National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, December 31, 2007

Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

The nearest I, Stephen Guy, have got to embarking on a New Year cruise is taking a ride on the Mersey ferry. Taking a sea cruise has added attractions at this time of year with opportunities to swap dull days in Britain with azure seas and exotic places to visit.

Holiday cruises by sea to and from Britain began on a modest scale in the late 19th century. Originally they were beyond the means of most people and were the preserve of the rich. They became more widely available from the 1920s when many passenger liners began cruising because their usual routes were becoming less profitable.

Although enjoying a boom period in the 1950s and early 60s, cruise holidays remained expensive. In recent years lower prices and wider choices of destinations have made them more popular than ever. Cruise liners have grown in size and prestige, becoming floating holiday resorts with many attractions.

Displays in the Lifelines gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum look at cruising on the River Amazon in South America. Visitors can listen to an audio account by Mary Harte of a Christmas and New Year cruise on this mighty river in 1934. Mary made the trip on the Booth Line passenger cargo liner, Hilary, with her mother and sister. Mary’s father, Charles Good, was in charge of the Booth Line’s affairs in the Amazon Basin and was based in Pereira, Brazil. The Hilary berthed at Pereira where Charles met his family and they spent Christmas Day on board before lodging in a company house for two days. Mary later spent two weeks on the Amazon travelling 1,000 miles to Manaos.

In 1866 the Booth Line began regular passenger and cargo services from Liverpool to north Brazil and the Amazon. From the 1920s to 1964 the company ran popular holiday cruises to Manaos. Among the display items is this colourful Booth Line poster showing the Hilary. The ship called first at Portugal, then Madeira and on to north Brazil before sailing up the Amazon.

Souvenirs of a cruise on the Hilary include a Booth Line notebook, playing cards and paper knife. Also displayed is a deck chair from the ship. A hilarious photograph shows passengers in a fancy dress revue with such characters as a devil, French maid, sailor and clown. Also featured in the display is a prize-winning model of the Booth Line’s Hildebrand which operated on the Liverpool – Amazon service between 1911 and 1934. She could carry up to 218 First Class and 406 Third Class passengers.

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

Illustration of long tables laid out for food, with people in period costume seated on both sides.

On ship or on shore there is nothing like sea air to stimulate the appetite for me, Stephen Guy, and the traditional pleasures of food and drink come to mind during this festive season.

It was the development of the steam ship that led to dramatic improvements in passenger facilities. From the mid-19th century sea travellers of all classes began to enjoy comforts that had previously been available only on land. Then, as now, eating and drinking were close to most passengers' hearts. Many steamship owners were glad to meet the wishes of the prosperous to dine in style.

Displays in the Lifelines gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum feature the paraphernalia of food and drink on passenger ships. There are items used on two great ships designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. An 1860s dessert plate from the Great Eastern shows a lady in a Britannia-like pose waving to the great ship in the distance, sails unfurled. A meat dish, silver cream jug and kettle along with a glass condiment set were all used on the Great Britain. A colour print (shown) shows the main saloon on the famous ship in 1852. A huge tureen from a Royal Mail Steam Packet evokes images of hot steaming soup served below decks.

After a good meal, the male passengers would retire to the smoking room to relax and let their food digest. A passenger wrote in the 1890s: "The refectory is usually the rendezvous of those passengers who have fairy tales to relate over the fragrant weed etc and the extreme comfort of the installation is certainly conducive to good fellowship."

On display is White Star Line crockery from the 1900-14 Edwardian era when its ships were the last word in sea-going luxury.

Distinctive tableware was used on the legendary Queen Mary, in service between 1936 and 1967 and one of the largest and fastest ships in the world. The Queen Mary was the first British liner to embrace the art deco style and this was reflected on the dining tables. Most of the tableware was supplied to Cunard by Stoniers, the well-known Liverpool store which supplied fine china and related items to the major British shipping companies for more than a century. A feature of passenger liners was the cube-shaped teapot developed to create a pot which would not overturn on a rough crossing. Several examples are on display.

