National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Descent based slavery occurs in some countries where people are either born into or are from a group that society views as suited for being used as slave labour. People from this group are not allowed to own land or inherit property and denied an education, a status which is carried from one generation to the next.

The bracelets represent the importance of the museum’s work in developing its collections in this area and campaigning on the issue. The team felt it was important to display the ankle bracelets with the personal stories, which really challenge the visitor who believes slavery to be an issue of the past and not of the present.

The bracelets are displayed in a new display case in the Legacies gallery which was acquired several months ago to showcase the museum’s new collections.

You can see more recent acquisitions, most of which are not yet on display, on the International Slavery Museum's website."

I remember the second Royal Daffodil ferry boat scrapped nearly 50 years ago and have travelled on the current one many times.I have no recollections of the second ferry on the Mersey but remember her at Birkenhead docks awaiting the breakers in 1962. At that time I was an avid ship spotter and I think there were three old ferry boats tied up together.

The current Royal Daffodil came into service about the same time. It was always a great thrill to sit on the bollards overlooking the churning propellers. However, when I was on board recently the stern was cordoned off – doubtless for Health & Safety reasons.

The River Mersey has been served by Royal Daffodil ferry boats for nearly a century and they hold a special place in the hearts and minds of many people.

Three Royal Daffodils have played a prominent part in what is probably the most famous ferry in the world.

The first was built in 1906 and was simply called Daffodil – she was given the prefix Royal in recognition of her part in the famous Zeebrugge Raid during the First World War.

The Liverpool to Wallasey ferry boat was requisitioned for war service in 1918 and became HMS Daffodil. The purpose of the operation was to stop Germany using Zeebrugge in Belgium as a submarine base.

Daffodil’s role was to hold the warship HMS Vindictive against the mole or breakwater in the harbour. She gallantly managed to do this despite being hit by two shells and peppered with shrapnel.

Renamed Royal Daffodil by the command of George V because of her bravery, she returned to the Mersey bearing the scars of war.

Royal Daffodil II was built at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead shipyard in 1934 In 1941, during the May Blitz of Liverpool by German bombers, she suffered a direct hit and sank – fortunately without loss of life. A year later she was refloated, repaired and returned to duty.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

A half model (pictured) on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum was used to provide the dimensions of her outer hull during building work.  Today computers are used to develop three-dimensional building configurations. The 1:48 scale model carries the yard number 999 and detailed plate measurements.

The current Royal Daffodil was built in 1962 and is the flagship of the today’s three Mersey Ferries. She was called the Overchurch until she was renamed in 1999 following a major refit which saw her interiors extensively altered.

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 p&p UK).

A sniffer dog and handler at the museum

The sniffer dogs from UK Border Agency are once again demonstrating their unique sniffing skills at Seized! over the summer holidays. If you'd like to see them they will be at the museum every Thursday afternoon during August - full details are on the website in the Seized! events programme.
 
I know that the sniffer dogs are extremely well trained but I hadn't realised before that each one specialises in searching for specific things. Karen Bradbury, curator of the UK Border Agency National Museum explains:

An example of an unusual case was earlier this year in 2010 when the dog unit found a birds nest in the luggage of a couple travelling from China. They were arriving into Manchester Airport.

Bird's nest soup is a Chinese delicacy. Savoury swallow nest soup has been made for over 400 years, containing real birds nests. However there are two types of swallow - a red and white - both of which are endangered and protected under the international convention called CITES. The red variety is rarer, and it can cost up to £2000 - £3000 to buy a single nest constructed using the spit of this endangered bird. A trader captures the bird and collects its spit, which was then used to knit the nest together.

The sniffer dogs are back on Thursdays in August 2010. On 12 August it's Roddie with his handler. Roddie is an English Springer Spaniel who searches for drugs and cash. More details about when the dogs are at the museum is on the Seized! website. Come and hear more fascinating stories from the lives of the dog team."

Curator of fine art, Charlotte Keenan looks at 'Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool' by David Hockney.

