Newhaven shipping

The dredger had been sucking up shingle from the sea bed a mile or two off the coast, near Newhaven. The cargo is off-loaded at Newhaven's South Quay, where it is graded and loaded onto railway wagons and transported to the London area, or into lorries for use more locally, as aggregate in the production of concrete.

This memorial, to fishermen working out of this Sussex port, has been placed at the exit from the harbour, from which they sailed before losing their lives at sea. R.I.P. The impetus for this memorial was the sinking of the Joanna C, a Brixham scallop trawler, working out of Newhaven, Sussex. Two of the crew drowned and only the skipper survived. The vessel had been modified a number of times and the cumulative effect had been to reduce its stability when its trawl had been snagged under water. The life-raft also did not self-inflate. Subsequently maritime regulators have issued new guidance about recalculating stability after modifications and upgrading the standards of life-rafts used on smaller vessels, to the same standard as larger ones.

The sculpture was designed by local artist Christian Funnell, who also designed the Shoal, a community memorial bench in Seaford. This also uses the fish shaped plaques. www.ipernity.com/doc/philsutters/46660234/in/album/1193586 The fishing vessels are named under the men's names, Please see the neighbouring photo's caption for the background to this memorial.

An up-date on this sad old wreck, partially cut up for salvage and then left to rust away. Given the current state of the mooring lines I do wonder if on a high tide it could just slide into the channel. Fortunately it is not a much used waterway.

Environment commentary - The Rampion wind farm, off the Sussex coast, near Brighton, will be expanded by at least 100% over the next few years. Support vessels like these will be needed when commissioning turbines and then, in smaller numbers when they are up and running, for maintenance. From the home ports of vessels here - Fleetwood and Great Yarmouth, the industry is spread wide around the UK coasts.