Letter from Major Caleb Huse to Charles K Prioleau, November 1862 (Maritime Archives and Library reference B/TF/BOX1/27).

Palaeography, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the science or art of deciphering and interpreting historical manuscripts.  It normally refers to ancient manuscripts in long dead languages, but I will make a case for applying it on the many handwritten letters within our collections.  The technique is more or less the same.  You need to know a bit about the context (in this case the American Civil War) and a bit about word and letter forms (for example, initial lower case 'p's that go both above and below the line) and the right balance between thinking what is likely to be being said and putting your own words in the mouth of the author.  Then the squiggles turn into prose before your eyes. 

This page of a letter from Major Caleb Huse, arms procurement agent for the Confederate States Army, to Charles K. Prioleau of Fraser, Trenholm & Company, Liverpool merchants and bankers who acted for the Confederacy reads as follows-
 
'six months armistice and meantime those life preservers at Birkenhead can be finished - so far as getting supplies in or cotton out is concerned, we shall be quite independent of the three great powers.

Col. Maine is I understand, in town, but I have not yet seen him. Wither he is to return'

More information on the letter can be found here and the original, along with some others from our fantastic American Civil War archive collections are on display outside the Maritime Archives & Library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. I'm not convinced I've got the Colonel's name right, any better suggestions?

Blue Funnel playing card, 1960s (Maritime Archives Reference OA/25/4/2/8)

The recent posting about the St George's festival in Liverpool this weekend made me think about dragons.  These spectacular dragons are on the back of a pack of playing cards made for the Blue Funnel Line (Ocean Steam Ship Company) in the early 1960s.  Shipping companies, especially those that carried passengers, put a lot of effort into corporate branding, producing items such as ashtrays, crockery, menus and calendars. 

The Ocean Steam Ship Company, commonly known as Blue Funnel for reasons I'll leave you to work out on your own, were a large Liverpool shipping firm who sailed predominately, but not exclusively, to the Far East and China.  The Maritime Archives & Library holds a large collection of records from the company, including examples of their marketing material.  These playing cards would have been a useful distraction during long hours at sea.

Willie Dailey, apprentice, c1886 (Maritime Archives reference DX/1924).

This handsome young man is Willie Dailey of Stafford who decided he wanted a life at sea and persuaded his parents to apprentice him on a voyage of the ship Benares, from Dundee to Chile and San Francisco, USA.  It was 1886 and he was 16 years old.  The Maritime Archives and Library hold some letters by Willie and his family and the ones from his mother would be achingly familiar even today.  His worried mother, Jane, tells Willie to mind his manners, wash his clothes and eat well.  She hopes his Captain is kind, his crewmates friendly and that he is warm enough, dry enough and not sea sick.  She tells him off when he fails to write.  The forms of communication may be different to today, but the emotions are just the same.  Jane mentions at least 4 other children, so she certainly had her hands full, but seafaring was, and still is, a dangerous life, so she must have been deeply concerned for his safety and wellbeing.  Two of Jane's letters are from 1906 and by this time Willie has a wife and child.  His mother is less worried about him and writes instead about the wet summer weather, another topic that is familiar today.  But as we approach Mothering Sunday, spare a thought for worried mothers, waiting for their children to get in touch.

Drawing and material sample sheet for a bar on ship Caronia, Cunard Line, c1947 (reference DX/1394)

Anniversaries are very helpful when writing for a blog and what better one to celebrate than 100 years since the invention of Formica, everyone's favourite kitchen worktop surface, and still going strong today.  Our photograph doesn't really do this item justice but, trust me, it is lovely. Especially if you have an interest in interior design and the wonders of plastic - and who doesn't?  I've not been able to find a photograph of the bar in the Caronia so I don't know if this suggestion by White Allom Ltd was accepted. 

This sample board, and other items held at the Maritime Archives & Library, demonstrate the effort that went into every element of interior design in passenger liners. This Caronia was the second Cunard vessel with this name, launched on the Clyde in 1947 and broken up in 1974.

Transferring an elephant on the Irrawaddy River, Burma (MAL reference D/IR/Box3)

Now I could use this image to draw some metaphor with the American Republican party as their symbol is an elephant, but I've heard quite enough about that election, so I'll just tell you a little bit about the photograph.  This lovely image is from an album held by the Maritime Archives & Library of photographs taken and collected by Captain H J Chubb who worked for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company in Burma.  The company ran a fleet of vessels along the difficult waters of the Irrawaddy River until 1950 when its assets were transferred to the newly independent Burmese Government.  Amongst the many images of ships on the river, which of course we are very fond of, there are wonderful shots like this.  I have no idea why an elephant was being moved from one vessel to another, but this seems like a better way of doing it than trying to use the narrow gangplank.  I wonder if the second elephant was easy to catch?

