https://spitalfieldslife.com/2025/11/11/the-maiden-voyage-of-the-raybel/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:43:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://spitalfieldslife.com/2025/11/11/the-maiden-voyage-of-the-raybel/#comment-1851923 Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:43:34 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=204429#comment-1851923 Thank you for sharing this piece of history and the beautiful images. I have a distant memory of a school trip in the 70s to Rochester in Kent – that included visiting a Thames Sailing Barge. I still remember vividly the rust red coloured sails.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2025/11/11/the-maiden-voyage-of-the-raybel/#comment-1848885 Tue, 11 Nov 2025 08:32:02 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=204429#comment-1848885 Wonderful story and photos. I recall seeing the Maybel at St Katherines Dock and which always triggered lovely memories. Whilst at secondary school early 70s a group of my friends and I were lucky enough to crew an old Thames Sailing Barge ‘The Thalatta’ for a week and those memories remain with me today. The intention was to sail across the channel from Maldon but the weather was poor and the captain decided we would travel north along the coast exploring some of the inlets until the weather broke. It didnt and actually got worse but the whole experience of living on board this beautiful vessel more than made up for not reaching France which would have been my first time abroad. Hard work but character building, particularly the nightwatch duties and I still love sleeping in hammocks. I believe Thalatta was restored too.

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