Anyone fancy a taste of Los Angeles sunshine?

This weekend is Liverpool’s first ever Pride festival and to celebrate assistant curator of fine art, Charlotte Keenan will be discussing one of the Walker Art Gallery’s most popular paintings, Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool by David Hockney.

The talk David Hockney: Polaroids, Pools and Paintings is on 8 August from 1pm and will look at the style and technique of the iconic image which won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1967.

Laura Davis from the Liverpool Daily Post met with Charlotte to find out more about the talk and the painting, click here to read more. 

A lifejacket worn by one of the survivors of the Titanic

Looking at things worn on the night of the Titanic disaster sends a shiver down my spine.

The lifejacket (pictured) on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum is particularly evocative when you think what scenes the person wearing it must have witnessed.

There is also the chilling thought that upon entering the icy water you would have floated for a time before dying of cold.

It started out as a routine voyage between New York and the Adriatic and ended as one of the greatest rescues in the history of the sea.

The Cunard liner was not long on her journey when her radio operator contacted another ship with a routine message and received a desperate distress call in return.

The liner was the Carpathia and she sailed as fast as possible to reach the Titanic which sank before she arrived.

All of the Titanic’s 705 survivors and 13 lifeboats that left the stricken ship were picked up by the Carpathia, which was carrying 700 passengers herself. Carpathia’s radio operator Harold Cottam had made radio contact with the doomed liner at 12.30am.

Cottam alerted his captain Arthur Rostron who immediately turned his ship around to race at full speed towards Titanic more than 50 miles away. The first lifeboat carrying survivors was recovered at 4am and the last at 8am.

On display at the museum’s Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery are souvenirs of Carpathia’s dramatic rescue.

They include the lifejacket worn by a survivor and two thole pins (rowlocks) from lifeboat No 9, all obtained by 19-year-old Carpathia crew member Ernest St Clair of Liverpool.

A nameplate from Titanic’s lifeboat no 4 was removed by the Carpathia’s carpenter and given to her young quartermaster J J (Benjamin) Kirkpatrick of Wallasey.

Two brass lifeboat White Star flag emblems were unscrewed by another seaman and mounted on wooden plaques.

An enamel White Star Line notice from about 1910 gives instructions to crews for the launch and use and lifeboats.

Titanic was supplied with 20 lifeboats which could hold just 1,178 people out of a total capacity of 3,547. Although this was within outdated Board of Trade rules, it meant there was no room in the boats for hundreds of other passengers and crew.

There were three types of lifeboat on board – 14 wooden boats, each carrying 65 people, two rescue cutters for 40 people each and four collapsibles that each carried 47.

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 p&p UK).

Journey to the Lower World, Coot 2004, by Marcus Coates. Photography by Nick David. Courtesy of Kate MacGarry and Workplace Gallery.

A film artwork by the influential contemporary artist Marcus Coates, will be on display for the first time in Liverpool at the Walker Art Gallery from 1 August 2010 to early 2011. Both funny and touching, this work is well worth checking out if you are in the city for the Liverpool Biennial (17 September to 28 November 2010).

'Journey to the Lower World', a major piece of work by Coates, was bought by the gallery with the help of the Contemporary Art Society’s Acquisitions Scheme. The film is an exciting addition to the gallery’s internationally renowned collection. The work arose from 'Further Up in the Air', a residency programme for artists in Liverpool’s Sheil Park estate in 2003.

In the film residents from Linosa Close, a tower block awaiting demolition, watch with a mixture of anxiety, faith and good humour as Coates performs a shamanic ritual. Dressed in a deer skin and uttering eerie, animalistic grunts, he attempts to answer the emotive question put to him by his audience: "Do we have a protector for this site? What is it?"

X-ray of a set of Russian dolls

We’re inviting children of all ages to bring along a favourite toy, and we’ve already booked in a Transformer, a toy calculator, a pair of Ben 10 walkie-talkies, and a Pixel Chicks game, alongside the Rubik’s cube. Watch this space for a gallery of unusual X-ray images - and you can see some toys that we've already x-rayed on Flickr.