Mariner's Register Ticket, issued to Thomas Crone, reference DX/850

Whilst remembering the contribution the merchant navy has made, and continues to make, to Britain, you may be tempted into a little family history research on your seafaring ancestors. 

Merchant seafarers are well documented compared with other professions.  Most of the records are held at the National Archives although to complicate matters the documentation changes over time as each system set up by the Board of Trade was overwhelmed by the growth of Britain's merchant fleet.  The Maritime Archive & Library has an information sheet that explains how to track the records down. 

This image is of a Mariner's Register Ticket, issued to Thomas Crone born Liverpool, 1833.  The seafarer was required to keep this document and give it to the ship's master when he signed the crew agreement.  The other half of the tickets, which were issued to seafarers between 1845-1854, are held at the National Archives and list the voyages of the seafarer.

Anchor Line brochure for vessels Cilacia and Circassia showing on-board gym (cropped), reference SAS/33F/1/4.

I do enjoy cycling, so the last few weeks have been fantastic. Not the weather, unfortunately, but watching the exploits of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and David Millar et al. in the Tour de France and the Olympics.  All topped off with yesterday's brilliant time trial.  The Maritime Archives & Library are celebrating the Olympics with an online exhibition Sport and the Sea which includes images of on-board sports facilities such as this rather uncomfortable looking gym on the Anchor Line vessels Cilacia and Circassia from the 1930s.

Damaged hull of City of Exeter, Ellerman Lines (reference DX/1507)

It's rather hard to make out, but this photograph shows a large hole in the Ellerman Line vessel City of Exeter caused when it was mined 200 miles off Bombay (Mumbai) in 1917.  The ship safely reached Bombay (Mumbai) and was put into dry dock for repairs.

Today is International Mine Awareness Day part of a campaign to highlight the danger to civilians from mines laid during wars.  The charity MAG (Mines Awareness Group) does a lot of work in this area, both in educating children to recognise and avoid mines and in clearing land so it can be safely used again.

HMS Liverpool leaving the Mersey for the last time.

It's lovely down by the Mersey today, as long as you can avoid the cold wind.  The crew of HMS Liverpool were braving the wind as they stood on deck during the ship's final voyage down the river this morning.  We took this photograph from the window of the Maritime Archives & Library as HMS Liverpool, built in Birkenhead by Cammel Lairds, headed to Portsmouth for decommissioning.  It was a sad moment, but we were pleased to see that, like us, many people stopped to pay their respects. 

King Cotton postcard, published New York, 1861, on loan from Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum is currently marking the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War with an exhibition outside the Maritime Archives & Library on the second floor and a trail pointing out relevant collections throughout the museum.  This image shows part of an envelope that we have borrowed from the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester to add to the exhibition.  It was printed in New York and was designed to send a powerful message regarding the economic and moral position of England (represented by John Bull).  England claimed to be powerful and free, but the economic success of places like Manchester was reliant on access to cotton produced by slave labour.  John Bull is kneeling on a slave while worshipping King Cotton.

File of papers relating to postwar repair of the Port of Liverpool building (MDHB collection).

The Maritime Archives & Library holds a very large collection of records relating to the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board (MDHB), who ran the Liverpool & Birkenhead dock system from 1858 until 1971. The MDHB, like most large organisations, were keen on committees and reports, and produced a lot of documents.  These are a great resource for studying the history of Liverpool, but can be a little overwhelming.  Occasionally a box reveals something unexpected, such as this piece of shrapnel stored amongst a file relating to the repair of the Dock Office, the Port of Liverpool Building at the Pier Head.  The note on the envelope states that the shrapnel was taken out of the 'copper covering of Dome, Dock Office'. The Port of Liverpool Building was hit by a mine on the morning of 3rd May 1941 which caused a fire that destroyed most of the east side of the building before being brought under control.

William C Mylechreest, Mersey pilot, reference D/MORR/4/1/1

November is time for Movember, when men grow moustaches for a month to raise awareness of men's health issues.  Now this is obviously a laudable effort, but there are always lessons to be learnt from the past. We've chosen a few examples of maritime men from the Maritime Archives & Library to demonstrate how to work a moustache with flare.  No comedy intent here, just serious style.  Can the man of today live up to the high standards set by the men of the past?  Images of Movember efforts will be posted on their website for you to judge.

