National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The awards season is upon us, so in honour of the Baftas and the Grammys and in anticipation of the Oscars and the Brits (anyone else think Russell Brand, alcohol and live TV spells a pre-watershed disaster worse than Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood?) I couldn’t resist awarding gongs to my favourite pieces from our collections. 

First up Best Newcomer and it was a photo-finish between Reveal at the National Conservation Centre and the brand new Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Musuem. For me Reveal just edges it in this tightly contested category, where else can you see dirt-busting lasers and look under a mummy’s bandages? 

Best Actor in a leading role goes to David Garrick as Richard III by William Hogarth. David’s in such high demand that he’s currently away from the Walker Art Gallery starring in Tate Britain’s blockbuster Hogarth exhibition running until 29 April, definitely worth checking out if you’re in the big smoke.

Personally I think there could only be one winner of Best Animated Short, Crackers the crab. This vivacious yet vertically challenged inhabitant of the Shipwrecked exhibition, voiced by Ricky Tomlinson, beat off strong competition from Big Arts Little Artists to claw his way to the top of the pile.  

Forget Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns, our Planetarium which scoops the award for special effects, is nothing short of spectacular. My personal favourite show is the Sunshine Show to which I’d also like to award Best Soundtrack.

Sitting resplendant at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, hair with more volume than a gaggle of teenage girls at a Justin Timberlake concert, Anne Duchess of Cumberland painted by Thomas Gainsborough takes the coveted Best Hair and Make up. The fact I’ve got hair as flat as a pancake and thus have extreme volume envy may have slightly influenced this result.

Finally Best Picture goes to the Walker Art Gallery’s Harmony in Green by Dan Hays, for the simple fact that it’s my favourite and I love it.

 

Since opening its doors less than 2 years ago, World Museum Liverpool was poised to welcome its millionth visitor through the door this morning. Then, just to confuse us, twins Elliot and Joseph came in together.

We can't tell them apart, or work out who was first, so the boys are sharing the joint honour. Museum demonstrator Claire Noble was there to greet them with goody bags, dressed as a Samurai warrior in an outfit from one of the Treasure House Theatre shows. She's not as scary as she looks here, honest.

The boys, who come from Chorley, were on a day trip to Liverpool with their grandparents. They hadn't been to the museum before and were looking forward to seeing the planetarium and dinosaurs.

Last week Beatles fans rejoiced when the decades-long battle of the Apples was resolved, meaning that their music could soon be available to download. Now that downloads are included in the singles charts it has been predicted that the top ten could be dominated by the fab four.
 
However it's not just the music charts that they are ruling online. Last week we launched some new Valentine e-cards and one of the most popular so far is the 'All You Need Is Love' bedspread, featuring Yellow Submarine characters, that was used in John and Yoko's bed-in for peace in Montreal. See every stitch of this colourful creation, handmade by the local Montreal Hare Krishna Chapter, with our bedspread zoomify feature.
 
Don't forget, our Valentine e-cards are there for you if you missed the post or if you just want to express your affection without actually parting with any cash (and lets face it, we're all still a bit broke after Christmas, so nobody's going to judge you for that, I hope).

They may not be the most glamorous of ships but I, Stephen Guy, have a soft spot for the dredgers which play a vital role in keeping ports open.

In the Port of Liverpool an incredible three million tons of silt is removed by dredgers every year from shipping channels and docks. The silt is taken to specially-designated spoil grounds out to sea well clear of the Mersey Bar.

Two modern dredgers, the Mersey Venture and the Mersey Mariner, now perform this task.

Dredging the Mersey started in 1890 to counteract the increasing problem of silt deposits in the port, especially in the vicinity of Askew Spit at the entrance to the Mersey estuary. Two hoppers equipped with sand pumps set to work at the Bar. During the first 10 months of dredging, 350,000 tons of silt was shifted.

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board then decided to build larger dredgers including the 300-ton Brancker which started work in 1895.

