have found a perfect spot in Aigues-Mortes, and there is currently not alot of cruising going on! However living on a boat, does not prevent you from having to work on your ship whenever it is needed. You neglect your lady at your peril! You are welcome to visit us. Aigues-Mortes is a great place to base yourself to tour the Camargue. The Camargue (Occitan: Camarga in classical norm or Camargo in Mistralian norm) is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône. Administratively it lies within the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, the appropriately named "Mouths of the Rhône", and covers parts of the territory of the communes of Arles - the largest commune in Metropolitan France, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - the second largest - and Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. A further expanse of marshy plain, the Petite Camargue (little Camargue), just to the west of the Petit Rhône, is in the département of Gard. Camargue was designated a Ramsar site as a "Wetland of International Importance" on December 1, 1986.  We were recently delighted and honoured (chuffed as hell!) to spot a photo of "Saul Nomad" on page 94 of Imray's 2008 print of the "Bristol Channel and Severn Cruising Guide". This cruising guide is updated every 15-20 years. The picture is circa 2003, during engine trials, and before our fitout at Tommy Nielsen's yard. It is definitely before our "shakedown" cruise to Ilfracombe in July 2003, where the mast shown had a coming together with the Sharpness lifting bridge...and came off worst! The current mast is a bit shorter, but more practical for loading.
(the above two images are Imray copyright.) Our hull fabricator, R.W. Davis & Son Ltd, is on the immediate right. If you have a query about any aspect of your boat, or any boating matter, please email us below. Please do not bang on about things, I am doing enough about that already! Tel: 0033(0)689 18 58 42 email: viacamden@msn.com Our free two cents worth will come back to you by return! 
...of course with our usual accuracy, this one was taken in 2007! Apart from the sad departure of the jetski on the stern, "Saul Nomad" still looks the same.
The Master Cabin in 2012. This is exclusively reserved for visitors.
...with ensuite shower and vacuum toilet.
The Mid-Ship Cabin with two bunks. Reserved for visitors or crew.
...with it's adjoining shower bathroom. It has a 300mm "Drench" shower head, for the afficionado's.
The Skipper's stern cabin, with shower/W.C. ensuite.
The galley in July 2005. It is not always as tidy of this! I am a keen cook, and I like to have "things" out...this is my excuse anyway!
The wheelhouse. We are moored in St Katherine's Haven in August 2005.
Aigues-Mortes 2008. We returned in the Spring of 2007, having first visited in 2005...en route to Port Camargue..
...But this is the story of our build! Up to the 31st December 2011, we have had a total of 6,394,492 hits on this website since we started in 2002! Since the 1st January 2012 up to the 17th May 2012, a further of you have graced us with your presence! This brings our running 402,977 total to 6,797,469 visits. (Figures provided by our webhost, netbenefit.com). The whole thing is a mystery to me, but a pleasure none the less! Anyway, thanks everybody for your continuing interest in our humble offerings of "gateaux avec les fruits", and we hope that our ever more tedious..almost weekly additions.. are keeping you suitably entertained! We have recently re-arranged our 2012 diary, so I hope that it is more coherent! Politically I am liberal conservative who believes in the theories of Bastiat and his "Parable of the Broken Window", but I must confess that some of the other mob do get me going in a bad way! In truth I am a very poor man's Jeremy Clarkson, but without the wit, the intelligence or the bombast... Consequently most of my pronouncements should be taken with a pinch of gazoil! So dear Dorothy, you must get ready to travel! Gather "Toto" into your arms, it is going to be a while before you return to Kansas City! CATCH OUR LATEST NEWS IN THE "2009 Let's Go for it" SECTION which leads to "2010 AND ALL THAT!"...SEE BOTTOM LEFT BUTTON. This Section also includes our 2011 DIARY, which gives a glimpse of the life and times of un batard anglais in France. 
