Features / Photo essays
In Photos: A day with the harbour master
It is more than 200 years since the Floating Harbour was built to allow visiting ships to dock in the centre of Bristol without being beached by the receding tides. Today a team at the Bristol Harbour Master’s Office are responsible for maintaining the historic port. Photographer Darren Shepherd spent a rainy morning with them:
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The Harbour Master’s Office is located next to Underfall Yard within sight of the main lock into the Cumberland Basin.
The team looks after the maintenance of the floating harbour, completed in 1809, and is in control of all the swing bridges and locks
Members of the team work to fix the sluices at the Cumberland Basin. Sluices are opened and closed to let water in and out of the harbour
Engineers are lowered down to fix the sluice gates. The sluices are particularly crucial in times of flooding to mitigate high tides
The duty harbour master opens the control panel which operates the main lock bringing boats in and out of the Floating Harbour when the tide is at the right height
The locks at the Cumberland Basin are electronically operated, whereas Netham Lock (where Feeder Road meets Netham Road) is still manually operated
Part of the team’s chores include clearing the docks of rubbish using this specially designed boat
Members of the team also clean the decks of some of the boats moored around the harbour
A pontoon is towed to be set up for an angling competition
The pontoon makes its way underneath Prince Street Bridge, which is closed to traffic until next summer due to corrosion
Staff prepare to tie the pontoon into position as the rain eases off
The pontoon is secured near Bristol Bridge ready for the competition
A member of the team stretches as a harbour master boat is pulled in tight against the pontoon
Staff share a joke on board as they head under Bristol Bridge on their way to their next job
The boat sits below the arches of Bristol Bridge while a member of the team makes her way up the stairs to change a life ring
As the sun sets over the harbour, the team tows away an impounded boat to keep for the owner to collect