It’s a cold day in April and I’m standing on the top deck of an 1880s Dutch barge named La Pinta, drawing in rope. “Heave, ho!” shouts David, an 86-year-old military veteran from York, who is taking on the bulk of the work. “Heave, ho!” The rope is thick, wet and heavy, covered in a green bile that stains your skin. To my left, skeins of fog hover, shadowless, over the water in Salford Quays.
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