National Museums Liverpool Blog - merseyside maritime museum

Sir Steve Redgrave unveils Olympic Gold at Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club in 1985. Reproduced with kind permission of Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club

Ben Whittaker, Curator of Port History reports:

Yesterday Team GB got their first rowing medals.  Congratulations to Heather Glover and Helen Stanning, who won gold in the women's pair.  And with the rowing eight "Olympic Gold" on display in the Racing For Gold Olympic themed display, we were keeping a special eye on the men's eight race. And Great Britain's men did fantastically well in securing a bronze medal.  The rowing eights take about five minutes to travel the two thousand metres of an Olympic race, and the eight rowers have to be guided by a cox who steers the boat.  You can see film footage of rowing eights being rowed locally by Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club members in the Racing for Gold exhibition, and also online in the Olympic section of our website.

Ben Whittaker, Curator of Port History reports:

A recent visit to the Maritime Museum for Barbara Cotton took her on a boat trip down memory lane. Barbara was delighted to see the Melody speedboat that is displayed in the museum foyer.  Melody was raced locally off New Brighton with Wallasey Power Boat and Ski Club, and Barbara's father was also a member and owned a very similar boat.  The museum was delighted to receive a copy of some home movies Barbara has of her father and other Club members racing boats off New Brighton from the late 1950's to early 1970's.  The films are fascinating slice of local history, especially of the New Brighton area.  And eagle eyed staff spotted a brief cameo of the Melody speedboat!  
 

The Merseyside Maritime Museum has a fantastic ship models collection from the grand Titanic/Olympic/Britannic builder’s model to the delightful ships in bottles, which always continue to fascinate me.

Whilst researching the early models, I came across the Leader which has a very impressive history as being one of the first ship models to be acquired into the museum’s collection in 1862. The model was made by Captain W. Hudson who was the Leader’s first master.

The Leader was a Liverpool Pilot boat who were employed to assist incoming and outward bound vessels to the Port of Liverpool, helping ships navigate through the powerful tides and challenging sandbanks. The pilot boat provided excellent knowledge of these conditions and also the complex dock system. 

The Liverpool Pilots were widely recognised for their sailing abilities. On 8th February 1881 the Leader led a fleet of twelve vessels safely over the Bar at the entrance to the River Mersey, through very challenging conditions. This incident was widely admired and the Leader continued in service until 1896.

The largest object in the museum’s collection is the Edmund Gardner Pilot Ship. Tours of the Edmund Gardner are still running every Thursday and Saturday until the end of September, to book a place ring 0151 478 4788.

On the second floor in the Art and the Sea gallery, just outside the Titanic & Liverpool: the untold story exhibition is the White Star Line model display featuring models from the Merseyside Maritime Museum collection.

Bye for now.

Thank you to Izzy Stubbs for helping out in the Exhibitions Department last week. Find out about what Izzy got up to:

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As a 15 year old on work experience, I felt intrigued as to what duties I would have to carry out working within the National Museums Liverpool organisation. Over the week I have visited places like the Decorative Art costume storage where lots of clothes, pottery, hats, shoes, toys and more are stored. I especially enjoyed this area of NML because I am currently taking GCSE textiles and I feel as though seeing clothes from as far back as the 18th century has given me a greater understanding of the history behind the beautifully embroidered materials. I also visited the Lady Lever Art Gallery to see the current exhibition, A Pre-Raphaelite Journey (which I highly recommend) and the Merseyside Maritime Museum to see the Titanic exhibition - Titanic & Liverpool: the Untold Story. Even half an hour before closing time the exhibition was still bustling with people!

My favourite exhibition that I have visited this week would most definitely have to be the Rolf Harris exhibition, Can you tell what it is yet? This can be seen at the Walker Art Gallery.

Before I visited the exhibition I didn’t have much of an idea of as to what Rolf painted but afterwards had a wider knowledge! As soon I walked into the exhibition, I was blown away by the sight of the exotically painted grand piano - I was tempted to start playing it myself! Some of my favourite paintings are Snappy Snaps, St Ives (which brought back funny memories from the times I have visited), Greek Fishing Village, The Lion King – Uneasy Truce and Millennium Dawn.

What I like most about each of Rolf’s paintings is the way he paints the angle of light which makes us feel like were actually there with his pictures. Also, I enjoyed seeing “Rolf’s Studio” with the sculpture that had formed out of his paint pallet!

Overall, my experience working within NML has been brilliant and I have a clearer understanding of the different jobs within the Exhibitions Department and how much effort (which is a lot) is needed to make an exhibition happen. I definitely want to volunteer again in the near future and will certainly be taking my family to see the outstanding Can you tell what it is yet? exhibition!

From Curator of Port History Ben Whittaker:

While working in our museum stores I came across this beautiful silver model of the SS Great Eastern which was presented to Sir James W Paton on behalf of his employees at Paton, Calvert & Co Ltd. It was given to celebrate the company's Golden Jubilee in 1937.  Sir James had a personal connection to the Great Eastern - his father Captain Walter Paton captained the ship, and Sir James was born on the ship in the mid-Atlantic on the 15th January, 1863.

This is just one of thousands of objects in the reserve collections of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.  Like most museums we only have the space to display a small fraction of our collections at any one time. A recent redevelopment at the Maritime Museum saw storage space converted to a new community space for the International Slavery Museum.  Maritime Museum curatorial staff had to pack up a large collection of objects so they could be moved to a new offsite storage space. It's my job along with Assistant Curator Michelle Walsh to gradually unpack these objects, check their condition, photograph them and locate them in new racking and shelving.  It's quite a long process as there are over 2,500 objects in 400 boxes! This is the work of curatorial staff that the public don't see, keep an eye out for future blogs about the interesting and unusual objects we are unpacking and re-storing.   

