General Chat

One of my ancestors was a keeler on the Tyne.
That lot from Sunderland etc are known as the Mackems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dpnp2yPoks

As I cam' doon the Sandgate,
The Sandgate, the Sandgate,
As I cam' doon the Sandgate,
I heard a lassie sing!
"O weel may the keel row,
The keel row, the keel row,
O weel may the keel row,
The ship my laddie's in."

O wha's like my Johnny,
So leith, so blithe, so bonny,
He's foremost 'mong the mony
Keel lads o' coaly Tyne.
He'll set and row so tightly,
Or in the dance -so sprightly-
He'll cut and shuffle slightly,
'Tis true - were he not mine.

He wears a blue bonnet,
Blue bonnet, blue bonnet,
He wears a blue bonnet,
Blue bonnet, blue bonnet,
A dimple in his chin.

O weel may the keel row,
The keel row, the keel row,
O weel may the keel row,
The ship my laddie's in.

(A keeler was a flat bottomed boat used for shifting coal from the shore to ships which would transport the coal to London. A difficult and dangerous occupation paid by results. )

Rollo I could kiss you! lol ( in a purely platonic way of course)

That mention of a flat bottomed boat made me go and look at a report I have saved re my gt grandfather taking sand or gravel on his barge ("Edith") up the Thames. Not looked at it in a long while and it has the name of another family owned barge in it that I have just found on new records on FMP manned by a Fishlock I can't place. It might just be hugely useful :-D :-D

Meet my family then ... My GGF and his biz friends had the EDME built for carrying grain for maltings. I first sailed om the Thames when I was 12 years old.

http://www.edmebarge.com/

These boats are very different to Tyne Keelers though. The keelers only sailed short distances, never went to sea and only had a very basic square sail.I don't know if you have ever seen the Tyne but it is a fast and dangerous river. The keelrs needed both strength and nerve.

The sailing barges had a complex system of sails together with a huge jargon. Sailng them too demanded strength and nerve. as well as detailed knowledge of the shifting and capricious East Coast. The barges also sailed across the North Sea to Belgium and the Netherlands on a regular basis.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+riddle+of+the+sands+childers&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYq7Sz_fDiAhXWWhUIHcFxARgQ_AUIECgB&biw=1200&bih=794#imgrc=EZxJ038_R2thGM:

Very interesting Rollo :-) it would have been a sight to see the barges on the Thames in 2017, I'm sorry to have missed it. I read 'The Riddle of the sands' many years ago but I will get a copy and re-read.

Mackems and the other lot from Newcastle, the Tackems. I was told that this referred to the ships being built in Sunderland, and then being taken to Newcastle to be fitted out. I may have been wrongly informed of course. Incidentaly, my Sunderland mate lived in one of the "Garths" which overlooked the shipyards where the ships were built. I have fond memories of Sunderland. We used to get p****d up in the East End Social Club.

Oooh, Bob, I have never heard Geordies described as takems.

True, Mackems are from Sunderland and the word is derived from the shipbuilding industry where shipbuilders would mak 'em and others would tak 'em - way back from the time when Sunderland produced a great breed of engineers - and still does but fewer in number.

But the whole phrase is mak 'em and tak 'em, purely Sunderland, meaning make them and take them.

Certainly I know that Sunderland could fit ships out too. When they are finished they do a searun to test everything and I was once asked to join them as they'd never had a woman join the overnight run to test everything and wanted my perspective. Boy, was I pleased I refused as I was at the quayside the next morning when they came back in and the weather had been awful.

:-D