Weed hatch cover left off

 

THIS week, a narrowboat started to take on water whilst cruising the Lee in London, and quickly sank, destroying everything on board, as its weed hatch cover had been left off.

 The boat was just below Tottenham Lock on the river, when without warning it started getting lower and lower in the water, then sank, Roger Fox tells us.

 Weed hatch cover left off

 The narrowboat Midnight Diamond had only recently been hired, with Heather Deakin and her boyfriend aboard, and as soon as they realised it was sinking called the fire service, but its personel were unable to save the boat as it reached the point when the sides were below water level, with the inrush of water causing it to keel over and sink.

 Then the reason came to light—and perhaps being newcomers to boating—one of them had taken off the weed hatch cover to clean the propeller and forgotten to replace it, so as soon as the boat left its moorings and gathered speed water was forced into the hull.

 Quickly sank

 The pair had leaped off the sinking boat and reached the bank with a rope, but were unable to prevent the boat going down then rolling over as it rested on the bottom of the river.

 The fire people were unable to rescue any of the couple’s clothes and possessions, as everything was then saturated in river water, and the pair left only with the clothes they stood up in.