If you look over the Blackwater on most days you will see a variety of yachts, motor launches and the occasional stately form of a Thames Sailing Barge.

But on many occasions over the last ninety years you would have seen an armada of ocean-going merchant vessels, lying at anchor in eerie silence.

This is because the Blackwater has been for many years a favourite location for the lay-up of redundant merchant vessels during times of economic difficulty. Rather than pay expensive fees for taking up quayside space, vessels are anchored in sheltered river estuaries – a process that is tightly regulated now, but which has always involved securing the vessel, switching off most power, and maintaining a watchkeeper to perform basic functions to keep the ship safe.

The excellent Mersea Museum website lists 480 ships that have been laid up in the Blackwater, starting in the 1920s and ending with the famous 'Winston Churchill' Trinity House vessel in 1992 and Radio Caroline's 'Ross Revenge' in 1995. The latter is still with us, under restoration.

Ships sometimes stayed for years, depending on the circumstances. The 1930s recessions saw the river full of ships. The immediate years after 1945 saw big collections of ships, including some damaged ones and others from the huge growth in wartime ship construction that were just not getting enough trade to justify their employment. The late 1950s saw over forty ships arrive, and 1980's recession was the source of more lay-ups.

On arrival, crews were taken off, often landing at Maldon. Both anchors would be laid out with a swivel to enable movement with the tide. Most ships had a tiny skeleton crew or just a single watchman. Local employment was provided: supplies had to be delivered, sometimes barges with generators to help the ships turn over their engines, and the tricky job of laying out the anchors usually needed local help.

Ships generally left under one of two circumstances: either trade had revived and the ship was recommissioned and left to resume its trade, or its owners gave up and it was towed off for scrap.

The famous Shaw Savill liner 'Gothic' was laid up three times in the 1950s, and became a popular local attraction, with boat trips out to see her. The Greek owned Liberty Ship 'Michalakis' caused a sensation in 1958 when she broke her moorings and drifted onto the mud opposite the Esplanade at Mersea. Locals were able to walk right round the stranded giant before she was finally refloated.

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Another curiosity (also a Liberty Ship) was the 'Helena Modjeska', which arrived in the Blackwater in two halves, having been wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The two halves were moored alongside each other in the Blackwater for some time, before being towed off for scrap.

The Mersea Museum site has an extended account by Stephan James, a watchman in the 1980s, on what life was like on these deserted ships. He recalls the isolation and peace (which he used to read voraciously), the eerie creaks and groans of the ships as they swung with the tide, and the primitive diet, cooking and washing arrangements.

The Covid crisis saw ships laid up all over the world, but perhaps because of the enormous scale of modern cruise liners and bulk carriers, none found their way to the Blackwater.