Cetewayo
By Patrick Bird
Everyone at the World Pilot Gig Championships will know the famous St Agnes gig Shah, built by Nicholas Peters of St Mawes in 1872 and renowned in the late 19th Century as being “dreaded by all the other gigs in Scilly as they were no match against her”. The Shah was bought early in 1873 by St Agnes pilots after St Ives pilots refused to accept her, saying that she would not be seaworthy enough - indeed, upon inspection, most of the St Agnes pilots agreed that they would be “buying their own coffin” if they bought her. But pilot Abraham James Hicks disagreed and decided that she should be the gig that would be best suited to work with the pilot cutter Gem in gaining competitive pilotage income. It was written in her logbook that she is “as fine as a needle but will always lift in a heavy sea”. After the newly built Czar was brought to Scilly by Bryher pilots the following year (gigs in Scilly were often named after foreign dignitaries who were in the country visiting Queen Victoria), arguments ensued over which was the faster of the two gigs. A longer than usual triangle race had them neck and neck until the last leg, when the ‘Shah’ pulled away and won, apparently settling this debate. We all know that the crews and sea conditions will always play a huge part and, to be fair, the Shah and the Czar do both have their own merits in this regard. As with all the old Scillonian gigs, the Shah more than earned her keep in pilotage, although she was scarcely used in life-threatening rescues. A prime example was at the wreck of the Thomas W Lawson in 1907, when it was the Slippen that was chosen to row out to Hellweathers, most likely due to her being more stable in the treacherous conditions in which the men of St Agnes (in particular, Freddie Cook Hicks) were to perform their heroic rescues of the three lone survivors.
St Ives had a habit of disregarding gigs and St Agnes had a habit of buying them - as was the case with another legendary gig Cetewayo (pronounced ‘set-a-way-o’), built some time in the 1860’s or 1870’s. Bought second hand by St Agnes from St Ives in 1882 and named after the visiting King of the Zulus, the Cetewayo worked with the pilot cutter Agnes and was a pure racing machine. She was kept in her gig shed at Porth Askin (the remains of which can still be seen) facing directly towards the Western Rocks, but she wasn’t liked by the pilots because she was so fine in the bow that she used to push her nose down into the waves - but she was fast. So fast in fact, that when it became obvious that she was unbeatable (bearing in mind that prize money and therefore islanders’ livelihoods were at stake), whenever there was a regatta held in Scilly, the posters would state “CETEWAYO BANNED” for the six-oared gig races. So what do you do with a gig that is too fine for pilotage or salvage work, and is banned from racing? Poor Cetewayo was left to rot in the bracken, redundant, never to be used again… or was she?
There are lots of versions of what happened next to poor old Cetewayo, but after extensive research for a book I am writing, on this particular story I have my own theory on the details -
In 1903, posters were distributed for the Isles of Scilly Regatta to be held on Thursday 10th September (declaring the standard line of ‘CETEWAYO BANNED’), but this regatta was known to be cancelled due to a gale. According to the Cornish Telegraph the regatta subsequently “took place in ideal weather on Monday” (13th September), but either there was not enough time to print new posters, or the weather prevented any updated posters being distributed to the off-islands (or both) before the revised date of the regatta. Therefore, this would have presented the men of St Agnes with a loophole opportunity - to race in their undefeated gig again, after her being banned for over 20 years. But there’s no use having a fast boat if it’s going to sink. So, as any boatbuilder will tell you, if time is of the essence and you simply have to launch a badly leaking boat quickly - rub soap into the gaps, add brown paper where the gaps are larger and this will temporarily get you afloat until you are able to carry out the repairs properly. When the Cetewayo was originally decommissioned, she is known to have been left “on a hill” - for those of you who know St Agnes, the obvious place that this would have referred to would be behind where the gig sheds at Porth Askin were located, just up on Wingletang Downs, where she would have been out of the way. Knowing that their precarious gig shouldn’t be in the water for any longer than was absolutely necessary, I would make another assumption that she was most likely carried across the island and launched at Porth Conger (below what is now the Turk’s Head) and rowed across to St Mary’s for the race. Most people know the Gibson photo below, which shows the Cetewayo way out in the lead having only just started the race
St Ives had a habit of disregarding gigs and St Agnes had a habit of buying them - as was the case with another legendary gig Cetewayo (pronounced ‘set-a-way-o’), built some time in the 1860’s or 1870’s. Bought second hand by St Agnes from St Ives in 1882 and named after the visiting King of the Zulus, the Cetewayo worked with the pilot cutter Agnes and was a pure racing machine. She was kept in her gig shed at Porth Askin (the remains of which can still be seen) facing directly towards the Western Rocks, but she wasn’t liked by the pilots because she was so fine in the bow that she used to push her nose down into the waves - but she was fast. So fast in fact, that when it became obvious that she was unbeatable (bearing in mind that prize money and therefore islanders’ livelihoods were at stake), whenever there was a regatta held in Scilly, the posters would state “CETEWAYO BANNED” for the six-oared gig races. So what do you do with a gig that is too fine for pilotage or salvage work, and is banned from racing? Poor Cetewayo was left to rot in the bracken, redundant, never to be used again… or was she?
