National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, July 14, 2008

Model of U99. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

As regular readers of this blog will know, I like my food – good traditional English grub boiled, grilled, roasted or fried. If there’s one thing that puts me off it’s tainted food: the awful aroma and taste of the processed ready-meal or tinned scouse, to name just two.

German propaganda films of the Second World War depict the crews of U-boat submarines as swashbuckling marauders trawling the vast oceans for enemy ships to attack and destroy. In reality, the lives of the 40,000 men who served in the U-boat fleet bore little relation to this glamorous image which their activities inspired in the German public mind. The U-boats were cramped, smelly, unhygienic and also almost unbearably claustrophobic.

A typical U-boat bow (front) compartment measuring just 12 feet across, housed some 25 men, several 22 ft torpedoes and equipment. Each bunk bed was used by two or three people on a shift system.

The diet of U-boat crews was mainly tinned food. But, fresh or tinned, it always “tasted of U-boat – diesel oil with a flavour of mould,” according to Heinz Schaeffer, commander of U977.

A German war photographer on board U96 in 1941 wrote: “The heat. The stench of oil.  Lead in my skull from the engine fumes. I feel like Jonah inside some huge shellfish sheathed in armour.”

Included in the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery is an exhibition model of the notorious U99 (shown here) which sank 40 British and Allied merchant ships (about 250,000 tons) in under nine months’ active service from July 1940. She was under the command of Otto Kretschmer, one of Germany’s most successful U-boat aces. U99’s luck, however, ran out on 17 March 1941 when she was sunk south west of the Faroe Islands between Iceland and north Scotland by the destroyer HMS Walker. Kretschmer and most of the crew were rescued and became prisoners-of-war.

U-boat medals on display include an Iron Cross second class 1939-45, which was awarded to large numbers of U-boat men, and a U-boat patrol badge. 

Towards the end of 1940 Admiral Karl Donitz, Officer Commanding U-boats, introduced the wolf pack system of using several U-boats to attack a convoy at night on the surface. A detailed model shows a wolf pack gathering beneath the waves for a surface attack on an Allied convoy in the north Atlantic at night.

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

Spot the difference - the original right hand panel of the ivory diptych on the right shown with a 21st century replica of the other side on the left. Visitors can currently see both the original panels together in Cardiff.

Today two halves of a medieval ivory diptych will be reunited thanks to a special collaboration between the Walker Art Gallery and National Museums Wales.

The diptych, which was made in the 14th century, portrays the birth of Christ, with the Virgin and Child flanked by Saints Peter and Paul, on the left-hand panel, while the right-hand side shows Christ on the cross flanked by Mary and John. Originally the leaves would have been joined together - you can see the holes for the hinges in the image above. However, over time they were separated and now the left hand panel is in the collections of the Walker Art Gallery, while the right hand one belongs to National Museums Wales.

The Walker's panel has been lent to National Museum Cardiff for a year-long display with the other half of the diptych, which starts today as part of National Archaeology Week.

When the original is returned to Liverpool visitors to Cardiff will still be able to see what the complete diptych would have looked thanks to a highly accurate copy of the left panel made by the Conservation Technologies team at the National Conservation Centre. Laser technology research scientist Annemarie La Pensee told me all about it:

"Last year Conservation Technologies was commissioned by Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales - to make a replica of the left-hand leaf of the diptych that we have here at National Museums Liverpool. Using 3D laser scanning and CNC machining we made an accurate replica from polyurethane resin that was patinated to make it look like the original.

Here in the laser technology team, we found the project really great to work on. The leaves are quite small, only 10cm in height. However, because of the highly carved surface we used our most accurate scanner to record the sub-millimetre details and the resulting dataset was as big as those we create for much larger objects. It is also interesting to see how different the two original leaves are in colour and texture because they have been apart and have been exposed to different environments."

Here's a quick update on the project to recreate missing bronzes for two of the Sefton Park monuments.