"SAUL NOMAD" on her mooring at Saul Junction - September 2003
Winter 2004
Dad and I decided a number of years ago to build a 1920/1930's Style Barge to cruise the European Canal and River system. It would be suitable for commercial charter. A proper working boat. We did not want to build a poor British Replica of a what is known as in the United Kingdom as a Dutch Barge. However sometimes rather rudely described by the Dutch as an "English Bucket"! The Dutch profess to be guru's of barge building. It has enabled them to unload a shedload of Luxemotors with wafer thin metal hulls to the gullible brits. Original Luxemotors do look pretty, but you have to ask yourself one question. Why would such sharp traders as the Dutch want to sell them off, and build their own barges in Poland? "Saul Nomad's" definitive layout would probably not pass the Dutch anorak test, but it had to be pleasing to my eye. I joined the Barge Association, (The Barge Association - www.barges.org ) and have found it most helpful. (It used to be called the D.B.A. and affectionately called the "Dim Buggers Association".) However their Magazine "The Blue Flag" is a font of information written by experienced Barge owners, and their website discussion pages - occasionally lively and always very interesting. Bargees like Barges are all fairly unique, and you can pick up many different "best" ideas - even on the same subject. I have soaked up as much as possible and come to my own conclusions. (Admittedly, and in retrospect, not always the correct ones!) We have aimed at Continental cruising because we feel that it will be some years before many of the current improvements to our native system bear fruit. 
Mon Pere aged 92.
1970's. My Mater dressed for Dinner on a P&O Cruise.
My Father, George, sadly passed away aged 93 in October 2003 after a short illness. He was a retired International Water Engineer, and had lived in Ramsey, Isle of Man, since 1987. In 1947 he was appointed Baghdad Water Engineer. By the time he left ten years later Iraq had drinking water to European Standards. Whatever happened during thirty five years of Baath Socialist rule? During his retirement he wrote "Basic Water Treatment" which is a world standard reference to supplying drinking water. A hot topic these days, and the text book is required reading on University Engineering courses world wide. It is a shame that he will not get to enjoy the fruits of our labour, because he loved travelling and particularly cruising somewhere warm! Some of his last words to me were that although he would miss the cruising, it was possible that he would be somewhere warm! (Highly unlikely in my opinion, but he had an excellent sense of humour!).
Shipping has been in our family for over two hundred years. In the 18th Century there were Druitts who were Thames lightermen. Reginald Druitt OBE, my maternal grandfather, was freight manager of Furness Withy, with 1500 ships under his control during WWll. My Uncle, Clifford Druitt, was a member of the Baltic Exchange and a Freeman of the City of London. There has been abit of Politics in the family. My great grandfather, Samuel Smethurst, acted as Winston Churchill's political agent when WSC successfully became the Conservative Member of Parliament for Oldham in 1900. They remained friendly for many years afterwards, even though Winston had a major fallout with the Conservative Party over Free Trade. He crossed the floor to join the Liberals, who supported it in 1904. Now we call it "Globalisation" which I have a vague idea is currently more of a Tory aspiration, than a Liberal one! I am greatful to Allen Packwood for the following from his piece on Churchill and Oldham. "It is not clear why Churchill embraced Free Trade so wholeheartedly. In part it must have been principle. But it also provided him with a cause to champion, and a useful means of getting noticed within the House of Commons. In Oldham it quickly led to a breach with the majority of his own supporters. By 1903 the grass roots of the Conservative Party were clearly lining up behind Chamberlain, and Oldham was no exception. In August 1903 the Marlborough Conservative Club, in the Clarkesfield Ward on Pitt Street East, passed a resolution protesting against Churchill's conduct "in committing himself to a hostile attitude towards the Fiscal Reform Scheme." And in December Churchill and Earl Lytton appear to have been physically prevented from addressing a meeting at the North Chadderton Conservative Club. The general secretary subsequently sent an apology for this "uncourteous treatment" which he blamed on "a few of the least intelligent members, simply the riff raff of the club."
The matter had come to a head in October when the Oldham Conservative Association had reacted angrily to a letter by Churchill in which he described Joseph Chamberlain as a "quack." Samuel Smethurst, vice chairman of the local association and one of Churchill's few supporters within the party, wrote that his letter "seems to have had the effect of a spark laid to gunpowder" and added, "Frankly I think your chance now at the next election seems small, and if you are to find your platform it will have to be on the Liberal side." I had in my possesion a couple of dozen private letters between them. I donated them to the Churchill Archives, Cambridge, in 2005. In these days, someone on the UK minimum wage earns more in three days, than a Chinese worker making Apple IPads does in a month. It highlights the difficulty of creating private sector jobs in the western economies. I am John (66), who spent 35 years in the fashion industry. I have one long suffering older sister, Lorna. I spent many years pursuing my love of tennis. My competitive club tennis has been replaced by what Billie Jean King once accurately described as ""Hit and giggle". (Her standard of "Hit and Giggle" being at a slightly higher standard than my own !). I have also been a semi-professional photographer since the age of twelve. I added "semi" because "professional" on it's own, implies that I have made a living at it! Nowadays I do it because I love taking pictures, and digital photography gives you such an economical way to enjoy your hobby. I am fond of pets, and my current collection is a Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot which has ruled my life for twenty seven years and two wild French cats who have adopted us. Sadly both my large Newfoundland Bitches (9 and 15 years) died in 2009. "Bobo" the Parrot says "hello!", sings in tune to any song that takes her fancy, and noisily insists on sharing whatever you happen to be eating!
