On Sat, 24 Sep 2005, wrote:

There is now a long-term diversion of various London bus routes due to
the closure of Battersea Bridge for the foreseeable future, since it was
rammed last week by the M/V James Prior.

Heh! I'd heard about there being a bridge strike, but didn't know it was
the James Prior - that's a coaster (not a barge, damn it) from
Fingringhoe, a mile downriver from where i grew up! I must have sailed
past various Priors (there's a flotilla of them - James, Bert and Brenda,
that i know of) dozens of times as a kid, and my mum's sailed up to London
on the Bert Prior a couple of times.

The Bert Prior's even on the front of a GLA report on aggregates
transport:

http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/plann...ring2000-3.pdf

The Brenda Prior's also had some attention from the state, but not quite
so friendly:

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources...r_Beatrice.pdf

Ah yes, there are Mark, Francesca, Peter, James and Nigel Prior as well:

http://www.portoflondon.co.uk/Ships/...aritime/flag/5
http://www.riverthamessociety.org.uk...ing_cement.pdf

Big family!

tom

--
double mashed, future mashed, millennium mashed; man it was mashed