Sir,

I was interested to see Mrs. Linda Asman's article about the 'Kathleen and May' in last week's Pembroke and Monkton Local History Society feature in the Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Observer.

I had lost track of her; she was one of a trio of cargo ships to visit Pembroke Quay, the others being the 'Irene' and the 'Traly'.

Kathleen and May was black and yellow, Irene and Traly, grey and white. I think they were from Barnstaple and they carried mainly cattle feed, known as 'cowcake'. The 'Irene' visited Fishguard some years ago. She is now privately owned in Ireland.

Anyway, such was the tricky waterway, the ships took on a pilot to steer to Pembroke from Bentlass and return. I can't remember the pilot's name, but he was from Bentlass and knew the river very well. The tricky part was the mudflat at Mr. McNally's yard, to steer the ship around it and straighten up to the quay and, of course, return.

The best view of them coming up river was at St. Anne's Chapel Bank.

We were down at Bideford last month and sadly there were no ships at either quay! The quay in Pembroke at one time was a sawmills owned by McMasters and Co. The smaller boats on the flat were owned by Mr. Edgar Lewis and Mr. Dennis Wainwright, who would very often go down to Milford on the tide.

Back in the '50s we went mostly to Strawberry Quarry, mainly to bake potatoes on a fire, and, of course, this was one of the few places you could get an echo off your voice; and in September (at high tide) all the shore paths would flood, so we used the path from Rocky Park to Pennar. Happy memories.

Mr. G. Evans,

Haverfordwest.

A sad mariners tale: We also had our own boat. Sadly it leaked and we used to call at Mr. McNally's to ask for some pitch to stop the leak. Mr. McNally had lots of patience and persevered with us. But one day, the boat was full of water after the tide, and Mr. McNally said: "Well boys, it wasn't the water that sunk it, it was the weight of the pitch," A lesson learnt!