Skills in maritime heritage receive double boost
- £110K award from Heritage Lottery Fund
- Online skills network goes live

National Historic Ships (UK) has launched Shipshape Network – a new initiative to promote skills relating to historic vessel conservation. The UK-wide Network will reach out to all those with an interest in ship preservation, providing a communications and marketing framework for the sector.

The associated website includes the National Directory of Skills & Services, offering free listings for over 500 specialised craftsmen and facilities. Shipshape Network has focussed particularly on four key regions, where a natural concentration of maritime services has been identified around a body of water – Mersey, Thames Estuary, Solent & Bristol Channel. National Historic Ships will be working with organisations and individuals within these areas to promote regeneration of skills via increased training opportunities.

Shipshape Mersey is the first region to announce a flagship training project of this kind.£110K has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) under its Skills for the Future programme* to the National Waterways Museum, in partnership with National Historic Ships. This grant will promote furtherance of skills via a training scheme at the Heritage Boatyard, Ellesmere Port. Three 18-month training placements will be funded, covering boat repair and shipwright skills, practical boat handling techniques, and an understanding of the ethics behind historic vessel conservation.

Full press release (pdf)

Final countdown begins to the Greatest ‘Launch’ at Chatham since HMS Victory - fantastic new museum attraction for the South East prepares to open

The ‘launch’ of No. 1 Smithery – a £13m new museum experience and cultural venueat The Historic Dockyard Chatham - moved a step closer this week with the arrival of some magnificent models from the museum partners - the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum.  Opening to the public on 24 July, No. 1 Smithery: National Treasures Inspiring Culture reveals, for the first time under one roof, a collection of our nation's world class maritime treasures, art and objects and combines museum galleries with visual art and related programmes of interactive family and education activities.

Bill Ferris, Chief Executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, said; “Saving the No. 1 Smithery building and turning it into a fantastic new museum experience for our visitors has been a huge achievement for the Trust and its partners. Its transformation from decaying Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM), once used to support the building and repair of the Royal Navy’s fleet, into a national centre for maritime collections and a state-of-the-art cultural venue is one of the last and most significant pieces in The Historic Dockyard jigsaw and is at the heart of Medway’s and the Thames Gateway’s cultural regeneration strategy. Modern galleries and historic architecture combine to link the dockyard, one of the UK's leading maritime heritage destinations, with national museums, exhibitions and artists. It is such an unusual mix of the old and the new.  You can really see the contrast between the original, industrial, dirty and noisy building, with the new and very modern galleries and collections.”

No.1 Smithery has five main areas within it and is included in the normal admission price to The Historic Dockyard.

1: National Museums - Maritime Treasures - brilliant new galleries displaying world-class maritime models, art and other objects from the collections of the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum as well from The Historic Dockyard’s own collection. 

2: The Gallery - an exhibition space for national and international touring exhibitions.  The programme starts with the exhibition ‘Resonance and Renewal’ an impressive collection of Stanley Spencer paintings called Shipbuilding on the Clyde alongside 28 drawings and Smithery tools.  This is the first time these enormous, evocative canvases have been on display since their restoration by the Imperial War Museum.  Their exhibition within a building so similar to that depicted in the paintings has such resonance and will be an emotional highlight.  The exhibition will be curated by Kent artist Stephen Turner. It will also have an associated family activity area and trail where visitors can see the world through Spencer’s eyes and create their own masterpieces.

There will be an exciting and regularly changing exhibition programme within The Gallery during 2011 – details of which will be announced as No. 1 Smithery opens.

3: The Courtyard - this large area will be used for family activities and performance art, beginning with ‘Pirate Play Days’ – a pirate themed extravaganza throughout the summer holidays. During October half term, families can take part in themed ‘Myths and Monsters’ activities.

4: The Pipebending Floor – an authentic area which will be used for interactive family activities to show visitors how this room was originally used.

5. National Museums - Collections & Research – state-of-the-art, environmentally controlled storage space for over 4,000 models and artefacts together with superb facilities for research.


