Technical Details

I do not have any record of when or where I acquired this cable ladder, but I think it was around 2009.

This ladder is 9.5 m. long with 30 aluminum rungs spaced 255 mm. apart. Each rung is 151 mm. long and 12.8 mm. in diameter with a 1.6 mm. wall thickness (i.e., #16 SWG rungs). The cable is 3.7 mm. steel. The rungs are secured by resin plugs. The eyes are crimped with eye protectors.

Each rung is stamped with "HWCPC."

Comments

This ladder was made in the 1960s. The steel cable is in fair shape except at each end, where it is badly rusted to the point that one of the eyes has broken off.

I have not dissected the ladder, but it is possible that the cable was pinned before the resin plugs were made.

A quick internet search for “HWCPC” found the Happy Wanderers Cave and Pothole Club website [1]. Not finding any other viable contenders, I wrote to confirm the ladder’s origin and perhaps learn who gave it to me. The response surprised me: it was not their ladder. Mick Melvin wrote,

I have been in contact with a number of the more active members of the HWCPC who caved with me in the sixties. All the people I contacted agree with me that we never stamped our ladders. Like most caving clubs of that period we made our own ladders, as you can see from Dave Fishers's reply.

Mick attached three emails. The first was from Jack Pickup, who wrote,

“I can’t recall any HWCPC ladders being stamped on each and every rung… It’s unlikely to be from earlier Wanderers Pre 60’s, because aluminium ladders hadn’t evolved then.”

Finally, Dave Fisher wrote,

“I was involved in making ladders for the club in the mid 60's at the time I was an apprentice toolmaker which allowed me to make tools that we used in the production. We used Jim Batty's Barn & facilities, at no time did we stamp HWCPC on any ladder I was involved in making, we must have made hundreds of feet.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. About a week later, Mick provided a suggestion, writing,

"There is another thought from some members that John Ogden, a member who died in the Mossdale tragedy 1967 may have stamped the ladders. John was a toolmaker and he would have had the necessary equipment."

Mick provided some drawings from Jim Fisher showing how they attached ladder rungs on their ladders. My ladder matches the second construction method. Although he shows #10 SWG rungs and my ladder has #16, I don't think this rules out my ladder as one of theirs. They may have made some #16 ladders (#10 would be unusually heavy), or they may have drilled the ends of #10 rungs to fit the wooden plug (and the head of a #8 screw).

At this point, I'm comfortable saying that this is a Happy Wanderers Cave and Pothole Club ladder after all.