With 1500 tonnes of Swedish timber drifting up the Dover Strait, it's more than likely us Thanetians will indeed wake up with wood tomorrow morning - all over our lovely sandy beaches!Fortunately our island's renowned resourcefulness when it comes to getting something for nothing will almost certainly ensure that it's gone by dinner time. Which is fortunate, as we wouldn't be able to rely on the duffers at our council to clear it much before Easter.
I myself will be down there, wielding my Stihl chainsaw, as one of the last things Mr Ceaucescu (no relation) did for me before running off with my lovely wife, Mrs Eastcliff (formerly Mrs Ceaucescu (no relation)) was install a wood burning stove here at the old cliff top mansion. Oh well, it's an ill wind!
Click here to read full story on BBC News website
Update: The Receiver of Wreck has said any wood washed up remains the property of the owner and must be reported. Yeah, right. Click here to read story on BBC News website.
19 comments:
ECR, just give it a week or so and it will be there. The good thing is there will be plenty for everybody. In the past decade we have had three wood losses and I have benefited from every spillage.
Pegwell Bay is the best spot as the wood is less damaged as it does not have any contact with the rocks as it comes ashore making a soft landing in the sand/mud.
The police were on the news saying it was illegal to collect wood from the beach. Mind you, these days it's illegsal to do just about anything and you can rely on plod to clamp down on anything that might be fun or benefit you in some way. Why and how is it illegal? It will only cost the taxpayer a fortune to clear it from the beaches and then the authorities will just burn it. Why not let the public clear the beaches?
Aye me hearty, there are ways around it for sure. Thanet has 22 miles of coastline and I doubt there will be a 24 hour surviellance. Anyway Kent Police are not issued with wellies.
Surely it can be used for artistic uses in the M&S art centre n Margate, a pile of wood would have the same appeal as a pile of broken crockery.
Maybe TDC can bulid the whole of the Turner centre out of wood instead. And use the £17 million for something less important like saving our financial necks.
maybe it could be used to rebuild the scenic railway...should be dried out in time for the next mysterious"probably bored teenagers ..guv" fire....
A few more shops can be boarded up!
Worthing now have an annual arts festival named after the ship that dumped timber on their beach last year. Anyone for a Sinegorsk Festival in Ramsgate?
Oh well, if you don't like it you know where to go.
I'll just carry on speaking out against the incompetence, bordering on corruption, that I see around Thanet. If you want to read a blog that glosses over all that, I suggest you start your own. Good luck with getting any readers.
Sorry to sound a bit mystified here but does anyone know what the law is relating to the collecting of driftwood, it does seem a bit odd that it should be illegal or does this only relate to these very large cargo dropping incidents?
I think they appoint a Master of the Wreck or something and it all has to be collected and then sent back to the ship's insurers. Technically it's their property. I think.
Good luck if they can do that, though, before we've all been down there and got enough to build that summer house I've always wanted in the back yard.
Anyone out there got the full SP on maritime law?
I saw that comment before you deleted it ECR and it sounded very much like it cam from TDC.
I recall back in the 80s and 90s that anyone who spoke out against TDC's hairbrain schemes was labelled a 'knocker'. It really is the last resort of people bereft of inspiration, ideas, or any kind of cohesive argument.
BTW, I think from the perspective of 2009 we can safely say that the 'knockers' were right.
I always have wood in the morning
All this talk of knockers is definitely giving me wood!
ECR, the law on maritime salvage is a complicated as TDC's Museums Policy. As far as I know under the 1995 Merchant Shipping act the lost wood is classed as flotsam and jetsam and any finds must be reported to the receiver of wrecks. If official salvagers are appointed by the owners then the wood is their property. If there are no official salvagers it can be taken but must be reported to the ROW. However, if salvagers are appointed and the wood is a maritime hazard like floating in the entrance of Ramsgate Harbour it can be removed and reported to the ROW.
But at the end of the day I think it would be down to quantity, I cannot imagine the authorities pursueing somebody taking a couple of planks to build a hutch for their guinea pig. Rolling up with a artic would be a different matter.
last year when TDC forgot to bank the sand on Viking Bay and remove a load of beach huts near the sailing club. a high tide took the huts out to sea. They came back in smashed to pieces and I brought several car loads of smashed up timber back for kindling for my fire.
I did this in view of the TDC clean up crew who had been assembled to cover the councils embarassment. They were only to happy for me to save them some work.
It was still almost at the mid-channel mark this morning, 14 nautical miles SE of Newhaven.
aye aye cap'n.... 'ard a starboard Mister Moores!
Once reported to the ROW it is up to the insurer (who owns the timber) to decide whether or not its worth their while collecting the timber and maybe having to pay salvage fees. In the case of the Kodima that shed it's load all over Cormwall in 2002 the insurer couldn't be bothered. At which point I believe it all belongs to the Queen, she can decide whether to let you keep the wood or she can pay you a salvage fee.
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