20th November 2025 • The HERALD • Page 39 v SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL EVENTS v All aspects of Plastering & General Decorating Covered Free Quotations Fully Insured Mobile 07941 255335 Phone: 023 8089 8324 parkesij@yahoo.co.uk www.ijs4plastering.co.uk ELECTRICIAN/HANDYMAN FULLY QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN (30YRS EXPERIENCE) • Mains Upgrades • Testing • Extra/Replacement Points/Lights • Outside Lighting • Sockets • Ponds • BT/TV Points • Ethernet Points • CCTV • Fire/Intruder Alarms • Basic Plumbing Repairs • Outside Taps • Showers • Heating Problems • Blinds/Poles Fixed • Flatpacks • Loft Work Boarding, Tidying etc ALL OTHER DOMESTIC WORK CONSIDERED Call Mick on 07738 166453 or email: michaelshelley80@googlemail.com THE LOSS OF CHARLES BUBB by Robin Somes, Fawley and Blackfield Memories We’ve previously heard about Joseph Rowe and the Ship Inn at Lepe; now to tie in another tragedy at sea, and another distant relative. Charles Bubb was born in 1831 in Exbury, and worked as a brickmaker at Brickyard Creek. He married Sarah Etheridge, also from Exbury, in 1858, though the couple had no children. On Saturday 17th September 1864, Charles was working on his boat on the beach, near the Ship Inn. Later that evening, he and his brother William were in the Ship, and he asked William if he thought the boat should be moved to her mooring o shore. William felt she would be perfectly safe on the mud, and said he would watch her overnight to ensure she was unharmed. However, with a gale imminent, Charles, Joseph Rowe and Edmund Beazley each went out around 9.30pm to moor their boats upriver. According to Beazley, who was with Charles in the Ship, he was quite sober when the three le with their boats. ough the wind was strong and squalling, and it was hard going against it, they had only 400 yards to go upriver. Some een minutes later Joseph Rowe heard a cry, and said “There’s someone calling out, I think Bubb is overboard”. Beazley and Rowe headed o in the direction of the cry, but found neither Charles nor his boat. On shore, Luke Strickland also heard the cry, and Rowe’s response to it. Setting o in his own boat, he went to join the search, and seeing nothing, rushed away to tell Charles’ brother William. e two went out again, but still found nothing. Charles’ boat was found sunk the next morning, about thirty yards from the moorings; the sheets and lanyards were all in their proper places, and the sails were well-reefed. Sadly, his body was not recovered until the following Friday, when William Smith of Exbury saw it washed downriver by the tide, close to the Ship Inn, and brought it ashore. e inquest at the Ship on Saturday 24th heard evidence from all those involved, and concluded that Charles’ boat most likely overturned in a violent squall; the jury returned a verdict of accidental death. e Hampshire Independent noted: “The deceased was, we understand, much respected in the parish, and his sudden loss has created quite a gloom in the neighbourhood”. A few weeks later, the same paper reported: “A subscription has been set on foot by Mr Rowe, of the Ship Inn, for the benefit of the widow of the unfortunate man Bubb, drowned at the mouth of the Beaulieu River by the upsetting of his boat in a squall … it is said that the poor woman who has been so suddenly deprived of her means of support is well deserving of such a mark of sympathy. It is to be hoped that these facts combined will induce those who are able to give to subscribe liberally, and that a substantial amount will be raised for such a worthy object”.
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