The Millstream – News from the Grindstone series - 10 The Bessie Ellen, flour delivered to Mull by the last of the West Country trading ketches

5 May 2026 

Nikki Alford navigates a shipment of flour on her 122 year old ketch, into the hands of the Island Bakery on Tobermory 

On 18th April 2026, Nikki Alford, skipper and owner of the Bessie Ellen, travelled with her ship’s dog Bracken down the canal to reach our Mill site in Frampton on Severn, where she collected a shipment of flour destined for the Island Bakery on the Isle of Mull in Tobermory. We built our second site at the Mill at Frampton on Severn in what was formerly an old chocolate factory, which years ago received consignments of ingredients by barge, transported directly to its landing on the canal side.

The beautiful wooden coasting ketch was able to travel from Gloucester all the way down the canal and from there out to the sea via the historic Sharpness docks. The voyage should take about a week and half, and they arrived safely on Mull on 30th April. 

Bessie Ellen is one of the last West Country trading ketches left in the UK - out of a fleet of nearly 700, only Bessie Ellen and Irene are left. Over the last 14 years, Nikki has achieved a complete restoration of this “small tall ship”. Made nearly entirely of wood, she is still working with the original hull that was built in 1904 in Plymouth by William Kelly. Nikki feels lucky to have an example of shipwrighting skills left over from that era, and the fact Bessie Ellen retains her original hull was one of the things that drew Nikki to want to restore this particular ship, rather than any others. 

Historically, sailing ships such as the Bessie Ellen formed the livelihoods and supported the economies of various West Country towns and villages. Both for crew members and captains, the goods traded, and the shipyards and accompanying jobs required to service these vessels, meant they were embedded in the communities in a variety of ways, bringing industry and jobs. 

Bessie Ellen has a history of sailing with grain cargos, as well as peat and scrap iron. At 120ft long, she could carry up to 150 tonnes in her hold, where she transported clay, peat, salt, aggregates, and other bulk cargoes around the UK and Ireland. Nikki now charters her for guests, creating a hands-on experience where guests are encouraged to join in and learn with navigation, splicing ropes, making sail bags, hoisting the sails, and generally getting involved with all the tasks on the ship. Although she no longer functions as a full-time cargo vessel, the experience Nikki has created is intended to give people a sense of what it was like in past years on such a ship.

The accommodation is down in the old cargo hold, allowing for 12 guests overnight wherever they choose to sail in the world, but for day trips can take up to 60 people. Her cruising grounds include Scotland, Norway, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and Holland. Nikki’s favourite is the West Coast of Scotland. Their customers range “from birdwatchers and wildlife lovers, to beginners who have never sailed before, the challenge is up to the individual… We can supplement a lot for the deep-sea sailor who wants to gain a new experience in a different sail configuration, or a long passage, i.e. an ocean passage on board a tall ship, or those coming from yachts who’d like to gain some gaff experience and more traditional methods of working ship”, Nikki says. 

They can reach whales, dolphins, seals, birds, mountains, “it’s all there, on board a ship”, making continual exploration more of a possibility than when “you are landlocked”. This sense of freedom runs through Nikki’s operations, “Her [Bessie Ellen’s] history, which is so unique and so important, and is really so rare these days to find an element of being very free on board such a ship that has so much detailed history”.

Bessie Ellen was originally powered by sail alone for her first nine years, which caused difficulties for the captain at that time, John Chichester. Delays due to bad weather meant they missed their delivery window to pass on goods for onwards transportation, occurrences which could eat into crew wages from the missed cargo handovers. By the Second World War, power boats had begun to take over from sailing vessels, and work became more scarce.

Many of the West Country trading ships went to rot or were abandoned. Thanks to the efforts in part of Mrs Chichester, Bessie Ellen sailed cargoes up until 1947, before she was acquired by Captain Møller from Frederiksvaerk in Denmark. Thereafter, she underwent a series of modifications before running scrap iron until the 1970’s, at which point her capacity became deemed too small to be profitable and her trading ceased.

Upon Nikki’s acquisition of the ship, Bessie Ellen has returned to Plymouth under Nikki’s stewardship, where she has painstakingly restored the ketch to her former glory, with masts, rigging, and below deck accommodation. 

It has been incredible to see the canal being used once again for the start of a journey for the transportation of goods, this time of flour, to the Island Bakery. On Tobermory, Joe and Dawn Reade will turn it into organic biscuits, melts and shortbreads, powered by local renewable energy. 

We are extremely grateful to Nikki for her careful handling of the cargo of flour, and its safe arrival in Mull. 

You can read more about the Bessie Ellen here, and you can find our friends at the Island Bakery here.  

Instagram:

The Bessie Ellen: @bessie_ellen

The Island Bakery: @islandbakery