There are lots of versions of what happened next to poor old Cetewayo, but after extensive research for a book I am writing, on this particular story I have my own theory on the details -
In 1903, posters were distributed for the Isles of Scilly Regatta to be held on Thursday 10th September (declaring the standard line of ‘CETEWAYO BANNED’), but this regatta was known to be cancelled due to a gale. According to the Cornish Telegraph the regatta subsequently “took place in ideal weather on Monday” (13th September), but either there was not enough time to print new posters, or the weather prevented any updated posters being distributed to the off-islands (or both) before the revised date of the regatta. Therefore, this would have presented the men of St Agnes with a loophole opportunity - to race in their undefeated gig again, after her being banned for over 20 years. But there’s no use having a fast boat if it’s going to sink. So, as any boatbuilder will tell you, if time is of the essence and you simply have to launch a badly leaking boat quickly - rub soap into the gaps, add brown paper where the gaps are larger and this will temporarily get you afloat until you are able to carry out the repairs properly. When the Cetewayo was originally decommissioned, she is known to have been left “on a hill” - for those of you who know St Agnes, the obvious place that this would have referred to would be behind where the gig sheds at Porth Askin were located, just up on Wingletang Downs, where she would have been out of the way. Knowing that their precarious gig shouldn’t be in the water for any longer than was absolutely necessary, I would make another assumption that she was most likely carried across the island and launched at Porth Conger (below what is now the Turk’s Head) and rowed across to St Mary’s for the race. Most people know the Gibson photo below, which shows the Cetewayo way out in the lead having only just started the race
Famously, the Cetewayo went on to win this race by a country mile, beating the Dolly Varden in 2nd place and the Leo in 3rd, whilst the coxswain (Grenfell Francis Legg) was franticly bailing all the way round. When she came in and was pulled up on Town Beach, she simply fell apart due to the stresses and strains of the race. I would imagine that most of her timbers, knees and thwarts would have been rotten and the planking had started to come away at either end once she was dragged up the beach with a lot of water in her. She did make it back to St Agnes, presumably on deck or towed, but was deemed beyond repair and burnt. As with any gig, she could quite easily have been restored, but you have to remember that it’s only in the last 60 years or so (since Newquay Rowing Club saved the remaining old Scillonian gigs) that gigs were in any way revered in the way they are now - they were just seen as tools of the trade and held very little sentimental value. So that was to be the end of the Cetewayo’s short 21-year history in Scilly - she didn’t do much piloting or salvage work, nor did she even race a lot - but she did literally go out in a ball of flames.
Throughout 2022, my sister Vanessa and I spent a lot of time on St Agnes looking after our mum, who was terminally ill. It was during this time that, along with discussing ways to restore the Sussex and Campernell (both built in the 1880’s by Nicholas James Peters, nephew of Nicholas Peters) Tristan Hick and I started discussing the idea of building a new Cetewayo in honour of the island’s legendary gig. Incidentally, Tristan and I both rowed in the Shah men’s crew together as teenagers since the 1980’s while I was still at school on St Mary’s.
