Talk:Swin (Thames)

Untitled
Well spotted

At about the same time I was looking at the section on Thames Estuary and found a couple of references. which quotes 1874: The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands, R.M. Ballantyne - where he talks :
 * These sand-sharks (if we may be allowed the expression) separate the main channels, which are named respectively the Swin or King's channel, on the north, and the Prince's, the Queen's, and the South channels, on the south.The channel through which the Nora passed was the Swin, which, though not used by first-class ships, is perhaps the most frequented by the greater portion of the coasting and colliery vessels, and all the east country craft. The traffic is so great as to be almost continuous; innumerable vessels being seen in fine weather passing to and fro as far as the eye can reach.To mark this channel alone there was, at the time we write of, the Mouse light-vessel, at the western extremity of the Mouse sand; the Maplin lighthouse, on the sand of the same name; the Swin middle light-vessel, at the western extremity of the Middle and Heaps sand; the Whittaker beacon, and the Sunk light-vessel on the Sunk sand - besides other beacons and numerous buoys.

The site,, has the clearest map I have found of the area show East Swin, West Swin and Queens Channel, Princes Channel and tne Gats and the Spitway.

Bob Roberts p 167. Has a sentence ...we made a splendid run down-swin and over the Spitway, coming abreast of the Naze in late afternoon. So down-swin was a termClemRutter (talk) 09:10, 28 June 2018 (UTC)


 * 1892 book Swin Swale and Swatchway. [[User:ClemRutter|ClemRutter] talk) 09:10, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

East Kent dialect
I asked my local source Naomi, what she knew about the Swin. Her response: you mean 'the tide comes in in swins'. Take care or you'll be cut off. She always thought it was Folkestone or Deal dialect. (Her mother, Grace, was 94 and has just died) She didn't know it was a channel, she hadn't keard od a swatchway- but thought a spitway was the actual sand spit like the street at Whistable. I will keep digging. ClemRutter (talk) 17:14, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Chart


A little dated however. --ClemRutter (talk) 09:27, 29 June 2018 (UTC)


 * "Little"? :-o I did look at it quite closely, but was worried that some prat would think it accurate!  Perhaps "BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN" applies here.  I'll probably add it with a "not for navigation" caveat. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:28, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

However, I spent the day doing this- rather than worrying about immortal souls.

Home
I couldn't envisage where it was or how it worked. If you accept that swin is just another name for channel, we now do have a credible explanation for the use of the swin, the middle deep swin, East swin, West swin and Swin spitgate. I have just put a few labels on the base map, and solved the index key.They can be removed and added at will- and jiggled about as the tide changes.--ClemRutter (talk) 15:03, 29 June 2018 (UTC)