The Adventures of Lego Me
Springboard and Betty Foggy
Today was a good day! Alongside the wedding and portrait imagery, I also teach photography. Working with a company called Springboard funded by Communities First, (supported by the Welsh Assembly Government) in which I tutor adults and primary school children the basics of photography. Lego Me came along to help the children with their work. This terms curriculum is based on exploring the history through the looking glass and our brief is to explore our town and learn about its history. We are going to use the cameras to capture the history as we see it and introduce our own history by using our own toys. Lego me is very happy to take part.
I asked the children to explain a little about what they have learnt so far in class. They have been learning about a lady called Betty Foggy. The town of Pembroke Dock sits on the Milford Haven estuary and was home to a Royal Dockyard. During the middle years of Victorian Britain there was not so much entertainment surrounding Pembroke Dock, what entertainment occurred brought the locals out in force. The dockyard was the hub of activity on July 21st 1853, in which a 90 gun wooden hulled warship was to be launch from the slipway of the dockyard. That ship was called HMS Caesar and the dockyard was full of spectators, dignitaries and naval officers all eager to watch the launch. It was a big day for the town and bands were playing to celebrate this momentous occasion.
The hour arrived and the ship was ready to be launched, speeches were made and the sound of loud cheers filled the town. The new ship began to slide into the river until she sticks fast. No matter what the dockyard officials tried to do, she was not going anywhere, she simply refused to move. What actually happed was instead of oak wood to launch the ship, a cheaper option was ordered fir wood. This fir wood was too soft to hold the weight of the ship, consequently as the new hull took shape and the ship grew heavier and heavier, the Caesar simply embedded herself into the soft wood and she just could not hit the water, even if she wanted to.
So now we get round to what Betty Foggy had to do with the story, she was renowned in the area as a witch and a spell caster. Betty had tried to enter the dockyard this particular day to watch the launch, it was customary in those days in Pembroke Dock to open the gates to the public. However when Betty Foggy tried to enter, a policeman spotted her and turned her away. He said she would be unlucky and refused her admission, even though she was adamant she would not create the bad luck.
Her curse seemed to work and word got round the town that the failure was all her doing as she had cursed the launch.
It took 17 days to finally get the Caesar launched, and she finally slid into the water of the Cleddau river on Sunday 7th August, after workmen built huge wooden structures under the hull of the ship, known as camels. Slowly the Caesars keel was lifted out of the fir wood in which she had sunk.
Never to admit a mistake, the dockyard officials let the towns people know that Betty Foggy has lifted her curse. This story as you can imagine went down in Pembroke Dock Folklore as the witch who cursed the launch of HMS Caesar.