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

I've got some exciting news from my favourite Christmas fairy, namely Claire Noble from World Museum Liverpool.

Tomorrow at 2pm the Treasure House Theatre will be hosting a performance of the classic Grimm’s Brothers story 'Snow White and Rose Red'.

This adaptation by Tiny Giants theatre company promises to bring the strange, magical tale to life before your very eyes. Walk into a forest of dreams and watch out for the twists as this version of the classic tale has more Christmas spirit than a fairy on a tree.

Then don't forget that after Christmas the National Museums Liverpool's Youth Theatre are performing 'A Dickens of a Christmas' - their own retelling of 'A Christmas Carol'. If you didn't catch their antics in the museum over the weekend then try to make it to one of these shows.

Full details of all the free events and exhibitions taking place during the Christmas holidays at our venues are available on the website.

Now it’s coming to the end of the year. Your reindeer antlers are drooping after the office Christmas party, the sequins on your party dress are fading and you’re wondering what happened to that pile of sprouts you hid behind the piano to avoid eating them (and avoid upsetting your host). So while you consider if you can stomach another mince pie, why not have a think about your favourite National Museums Liverpool exhibition from 2007 and vote in our online poll!

Did ‘Doves and Dreams’ inspire you way back in Spring of this year? Or did you enjoy getting an intimate glimpse of The Beatles with Michael Peto’s revealing photography exhibition? Have your say and come back to find out the results in January. Once you’ve voted, you can also check out our program of events for 2008 here…

Note: Now These Days Are Gone, Victorian Visions, Magical History Tour and Merchant Palaces are continuing into 2008.

That hardy soul, John Moran, donned his duffle coat and ventured out into the freezing night last week in search of meteors. And in case you missed the shower this Shadow and Substance animation shows what they should look like.

The last time I wrote a piece about one of the annual meteor showers was the 13th August Perseids, and back then I had to comment on what other people had seen, as I had no chance because of the cloud cover.

This time I'm happy to report that I had quite a successful Geminid meteor hunt. My viewing conditions were far from perfect as I was surrounded by street lights. Nonetheless within 30 seconds of bending my neck upwards, I had seen two Geminids streak just below their target constellation Gemini. As it was a very cold night, I had wrapped up well but was still only able to stand outside for about an hour before finally succumbing to the cold.  In the first half hour alone I had seen 7 and the final half hour I saw 3 more. The actual date of the Geminids maximum was to be 14th December but since this window started at 10.30pm on the 13th I thought I'd start looking from my back garden, which is more or less in the city centre of Liverpool, hence all the street lights, and my plan was to take a drive somewhere nice and dark on the 14th. I'm very glad I decided to have a go from the garden as the next day on the 14th there was the usual depressing cloud cover that normally defeats me.
 
The Geminids are one of the most abundant meteor showers of the year, with a Zenith maximum rate of 75 meteors per hour. They are also quite unique in that their parent comet isn't a comet at all but an asteroid called Phaeton, and because of this the stony material that forms the shooting star is denser and so can take longer to burn up in our atmosphere giving us a better chance of making our wish before it burns out. A colleague of mine was driving to work on the morning of the 14th and as she was looking out of her windscreen she saw probably one of the last Geminids of the night before it started to get light.
 
So as you can imagine I'm feeling quite smug about actually getting the chance to see one of the better annual meteor showers of the year. And my smugness isn't due to the fact that I got to see them while others didn't, but because I usually end up cursing the weather for spoiling the opportunity, and always feel that it deliberately clouds over just when I get excited about it. So the score for the year is Weather 9 v John 2.
 
One more thing, don't forget about the last meteor shower of the year, the Ursids, which peak on the 23rd December and has an hourly rate of 5. Although this is quite low they can be quite rich and so are still well worth a look.
 
John.

This beautiful builder’s model of the Empress Queen is to me, Stephen Guy, one of the finest in the Merseyside Maritime Museum. It may not be the most skilfully made or the most detailed but it perfectly captures the style and dash of the original ship.

Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post And Echo

Jagged pieces of seaweed-infested and barnacle-encrusted metal clearly visible at low tide are all that remain of the beautiful paddle steamer Empress Queen. The 2,500-ton, 360 ft long Isle of Man ferry boat was built in 1897 and was powered by mighty triple-expansion engines. She was the fastest and most powerful paddle steamer afloat.

The Empress Queen was well known to the travelling public as she was on the regular service between Liverpool and Douglas, when the Isle of Man was known as 'the playground of Lancashire'. She was a great favourite because of her fast runs and the ease with which she carried her 2,000 passengers to fun-filled weeks or fortnights on Mona’s Isle.

When the First World War broke out the Government saw she would be ideal for transporting troops and she was chartered for this purpose. She saw successful service travelling between Southampton and Le Havre, ferrying troops across the Channel to and from the Western Front in northern France. Everything went well until 1 February 1916 when the Empress Queen met her end. She was returning from Le Havre with some 1,300 “liberty men”, as soldiers returning from the trenches were known. The Empress Queen ran ashore in thick fog at about 5 am on the Ring Rocks at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, about a quarter of a mile from the cliffs.

She ran well up on the flat rocks and lay nearly upright with the bows on the rocks and the stern afloat. The weather was calm, the ship was close to land and there was no danger to life. The troops were taken off by destroyers and all sorts of craft from pleasure boats to fishing smacks which came alongside in reply to her calls for help.

At first it was thought it would be relatively easy to salvage the Empress Queen but it proved an impossible task. All that was retrieved were large amounts of metal from the engine room and other parts of the ship. Details on the model include the paddle wheel cowls decorated with the Legs of Man.

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

You wait ages for a great Christmas themed performance on William Brown Street then two arrive at once. Not only is the BBC Three Liverpool Nativity taking place there on Sunday, as I reported yesterday, the characters from 'A Christmas Carol' will be invading World Museum Liverpool over the weekend as well.

The theatrical invasion is in anticipation of the retelling of the famous Dickens story in the museum's Treasure House Theatre later this month. This Saturday and Sunday members of the National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre will be roaming the museum in costume as Dickens characters, chatting to the public and sharing a good dose of Christmas cheer or ‘humbugs’. So come along and join in the Christmas spirit - or spirits, depending on who you meet!

The Treasure House Theatre’s production 'A Dickens of a Christmas' premieres on Thursday 27 December and is on every day until Monday 31 December with performances at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm. See the World Museum Liverpool What's on page for further details.

And while I'm on the subject, here's some trivia about the author to impress your family with over Christmas dinner. Did you know that Charles Dicken's daughter Kate was the model for the painting 'The Black Brunswicker' shown here? Usually on display in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the painting is currently on loan to the fantastic Millais exhibition at Tate Briatin in London.

Anyone walking up William Brown Street this week will have noticed a large stage being constructed for BBC Three's Liverpool Nativity which is being broadcast live on Sunday.

Frankincense never looked like this in my school nativity

It's a long time since I've seen a nativity play but I remember the last guests to arrive at the stable were the three wise men, who had travelled from far away to get there.

BBC Three have taken the 'moving the mountain to Mohammed' approach to choosing a location by building their stage right outside the workplace of at least three wise men and women - namely World Museum Liverpool. I don't know if any of our wise staff will be invited to this nativity but at least they don't have far to go if they do - they might even beat the shepherds.

They wont have to look far for inspiration for gifts either as the three traditional gifts brought by the wise men are all well represented in the collections. There is some frankincense and myrrh in the botany collections and plenty of gold in the antiquities collections, like this Anglo-Saxon gold medalet for example.

Personally I always like to get sweets at Christmas, so I quite like today's page on the National Museums Liverpool online advent calendar, which shows a special Christmas card from the famous local sweet factory Taveners.

Update 14/12/2007: Here's a photo of the nativity stage as it looked yesterday afternoon, on Flickr.