National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, January 11, 2010

'An East Indiaman taking a pilot off Dover' from Merseyside Maritime Museum's collections. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

I like to use spices when cooking but only sparingly. To my mind there's nothing worse than making things so hot or spicy you can't taste the food.

Many years ago a friend took me around old spice warehouses on the River Thames when they were empty, awaiting redevelopment. I was overwhelmed by the wonderful smells that still permeated everywhere – this was part of the East transported to London.

British trade with India and China was controlled by the East India Company from the closing years of the Tudor era until the 19th century.

The company was granted a royal charter by Elizabeth I in 1600 and went on to generate huge wealth for many investors. The charter granted a monopoly of trade with all countries to the east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west of the Straights of Magellan in South America.

In its early days the company fought Dutch and Portuguese rivals in sea battles on the Indian Ocean. These operations were costly so the company decided to set up bases in mainland India, initially with the agreement of Indian rulers.

These footholds grew over the years until the East India Company was largely responsible for the British conquest of India and was used by the government to rule that vast country.

The company's ships were among the finest and largest of their time. Among the cargoes they brought back were tea, silks, spices, porcelain, sugar and rice.  They also carried passengers – mainly military and government officials – between London and India.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is an oil painting called 'An East Indiaman taking a pilot off Dover', attributed to Robert Dodd (1748 – 1815).

This finely-observed work shows the ship with ensigns flying alongside other vessels off the White Cliffs of Dover as the pilot prepares to board.

The company’s century-long rule of all of India effectively began following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when Robert Clive defeated Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal.

The East India Company's monopolies were scrapped in the 19th century following a campaign in which Liverpool merchants played a leading part.

Liverpool’s Asia trade involving the export of cotton goods and import of tea, East Indian sugar and Asian produce underlined its importance as a world-class port.

The East India Company's monopoly of trade with India was abolished in 1813. The company was dissolved in 1858.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.00 p&p UK).

John Moores Project Manager Angela Samata looks after everything to do with the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize - here she is to tell us about how things have been going with JM2010 so far...

So, today is the day that the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize 2010 took the leap into the previously unknown world of Twitter - and what a response!  

The John Moores mailbox was full of entries and emails saying that other twitterers, if that’s the right term, had started following us when I arrived at the snowy and very chilly Walker Art Gallery this morning. 

The John Moores 2010 is also the first time that artists can enter online - another great success - with over 90% of entrants using this method to register for the prize and the chance to walk away with the £25,000 prize money.

The prize today has the same ethos it always has: to showcase the best of contemporary painting talent at the Walker art Gallery. It is open to all throughout the UK, professional and non professional artists alike.

Entrants now have just 6 weeks left to register, as the Call For Entries closes on 19 February 2010.

So enter online today at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/johnmoores or email jm2010@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk to request a registration form.

For all the latest JM2010 news, you can follow us on Twitter: @JohnMoores2010

Good luck with your entry!

Please note that due to the adverse weather conditions and for the safety of our
staff and visitors, National Museums Liverpool's venues will be closing at 3pm
again today. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Handling and transport technician Paula at the Walker

Even while it has been snowing outside this week, our staff have been working away behind the scenes inside the Walker Art Gallery to prepare the next exhibition Aubrey Williams: Atlantic Fire. The exhibition of 14 paintings by Guyanese-born artist Aubrey Williams opens on 15 January 2010.

Handling and transport technicians Paula and Paul took some great photos on their way to the Walker in the snow on Tuesday. You can see more in the Moving stories set on Flickr. I hope they had a nice Liverpool fire, or even some central heating, at home to warm them up when they got home from work.

Please note that due to the adverse weather conditions and for the safety of our staff and visitors, National Museums Liverpool's venues will be closing at 3pm today - Wednesday 6 January. Apologies for the inconvenience.

We hope that you all keep safe and warm while it is snowing. And don't forget that while the venues are closed you can still enjoying our winter-themed online exhibition on the website.

Copyright Stephen Shakeshaft

If you can think of an amusing (and clean, don't forget) caption for this photo then post it as a comment by the end of the day on Sunday 17 January. The winner will be announced the following week.

