Late in the afternoon of Monday 24th April Waterscape's stoppage alert service emailed:
Please note that due to a sunken craft in the [Bunbury] locks, passage will be unavailable during the rest of today whilst craneage is carried out to recover the boat. Further updates will be available from the morning of Tuesday 25 April 2006. British Waterways would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Before 10am the next morning they had already emailed:
** This stoppage has now been cleared **
A quick press release followed:
A British Waterways maintenance team was quickly on the scene to help a boater whose vessel had sunk in Bunbury Lock on the Shropshire Union Canal on April 24. The stern of the boat became lodged on the rear sill of the lock, which tipped the front of the vessel below the water level and it sank.
British Waterways, Wales and Border Counties Maintenance Supervisor Neville Preece said the incident occurred at about 4.00pm on Monday when a couple were negotiating the lock. The man was steering the boat and the woman operating the lock paddles when the boat became caught on the rear sill.
"Our team was quickly on the scene and assisted the man from the boat with the aid of a ladder. We then phoned in a crane which arrived at 5.15pm. The boat was raised and pumped out before being re-floated at 7.00pm," said Mr Preece.
"The team then assisted in mooring it for the night at nearby Anglo Welsh Boating Company. It was a textbook rescue and retrieval operation by the team. We are now investigating the incident, which is a very rare occurrence on our waterways," he added.
Textbook rescue, yes, and full marks to the recovery team. And a rare occurrence, yes, statistically. But not infrequent; several times a year I read or hear of this happening around the canal system, usually when the rudder snags on the cill as the boat is descending in a lock. Are there public statistics?
What's always missing from these stories, though, is the human element. Call me wet if you will, but I'd love to hear or read interviews with the poor unfortunates. Was it their home, or a hire boat? Was it a lapse in concentration, wilful negligence or simple ignorance and inexperience? Did they sit down lockside and cry, run around hysterically or simply stand shocked like zombies? I'd be interested to see a video documentary of such a disaster.
And especially (because I'm sensitive to the subject right now) what about insurance claims? I'm glad that mine is relatively benign. My new insurance documents only arrived yesterday, and the £44,000 for which Granny Buttons is insured make my current claim look small beer.
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