Jump to content

Largest Movement of Historic Boats, at National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port


Ray T

Featured Posts

BRINGING UP THE BOATS

Largest Movement of Historic Boats Begins a Major Conservation Programme at National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port

 When:            Tuesday 10 October 2017 - 11.30 am

(NB lifting of the boats will be ongoing from around 9am so there are a number of potential filming/photo opportunities)

 What:             Eleven historic narrow boats and barges, ranging in size from 33 to 72 feet in length, will be lifted from the canal basin, using a massive crane, ready for storage and conservation. The boats date from the late 1800s to the 1950s, with the majority on the National Historic Ships Register, making this the UK’s largest ever movement of historic vessels.  These boats are now old and fragile and have reached the end of their lives as operational and outdoor exhibits. The re-floating and move to a dry store starts a major conservation programme by the Canal & River Trust, the charity that runs the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port.

 Where:           The National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, South Pier Rd, Ellesmere Port CH65 4FW

 Who:              Head of Museums for the Canal & River Trust Graham Boxer, will join conservation and technical colleagues Margaret Harrison and Iain Weston and specialist teams of experts, volunteers and museum staff as they skilfully manoeuvre the vessels from water to dry land.

 Why:             

The boats date back to the days of freight carrying on the nation’s waterways and include former horse drawn barges, narrowboats and an icebreaker. From Phoebe, a 1900s ‘white van’ of the waterways and rare example of a once common working boat to Aleida heroine of the Fenland Floods; and the massive chalk carrying barge to the iron plated ice breaker Marbury each boat is an important part of the country’s waterway heritage. Many have been adapted over the years, sometimes from working to pleasure use. Ferret began life in the 1920s as a working narrow boat, loving converted for leisure use by the Clark family in the 1970s. Her story is already being told in the museum.  

 They have come to the museum (formerly run by the Boat Museum Trust) over the decades since it opened in 1976.  Some were former working boats owned by British Waterways, whilst others were acquired by the museum from private owners

 Since the 1980s lack of money available for conservation, and suitable storage space, has meant that the gradually deteriorating boats have had to remain in the water. However, thanks to an Arts Council England grant of over £300k, the Canal & River Trust is now able to give each boat the attention it deserves.

 Once on dry land, and in the newly developed dry store at the museum, the conservation team will be able to fully assess each vessel. Experts will consider several options depending on the condition and historical significance of each boat. These include whole or partial conservation or, where this is not possible, deconstruction. Boats will also have a 3D image created so that, even if the actual vessel has been deconstructed, an accurate record is captured for future study.

                                                                                                                                     

Head of Museums for the Canal & River Trust Graham Boxer explains: “I am relieved that we are finally able to start moving these boats. In the 1980s it was felt that the most appropriate way to conserve them was to keep them in the water, which is why some were sunk intentionally, while others have just leaked water over the years. Now we know that the best way to conserve them is to remove them from the water. There’s no denying they are deteriorating and unfortunately they will not all be in a condition to be conserved.  Our priority is to get them into the stable environment of our new dry store. Each one will be treated according to its construction and materials. Some are built from wood, others steel and even concrete, so there is no one-size fits all approach.

 “Every one of these vessels has its own story to tell. It’s our aim to ensure that these stories are told in the best, and most appropriate way so that we can preserve this important history of the waterways.

 “And by using the latest conservation thinking and techniques we are future proofing our historic collection. It’s also our mission to bring this unique collection to a wider audience and we are already using 21st century technology (including Augmented Reality) to make our waterways history relevant and exciting to generations of future visitors.

 “I’m delighted to see work beginning on this project, which has been made possible thanks to the Arts Council England Museum Resilience Fund Grant and supported by the Boat Museum Society and Canal & River Trust.” 

Canalrivertrust.org.uk/nwm

ENDS

For further information, photographs and filming opportunities on the day please contact:

Gill Harrison, Canal & River Trust Communications Team, m 07711 546 404 gill.harrison@canalrivertrust.org.uk or Michelle Kozomara, Marketing & Communications Manager, Canal & River Trust – Museums

m 07917899222 e michelle.kozomara@canalrivertrust.org.uk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two cheers: this sounds like mostly good news, but I don't like their word "deconstruction" - presumably a euphemism for "scrapping".

 

EDIT: great minds, Mr. Boiler.

Edited by Athy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Loddon said:

So that's it then another bunch of boats off the waterways and in the scrapyard cos there's no money.

I don't think that is right. There are already exhibits belonging to Ellesmere Port in dry storage - the hull of the steam launch Alexandria for instance. Most museums have reserve collections

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find this the latest bemusing twist to the horror story associated with this collection. £300,000 + is going to get spread very thinly over 11 boats particularly given the way CRT slosh the money up the wall. It amounts to £27k per boat. Now in the hands of a diligent private owner or group that will do a fair job on a metal boat but will go nowhere on a wrecked wooden craft. This is a nice way to wrap up "Scrapping" in decent cloth's, "Deconstruction" means just that, boats have been deconstructed elsewhere and remain so. Laser scanning is fine as long as it remains accessible and doesn't get lost.

A proper set of drawings would be more useful in many ways.

Oh well, its been a long time coming but I guess this has always been the ultimate end for this collection.

