Gulls Allowed

Stories in their own time become legends when heard by successive generations.

They are best immortalised in works of art and in history great artists have depicted legendary characters and events which we enjoy today.

Michelangelo brought classic stories to life in his Sistine Chapel paintings. Da Vinci painted  the Battle of Anghiari. Rembrandt skillfully crafted the image of Bathsheba at her Bath and Bellini brought us The Feast of The Gods.

A lesser known duo of Len "Pongo" Rood and Gordon Mason were responsible for a major piece of industrial art in the 1970's influenced by the following tale recorded by an eye witness.

"I sailed as deck hand on the ship  'Tradesman' when Len "Pongo" Rood was the skipper back in the 70's, he told Gordon Gay jnr and myself the 'yarn' of dead bod, if you knew Pongo then you will understand that some of it would have been tongue in cheek and taken with a pinch of salt, but very funny nonetheless.

He told us that it referred to an incident some years earlier with Capt Hopper on board The Englishman  when Pongo was 2nd mate whilst at anchor in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, UK. 
An unfortunate seagull with a broken wing had landed in the well deck of the Englishman, and with Captain Hopper being an avid ornithologist he took pity on the bird and captured it and placed it on a bed of rags in a cardboard box in the corner of his cabin.

He then ordered the lifeboat to be sent ashore and that Pongo had to return with 2 ice lollies. After being ashore for a couple of hours and pints no doubt Pongo duly returned with the ice lollies that were melting rapidly in the summer heat. When he handed the lollies to the Captain he quickly shook the ice off the sticks and returned to his cabin and used them as splints for the 'bods' wing.

3 weeks later Hopper appeared on the well deck with the cardboard box and rags with said invalid seagull  sitting as if it was on a nest and left it there to take to the wing once again. 
While waiting for the bod to take off the bosun 'Bob Skelton' a short rotund chap wearing sea boots, smock and flat cap appeared from the fo'csle. When he saw the 'bod' on the deck he said "what the fuckin'ell is that?" and took an almighty swing with his boot and splattered the 'bod' all over the the foreside of the bridge.

Captain Hopper was beside himself and was ranting at Pongo, "3 weeks of shite and feathers and sleepless nights I've endured and what have I got?".

Pongo duly replied with......"a 'dead bod' Captain"

The story soon became well known but amongst a fairly tight fraternity of seafarers.

It may have just been confined to reminiscence and as with most things associated with the declining UK trawling industry it may have just faded away as living memory died.

This was not to be the case.

A few years on and in their home Port of Hull Len Rood, now a Tugboat Skipper and Gordon Mason, Engineer were out for a boozy night and on their staggering walk near the Docks they came across an open tin of paint.

Inspired by the legendary tale of the seagull they sneaked onto the Reservation Quay, a jetty just offshore in the Humber Estuary and daubed on the seaward side of the sheet iron clad shed an iconic image that they tagged as "Dead Bod".

The owners of the Quay knew of the perpetrators who were summoned and reprimanded. In a charm offensive in which Rood and Mason said that their action was intended to protect the corroded cladding on the shed they managed to evade any more serious sanctions.

The distinctive painted image of a bird lying prone on its back miraculously survived the ravages of the exposed river position even though the shed deteriorated significantly and even more so when subsequently decommissioned from use.

It became a navigational aid for the high volume of river users and in its time will have been seen by thousands of marine crewmen as well as those confined to ship when moored at Reservation Quay to unload and load cargoes for anywhere in the world. Hardly any landlubbers will have been able to see it at first hand but knew about it as the legend was told and retold.

Dead Bod had become one of those accidents of art, as important and reflective of Hull's seafaring heritage as perhaps the millionaire Banksy is to popular culture.

Progress is however relentless and in 2003 the Port Owners ABP were keen to demolish the Quay, the impromptu gallery, and replace it with a freight terminal to be known as Quay 2005. Economic and world trade downturn effectively postponed the plans for a few years but they were revived in recent months.

An on-line campaign began to save the Dead Bod graffitti supported by the relatives of the paint daubing duo, art lovers and fishing industry heritage.

ABP eventually agreed to try to save the sheet metal canvas and its subject matter by carefully removing it ahead of the planned demolition and redevelopment. There has been pressure to relocate Dead Bod to the Hull Maritime Museum or preserve it for later display at or close to its original site.

Len Rood died in 2006 but I am sure that he will have been greatly amused by the recent events.

Such things are legends made of.