Improvements to the port channel through dredging - together with better facilities at the Prince’s Landing Stage and neighbouring Riverside Station - placed Liverpool in a good position to maintain her hold on the north Atlantic liner trade. Liners and other ships continued to grow in size.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there are several models and photographs linked to dredging. Am impressive10 ft long model of the Leviathan (shown) gives some idea of the huge capacities of dredgers. Built by Cammell Laird’s, she was a familiar sight on the Mersey between 1909 and 1963 when she was scrapped. The 465 ft long Leviathan was fitted with a triple-expansion steam engine and could carry 10,000 tons of sand. The machinery used in removing silt is shown in great detail including four huge sand pumps that were lowered to the riverbed.

Not all dredgers work in the approach channels. Another method of removing silt was employed by the Mersey No 26 of 1948, a grab hopper dredger. A model at the Merseyside Maritime Museum shows her with three cranes which scooped up the silt. Mersey No 26 was designed to work within the confines of the dock system where silt, brought in each time the dock gates open, has to be cleared regularly. She used crane grabs rather than buckets or suction pumps, and took 1,350 tons of silt to the spoil grounds before opening the doors of her bottom to dump the load.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

If you haven't been in outer space you've probably noticed that Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Wherever you turn in the shops you see hearts, cupids, chocolates and completely pointless fluffy pink things that men everywhere will buy in a panic minutes before closing time on 13 February.

Being a big soppy romantic myself (well maybe not, but I have my moments) I thought it'd be nice to gather together the most loved-up objects from our collections for a romantic online exhibition. So I asked the curators for ideas and what did they suggest? An obscene novel, a tale of bigamy, a pair of boots a painting of a tiff and nasty disease carrying bugs responsible for killing and maiming people in Central America, amongst other things. Hmmm. This could take years of therapy to sort out.

I guess it's good to cater for the hardened cynics at this time of year, as their needs are so often neglected. Fret not though, we've also got some proper romance, including An Idyll, the painting that visualised the word passion, according to the author DH Lawrence.

An improved range of Valentine e-cards has also been launched on the website today, including John and Yoko's 'All You Need Is Love' bedspread from their Montreal bed-in for peace, as a treat for Beatles fans out there. And don't forget, if you're stuck for an original present there's still time to adopt an ant for your Val-ant-ine.

Curator Alan Scarth is about to unleash not just one but three international disasters in a national museum. If I had done that I'd probably make a dash for the airport as fast as my little legs could carry me. Luckily for Alan though, it's all in a day's work for him, which is why he looks so cheerful in this photo. You see, Alan is the curator behind the new gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum about a tragic trio of ships - the Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress.

The gallery highlights the poignant stories of many of the people involved in the disasters, including new research into local connections. Many of the crew who perished in the tragedies were either from Liverpool originally, or had moved here looking for work on the ships. The Lusitania sinking for example devastated the tight-knit dockland communities in north Liverpool, where most of the crew lived.

Of course, lots of the museum's popular exhibits are also on show. Have a sneak preview at the new zoomable photo of the Titanic model on the website. 

You can see the gallery when opens to the public this weekend, on Saturday 10 February.

We’ve had a bit of a revelation here. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Yes – it really is February and the snow is here so warm your cockles with a dramatic loving gesture.

Before you nip off to the florists and get stung for an overpriced bunch of flowers or buy the wrong size lingerie, feast your eyes on our romantic ants.  That’s right – I said romantic. For these particular leaf cutter ants are carrying not leaves, but rose petals.

In all seriousness – what could be more romantic than sponsoring an ant and declaring your love to the nation by naming it in your sweetheart’s honour. Like ‘Mrsfluffywuffywabbitkins’ or ‘Jane&John4eva’ or something. And what's more, it will get published on our website for all the world to see!

There isn’t a Valentines gift in the world as versatile as an ant – and if you’re still not convinced by the wonder of  ants then get up close and personal with our flickr pics. Go one - give in to the lurve bug. You know you want to.

PS. You need to sponsor your ant by midday on Tuesday if you want the certificate dispatched in time for Valentines day. And don't forget to email with your ant name and the posting address when you've completed the online bit!

It's all hands on deck at Merseyside Maritime Museum this week, where the finishing touches are being made to a new gallery about the sinking of a tragic trio of ships - the Titanic, Lusitania and Empress of Ireland - which opens on Saturday.