Source- Press Release June 2010

News from the Faeroes

In October 2009 The Faroese National Museum received the whole collection from the late boat-builder Niclas Niclasen (pictured below). He was one of the most famous craftsmen in the Faeroes and also known outside for his elegant skills as a builder of the traditional Faroe boat. Museum staff have registered all of his equipment, including his hand made tools and are about to plan and design an exhibition in memory of Niclas Niclasen.

The museum is planning to cast light on the islands' maritime history. The permanent exhibition is represented with all the historical periods from the early settlement in the Viking Age to the contemporary history.  Also the fishing community from its breakthrough in the last decades of the 19th century until now is represented, but needs a brush up.

In January an ethnologist started a work on the Faroese Fishermen’s Association, Føroya Fiskimannafelag. The union was founded in 1911 and will have its 100 year anniversary next year. The museum intends to celebrate the occasion with a special exhibition.

To make a more public profile, the museum is about to collect various maritime data and gear from the stevedore and shipping companies from especially the second half of the 20th century. The companies are both Faroese and foreign.

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The cost of preserving cruise ships and ocean liners

Link

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HONG KONG MARITIME MUSEUM MARKS "2010 THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE SEAFARER"

details

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Hikitia to Lift New Zealand's Largest Known Anchor

Photo from Dominion Post (Wellington NZ)

Sunday 24 Jan 2010 the historic steam floating crane heavy lift ship HIKITIA lifted New Zealand's largest known anchor from the water.

The anchor was raised to allow the fitting of anodes and then put back into the water at the stern of Hikitia to begin the process of conservation.

The anchor, picture attached, was first discovered in 1995 in Wellington Harbour

On 1st August 1995, whilst berthing at Aotea Quay, Wellington, South Pacific Shipping's RANGITATA dropped an anchor to assist her in manoeuevring.  This became fouled in some obstruction on the seabed, and it took about an hour to free it and get RANGITATA alongside. The cause of the trouble proved to be an old anchor cable which prior to being disturbed had lain buried in the mud, but which now lay on the surface of the sea bed and was likely to be fouled again, so the Harbour Master decided that it needed to be removed.

The tug TOIA dragged for, located and marked the cable, and on 29th September, in blustery southerly weather, the veteran steam crane HIKITIA was used to raise it from the harbour. Lifting and overhauling the studded anchor cable took many hours, but a surprise in store was the finding of a large Admiralty pattern stocked anchor at the cable's end.

The anchor was placed back in the seawater at the junction of Taranaki Wharf and the Te Papa wharf to keep it in a state of preservation until a plan could be developed for its eventual conservation and display.

At 5.1metres long the anchor has significant proportions and is the largest known anchor in New Zealand. It weighs about 8tonnes.

It was raised again in Oct 2000 to adjust its location and to record its condition.

The origin of the anchor is still unknown. It was thought that it may have come to Wellington on the Jubilee Floating Dock in 1931 however perusal of photos of the dock arrival show no such anchor on board. No mention of the anchor in Wellington Harbour Board records has been so far discovered. There is a possibility it may have been part of the anchoring system used for hulks in "Rotten Row" - again no record has been discovered.

The very unusual anchor is of the style made for the very large naval ships of the late 1890s - the Orlando class battleships.  The investigation continues.

Raising of the anchor will allow fitting of aluminium anodes to prevent any further corrosion to the steel of the anchor and to begin the process of extracting chlorides from the anchor.  It is hoped that a project can be developed to properly conserve the anchor so that it may eventually put on display as a memorial to seamen lost at sea. The final memorial purpose is still to be decided. 

The anchor was returned to the water in mid afternoon.                     1/10

ICMM expresses concern over fate of Jersey Maritime Museum

In his report to the General Assembly of ICMM during the 2009 Congress, outgoing President Morten Hahn-Pedersen said: "Cut backs and government initiatives to save money are part of today’s agenda. An example is the situation on Jersey where Doug Ford and his colleagues this summer called for the help of ICMM when the Jersey Government threatened to close the Jersey Maritime Museum. The result was an official letter from ICMM to Senator Le Sueur and the Jersey Council of Ministers. It is my sincere hope that the letter from ICMM will help Doug and his colleagues in their struggle to make Jersey Maritime Museum survive. However, the Jersey example, gives an idea on just how tough the situation might be for maritime museums around the world ..."

