Gloucester Waterways Museum
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2.1  Opening Miscellany

Vindicatrix Figurehead
     The figurehead in the Museum reception area came from the training ship Vindicatrix, originally a full rigged ship launched in 1893, that was moored at Sharpness old dock between 1939 and 1967. The figurehead was known as Mrs Drysdale, after the wife of one of the original owners. While at Sharpness, the ship provided two or three months training for around 70,000 teenage boys prior to them joining the merchant navy as deck hands and stewards. As part of their unofficial initiation, newcomers were made to crawl out along the figurehead and kiss Mrs Drysdale. So many of them remember their time on board as being 'character building' that there is now a world-wide association of Vindi Boys, and they have paid for the restoration of the figurehead.
     Nearby is a sack truck inscribed ACN - it came from a warehouse run by the Aire & Calder Navigation Co.

Model Showing How Canals Work
      The model shows the canal crossing undulating countryside with locks to change level, an aqueduct to cross a river valley and a tunnel to go through a hill. Beside the canal is a towpath, and where this changes side, there is a turn-over bridge to allow a horse to cross without having to detach the towing rope. A motor boat and butty are just approaching one of the locks, another pair is heading for the tunnel and a boat is tied up at a wharf discharging coal.

Ecology Gallery
     Britain's waterways are home to a wide range of wildlife, and they form uninterrupted green corridors through town and countryside. The displays highlight what can be seen along the way and how modern canal engineers try to maintain canal banks in an eco-friendly way.
     In the corner is a large winch, and behind that is a sign board listing tonnage rates for the Aire & Calder Navigation in 1848.

Lock Under Maintenance
      The stairs to the upper floor pass through a replica of a narrow lock that has been pumped out for maintenance. The upper lock gate came from the Stourton flight on the Stourbridge Canal.

For Index to Museum Notes, see www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/museumnotes