CORNISH LASS, NEGLECTED AT NEWLYN...

 Cornish Lass, Neglected At Newlyn…

Built in the year of my birth,

The Cornish Lass, registered PZ 339,

Was a tender, used for unloading fish

From larger, returning vessels,

Utilising its shallower, less cumbersome girth…

Sadly the Lass is now roped to a berth

In Newlyn Harbour, unheralded, benign,

Rotting like the carcass of a discarded fish.

Against its mooring it haplessly wrestles, 

Forgotten, decaying, belying its true worth…

Innards ripped out, stripped

From its core, gored, its bleached hulk

Pleading in naked despair;

Maroon rudder, marooned and gripped

By quay mud, stood green with lichen, forsaken to sulk.

And rusting metal pervaded its disrepair…

Canary paint was flaked and scarred

But incongruous weeds and emerald rope

Offered turnstones a haven, which sparred

Amongst the detritus on its bow, now without hope…

And a spider-like tubular metal claw, like a predator upon prey

Poked Cornish Lass, as if it was diseased and had fouled Mounts Bay…

Pete Ray

27th December 2021

A very sad sight in Newlyn’s harbour recently.

Working for the Stevenson Company around 2001 and according to the website, ‘Through The Gaps!’ which records Newlyn’s fishing news, the Cornish Lass, originally built in 1950 was relaunched in 2016…

At least the turnstones were enjoying the remaining sections of deck…