National Museums Liverpool's joiners have skillfully transformed part of the first floor of the museum for the new displays, which are framed with a dramatic jagged edge of torn metal, to give the effect of the damaged hull of a sinking ship. Paul Murphy showed me how the torn metal is actually made of wood - complete with wooden rivets.

The rivets may be fake but the displays include some genuine objects from the disasters - including a deckchair from the Lusitania and a Titanic lifejacket worn by one of the survivors. While many items will be familiar from the former Floating Palaces gallery, there is also plenty of previously unseen material on show.

Don't forget, there's still time to catch the Shipwrecked exhibition in the museum, to learn survival skills in case you ever find yourself on a sinking ship.

I was rudely awoken this morning by a nagging pain on the left side of my mouth. A rogue brazil nut (apparently encased in a jacket of steel) caused part of my tooth to break off last night. I always knew this healthy eating lark was bad news - chocolate's much safer and ice cream has certainly never led to me losing a body part. Needless to say I was feeling pretty sorry for myself on the way to work, that is until I heard about poor Nissim the elephant. Nissim, a resident at Knowsley Safari Park, suffered damage to his tusks that was so severe a top London dentist had to be drafted in to operate on him. Nissim lost a large part of his tusk trying his luck with some older female elephants (Dumbo springs to mind). As I was reading the story I couldn't help picturing the scene as some kind of elephantine Samson and Delilah, young Nissims strength ripped away from him by his ruthless mistress and as I walked past Solomon J Soloman's depiction of Samson at the top of the stairs at the Walker Art Gallery this morning I almost had to wipe the tear from my eye … or maybe it was just the effects of that darn brazil nut.

Did you know that Knowsley Safari Park was founded by the 13th Earl of Derby - whose collections formed the origins of what is now World Museum Liverpool - and there was an exhibition dedicated to him at the Walker a few years ago. 

This little-known story of the Great War conjures up dramatic pictures for me, Stephen Guy. The sight of two luxury liners battling it out must have been amazing.

The 19,524 ton luxury liner Carmania sank the German liner, Cap Trafalgar, earning a unique accolade in the First World War.

The historic engagement took place off the southern coast of Argentina in September 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war.

Requisitioned by the Government and converted into an armed merchant cruiser, the 675 feet long Cunarder, Carmania was one of the few ships to make good use of this role change. She intercepted Cap Trafalgar, a Hamburg-Amerika liner before the war but now also converted and armed. The two ships pounded each other with shells. Carmania was struck 79 times and her bridge caught fire but she was able to give as good as she got.

Following an hour of fierce fighting Cap Trafalgar developed a list and went to the bottom. This was the only occasion when one liner sank another in battle.

Carmania was later escorted to Gibraltar where she was repaired in dry dock. She later patrolled the coast of Portugal and the Atlantic islands before taking part in the Gallipoli campaign. In 1916 she was returned to Cunard and acted as a troopship between Liverpool and Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with her sister. After the war the two ships were used to return Canadian soldiers home.

Cunard liners Carmania and Caronia (1905) were identical apart from their engines. Carmania was powered by newly-invented steam turbines while Caronia had traditional reciprocating engines. The success of Carmania’s turbines led directly to the building of the Lusitania and Mauretania and put Britain back at the forefront of marine design.

Carmania operated between Liverpool and New York and the Mediterranean in winter. She carried 300 First Class passengers, 350 Second Class and some 200 others, mainly emigrants travelling westwards in Third Class and Steerage.  She had major refits in 1920 and 1923 before the economic depression following the 1929 Wall Street Crash made times hard for shipping companies.

Carmania had become outdated and more modern ships were around to take her place. She was withdrawn from service in 1931 and later sold for scrap.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a fine 10 ft long model of Carmania (shown) with painstaking detail right down to the rigging and lifeboats.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Museum archaeologists excavating Manchester Dock have been pleased to find the inner walls of the lock gate are in very good condition. Many of the stones not only feature the original chisel marks but also the identifying marks of the individual masons. Stonemasons would mark the stones they had dressed so their daily output could be accurately tallied and they would be paid accordingly.

Some are simple shapes (like the triangle one featured on our Flickr page). Others are a mix of letters and numbers like this example.