Edited by Laurence Hogg
spellin
  • Horror 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, RLWP said:

Talking to the custodian of a reconstructed wooden boat, £300,000 would get you just over one rebuild

Richard

I wonder how much it cost to rebuild 'Dane' to such a high standard - although in that case I think much of the work was done voluntarily, so it would not be a fair comparison.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RLWP said:

I don't think that is right. There are already exhibits belonging to Ellesmere Port in dry storage - the hull of the steam launch Alexandria for instance. Most museums have reserve collections

Richard

I don't know if this is a good analogy or not? The National Railway Museum in York has many exhibits which will probably never be seen on public rails again - partly because they are too fragile or the museum doesn't have the money to restore them. The railway preservation world seem to accept this.

Just a point of view, not necessarily mine, better to have some of the exhibits in dry storage rather than have them rot away. CRT are on a hiding to nothing here, no matter how they operate they will never satisfy some. If folks are so outraged dip into your pockets to help the museum restore them as floating exhibits.

Edited by Ray T
  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Athy said:

I wonder how much it cost to rebuild 'Dane' to such a high standard - although in that case I think much of the work was done voluntarily, so it would not be a fair comparison.

It was probably free from the restrictions a museum has around conservation too. It's cheaper to throw a plank away and fit a new one than to try and keep half a plank of original material

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Ray T said:

Just a point of view, not necessarily mine, better to have some of the exhibits in dry storage rather than have them rot away.

Well it seems that even the most sophisticated methods for conserving the remains of a wooden craft out of the water, in a museum environment, are not sufficient:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/01/wreck-mary-rose-has-started-collapse-onto-warn-conservators/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Well it seems that even the most sophisticated methods for conserving the remains of a wooden craft out of the water, in a museum environment, are not sufficient:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/01/wreck-mary-rose-has-started-collapse-onto-warn-conservators/

Haven't noticed "Friendship" collapse yet. I was at the museum August this year.

DSCF2910.JPG

For clarity the photograph was taken by me.

Edited by Ray T
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, RLWP said:

What's wrong with 'deconstructed' - how else would you describe what is happening with Lucy? Pretty standard for wooden boats full of rot

Richard

Quite a lot actually. The word deconstruct does exist, but the context in which it is normally used in in the deconstruction of a sentence or paragraph in order to examine the component parts of the text. I have never seen it used to descrinbe what I would refer to  as "dismantled", which is what I suspect they actually mean.

Edited by David Schweizer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why take Ferret out? As Tiggers documented a while back much work was done to put her into a better state, surely she would be better served as a floating exhibit as boats really should be, put em on land and they lose a vital part of their being.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree something must be done.

The boats that are in good condition need assessing and yes some kept afloat but others could be lifted out and as in good condition would stat that way with very little money spent.

The ones in worse condition need lifting out and assessing.

To be honest a few even in a derelict state would look good as static displays i think out the water you get a very good feel for how big some are.

What would be better is the ones being broken is timbers and iron work kept the be used on the others where pos to fix them up for displaying (there will be some timber and iron in most the are usefull)

From experience museums are reluctant to accept help from out side. And people dont want to just give money after money. Both my wife and i and before in past my dad have offered to look after boats and pay for there full upkeep but have been turned down so what did we do bought our own, the museum boats still get some attention and money but not like they would have.

Im glad something is being done my worry is what they do with parts once dismantled scrapped more than likely and thats what i dont agree with some of the parts would be very usefull to the boating world to make copys from even odd parts look good as a display.

And boats like ferret well some of us would give there left arm to have the opportunity to look after a boat like that. Unfortunately i can see this being one that will go on static display.

Like said its good something is being done im just not sure the outcome will be good for some boats or there parts.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, David Schweizer said:

Quite a lot actually. The word deconstruct does exist, but the context in which it is normally used in in the deconstruction of a sentence or paragraph in order to examine the component parts of the text. I have never seen it used to descrinbe what I would refer to  as "dismantled", which is what I suspect they actually mean.

I would suspect that deconstruction implies that what is being deconstructed will be measured and recorded, whilst dismantled means that it is being simply broken up.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Loddon said:

So that's it then another bunch of boats off the waterways and in the scrapyard cos there's no money.

No.

 

21 hours ago, Ray T said:

 Once on dry land, and in the newly developed dry store at the museum, the conservation team will be able to fully assess each vessel. Experts will consider several options depending on the condition and historical significance of each boat. These include whole or partial conservation or, where this is not possible, deconstruction. Boats will also have a 3D image created so that, even if the actual vessel has been deconstructed, an accurate record is captured for future study.

                                                                                                                                     

Clearly you didn't read the first post properly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Deconstructed, I think we may be able to source the origin of that in the contemporary from Master Chef - "deconstructed apple crumble" and the like. Taking the whole apart and presenting it as individual ingredients on the same plate. I prefer mine whole. Dismantling is usually part of a process of repair or rebuilding. Scrapping, is broken up - for scrap. Deconstruction is nonsense. Disassemble would be better. What ever happened to the English language, did that get deconstructed too? Or just changed for the sake of modernity?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Derek R. said:

Deconstructed, I think we may be able to source the origin of that in the contemporary from Master Chef - "deconstructed apple crumble" and the like. Taking the whole apart and presenting it as individual ingredients on the same plate. I prefer mine whole. Dismantling is usually part of a process of repair or rebuilding. Scrapping, is broken up - for scrap. Deconstruction is nonsense. Disassemble would be better. What ever happened to the English language, did that get deconstructed too? Or just changed for the sake of modernity?

It is fluid

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.