Politician, Harrison Line, leaving dock in Liverpool (reference McR/38/142).

Ok it's a poor link, but as we don't have any photographs of politicians, apart from ex-merchant seafarer John Prescot, I thought I'd throw in this photograph of the Harrison Line vessel Politician while the Labour Party Conference is on in Liverpool. 

T & J Harrison, like many shipping companies, used a theme when naming their vessels.  In their case it was professions, which are slightly easier to remember than Blue Funnel's(Ocean Steamship Company) use of characters from Greek mythology.  Harrison Line never named a ship Archivist, but they did have 3 vessels named Custodian, which is pretty close to my job description. 

The Politician is more famous as the ship that ran aground in 1941 off Eriskay in Scotland with a cargo that included a large amount of whisky and inspired the book and film Whisky Galore.  There is possibly some joke to be made involving politicians, whisky and running into rocks, but I'm not going to risk it.

Cartoon from Peter Rogan's wartime log (reference DX/2503)

Merchant Navy Day is celebrated on 3rd September, to commemorate the contribution the merchant navy has made, and continues to make, to Britain.  There is a special service being held on Sunday 4th September at St Nicholas' Church, Liverpool at 12pm.

This cartoon is taken from the wartime log kept by merchant seafarer Peter Rogan while he was a POW in Milag Nord during the Second World War.  More images from the diary are on our website in a small online exhibition.  With so much merchant navy history to cover, this is just a small example of the service given and hardship suffered by merchant seafarers, plenty more information is available in the records held by the Maritime Archives & Library or on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

City of Chicago, Inman Line, built 1873 (reference McR/39/312)

A lycra-clad cyclist came into the Maritime Archives & Library last week wanting to know where someone arriving in Liverpool from New York in 1885 would have landed.  We pointed him in the direction of the Princes Landing Stage and the Pier Head. The reason for his interest was that he was about to start cycling around the world, attempting to follow the route of Thomas Stevens' 1884-1887 journey that made him the first man to cycle around the world. 

According to my quick internet research Stevens arrived in Liverpool on the Inman Line's City of Chicago, which is the ship in this photograph.  We wish his intrepid follower well, you can follow his attempt on his blog at anordinarypursuit.blogspot.com.

Merseyside Maritime Museum building from Canning Half Tide basin, c.1911, reference PR.588.

If you come down to the Merseyside Maritime Museum today, well, to be honest, we're not looking that great.  As part of ongoing conservation work on our lovely 1846 built warehouse, the front of the museum is being covered in scaffolding. When the scaffolding construction is complete our Estates Department will be putting up some signage to explain what is going on (which I'll need to read).  In the meantime here is a rather interesting photograph from our collections at the Maritime Archives & Library. Taken around 1911 is shows the building when it was a cold storage warehouse.  It may not look like it, but it is the front of the building, taken from Canning Half Tide basin, so the shed in front, the building on the roof and the built in section in the middle are all long gone.

B/FT 1/215:Detail of photograph; Group of Confederate States' war veterans at Wimbledon Common, 1869.

It's a big weekend for North America this week.  Today is Canada Day and on Monday it's Independence Day in the USA.  At the Merseyside Maritime Museum we're currently marking a not so happy time in North America with an exhibition on the important part played by Liverpool in the American Civil War.  There is a gallery trail throughout the museum and a display of documents outside the Maritime Archives & Library on the second floor.  This image is part of a photograph of ex-Confederate soldiers taken at Wimbledon, London in 1869, presumably during the annual National Rifle Association meeting held on the Common.

Westmoreland Street (?), Dublin, 1895 BICC/VII/2/11/5 (crop)

The Queen is making an historic state visit to Ireland this week.  This image of Westmoreland Street (we think) in Dublin dates from 1895 and is from our collection of records relating to BICC (British Insulated Callenders Cables) the company formed by the 1945 merger of the Prescot based British Insulated Wire Company and the Erith based Callenders.  The collection contains a large number of photographs from many different places recording work carried out by the company, Callenders in this case.  I have to say that for me the main interest is not in the cable laying work, although I like the half hearted safety barriers, but all the general city life caught in the photograph.  The horse drawn carriages and the city gents.  We don't know what the cables are being laid for, but Dublin's newly electrified tram service started running on this day in 1896.