The clay models that Conservation Technologies are making for the reconstruction of the three missing relief panels from the Sefton Park memorials are now really taking shape. They will be used to produce the foundry cast bronze panels that form part of the memorials to William Rathbone and the Right Honourable Samuel Smith. Two of the panels have reached the stage where the fine detail is being sculpted and the third panel has been blocked out. Blocking out is the term the sculptors use to say that the main body of the clay shape is in place, before being fashioned into a more accurate form.

The sculptors are off at the moment so the clay panels have been wrapped in damp flannelette sheeting and are being sprayed everyday to keep them moist until work starts again. It's best not to disturb them while they are wrapped up like this so we don't have any updated photos to show at the moment.

Here's a reminder of what one of the clay plaques looked like a couple of weeks ago. You can see the rough shape of one of the figures sketched into the clay on the right, while other figures are starting to be 'fleshed out' in three dimensions. Further pictures of the early stages of the process are on our Sefton Park monuments Flickr slideshow and we will be adding more when they are available, so do check back in a couple of weeks to see the progress.

Left to right: Jim Moore, Richard Benjamin, Warren Perry and Bob Paynter

Hello there.

Well I visited Ireland for the second time this year but this time the South, Dublin to be precise. It was for WAC-6  which I know sounds like a 60s TV space drama but it is in fact the World Archaeological Congress. In fact come to think of it some of you might be wishing I was now going to talk about a 60s TV space drama! If not, keep reading. 

Now at first you might be thinking what is the connection between archaeology and museums? Well in the case of the International Slavery Museum we believe that archaeological research can help us further understand what life might have been like on some of the many plantations in the Americas. For instance within the Enslavement and Middle Passage Gallery we have a replica of a plantation in St Kitts where Dr Rob Philpott, Head of Archaeology here at NML has carried out fieldwork for a number of years.

I was part of a session on 'Archaeologists, Museums, Monuments and Anti-Monuments' (academics love long titles!) which I co organised with some old friends from the US, Professor Bob Paynter from UMASS and Dr Warren Perry from CCSU. I met Bob and Warren in 2002 when I was researching for my PhD in Archaeology. Bob has worked on the WEB Du Bois boyhood site for a number of years. Du Bois was a major figure who wrote The Souls of Black Folk a classic work of American literature and is quite rightly on our Black Achievers Wall. I visited a number of African American archaeological sites when I was over there; including the African Burial Ground in New York City which Warren worked on as did another session participant Michael Blakey.

I have to say that the session went really well (no heckling or people falling asleep is a good start in my book) and included some fascinating papers. One was given by Daryle Rigney, Yunggorendi First Nations Centre, Flinders University with the interesting title - 'Encountering the Common Knobby Club Rush: reconciliation, public art and whiteness'. For those of you like me who are not experts on Australian plant life a knobby club rush is a plant which grows along the coastline and was used in the paper to symbolize how indigenous cultures, like this resilient plant, did not break under the force of the prevailing wind, in this case represented by European settlers and their early encounters with the indigenous population, in an already occupied land. Truly fascinating. Another interesting few days in a consistently interesting job.

July 1941 convoy pre-sailing conference in the Liver Building. Courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

I have been up the towers of Liverpool’s Liver Building several times to witness the breathtaking views across land and sea. Recently I learnt that this world-famous edifice once housed offices and personnel vital to the convoy system in the Second World War.

Liverpool was the most important convoy port in Britain during the war when groups of merchant ships, escorted by the Royal Navy, maintained a lifeline of supplies across the Atlantic. The Royal Navy was desperately short of ships suitable for convoy escort work at the outbreak of war. All it had were 24 old destroyers, a handful of sloops and a few anti-submarine trawlers.

In September 1940, 50 old American destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy in return for the use of British naval and air bases in the western Atlantic. Despite this, that winter there were only enough escorts to provide two for each convoy. The Admiralty had to draft in 70 trawlers from the fishing fleets. The original convoys consisted of between 30 and 40 merchant ships sailing in lines or columns. In the later war years, the convoys became much larger, often exceeding 70 ships.