ICMM letter to States of Jersey Page 1 Page 2
States of Jersey Reply

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Hong KongMaritime Museum - N ew Display: “TSMV Tai Loy” - First steel ship built in Hong Kong after the Second World War

At the Hong Kong Maritime Museum in Stanley, another new found gem of Hong Kong’s maritime heritage is now on display. The Chan family, who owned the once famous Wing On Shing Shipyard at Cheung Sha Wan and gave Hong Kong its first Chinese Director of Marine, have donated a superb, nearly 60 year old builder’s model of the Tai Loy, a ship their family built nearly 60 years ago. The model, made by a Mr YN Lau, is of the Tai Loy, the best known of the old Macau ferries, especially under its second name, Chung Shan.

Laid down in 1948 and launched in 1950, the Tai Loy was the first steel ship built in Hong Kong after the Second World War. The museum would love to get in touch with anyone who knew Mr Lau, whose model so wonderfully evokes those pioneering days when an anti-piracy fence was still needed around the navigating bridge for safety on a trip to Macau!

Unusually the Tai Loy had three engines – diesels built to a German design by Hong Kong workers under Japanese supervision at Taikoo Dockyard during the Occupation. Bought cheaply by the Fu family, early investors in Macau’s casinos, they gave a start to the project. Once completed, for 27 years (1951-1978) the ship carried people between the two cities, ending its service as the last ferry to dock in Macau’s old Porto Interior (Inner Port). Sold and renamed the Hong Xing 801, the ship served on in Guangzhou possibly until 1988 – a 40 year career.

The Last Days of HMS BEAGLE  -  Robert G W Prescott (University of St Andrews)

In the year in which we commemorate the bi-centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his greatest work, The Origin of Species, it is appropriate to recall Darwin’s statement, in 1876,  that :

“the voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career; ….I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind”.

HMS BEAGLE , in which Darwin spent five years as the naturalist-companion of the ship’s captain, Commander Robert Fitzroy, surely ranks as one of the most significant survey vessels in the history of science. What became of the ship at the end of her sea-going career is therefore of considerable interest.

After eighteen years service with the Admiralty Hydrographic Office, during which she established a chain of chronometric stations around the world and charted large parts of the coasts of South America and Australia, BEAGLE returned to England in 1843 and was laid up in ordinary.   Shortly thereafter, in 1845, she was passed to the Coastguard and spent the second half of her working life as one of a chain of stationary Watch Vessels around the South-East coast of England, engaged in anti-smuggling operations.  She was eventually sold at auction by the Admiralty in 1870. 

The details of her Coastguard service, and her ultimate fate after the Admiralty sale, have remained largely a mystery until now.  However, recent cartographic and documentary research has identified the location of BEAGLE’s service station, in the Parish of Paglesham on the River Roach in Essex, and has revealed details of the Coastguard families that lived on board the ship.  Initially moored in the river, she was subsequently laid ashore in a specially prepared mud berth, following complaints from the owners and skippers of sailing oyster smacks about the obstruction she was causing to free passage on the river.  Archaeological survey of the river margin has located the site of the BEAGLE’s mud berth and produced a collection of artefacts illustrating life on board during the Coastguard years.   The ship was finally broken up on site and some of her timber and ballast was re-cycled in the local community.  Geophysical surveys have revealed a substantial anomaly, lying buried in the now silted-up dock, which represents all that now remains of the ship. 

The BEAGLE dock site has great educational and inspirational potential.  First, it lies only a short distance away (60 kilometres) from Down House, the family home where Charles Darwin worked for the greater part of his life.  The house has been sympathetically restored by English Heritage and is open to the public.  Secondly, the presence of the Beagle at Paglesham added new dimensions to the ship’s history.  Details of the Coastguard service and of the important Essex oyster fishery can complement the primary story of the Darwin and Fitzroy voyage years.  The surrounding marsh landscape with its rich fauna and flora forms a peaceful backdrop to the last years of BEAGLE’s working life, in striking contrast to the dramatic and dangerous environs that characterised the ship’s survey years around the southern continents and oceans.  These combined elements present considerable opportunities for local museum and heritage officers in the County of Essex which, in spite of a lengthy coast-line including a number of navigable estuaries, has as yet no major maritime heritage development.