Launch of the tug Poderoso, Grayson Shipyard, Liverpool (reference PR585)

Launched the same year as the Titanic, but with a considerably longer working life, this photograph is of the launch of the tug Poderoso built by Grayson & Company in Liverpool in 1911.  The tug left Liverpool that year for Chile and worked there until 1988.  John Winrow, Assistant Curator at the Maritime Archives & Library, who found the image while listing a box of photographs, discovered that the vessel is moored in Talcahuano, Chile.  In recognition of its long service the Poderoso is now a National Monument with an organisation dedicated to preserving it.  However, while looking at their website we discovered that unfortunately, not long after its restoration was finished, the Poderoso was heavily damaged, turned on its side no less, by a tsunami following an earthquake last year.  We sent a digital copy of the photograph to the Poderoso preservation society, who have used it in their most recent newsletter, and we wish them well in their continuing efforts to preserve this lovely hard working vessel.

Certificate of Discharge from the CSS Alabama, Confederate States Navy for George Freemantle, DX/1841.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum is commemorating Liverpool's involvement in the American Civil War, which took place 150 years ago, 1861-1865.  There are various text panels and a trail leaflet that allows you to find related exhibits throughout the building, including in the International Slavery Museum.  My task has been to put together a display of items from the archive collections for our showcases outside the Maritime Archives & Library on the second floor.  We've got a lot of relevant stuff, so we're going to have changing displays until 2015. 

The current exhibition includes this discharge certificate from the Confederate States Steamer Alabama, built secretly in 1862 for the South by Lairds in Birkenhead and finally sunk by the United States ship Kearsarge off the coast of France in 1864.  The crew, many of whom were from Liverpool, were picked up by a British yacht and landed at Southampton.  Then they were signed off and given a certificate of discharge.  These certificates acted as a record of service for seafarers and were essential when they were trying to find their next job. 

Liverpool's important involvement in the American Civil War may surprise some people, so it's worth a visit to see the exhibition.

Illustrated London News advert, reference DX/287.

For this blog post I am going to have to confess to being unable to come up with any maritime or current affairs link, I just found an image that was too good (or bad) not to share.  Archivists are not keen on accepting newspapers within collections because they are usually available in a well managed and coherent way in newspaper libraries.  I especially hate bundles of undated clippings from unidentified newspapers - 'if you're going to cut them out and keep them, at least include the date and source', I mutter to long dead depositors.  Anyway, when a newspaper does pass our ruthless selection criteria the adverts and other stories are often more interesting than the reason the depositor carefully saved it.  This is especially true of our editions of the Illustrated London News. While I find maritime disasters as interesting as the next person (and in the Maritime Archives & Library, that means very interesting indeed), I couldn't take my eyes off this fantastically awful advert for a furriers.  I'm not sure who looks more uncomfortable, but the woman, while being incredibly constricted by corsets, has the advantage of not being stuffed and mounted.

Lloyd's Weekly Casuality Reports, September 1934

Lorna, Assistant Librarian at the Maritime Archives & Library, has been cataloguing our collection of Lloyd's Weekly Casualty Reports, which are useful sources of information for shipwrecks and other maritime mishaps.  We can tell something is up because she keeps laughing and reading bits out.  While the early Casualty Reports, ours start in 1890, are a fairly straightforward list of ships that have been wrecked, burnt or otherwise damaged, in later years they become more widespread in their tales of woe including, in September 1977, entries regarding a fire in a glove factory in Aberdeen and the kidnapping of a stamp collectors' daughter in Italy.  The editors appears to have become rather ghoulish.  However, the thing to remember when using Lloyd's records, which include many of the great sources for maritime research, is that it's all about insurance, not about collecting information for ship enthusiasts or family historians. If you had just been asked to underwrite a glove makers you would need to know that there had been a serious fire in no less than the 'largest manufacturers of knitted gloves in the western hemisphere' and if you're setting rates for life insurance, kidnappings are important. All that being said, I do have a suspicion that their correspondents were having a competition to see which is the daftest thing they can get published - for example a reported 'near riot' on 4th September 1977 at a music festival in West Germany caused by the 'absence of some well-known groups'.  1970s German rock music, I think I'd have rioted.