Stephen Shakeshaft himself will be judging this month's competition. The lucky winner will get a signed copy of his book 'No Illusions' which includes many of the pictures from the exhibition and more from Stephen's first 30 years as a newspaper photographer.

A builder’s model of the Coast Lines’ motor vessel Ocean Coast of 1935. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo. 

The idea of taking a slow boat to China is very appealing to me but the company would have to be good and the surroundings congenial.

Travel should be enjoyed as a part of a wider experience rather than just as a means of getting somewhere. Between the ages of 16 and 24 I went on many walking holidays, savouring the people and places I encountered.

Sea travel offers similar experiences as events unfold gradually so we are able to adjust better to our surroundings. It is also much more comfortable and relaxing than air or road travel, for example.

More than 70 years ago people could take a cruise from Liverpool to London, stopping at a number of ports on the way.This was still a comparatively leisurely age with large numbers of people being carried across the seas and oceans. Air travel was in its infancy as passenger aircraft were only capable of carrying small numbers of passengers.

Aerodromes were the provinces of the very rich – everyone else going abroad took to the waves. Likewise road travel was still a big adventure. Before the Second World War, lorries were only permitted to travel at slow speeds.

They would frequently break down and had great difficulties going up hills. Roads crawled through every town and village on tortuous routes across the country before the age of the bypass. It is not surprising, therefore, that some people still preferred to travel by sea between British ports – as they had for centuries – if they had the time and money.

Coast Lines grew into the largest coaster company in the world after being formed in 1913 from the merger of three Liverpool coastal shipping companies. Business declined in the 1950s largely due to the growth of road transport.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum’s World Gateway gallery there is a builder’s model of the Coast Lines’ motor vessel Ocean Coast of 1935 (pictured). She ran a regular cargo service between Liverpool and London.

The 1,700-ton Ocean Coast carried general cargo and up to 10 passengers. The round trip took about 10 days and made an unusual cruising holiday.

Ocean Coast was withdrawn from service in 1964 and she was sold to a Greek company. A smaller half model in the Life at Sea gallery shows how mixed cargo was stowed on the Ocean Coast.

Most cargo vessels carried a wide range of goods. The Merseyside Maritime Museum holds the Coast Lines archives (see our Archives section on our main site).

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

For the first of our series of 'On this day in history' blogs to comemorate 150 years of the World Museum, we are looking to the memories of ex-staff member, (former Keeper) Eric Greenwood. Here he recalls an important time in the museum's history after the destruction of the Second World War, when the museum was able to return to displaying treasured artefacts and hosting evening events...

The steps up to the old entrance to the museum.

I joined the staff of the then 'City of Liverpool Museums' on 1 January 1966. At that time only a temporary display in the Lower Horseshoe Gallery was open to the public.
 
In the following years the newly built 'phase two block' - situated behind the steps at the front of the museum in William Brown Street - was opened in stages. This was an exciting time as curators and public alike saw the museum's treasures for the first time since the beginning of the second world war, 30 years earlier.

It also meant many late evenings as local societies returned to the museum for their regular meetings and other private views were held. It was an enjoyable and relaxed time made more memorable by the staff who remained behind for evening functions. They often had a 'feast' in the staff room prior to the evening events!
 
For me the most extraordinary exhibition was the display for a few days of a small amount of moon dust exhibited on a watch glass. The idea of seeing a bit of the moon for themselves caught the imagination of the people of Liverpool and queues to visit the display stretched all the way up William Brown Street to Commutation Row and beyond.

If you have any memories you'd like to share about interesting events or exhibitions you have enjoyed at the museum, then leave a comment below. If you have a specific date you can remember, then all the better!

The museum before it was bombed in the Second World War.

I know I'm a day early, but 2010 will mean a pretty important anniversary for us here at National Museums Liverpool. It will be the 150th Anniversary of William Brown handing over the keys for what was then the Liverpool museum, which we now all know and love as the World Museum.

To mark this anniversary we’re going to be featuring a year-long series of World Museum-related stories on this blog. There'll be a story a week, with a mix of historical and contemporary pieces. We want to let you know all about the museum’s history but also give you a few behind the scenes peeks at the people, stories and events that make (and have made) this such a special museum.

