This is a broad piece of oak usually 2 inch thickness about 16 inches wide, it fits across the extreme back of the gunwhales and has 3 bolts through the gunwhales on each side, the reason for such a strong job is the pin for the rudder passes through this the coble rudder is usually quite long and about 15 inches wide this takes a great deal of strain and has a long tiller to allow the crew to hold it in place. The edges above the gunwhale are tapered and rounded down.
In the middle in front of the rudder pin hole there is a 2 inch hole through, this is for the aft mooring rope, the rope passes through to a plate with a ring welded on held in place with 2 bolts these bolts are through the base of the horseshoe and on the outside of the transom the bottom ring plate for the rudder.
The hole for the rudder pin should also have a stainless plate around it about 8 inches square with a 2 inch bend down the transom this is to protect the scut when shipping the rudder in and out.
There was no picture of the Scut taken at the time but here is one taken from the Quay in the centre of Newcastle in July 2013.
Page 14.
Listons or Landing battens.
Geordies prefer the name listons these are a hardwood rail that fits on the bottom edge of the planking and are made thicker than the planks, these act a protection for the plank edge from ropes, pots and nets, much easier to replace a liston than a new plank and these are usually about 1 and 1/2 inch x 1 inch rounded off on bottom the top edge just a corner off with the hand plane, some bevel off the top edge to fit the planking but each liston has a different bevel so dress each one and mark for location but try to stagger the joints, these will be fixed with a galvanized nail through the planking and into the frames this gives even more strength to the hull.
When all are ready find a place to give them two coats of paint, paint a strip of planking about 3 inches including the bottom edge of the plank above before fitting.
If not already done now is the best time to fill in the planking nails usually putty, and sand down to finish with the listons fit its difficult to get the sander in, but don’t paint yet as you need to see frame nails for fixing the listons.
Page 15.