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Irrawaddy Steamers 2010, Part 13 |
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This is part of our 2010 Burma Crusade. We granted Han a morning off, the strain of coping with Mr. Rob's passion was showing, Yuehong and I would grice the remaining local mills in Pyapon 'unassisted', although actually it wasn't very difficult. Down at the jetty, we quickly chartered a water taxi which took us upstream to a previously unknown newish mill which we had spotted from the river when returning from Kyaiklat. As it happens, it wasn't working, but they had a very pleasant MacDonald engine which didn't seem to have seen a great deal of use since it arrived. It has the Tangye "+" but who knows? Definitely the governor was an original Pickering (Portland, Conn., USA) which argues against it being a Tangye as they usually supplied their own.
I knew the mill couldn't be too long a walk from the cluster of mills across from the town on a side channel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it took just 5 minutes, bringing us out behind one of other target mills. It was actually a twin mill, we had seen their late delivery Tangye working in 2009, but their MacDonald engine works only in the main season and it was very nice to finally see it in action. It's anonymous of course, not even an agent's name is present.
Our next mill was right across the narrow strip of water from us and in no time at all a boat from the twin mill was deputed to take us across. The old man who ran the mill had been extremely friendly in 2005, steaming his boiler specially to demonstrate his ancient engine in action. There was no sign of him this time, but his very young replacement was equally helpful although the mill was already running when we arrived, I had feared for the engine but it was still running well. It carries the Tangye "+" but has no number or any other form of identification. Afterwards, we went to the next mill down but it was being reconditioned. The Tangye was set aside and at the front were bits of a welded up Marshall to replace it. Unusually, it had an agents plate "Rangoon Mechanical and Electrical Stores", only the second time we have seen this plate. (I've looked at my pictures of the other one at a closed mill in Thongwa in Yangon Division and the screws on the plate are positioned at exactly the same angles... It must be the same engine.)
Afterwards we jumped in a trishaw and made our way back to base. The afternoon's destination was Kyaiklat, again there were a few loose ends to tie up. I'd wanted to video one of the Robeys there working properly - it was ticking over in 2009 - but while it was running two days earlier, it was silent today. Back in the car we headed for the top of town. While idly flicking through my archive the previous night, I had suddenly realised that the few George Garrett girder engines we had seen were almost identical to some of the Hosain Hamadanee Tangyes and this was a perfect opportunity to test out the theory. The mill was working and sure enough it had a Tangye number, #10908. It's always nice to add another piece to the jigsaw puzzle, even if it meant I had wasted the opportunity to get the other numbers, including one at Kwewan in Mon State this year (which claims to be a MacDonald Engine) and two others less accessible in Pathein and near Hinthada (Taylors Type also). Who Mr. Taylor was, I have no idea, but one other engine we have seen carries "Garrett and Taylor" but does not seem to be a Tangye as it carried a Marshall plate!.
The main purpose of returning to Kyaiklat was to see a 14" Marshall in action at a new mill. Once again this meant a boat, this time a public ferry and once again it came to a halt in mid-stream. The young boatman vanished overboard and several minutes later he had sorted the problem - a rice sack had become entangled in the propeller.
It was indeed a huge and impressive machine, albeit the light was poor and the amount of dust was life threatening - Yuehong took one look and wisely vanished. This is another engine which drives a generator and all parts of the large mill use electrical power - there is a very old looking control panel sitting in front with some full time knob twiddlers at work.
After which it was time to cross back again, with a fibre glass courtesy boat which was able to outrace the ferry until it got 'stacked' by water traffic control. Yuehong had fancied some giant prawns for dinner but they had already vanished. What we did find was an officer of the Immigration Department waiting for us. Unlike his counterparts in Einme, he was almost apologetic for having to ask for our details and as a result Han simply handed over what he wanted - no doubt the fact that it was near the end of the trip and he had a small mountain of photocopies made it easier. I have to say that compared to our earlier visits to Irrawaddy Division, the hassle factor was much reduced. After which we adjourned for refreshments and planned our final day which would see us back in Yangon.
Back in Pyapon, the bill from the guest house was a nasty surprise, clearly the international aid bandwagon is still calling here regularly (we saw Japanese and Italians for a start) and the fat owners have the freedom to charge what the market will bear. I'm glad to say that our business in the area is finished and since we pay the bill and not our employer, we won't be back again in a hurry. |