Most ocean-going ships travelled to and from Britain via her western coastal waters. From October 1939, defence of these waters came under the naval operational control of Western Approaches Command based in Plymouth. This HQ was moved to Liverpool, the most central west coast port, in February 1941. It developed into a vast organisation responsible for the day-to-day direction of Britain’s entire north Atlantic campaign.

In Liverpool the Naval Control Service Officer (NCSO) was based on the first floor of the Royal Liver Building at the Pier Head. This officer was responsible for the routing of ships individually or in convoy.

Displays at the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery include a photo of a July 1941 convoy pre-sailing conference in the Liver Building (shown here). These meetings were also attended by ships’ masters and their chief engineers, the convoy commodore and representatives of the sea and air escorts.

Also on display are remarkably-detailed coloured sketches showing some of the ships which made up convoys.These drawings are believed to have been begun during the convoys themselves by the commodore, Rear Admiral Hugh Hext Rogers. He probably completed them soon afterwards. They show side views of the ships with each one named.

Next week we look at life on board the U-boats which hounded the convoys.

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

My route to school with the stupa in the background

So, tomorrow I'll start my third week at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, where I'm studying the Tibetan language. Classes are really hard work, but although progress is slow, I was actually able to understand a little bit of a conversation I heard on the street today so something is sticking!

Here's a little insight into my day.

I get up at 4.30am every day (weekends included) and go with my host Mother, Kalsang, to do Kora, which means to circumambulate (go clock-wise) around the large stupa at Boudhanath, which I showed you last week. I go for the exercise rather than to build up merit, but there is a good mix of people jogging, walking and prostrating at this time in the morning. After a hour taking the circuit, we meet up with Kalsang's friends and go to a local tea shop for sweet tea or jhar and to catch up on the local gossip. The women talk quickly but I'm slowly picking up the odd words.

We're back home for 7am, I have breakfast, do a little bit of study and then off I go to school for 8am. Classes are very intense. In the first week I had to learn the alphabet and the many changes that happen to the sounds of words once another letter is put in front or behind it. I'm still getting to grips with this and I hope that the extra classes I'll be fitting in from next week will help me get this straight in my mind! The unique thing about the school is that for two hours a day we get to practice our Tibetan language skills, one-on-one with Tibetans. This is an amazing experience which allows you to pick up pronunciations and changes in tones much easier.

This image shows part of my route to school. You can see the stupa in the background.

Classes finish at 1.30pm, but that's not the end of the school day. We have homework everyday and there is plenty to go over from the day's lessons.

On several days during the week, there are 'load-sheddings' across Kathmandu, which basically means that the electric power goes out across Boudhanath for a couple of hours. This is done for all sorts of reasons, to stop the system over-loading, but it means that study is pretty impossible after 7pm, so it's often an early night ready for my 4.30am start the next morning.

I am loving every minute of it, but without a doubt this is the hardest thing I have ever done!

More later in the week, homework permitting!

Wave if you're winning! Participants on the Culture Vultures summer course at the Lady Lever Art Gallery enjoying the sunshine.

Michelle O’Callaghan, our youth arts officer, has this great news:

"Young people from National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre, Lady Lever Art Gallery Junior Guides and Culture Vultures course participants achieved a rip-roaring success when they joined forces last Saturday to have their Young People's Arts Awards moderated.

The Young People's Arts Award, run by Arts Council England and Trinity Guildhall, enables young people to achieve a nationally recognised qualification at three levels (Bronze, Silver and Gold) through their participation and enjoyment of the arts.

It encourages the young people taking part to think about their own development as artists and encourages development of leadership, communication skills and confidence, as well of development of their own artistic skills.

At Bronze level the award involves taking part in arts activity, enjoying the arts as an audience member, researching an arts hero or heroine and leading an arts activity for peers.

This is the first assessment and moderation since NML became an Arts Award Centre in 2007 and there are currently two trained Arts Award advisors within NML; myself and Lauren Gould, learning officer at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

16 young people's work was moderated last Saturday and we are very pleased and proud to confirm that all 16 were successful in achieving their Bronze Arts Award.

