National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, April 18, 2008

On Monday night at 9pm Channel Four are featuring a Time Team special - The Lost Dock of Liverpool. It focuses on arachaeological excavations of what's known as Old Dock - the first commercial wet dock in Liverpool and the world - plus other sites at the waterfront as they've been cleared for the canal extension, Museum of Liverpool etc. The programme will be looking at the growth of Liverpool as the world's first global city, and will feature several members of the museum archaeological staff. Quite looking forward to it.

Michael Palin (copyright Basil Pao)

You’d think that Michael Palin  would have had enough of travelling, wouldn’t you? Well apparently not, because he has kindly trekked up north to open the Walker’s new transport-themed exhibition, ‘Art in the Age of Steam’. I can’t help being stoked at the prospect. Not only are his travels compulsive viewing, he’s an ex-Python.

He won’t be the only star in the gallery though, as the exhibition features pictures from the likes of Manet, Monet, Van Gogh and Hopper. I haven’t actually managed to see the finished article myself yet - so more about that later - but we’re getting a great response from those who have.

At Liverpool Cathedral’s craft fair this weekend, another star of the rail Frank Hornby will be in the spotlight. As well as model trains on display there will be a track where model enthusiasts are invited to try their own Hornby trains out. (Rather bizzarely, one of the office has just spotted French and Saunders hanging out there).

If all this transport talk has whet your appetite, there are lots of steamy activities about - as long as you’re willing to travel of course. There’s East Lancashire Railway,  Ullswater Steamers,  Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways , Snowdon Mountain, Ribble Steam Railway, Severn Valley Railway, and Middleton Railway, Leeds.  

As a special treat this Summer, you can also catch a steam train from Lime Street. 2008 is the 40th anniversary of the last ever scheduled steam train, which departed from Liverpool, so the Rail Touring Company will be running some special events.

Once you’ve run out of puff, come and relax in the exhibition. I hear it's first class.  

'King Eddie' just clearing the ceiling in the conservation studio

As you may know the Pier Head is undergoing a bit of a transformation at the moment, and that extends to the statues there. King Edward VII atop his horse has undergone a face lift, spending the last few months in a studio at the National Conservation Centre - he almost didn't fit in. Work to remove the grime is now finished (this photo was taken pre-conservation) and you are invited to come along and meet 'King Eddie' before all 16ft of him is hoisted back on top of a granite plinth at the Pier Head. There's a special open day this Thursday - 17 April - from 1-4pm when you can chat to conservators and see long-obscured features up close. Just come to the information desk at the main entrance on Whitechapel and you'll be shown through to the studio.

Sir Percy Bates. Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

This portrait of Sir Percy Bates is one of my favourites as it makes you want to know more about the man as he looks quizzically over his spectacles. The painting hangs in the Life at Sea gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum along with personal items and other memorabilia.

Cunard chairman Sir Percy (1879-1946) had the idea of building legendary liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He was one of a long line of shipowners and shipping company bosses who had tremendous influence when British vessels led the world.

Sir Percy, a baronet, began his career with the family shipping firm of Edward Bates & Co. He joined Cunard in 1910 and was chairman from 1930 to 1946, a crucial period in the Liverpool-based company’s history when both the Queens were built and Cunard merged with rival White Star.

In December 1930, Sir Percy’s dream of two world-leading ships had begun to take shape when the Queen Mary’s keel was laid at John Brown’s Shipyard at Glasgow. Work was delayed because of the Depression before the Queen Mary was launched and sailed on her maiden voyage in May 1936. The Queen Elizabeth was completed in 1940 and both Queens became troopships in the Second World War. Queen Elizabeth did not enter normal passenger service until 1946. Sadly, Sir Percy died from a heart attack, aged 67, at this time.

Items on display include a beautiful illuminated scroll carrying the speech Sir Percy made at the launch of the Queen Elizabeth in 1938. A cigarette box is made from oak off the Cunard liner Aquitania. A gold medal produced to mark the launch of Queen Mary. Only four others were produced – for Edward VIII, Queen Mary, President and Mrs Franklin D Roosevelt. In contrast, a simple leather briefcase was used by Sir Percy when he was Cunard chairman.

Other leading shipping figures are featured. A photograph of members of the Liverpool Shipowners’ Association 1890-1 shows the top-hatted grandees standing proudly in rows.Alfred Holt (1829-1911), founder of the Blue Funnel Line, was also an engineer and designer of the compound engine. His work ensured the ultimate success of the long-distance steamer.

Sir Alfred Read (1871-1955) brought together a number of small companies to form Coast Lines in 1912. Until the Second World War, Coast Lines was the largest trading group between British ports, including Ireland.

Lord Kylsant (1863-1937) was chairman of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company from 1903 to 1931.The group was broken up in 1931 after financial problems and irregularities for which Kylsant was convicted.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Gallery attendants Brian and Dave meet Aled Jones at the Walker Art Gallery

BBC’s Songs of Praise filmed at the Walker Art Gallery yesterday. Presenter Aled Jones met up with local artist Cecelia Matson who introduced him to the gallery by showing him work by her favourite artist and source of inspiration JMW Turner. Cecelia told Aled how the Walker was a great place for contemporary artists to learn from old masters.

The feature, which is part of a programme dedicated to Capital of Culture will be aired on Sunday 4 May.