To give you a taste of how the museum first came about, I can tell you that on 8 March 1853 the museum opened for the first time on Slater Street in Liverpool. It was then called the 'Derby Museum of the Borough of Liverpool' in honour of the Earl of Derby’s bequest of over 20,000 natural history specimens. We still have amazing specimens at the museum, ranging from an Arctic Fox to many beautiful butterflies.

We'd also like you to get involved by sending us your memories of the World Museum from both past and present. If you have a specific date that sticks in your mind, then all the better. You can submit your memories as a comment at the bottom of this post.

So all that remains is for me to wish you a Happy New Year and to invite you to come along and visit our fab, free museum in 2010!

Officers and men from HM Trawler Northern Wave at Wallasey Dock. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I recently appeared on the Liverpool KVFM community radio station hosted by local children and was asked why Liverpool suffered so many German air raids.

The answer was that the city was the main port for the convoys of merchant ships that brought vital supplies to Britain. Liverpool played a key part in the Battle of the Atlantic by serving as a base for escort ships defending the Second World War convoys.

Until mid-1941 only a small force of naval escort ships was based in Liverpool. A fleet of Fleetwood trawlers was established at Wallasey Dock, Birkenhead, for minesweeping and convoy escort work.

A group of destroyers was based in Gladstone Dock, Bootle. A few auxiliary merchant cruisers – fast, well-armed former liners taken over by the Navy – also sailed out of Liverpool on North Atlantic patrol duties.

From the summer of 1941, however, as more escort ships became available, the naval presence in port grew rapidly. Liverpool became one of the Royal Navy’s main escort bases for Atlantic convoys.

Eventually nearly 60 naval escort ships, excluding trawlers and other auxiliaries, sailed regularly from Liverpool. They ranged from destroyers and sloops to frigates and corvettes.

While Gladstone Dock supported by other docks provided berths for larger ships, many corvettes were based at Albert Dock. This is now the home of Merseyside Maritime Museum with its many convoy-linked displays in the Battle of the Atlantic gallery.

This 1945 photograph shows officers and men from HM Trawler Northern Wave at Wallasey Dock. Another image shows the armed merchant cruiser HMS Patroclus, formerly of the Blue Funnel Line, leaving the Mersey for escort duties in 1940.

Just five days later Patroclus was torpedoed and sunk by the notorious U99 submarine which sank 40 British and Allied merchant ships before being sunk by a British destroyer.

There is a photo of 19-year-old Nigerian seaman Douglas Memberre who was engaged as a steward’s boy on the Mattawin at Lagos in December 1941. Douglas survived after his ship was sunk by a U-boat in the North Atlantic in June 1942. He later returned to sea and eventually settled in Liverpool.

Merseyside became the main home of the Merchant Navy in wartime Britain. In 1939 Liverpool-owned and registered ships formed at least one-fifth of Britain’s entire ocean-going merchant fleet.

Many were taken over by the Government as armed merchant cruisers, troopships, hospital ships, assault vessels and other auxiliaries.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

Remember that Go Penguins are visiting until 10 January.

Just a quick message to say "Merry Christmas, one and all" - hope you get what you deserve - and to remind you that all of our venues are open over the Christmas period (excluding Boxing Day and New Year's Day and closing at 2pm on Christmas Eve).

When the weather is filthy, the kids suffering from cabin fever, and your wallet a little on the skinny side there's always a day at your free, friendly, neighbourhood museum or gallery to get you out of the house. Check out our Christmas section to find out what's on over the holiday.

There's also a preview page describing some of the excellent exhibitions we've lined up for 2010. I'm especially looking forward to Toulouse-Lautrec at the Walker and China Through the lens of John Thomson at the Maritime.

Have a good one.

"Going out with an albatross? Get your hearing tested! I said I was going down to Albert Dock"

The winner of this month's caption competition, and the new owner of a signed copy of Alan Scarth's 'Titanic and Liverpool' book, is Rob Pendragon with his entry, "Going out with an albatross? Get your hearing tested! I said I was going down to Albert Dock". Well done to Rob. 

You can see all of the other entries on the original post.