Chica

I have been watching the collapse of this boat for a long time. It used to have a funnel, a recognisable cabin and a lot of colour, but not now., It’s name is just about discernible in this image.

It was built in 1894 in Norway, named Flora, and up to 1940 carried salted fish from the north of the country to the more populated south. In 1940 it was commandeered by the Germans after their occupation of Norway. After the war it returned to Norwegian ownership, renamed the Lill Tove, carrying forestry and other products as Norway rebuilt after all the damage of the war. Then in the 1960’s it was sold to new owners in Gibraltar and carried goods from there to and from North Africa. That was where it became the Chica. It was subsequently bought by new owners, who had ambitions to run cruises along the Manchester Ship Canal and Weaver navigation. But that never really worked out. It was moored here, by Dutton Locks, in 1993. When it began to leak the owner had no resources to do anything about it. It sits on the bed of the river and is not an obstruction so is left alone, gradually disintegrating.

I wonder how large those birch trees, growing from its hull, can grow before it collapses entirely.