My Dad (Ralph Bird) always wanted to build a gig for Scilly, and he did - he built the ‘Galatea’ for St Martin’s in 2001 - she is a lovely gig, shorter than the standard 32’ copies of the Treffry, in keeping with the old Scillonian gigs. But our family has a very close affinity with St Agnes and so to build this gig truly is an honour and a privilege, especially considering the history of gigs that is embedded in the very fabric of this extraordinary island that I still call home.
Thinking about it, the original Cetewayo was bought second hand from St Ives and the ‘Elaine’ (built in 1908) was a five-oared gig - so this is the first brand new six-oared gig that St Agnes has had since buying the Shah, 151 years ago. The Shah will always be very special to St Agnes - she is an important part of the island’s history and of gig rowing at large.
Dad restored many of the old gigs from Newquay and Scilly and was sentimental about them, so he kept lots of pieces of these gigs that he had removed and replaced. So I thought a nice thing to do would be to integrate some of these pieces of the old gigs into the Cetewayo - every one of the thwart knees has pieces of planking laminated into them from the Newquay (1812), Bonnet (1830), Treffry (1838), Shah (1872) and Sussex (1886) - if you look very closely, you can see which pieces of wood came from which gig (my children wrote these on). Just to make sure there was a piece of the island in the gig, I used some oak retrieved from the original beams of the St Agnes lifeboat shed to make some of the timbers in the bow and stern. I also added some authentic St Agnes sand for grip when I painted the floorboards!
Throughout 2022, my sister Vanessa and I spent a lot of time on St Agnes looking after our mum, who was terminally ill. It was during this time that, along with discussing ways to restore the Sussex and Campernell (both built in the 1880’s by Nicholas James Peters, nephew of Nicholas Peters) Tristan Hick and I started discussing the idea of building a new Cetewayo in honour of the island’s legendary gig. Incidentally, Tristan and I both rowed in the Shah men’s crew together as teenagers since the 1980’s while I was still at school on St Mary’s.
My Dad (Ralph Bird) always wanted to build a gig for Scilly, and he did - he built the ‘Galatea’ for St Martin’s in 2001 - she is a lovely gig, shorter than the standard 32’ copies of the Treffry, in keeping with the old Scillonian gigs. But our family has a very close affinity with St Agnes and so to build this gig truly is an honour and a privilege, especially considering the history of gigs that is embedded in the very fabric of this extraordinary island that I still call home.
Thinking about it, the original Cetewayo was bought second hand from St Ives and the ‘Elaine’ (built in 1908) was a five-oared gig - so this is the first brand new six-oared gig that St Agnes has had since buying the Shah, 151 years ago. The Shah will always be very special to St Agnes - she is an important part of the island’s history and of gig rowing at large.
Dad restored many of the old gigs from Newquay and Scilly and was sentimental about them, so he kept lots of pieces of these gigs that he had removed and replaced. So I thought a nice thing to do would be to integrate some of these pieces of the old gigs into the Cetewayo - every one of the thwart knees has pieces of planking laminated into them from the Newquay (1812), Bonnet (1830), Treffry (1838), Shah (1872) and Sussex (1886) - if you look very closely, you can see which pieces of wood came from which gig (my children wrote these on). Just to make sure there was a piece of the island in the gig, I used some oak retrieved from the original beams of the St Agnes lifeboat shed to make some of the timbers in the bow and stern. I also added some authentic St Agnes sand for grip when I painted the floorboards!
The concept of the new Cetewayo has been a long journey and not without problems - my mother passed away, my father’s house has now been sold after being in the family since 1890, in November the CPGA inexplicably decided to withdraw my licence to build the gig, then in January I ruptured the distal bicep tendon in my right arm - it’s a bit of a miracle she was finished in time for the World Championships!
Much of this is due to the help of the young and very talented St Agnes islander Toby Hicks, who assisted me with finishing Gallos for Cotehele, building Osprey for Poole and the four-oared gig Indy, also rebuilding Rhos for Steve Mullen.
I am certain that in time Toby will build fine gigs on his own - maybe on St Agnes…
Much of this is due to the help of the young and very talented St Agnes islander Toby Hicks, who assisted me with finishing Gallos for Cotehele, building Osprey for Poole and the four-oared gig Indy, also rebuilding Rhos for Steve Mullen.
I am certain that in time Toby will build fine gigs on his own - maybe on St Agnes…