Earlier this year I met with Theatre in the Rough at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. They are a charity which promote new writing for the stage by young people aged 13-25 from across Merseyside.

The group were developing a series of plays about Titanic and Liverpool, and the Maritime History department were approached by their artistic director -acclaimed Liverpool playwright Chris Fittock. We provided support for the group including a Titanic presentation for these budding new writers, drawing upon the themes from our exhibition Titanic & Liverpool: the untold story.

You can see the result of their work at Theatre in the Rough’s 5 day festival which takes place 3 -7 July at Old Christ Church, Waterloo, Liverpool. The locally curated event features drama, live music and an exhibition and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. For further information please see their website.

We were delighted to have been a supporter for Theatre in the Rough and wish them well for their festival. Don’t forget that you can still see our exhibition Titanic & Liverpool: the untold story which is currently running at the Merseyside Maritime Museum until 2013. You can also follow the museum on facebook and our twitter.

Ben Whittaker, Curator of Port History reports:

A punt with pilots approaching the Edmund Gardner c1960s. Collection no MDHB/EG/7/11/14

We had some great feedback recently from a family who went on one of the Edmund Gardner pilot ships tours:

"We all enjoyed the tour very much, please pass on my thanks to the guys who took us round, they made the whole experience great fun and very interesting. We spent the weekend at the dock and visited many of the attractions but we all agree that the Edmund Gardner was very much the highlight of the weekend."

It's great to know that visitors are enjoying the tours, and our volunteer tour guides are doing a fantastic job in bringing the history of the ship alive.  Tours are still running every Thursday and Saturday until the end of September, to book a place ring 0151 478 4788.

Please note that the ship has uneven surfaces, steep stairways and low steps, meaning it is not fully accessible and unable to accommodate wheelchair users, pushchairs or prams. Please wear appropriate sensible footwear for a safe and enjoyable visit.

We'll we've told you what things you can see to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, now let us tell you what you might do!

You don't have to travel all the way to London to join the party. At the Walker Art Gallery we have a crown-making workshops 2 June to Tuesday 5 June, between 10 am and 4 pm

One young visitor getting swept up in the royal celebrations!

The Lady Lever Art Gallery and Museum of Liverpool also enjoy treating their visitors like royalty and will also be hosting crown-making workshops on 4 and 5 June.

For those who prefer to leave crown-wearing to the experts there is a flag-making workshop at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Sudley House on Saturday 2 June between 1 pm and 4 pm. Visitors to Sudley can also leave a special message of congratulations which we will send to the Queen (by Royal Mail of course!)

Delicious Smoked Anglesey mackerel is on the menu at Merseyside Maritime Museum, which is hosting lunch fit for a Queen in its Maritime Dining Rooms! The full Royal menu, enjoyed by Her Majesty The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh on their recent visit, is available to the public from today until Tuesday 5 June. To book call 0151 478 4056.

There are dozens of free family events across the bank holidays and the rest of half term. Check the website for details.

We had a special visitor at the Maritime Museum yesterday. 91 year old Ellen Jones is the daughter of Titanic crewman Thomas Jones. She came in to the Merseyside Maritime Museum to see our exhibition Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story and look at a postcard in the Maritime Archives collection sent by her father to her mother Clara.

Able seaman Thomas Jones was born in Anglesey and was living in Liverpool when he signed on for Titanic’s maiden voyage. He was put in charge of lifeboat number 8 which had been ordered away carrying only 27 people, as other passengers had chosen to remain on Titanic believing it would not sink. Jones and a few others in the boat wanted to return to pick up other survivors, but they were overruled by the rest of the people in boat number 8.

One of the people in boat 8 who wanted to go back with Jones for other survivors was the Countess of Rothes, who later sent him a silver watch. Jones and the Countess continued to write to each other until her death in 1956. As a child Ellen said that she thought that this was nothing out of the ordinary and that “everyone knew a Countess!”

Ellen met with Dawn Littler and Ian Murphy from the Maritime Museum and spoke to them about her father who is featured in the museum’s exhibition. She said that Thomas Jones continued to work at sea and in later life was stationed on the light ship in Liverpool Bay. Thomas Jones died in 1972.

Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story is at the Merseyside Maritime Museum until 21 April 2013.

We're all very excited about the forthcoming visit by Her Majesty the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to the Merseyside Maritime Museum. To mark this momentous occasion, one of the museum’s fantastic paintings will be displayed as a centrepiece for the visit, alongside some objects from the Ismay silver collection which is currently on display in the Titanic and Liverpool exhibition.

‘Campania at the Spithead Review, 1897’ by Parker Greenwood depicts one of the greatest naval occasions, ‘The Review of the Fleet’ for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee on 26 May 1897. Famous merchant vessels attended and accommodated guests celebrating this exciting occasion.

Campania was the most impressive of the Cunard fleet at the time and was ordered in 1891 along with sister ship Lucania as a response to the competition in the ever competitive transatlantic service business. The artist has painted Campania in the centre foreground, flying a blue ensign flag which indicates the Captain and crew are members of the Royal Naval Reserve.

When looking close up at the painting it is clear to see it’s a celebratory occasion and the artist has captured this perfectly. Patriotic blue, white and red bunting flies happily in the breeze, Union Jack flags adorn the other vessels in the background. The event is well attended with crowds of people cheering and you can almost hear the clinking of glasses. As Curator of Maritime Collections (ship models and paintings) I shouldn’t really admit to favourite objects but this painting is especially enjoyable.

Liverpool has an impressive maritime painting history which is represented in the museum’s collection, more of which can be viewed in the Art and Sea gallery.