The model boat, decorated with red, white and blue flowers, carried aloft by trainee sailors from nearby HMS Raleigh, processes through the crowded narrow streets of Millbrook. Town crier, mistress of ceremonies with garlanded staff, crowned king and queen drawn by a recumbent tricycle, sea cadet band, maypole and morris dancers proclaim the onset of summer. Overlooked by steep woods and sheltered from gales by Maker Heights, Millbrook Lake joins the Hamoaze (the estuary of River Tamar) opposite Devonport.
The water here once served a fishing fleet, tidal mill, gunpowder factory, tannery, lime kilns, a brewery, rope walk and boat building. In the 19th century, apprentices built model boats to scale; if they sailed true, the boys could move on to next year’s apprenticeship. Each year the best boat was paraded, and this gave rise to the Black Prince Flower Boat procession, revived some 30 years ago after dying out before the second world war (the name Black Prince was popular for Cornish ships). Tidal water no longer reaches the old quay here, as the upper reaches were dammed in 1981 to protect against flooding.
Come afternoon, the celebrations move across the Rame peninsula to the coastal villages of Cawsand and Kingsand, overlooking the breakwater that protects Plymouth Sound. Chiffchaff and wren clamour from the nearby curve of woodland, perhaps anticipating the drizzle that will freshen greenery and underlying bluebells after weeks of dry weather. Morris sides, moving between venues, include Cat’s Eye and Grimspound, dancing outside the Halfway House pub, which until 1844 was on the boundary between Cornwall and Devon. Cornish Wreckers perform their Rame dance on the Cleave, a little esplanade in sight of old fish cellars and the red rocks and cliffs that take you towards Fort Picklecombe.
Far off Dartmoor is hidden in lowering cloud; spinnakers billow white through the mist as boats make headway from Penlee Point, passing the outgoing dark grey bulk of a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship. Weekenders drag wheelie cases away from their holiday cottages towards the car park. They will miss the launch of the Black Prince, off the beach into today’s calm, translucent water: “Goodbye, winter. Sail far away.”
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