Emigration Office, Illustrated London News, 6th July 1850 (DX/287/62/5)

There has been a recent change to the regulations regarding the number of non-EU immigrants that can work in the UK.  In 1850 emigration from the UK was seen as a good way for the unemployed to seek new opportunities.  Government supported emigration required more regulation.  This image from the Illustrated London News shows the Medical Inspectors Office.  Destination countries obviously wanted healthy new arrivals and the spread of disease on a crowded emigrant ship could cause many deaths.  I hope that dog isn't being left behind.

As emigrates were leaving, as the name suggests, there was not much interest from the authorities in recording information about them, to the frustration of family historians.  More information is found in the countries to which they were travelling.  However, the Maritime Archives & Library does hold a good collection of journals and letters that give some insight into the emigrant experience. Most voyage experience follow roughly the same pattern - excitement and sadness at leaving, smugness at their good sea legs, terrible seasickness once out of the Mersey, then settling down into a routine broken only by food and an obsession with the weather, and back to excitement once their destination is sighted.  They actually make very good reading.

The Maritime Archives & Library has a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions in the 3 showcases outside our door on the second floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.  Our current exhibition, in conjunction with our colleagues from the UK Border Agency National Museum, is on the Harrison Line vessel Politician, which ran aground off the island of Eriskay, Scotland.  The fact that the vessel was carrying a lot of whisky is well known, highlighted by the novel and film Whisky Galore, but there was a lot of other interesting cargo onboard, not least 290,000 Jamaican bank notes.  The recent publicity for the opening of the exhibition caught the eye of a man interested in the story of the ship.  He has kindly donated one of the very bank notes to us and we’ve added it to the exhibition.

While Australia is currently suffering terrible hardships brought about by flooding, for many it was and remains a land of promise and opportunity.  This image is taken from a newspaper article from 1852 explaining the Government funded emigration system that provided assisted passage for those wanting to start a new life in the Colonies. The drawing was highlighting the space available on an emigrant vessel and the physical separation between single men and single women, located safely away from each other at either end of the ship.  Unfortunately the ship in question, the Bourneuf, did not have a successful voyage and by the time it arrived in Australia after leaving Liverpool in May 1852, 88 of the 830 passengers had died, mainly from diseases caused by poor sanitation. The ensuing enquiry banned the vessel from carrying emigrants until improvements were made, but the vessel was wrecked anyway on its next voyage from Melbourne to Bombay on the Great Detached Reef just off the Northern Australian coast. The enquiry report also stated that although the unmarried female passengers had been protected from the unmarried male passengers, they had not be able to prevent contact and fraternisation with the crew.  So, all in all, not the most successful vessel that has sailed on the high seas.

Canning Half Tide Dock

Apparently the big freeze will be over by the end of the week.  We were lucky this time in Liverpool, just slippery pavements rather than feet of snow.  This is how the Canning Half Tide dock looked this morning, partially frozen with a few confused seagulls picking their way across the ice. 

I should really include something maritime related rather than just a nice view out of the window of the Maritime Archives & Library, so I shall mention a few points from the entry on 'ice' in the very useful Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, part of our library collections.  Sea water freezes at about -1.9 degrees centigrade rather than the normal 0 degrees because of the dissolved salts in the water.  When sea water freezes the salts are left in solution making the unfrozen water saltier.  Frozen sea water forms pack ice which can last for 5 years in the Arctic, whereas icebergs are broken off from glaciers or ice shelves, so we're unlikely to see one of those in the dock.

Myers' Mercantile Advertiser, 1819

The Irish economy and its close links with the British economy has been in the news recently, so here is some evidence of the situation in 1819.  This extract is from Myers' Mercantile Advertiser, Monday 8th February 1819 and shows some of the goods shipped from Liverpool to various ports in Ireland in the previous few weeks.  As most of the commodities would not have been produced in Liverpool it demonstrates the importance of the port as a trading hub.  The abbreviation ‘c’ stands for hundredweight, which confusingly was normally 112lbs (or about 50kgs), so the quantity of goods is quite large.

Some of the items are quite straightforward; Ireland seems fond of pepper and sugar and liquorice (they’re welcome to it as far as I’m concerned).  Other items need a bit more explanation; staves, deals and lathwood are all types of semi processed wood, for barrels, fences etc.  Tallow is fat, ashes are probably potash for fertilizer or soap manufacturing, brimstone is sulphur, but I’m not sure what kind of mats they are shipping.

The Maritime Archives & Library holds lots more information on the movement of goods through British ports, mainly the endlessly fascinating Customs Bills of Entry.