Here I am aged 5. Before it all went wrong...only joking! We were living in Baghdad in 1950, and I attended an Arab school. Keen observers will spot my patriotic "Festival of Britain" tie pin! I lived to tell the tale.
Kuwait International Airport 1956. Standing next to my sister, Lorna. We are catching the BOAC Constellation, behind us. I am returning to the Dragon School, Oxford, and Lorna to Wycombe Abbey, High Wycombe. I am proudly wearing my "Junior Jet Club" badge. Looks like I have recently been taken to the Army and Navy's school outfit department to buy a new uniform! This outfit will need roughing up when I get back to school! In my day, Dragons were renowned for looking scruffy!
The Lockheed Constellation was a beautiful plane. JJ Club members were usually invited into the cockpit and even had a chance to take the controls! Those were the days!
Summer Holidays 1957 Skippering a 15 mtr motor cruiser around the Norfolk Broads along with Parrot's major and minor. I presume the picture was taken by my mother, who has insisted on the tie!
I cannot claim that I was a huge success at the Dragon, despite being very happy there. This may have been partly due to the fact that sweet rationing ended in 1953, and the Dragon School tuck shop was suddenly filled with Mars Bars and Mivvi ice lollies. The school's standards on all fronts were first class. My high point was leading a Dragon "Select" Cricket Team against the Dragon Mothers in
1957. Allegedly I bowled their Captain, Baroness Poole, with three successive balls. ("Pills" in Dragon vernacular). She was given "not out" on each occasion. The umpire replaced the bails, and promptly took me off! There was a rumour that the Noble Baron was considering making a large donation to the school. Clearly the "Select" team were meant to be a "Select" bunch of no hopers! A lesson in the ways of the world. I am grateful to Wikipedia for a list of some famous "Old Dragons" - Robert Acland (born 1941), pioneer microsurgeon and anatomist[citation needed]
- Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster (born 1927), civil servant
- Sir Gawain Bell (1909–1995) colonial administrator, Governor of Northern Nigeria
- Henry Barratt (born 1983), rugby union player
- Michael Beloff QC (born 1942), barrister, President of Trinity College, Oxford. He has recently been busting corruption in professional cricket.
- Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984), poet, Poet Laureate from 1972
- Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903–1989), composer
- Alain de Botton (born 1969), writer and television producer
- Humphry Bowen (1929–2002), chemist and botanist
- Jonathan Bowen (born 1956), computer scientist
- Julian Brazier (born 1953), politician
- Henry Brett, polo player, captain England polo team 2003–06
- Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart (1942–2008) politician
- William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir (1916–2008), novelist, poet and statesman
- Sir Giles Bullard (1926–1992), diplomat
- Sir Julian Bullard (1928—2006), diplomat
- Humphrey Carpenter (1946–2005), journalist, author, and musician
- Tristram Cary (1925–2008), composer.
- Christopher Cazenove (1945–2010), actor
- Leonard Cheshire VC (1917–1992), World War II RAF pilot and activist for the disabled
- Colin Clark (1905–1989), economist
- Hugh Dancy (born 1975), actor
- Jack Davenport (born 1973), actor
- Quentin Davies, politician
- Ralph Henry Carless Davis (1918–1991), historian
- Cressida Dick (born 1960), senior police officer at the Metropolitan Police. Currently arresting Rupert Murdoch staff!