Certificates will be winging their way to the young people very soon and they will be treated to a presentation evening to mark and celebrate their success.

A big thanks goes to all of the young people involved for all their hard work on the award and a massive well done on their success! It is well deserved!

Congratulations to the following young people who successfully passed their Bronze Arts Awards:
 
Sarah Kenny, James Garland, Deniece Courtney, Natasha Sweeney, Marcella May Rick, Kezia-Jaye Atherton-Davis, Charlotte Clynch, Dominic Hughes, Laura Baker, Craig Parry, Kaz Worrall, James Woodfinden, Beckie Clarke, Keily Hogarth, Abigail Hill and Marc Taylor."

Depth charge diagram. Image courtesy Livepool Daily Post and Echo

With eyes bulging and sweat pouring down their faces, submariners crouch fearfully as depth charges explode around them. The sub lurches and shudders, then – in a foaming, noisy climax - water comes pouring in.

This is the popular cinema and TV view of depth charges doing their deadly work against unseen enemies. I find such scenes gripping and unsettling in their intensity – particularly because I hate confined, crowded spaces.

Until 1942 the depth charge was the only weapon that could be used against a submerged submarine. It consisted of a steel drum filled with 200 lbs (90 kilos) of high explosive set to detonate at different depths of water.

In 1939 the standard equipment for small warships was a trap from which charges were rolled over the stern and two mortars, or throwers, which fired them 120 ft on either beam (side of the ship). Soon more traps and throwers were added. Depth charges were dropped in various patterns to give the best chances of success. Eventually heavy weights were fixed to half the charges, causing them to sink faster and explode deeper.

The Battle of the Atlantic gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum includes a coloured diagram showing a cross section of a Mark VII depth charge. It worked on the principle that water pressure increased with water depth. The depth at which the charge exploded was controlled by an adjustable inlet valve at one end. After filling a bellows chamber, the water drove the detonator against the primer causing it to explode and set off the main charge.

A exploding depth charge could destroy a U-boat 25 ft away and damage one at a distance of 50 ft. Even explosions that didn’t hit their targets could cause trauma, similar to shell shock, among U-boat crews.

Depth charges were used in conjunction with ASDIC, later known as sonar, which had been fitted in many of the Royal Navy’s smaller warships in 1939. It was a secret apparatus for locating submerged submarines using sound waves. The device consisted of an electronic sound transmitter and receiver, housed in a metal dome beneath the ship’s hull, near the bow. The gallery has a life-sized reconstruction of an ASDIC hut on a British destroyer at the start of the war.  It features original equipment and a recording of the pinging sounds that bounced back when the sound waves hit a submarine.

After 1942, new weapons such as the forward-throwing Hedgehog and Squid anti-submarine mortars were introduced against U-boats.

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

In the latest of our 'hidden treasures' displays, two exceedingly rare gold medals crafted by Tiffany and Co of New York have gone on display at World Museum Liverpool for the very first time. The medals commemorate the role of forgotten hero Captain Joseph Dayman RN  in one of the most important naval expeditions of the Victorian age.

In the summer of 1858 Dayman commanded HMS Gorgon, a support vessel involved in the joint British-American attempt to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The Navy assigned the Gorgon to assist the Niagara, the American ship laying half of the cable. Early in the attempt the officers recognised that the Niagara was off course.  Commander Dayman successfully guided the Niagara to its destination in Newfoundland. A reporter on the Niagara noted that Dayman did not sleep for five days during this time. Without his attention the project would have failed. 

In recognition of Joseph Dayman's contribution the Common Council of New York and the City of New York commissioned medals for him from Tiffany's. The medal awarded by the City of New York (shown here) is one of only nine large gold medals they commissioned. The other medal on display is one of only three medals ever awarded by the Common Council. It is decorated with a gilded piece of the telegraph cable around the edge.

You can see the medals in the atrium at World Museum Liverpool for the next 2 weeks. There isn't a confirmed closing date for the display yet so please check with the information desk - 0151 478 4393 - nearer the time if you don't want to miss them.