There will be more Turners to feast on over at the Lady Lever Art Gallery this summer when Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings opens from 28 June- 9 November 2008.  The exhibition features other big names such as Constable, Burne-Jones and Cox and offers a rare opportunity to see a selection of the gallery’s most delicate artworks.

Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

I’m always fascinated by the ‘what ifs?’ of history and the sinking of the Titanic might never have happened if the rivets had been different.

Riveters played a vital role in shipbuilding when Britain’s shipyards boomed as the Empire expanded and the Royal Navy dominated the seas. Riveting was the only method of fastening together the plates and frames of early iron and steel ships. It was a very laborious process and accounted for much of the banging and clattering associated with traditional shipbuilding.

About three million rivets were used to hold Titanic together. Rivets recovered from the wreck were apparently made of poor quality iron. One theory about the sinking claims that the impact with the iceberg caused the heads of the rivets to break off and sections of Titanic to break up. Better quality rivets, it is argued, may have prevented the ship sinking.

The most effective way of making rivet holes was with an hydraulic punch. By the 1870s such machines were capable of punching up to 30 holes a minute in half-inch thick plates. When riveting was done by hand, large shipyards such as Cammell Laird’s employed more than 100 riveting squads, each with five men. They were:

• The heater, usually the youngest of the team, who softened the rivets in a portable forge before picking them up with long-handled tongs and throwing them to …
• The catcher who caught the rivets in a tin then, with short-handled tongs, placed the rivets in the holes where they were held by …
• The holder up whose 14 lb hammer kept the rivets in place while they were hammered by …
• The riveters who worked in pairs with hammers weighing between  three and five lbs to round over the ends of the rivets, thus fastening the plates together.

On display at Merseyside Maritime Museum is a riveting hearth and examples of plates riveted together.

The death-knell for riveting was sounded in 1920 when Cammell Laird launched the Fullagar, the world’s first all-welded steel ship. Welding was perhaps the greatest development in shipbuilding in the 20th century. The time-consuming and labour-intensive process of riveting was replaced by the stronger and more efficient method of welding steel plates. There was no need for overlapping plates or connecting flanges so less steel was used.

The speed of construction was greatly increased and automatic welding machines could be used. Today large sections of hull and superstructure can be built under cover so that final assembly is simplified.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Here's the final blog post from Tom McConnell, our work placement student and Beatles fan, who has been lucky enough to see some rather special objects from the band's history.

Hi

On Tuesday and Wednesday I have been working on the Beatles stage that John Lennon played on when Paul McCartney first met him. I had to sand parts of it and help take it apart before it is fully constructed.

Today I have been in paper conservation where I found all the Beatles autographs!! and I also saw many other Beatles items such as a Beatles writing pad.. Beatles stockings.. Beatles tickets.. Beatles newspapers.. and much more.

You know what it's like, you wait ages for a cultural bus then two turn up at the same time.

The Living Memorial

One bus, 'The Living Memorial', is actually a unique mobile memorial to the Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian-born artist Sokari Douglas Camp. It will be visiting the International Slavery Museum from 23-25 April as part of Celebrate Earth Week 2008. The programme of events for the week involves three days of African-inspired live music, art and poetry across Liverpool, including an artist's talk in the International Slavery Museum.

The week before that Liverpool City Council, the Culture Company and English Heritage are offering free coach tours of Liverpool's World Heritage Site - an area of the city including several of our venues. Appropriately enough the tours will take place on International World Heritage Day, 18 April at 11am and 2pm. Each 2 hour tour starts outside St George's Hall and takes in sights including the Albert Dock, Pier Head, Stanley Dock, Ropewalks and the historic commercial district. For further details or to book a free place see the Liverpool World Heritage website or ring 0151 233 2880.

'Art Matters: The Pool of Life', image courtesy of the Singh Twins

In the normal scheme of things, art galleries are where you go to see paintings. However, in the fantastic work of the Singh Twins (deserved winners of the recent Liverpool Art Prize People's Award), you can look at art galleries in paintings instead.

You may remember that last year I spotted some of our venues in their painting 'Liverpool 800' when it went on display at St George's Hall. The talented sisters have just unveiled a new painting, 'Art Matters: The Pool of Life' to celebrate Liverpool's Capital of Culture year. As always, the picture is bursting with life, featuring a plethora of Liverpool people and landmarks infused with the vibrant colours of the traditional Indian miniature style of painting.

There's way too much detail to cram into a tiny space like this, but you can just about make out in this image that the Walker Art Gallery has made an appearance once again, half way down on the right hand side. It's being visited by the blue time-travelling taxi from the Magical History Tour exhibition, which appears to be driven by an escapee from World Museums Liverpool's Bug House. There's even a poster advertising the upcoming exhibition The Beat Goes On (thanks for the publicity ladies!)

Here's the latest update from Tom McConnell, our work placement student, who in case you hadn't noticed is a big fan of a certain Liverpool band!

Hello,

Today I have been checking up on the music desk at the International Slavery Museum. This basically involved listening to many tunes on the desks and writing if it was working and to see if any improvements could be made to improve it for the benefit of the visitor… I particularly enjoyed "Sail Away" by Ray Charles but was disappointed that The Beatles had been taken off!!

The music desk at the International Slavery Museum. Photograph © Redman Design/International Slavery Museum