- Oliver Dimsdale (born 1972), actor
- Lady Antonia Fraser (born 1932, née Pakenham), historical author
- Tim Fry, (1934–2004) designer of the Hillman Imp[citation needed]
- Cyril Gadney, rugby player and president of the RFU[citation needed]
- The Rt. Hon. Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963), politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1955–1963
- Jonathan Gili (1943–2004), documentary film maker
- J.B.S. Haldane (1892–1964), geneticist and evolutionary biologist
- Tim Henman (born 1974), tennis player
- Tom Hiddleston (born 1981), actor
- Brent Hoberman, co-founder of lastminute.com
- Tom Hollander (born 1967), actor
- Peter Hopkirk (born 1930), journalist, author
- Air Marshal Sir Peter Horsley (1921–2001) Royal Air Force commander
- Frances Houghton (born 1980), rower and Olympic silver medallist
- Lord Hunt (born 1942), leading authority on turbulence modelling
- Sir Tim Hunt, biochemist and Nobel laureate
- Brian Inglis (1916–1993), journalist and historian
- Pico Iyer (born 1957), journalist and author
- Peter Jay (born 1937), television journalist, and former BBC economics editor
- Patrick Jenkin PC (Lord Jenkin of Roding, born 1926), politician
- David Jessel, journalist
- Stephen Jessel, journalist[citation needed]
- Dom Joly (born 1968), comedian
- Sir John Kendrew (1917–1997), molecular biologist and Nobel Laureate
- Andrew Lack (born 1953), biologist and botanist
- Hugh Laurie OBE (born 1959), British comedian and actor. "House" and occasional blues singer.
- David Lewis (born 1947) Lord Mayor of the City of London 2007–08
- Leo Lewis, journalist
- Hugh Miles (born 1977), journalist and author
- Naomi Mitchison (née Haldane, 1897–1999), British novelist and poet
- Philip Moore, Baron Moore of Wolvercote (1921–2009),Civil servant and personal private secretary to the Queen
- Robert Moore, ITN correspondent[6]
- John Paul Morrison (born 1937) inventor of Flow-based programming
- Sir John Mortimer (1923–2009), playwright (his time at the school in the 1930s is fictionalised as "Cliffhanger School" in his play "A Voyage Round My Father"), barrister and novelist
- Sir Peter Newsam (born 1928) educator (also Staff)
- Sir Roger Norrington (born 1934), musician and conductor
- Ed O'Brien (born 1968), musician (member of Radiohead)
- Rageh Omaar (born 1967), journalist and writer
- Julian Opie (born 1958), artist
- Stephen Oppenheimer (born 1947), genetic researcher and author
- Ronnie Poulton-Palmer (born c.1890) killed in World War I, rugby player
- Jonathan Pugh (born 1962) cartoonist
- Sir Timothy Raison (born 1929), politician, journalist and author
- Jack Randle VC (1917–1944), distinguished serviceman, T/Captain, 2nd Bn. The Royal Norfolk Regiment
- Adrian Rawlins (born 1958), film and television actor
- Andrew Robinson (born 1957), author and editor
- William Leefe Robinson VC (1895–1918), distinguished serviceman, lieutenant, 39 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
- Aubrey de Sélincourt (1894–1962) writer
- Nicholas Shakespeare (born 1957), journalist and novelist
- Nevil Shute (1899–1960), novelist
- Frank Sidgwick (1879–1939) founder of publishers Sidgwick and Jackson[citation needed]
- Sir John Slessor, Marshal of the Royal Air Force
- Sir John Smyth VC, distinguished serviceman, lieutenant, 15th Ludhiana Sikhs, Indian Army
- Richard Sorabji (born 1934) academic and historian of classical philosophy
- Timothy Sprigge (1932–2007) philosopher
- Jon Stallworthy (born 1935) academic and poet
- Clive Stanbrook OBE QC (born 1948) international lawyer and African biofuel pioneer
- Rory Stewart OBE (born 1973), politician, author and diplomat
- Christopher Tolkien, son of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Peter Tranchell (1922–1993), musician, composer, and teacher
- Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, Royal Navy admiral
- Sam Waley-Cohen (born 1982), jockey and businessman
- Tom Ward (born 1971), actor (Silent Witness)
- Paul Watkins (born 1963), Booker Prize-nominated author
- Emma Watson (born 1990), actress."Harry Potter"
- Admiral Sir Hugo White (born 1939), Royal Navy admiral, Commander-in-Chief Fleet 1992–95
- Jack Whitehall (born 1988), comedian and actor. TV series "Fresh Meat"
- Conrad Wolfram (born 1970), technologist
- Stephen Wolfram (born 1959), physicist, computer programmer
- Shaun Wylie (1913–2009), mathematician and World War II codebreaker
- Baroness Young (1926–2002), politician
- Max Irons (Born 1985), Actor
After a brief stay at Sutton Valence in Kent, I was on my way to Canada in 1959. 
1960, Ashbury College, Ottawa. The Queen Mother pays us a visit. I developed the film and printed the negative on our bathroom floor.
