MAY 2025 · WATERLINE
The Matthew
Bristol Docks, Bristol
The Matthew is a replica of John Cabot's caravel — the ship he sailed from Bristol to Newfoundland in 1497. The replica was built in Bristol and sailed the same route five hundred years later, in 1997. It lives in the harbour when it's not being used, and periodically comes out of the water for maintenance.
I visited the boatyard when it was lifted. Out of the water, the hull becomes something else. You see the geometry of it from angles that don't exist when the boat is afloat — the bow from below, the keel line converging toward the stern, the waterline as a horizontal division between two materials and two states.
Out of the water, the hull becomes something else.
The Matthew — May 2025
The hull is golden timber above and red paint below. That junction is where I spent most of my time. Weathered planking meets the red in a clean horizontal line. A white rope fender hangs against the timber, suspended from a line. The rope is weathered to the same grey as the grain of the wood. At the stern, the red paint exposes a bronze propeller — anachronistic and practical.
Through the hatches, a different interior: the dark boatyard workshop. Metal hooks hung on the walls, waiting. Industrial fittings. The space looked as though work had paused rather than finished — tools in position, surfaces in use. I shot two frames through different hatch openings, both black and white, both showing the same quality of suspended activity.
Outside the hatch: an old display frame, broken, filled with autumn leaves that had blown in. Ivy covered the wall behind it. A red sign beyond.
Red-painted wooden hull of The Matthew caravel lifted in Bristol boatyard, terraced brick buildings behind
Weathered golden timber hull planking meeting red-painted waterline of The Matthew caravel, Bristol
Red-painted stern hull of The Matthew with bronze propeller and aluminium ladder exposed, boatyard
Weathered white rope fender suspended against golden timber planking and red hull of The Matthew
Black and white view through small square hatch into dark boatyard workshop with hanging metal hooks
Black and white view through rectangular hatch into wet boatyard workshop with industrial metal hooks
Close-up of red-painted timber keel and converging hull planking at the bow of The Matthew
Broken white display frame filled with autumn leaves, ivy-covered wall and red sign beyond