Several boats with one name
Wherry is a word used for more than one kind of boat, and it helps to separate them early. On the Thames and other rivers, a wherry was a light rowing boat for carrying passengers, operated by watermen. The wherry that concerns this article is the Norfolk wherry, a sailing cargo boat that worked on the rivers and broads of Norfolk and Suffolk. Of the other uses, the Thames wherry is part of the broader story of oared boat design.
The Norfolk wherry is a local type, but its long career and distinctive appearance made it one of the best-known working boats in England.
A boat for an inland network
East Anglia has a network of slow, winding rivers, including the Yare, Bure, Waveney and their tributaries, connected to the sea at Great Yarmouth. Before good roads and railways, these waterways were the arteries of trade. Goods had to be moved between the port, the city of Norwich and numerous villages and small towns, and the rivers were the obvious route.
The trading wherry developed to meet that need. The use of the term for cargo-carrying boats in Norfolk goes back to at least the 17th century, though the type was refined over time, and the surviving boats belong to the later part of its history. A wherry had a shallow draft, a broad beam for its length and a large hold with a sheltered cabin at the stern for the crew. The hull was commonly carvel-planked, and the bow and stern were pointed. Wherries were commonly in the range of a few tens of tons of cargo capacity, but sizes varied.
The single big sail
The wherry’s most striking feature is its sail. One large, tall, black sail on a single mast carried the boat, set well forward in the hull. The sail was a form of gaff rig, but without a boom, and it was proportionally very large compared with the hull. Powered by it, the boat could make good progress with the wind, and even though it was not designed to sail directly upwind, it could tack on open stretches. The mast pivoted and was balanced with a counterweight so that the sail could be lowered for low bridges, a particular device discussed in the account of the wherry’s special rig.
The black colour came from a dressing of tar and other substances applied to preserve the cloth. When the wind failed or the channel was too narrow, the crew used a long pole, called a quant, to push the boat along.
Cargo and crews
Wherries carried bulk goods needed in a farming region and a growing city. Typical cargoes included coal, grain, malt, timber, bricks, reeds, agricultural produce and general merchandise. Heavy goods were carried in the hold, while light goods and passengers might travel on deck. Wherries also took part in the trade of Yarmouth, a port with strong ties to the North Sea herring trade, and moved goods between ships and inland destinations.
The crew was small, often a skipper, known as the wherryman, and a mate, sometimes assisted by a boy. They lived on board, in a small cabin, for the duration of a journey, and the work was demanding in all weathers. Wherrymen had strong traditions and a reputation for skill in handling their large boats on narrow waters.
Pleasure wherries
From the later 19th century, the rivers and broads of Norfolk became popular for holidays. Some wherries were built or converted for pleasure, and carried parties of holidaymakers who lived on board while cruising. These pleasure wherries had comfortable cabins and a more elegant finish than the cargo boats, and a few remain famous, such as the Hathor, built in 1905. This new use was a hint of how the Broads would develop as a leisure area, and the sailing tradition continued in a different form.
Competition and decline
The trade of the cargo wherry declined as other forms of transport spread. The railway reached Norwich and Great Yarmouth in the 1840s and took away many cargoes, and later road transport, especially motor lorries in the 20th century, took more. Motor-powered boats also began to replace sail on the rivers. By the middle of the 20th century, trading wherries had practically disappeared.
One of the best-known survivors is the Albion, built in 1898, which traded for decades and was later preserved by a trust. It remains a working example that can be seen sailing on the Broads, and is regarded as a rare surviving trading wherry. Other wherries and pleasure wherries have also been kept in service or restored.
Legacy
The wherry shows how a local waterway can shape a boat. Its shallow hull, its single sail, its simple crew and its adaptable mast were all responses to the geography of the Broads. In that sense, it is related to other regional craft, from the Thames barge to the gaff cutter, but it remains distinctive. The surviving boats are one of the best ways to see the history of inland trade by water in England.