![image[1].jpg](/users/www.saulnomad.com/upload/image[1].jpg)
Governor General Vanier inspects the School Cadet Honour Guard. I am grateful to Cadet Captain Bruce McNair...carrying the sword...for this photo. It was taken after I had left to go to Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB.
It rained heavily on my parade in 1962! Ho hum!
1962. Fieldmarshal Montgomery of Alamein inspected the Ashbury Cadet Corps. He commented that we all needed a haircut! (See above!) Headmaster Ron Perry clearly does not know what to do with his hands during the dressing down! Nice Government "Caddie" though. The Canadians were treating him with more respect than he was getting back home from some of his own people. "How I won the war", was no longer a popular refrain.
1964 Mount Allison University. Wearing my Varsity jacket. We were the Maritime Soccer League Champions. Not alot of study going on!
Summer 1964. "V" marks yours truly in the University Naval Training Division. (UNTD). Unfairly nicknamed the "Untidies". This is a group photo of "Assiniboine" Division (The "Sin Div") at HMCS Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.
My ship, HMCS Inch Arran. This is her in 1944. We did a "there and back" across the Atlantic to Chatham, Torbay, and Newport, UK via the Azores. I suppose in 1964 she was not that old. Now of course you would only find her crewed by Noel Coward and John Mills et al. I recall that she rolled like a bugger in the heavy ocean swell, and when we encountered the tail end of a Hurricane several days out of Halifax, NS, we were confined to our bunks. On reflection the RCN probably did not want to lose any Cadets overboard!
We optimistically hoped to cut a swathe through swinging London!
Here we are after a "Dog Watch"trip around the Cornwallis Marine Commando Assault Course. I have an idea it was punishment for smuggling a cow onto the parade ground...the largest parade ground in the Commonwealth. The WREN only joined us for the photocall!
I kid you not!
1966, and trying to look cool!
1979 Married and Mortgaged, but still looking cheerful!
The Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club 1977. "I would like to say a few words to our friends from Plaswyk Tennis Club, Rotterdam..." 
We had a famous visitor practising at the Cumberland. Bjorn won all his five Wimbledon Championships by training on our grass courts. His practice partners included Rod Laver, Panatta, Vitas Gerulaitas, Heinze Guntdhart (sic), and Billy Martin. It was amazing to watch their level of tennis...which looked like it had come from another planet!
1984. "Robert" my young Blue and Gold macaw, checks for any sign of grey matter! 
1984. Robert meets Bobo for the first time. It did not go well! 
1999 - 2003 my beloved 7.5 Meter "Tornado" with a 225 hp Yamaha OB. My two Newf's, Laura and Erin, waiting patiently for me to return from a Thames side pub! I moored it next to London City Airport, in the Royal docks...close to the old Harland & Wolf works. We made around a hundred round trips between Wandsworth and Southend pier. I also towed it to the Isle of Man, and did a few hairy trips around the Irish Sea. Now I wish I had never sold it. With it's long distance 400 litre fuel tanks, and it's 50 Knots speed, we could easily go to Marseilles for lunch, and return for supper...mind you, I would have to pass the hat round to cover the fuel bill!
2006 and a full time boat person!
"You can see who ate all the pies!" Bobo in 2012...having just had a bath!
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82ft x 15ft of British Steel.. possibly via Beijing.. but patriotism rules o.k.! The Hull was solidly fabricated by R.W Davis Ltd at Saul Junction. Hence the name, "Saul Nomad". 
My beloved Newf's, Erin and Lulu. "Saul Nomad" was designed with them in mind...all surfaces are washable! They both went to doggie heaven in 2009. Erin at fifteen, of old age, and Lulu at nine years of Renal failure. There was no warning of this one at all. Seven days of being "off colour", and she was gone.
Erin and Lulu liked to help, with mixed success. Erin is obviously checking everything is going well with Tony and Sass's renovated and relaunched Motor Boat. Lulu typically decides to pose, whilst "'elf and safety's" heart misses a beat!
 Saul Junction, Gloucestershire at R.W Davis Ltd, on the Gloucester to Sharpeness Canal. Slightly more relaxing than Camden Town! 
I went to see the legendry Tommi Nielson about doing our internal fitout. His speciality is tall ships, like these ones moored outside his workshops here in Gloucester Docks. "Please do our interior like one of these, Tommi" I said. The rest is history...big wallet becomes small wallet...but it was worth it!
"Kaskelot" in the drydock, where "Saul Nomad" spent most of her fitout.
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