The X-ray your toy event will be taking place 12.30-3.30pm on Friday 30 July, in the Reveal gallery at the National Conservation Centre. If you miss this, there’s another chance at the same time on Wednesday 25 August. Full details of all our events and activities are on the website.

The new Hitched publication

To mark the publication of Hitched: Wedding Clothes in National Museums Liverpool, we're giving away a couple of free copies. The book features 13 wedding garments from our collections, ranging from cute 19 century pageboy's outfits to a 1970s knitted wedding dress, alongside the more familiar white floaty creations.

To be in with a chance of winning a copy you need to tell us your wedding story. It might be a wedding you attended or your own big day. It might be funny or a horror story. Did you walk up the aisle with your dress tucked in your knickers? Did you fall onto the wedding cake? Was the best man's speech a shocker? We want to know (providing they're clean).

Just post your story as a comment and we'll select the winners on 19 August.

If you'd like to buy a copy of the book anyway it's available at a very reasonable £4.95 from:

• the gift shops at the Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery and Sudley House (where the Hitched exhibition is being held)
• by phoning 0151 478 4685
• or by emailing publications team 

Object number 1 arrives at the Museum of Liverpool

The Overhead Railway carriage - which many will remember from the basement display in the old Liverpool Museum before it became World Museum - has been conserved in a project funded by our membership scheme. Now fully restored, this morning it was delivered to the Museum of Liverpool ready to go out on display there. This makes it the first object in the brand new museum, which opens next year.

It was quite a sight to see the carriage arriving and travelling past the Liver Building, as it once would have done, full of passengers enjoying the view. Today there was quite a crowd at the Pier Head to greet it. If you didn't make it down you can see some photos of the carriage's last journey on our Overhead Railway Carriage goes home set on Flickr - and keep an eye out for it in the local news tonight.

I like to read about the huge variety of goods and commodities that have been imported and exported through Liverpool over the centuries.

International trade was the reason for the port’s phenomenal growth and one of my favourite accounts is Sir James Picton’s Memorials of Liverpool.

First published in 1873, it contains fascinating details about the history and topography of Liverpool including the docks. I have a second edition with liver birds embossed on the spine.

As in Picton’s time, most imports and exports still travel by sea as ships continue to follow trade routes that have often existed for hundreds and even thousands of years.

For example, in 18th century Britain many goods came from abroad but they were generally luxury items.

Visitors to Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Life at Sea gallery are given an  insight into the imports of the day, using a contemporary oil painting (pictured).

It shows prosperous John Bacon and his family in about 1742. Painted by Arthur Devis, Mr and Mrs Bacon are seen with their four children in their luxurious home.

Mrs Bacon’s dress is made from silk. Luxury silks were imported from India in ships owned by the East India Company. Some also came from France, renowned for its fine silk products. Silk goods were also manufactured in England and in the 1700s English producers often complained about foreign imports.

The furniture is made from mahogany – at this time most of this wood came from British colonies in the Caribbean. It was originally known as Jamaica wood and was felled and moved by enslaved Africans.

The carpet is from Turkey or the Middle East.  Britain traded with the Ottoman Empire ruled by the Turks.

Italian paintings were very popular among the British middle classes. Throughout the 1700s young gentlemen went on the Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Italy as part of their education and often bringing back paintings and sculptures.

By 1800 Britain’s top five imports in terms of quantity were sugar, coffee, corn, raw cotton and tea.

In the 19th century Britain developed worldwide trading links focusing on South America, Africa, the Far East and Australasia. The introduction of the steam ships from the 1840s enabled regular services to operate to ports all over the world.

Massive imports of many products and materials annually take place through Liverpool. They include 11 million tonnes of crude oil, three million tonnes of coal, nearly a million tonnes of edible oils and fats along with cocoa, metals, granite, chemicals and general cargo.

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 p&p UK).