National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, February 14, 2011

A submarine is the last vessel I would choose to go to sea in – the idea of being unable to escape in an emergency would be terrifying.

Submarine crews have played a vital role in warfare for nearly a century. Their successes in the First World War sounded the death knell for the battleship era.

The submarines of the past were minnows compared to those of today. I have attended a number of naming ceremonies at Barrow-in-Furness and been astonished by the enormous size of modern subs.

The spectacular careers of two U-boat submarine aces were ended and their vessels sunk when they attacked an Atlantic convoy bringing vital supplies to Britain in the Second World War.

It was on the night of 16 March 1941 when Captain Donald Macintyre’s 5th Escort Group, led by the destroyer HMS Walker, defeated the German Wolf Pack attack on Convoy HX 122 south of Iceland.

Otto Kretschmer was captured after his U-99 was forced to surface by depth charges from the Walker.

Joachim Schepke was crushed to death when U-100 was rammed by the destroyer HMS Vidette.

A third ace, Gunther Prien, had been lost along with U-47 in combat with another escort group several days earlier.

Kretschmer (1912 – 1998) was Germany’s most successful ace, sinking 47 ships totalling 274,333 tons. He was nicknamed Silent Otto because of his reluctance to make radio broadcasts during patrols, no doubt contributing to his success.

Schepke sank 37 ships (155,882 tons). A popular figure, he wrote a book called U-Boat Men of Today and made a speech to thousands of Berlin schoolchildren about the undersea war.

Prien sank more than 30 ships (194,000 tons) including the veteran battleship Royal Oak and the Arandora Star.

A total of 833 people died on the Royal Oak, sunk at her moorings in Scapa Flow on 13 October 1939, and more than 800 on the Arandora Star.

In the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery there is a photo of Kretschmer striding down the gangway from HMS Walker at Princes Landing Stage, Liverpool, and into captivity (pictured).

There are three head-and-shoulder photos of the aces and also images of Donald Macintyre and HMS Walker. There is a model of the Arandora Star.

Almost a third (about 800) of all Allied merchant ships sunk by U-boats in the Atlantic during the war were victims of just 30 experienced officers who had joined the German Navy by 1935.

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.

Last year we invited you to share your pictures of spectacular scenery, unusual locations and far-flung destinations as part of our photography competition, inspired by the 'Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure' exhibition. We teamed up with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to give one lucky winner and three friends the chance to see the live orchestral & cinematic production, 'Polar'.

The quality of entries was exceptional, but we’re thrilled to report that the prize was won by Mr Bernard Bowler for his truly outstanding photograph, Skiddaw. Despite the apparent Antarctic conditions depicted, the picture was taken in the Lake District.

Communications Manager Dickie Felton explains:

“ Mr Bowler's stunning picture was taken on Skiddaw, Cumbria, but it's such an epic shot it could be the edge of the earth. The sloping edge looks like a sheer drop. It gives a sense that one false move and the tiny walkers, explorers, adventurers would be sent tumbling. The picture is vast and oozes with chilly atmosphere. What's also interesting is you have to look twice to see if it's a black and white or a colour photograph. I think, and I'm still not sure, that it is in fact colour. Is that a hint of orange in the distant sky beyond? A great picture worthy of winning our Shackleton competition. I hope that the brave figures on the slope had packed their Kendal mint cake.”

You can view more fabulous photo entries on Flickr. Mr Bowler has since contacted us to say his party had a very enjoyable evening at the Philharmonic Hall. 

If dramatic photography appeals to you, you’ve only got a couple of weeks left to visit Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure. The exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum comes to a close on 27 February. This really is a not-to-be-missed exhibition, featuring striking images that tell an unprecedented tale of peril and adventure.

There’s only a week left before A Collector’s Eye: Cranach to Pissarro opens to the public on Friday 18 February 2011, and the installation is well under way. Yesterday I popped over to the Walker Art Gallery to see how the installation was going.

Now, a couple of weeks ago I was putting up a framed painting in my room. It was quite a complicated affair, and involved lots of shouting and taking ‘time out’ to compose myself.  I thought that if this was the level of commotion one painting can cause, I’d witness something similar at the Walker.

However as soon as I got there I was struck by how serene everyone seemed. People were quietly getting on with the task in hand, and the exhibition was really taking shape.

Not all of the paintings had been hung at this stage but it hasn’t stopped me getting really excited for next week. I can’t wait to see it once it’s up and ready for the public to see.

The Handling Team unwrap Doré's 'Scottish Landscape' ready for the exhibition.

This Saturday you can make a stand for love at the International Slavery Museum, at a free workshop making Valentines' Day cards with a difference. Our cards are designed to support the anti-trafficking campaign and raise awareness about modern day slavery.

Everyone deserves to be treated as special someone - not as a commodity to be brought and sold. So make a Valentines' Day card with an anti-trafficking message to send to someone, to support the Stop the Traffik campaign.

More information is on the Special Someone campaign website.

There are also some interesting free lectures coming up as part of Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) programme. The CSIS is a partnership between the International Slavery Museum and the University of Liverpool, where the lectures take place.

• Tuesday 15 February: 'Kara Walker's vision of American slavery', Michael Bibler (University of Manchester)

• Tuesday 29 March: Delia's Tears: Race, Science and Photography in 19th Century America,  Molly Rogers (University of Warwick) 

When you have your first ‘cuppa’ tomorrow morning you might want to give a little thought to one of the Walker Art Gallery’s best-loved paintings.

Mrs Mounter by Harold Gilman painted around 1916/17

‘Mrs Mounter’ is by the British artist Harold Gilman who was born 11 Feb 1876, 135 years ago tomorrow.

Gilman was a founder member of the Camden Town Group, an influential London artist collective formed at the start of the 20th century.

‘Mrs Mounter’ is a colourful portrait of Gilman’s landlady. The charming depiction of the elderly woman in her distinctive red head scarf, sat at a table with an un-matching tea set, is really popular with our youngest visitors. In fact to view the painting on a week day during term time you will often have to look over the heads of an excited school party!

Painted around 1916/17 the techniques Gilman used for Mrs Mounter were inspired by the European Post-Impressionist painters, such as van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin.

'Mrs Mounter', currently in store, goes on display in the new interactive gallery, 'British Art: 1880 to 1950', from 25 March 2011.

Keep an eye on the progress of the gallery on Flickr. 

Francesca Aiken, assistant exhibition curator for the Global City gallery in the new Museum of Liverpool says:

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‘The Sailors Farewell’ cup and saucer, on display in the Global City gallery from July in the new Museum of Liverpool

 

Working late, forgot the flowers, no card this year? Spare a thought for the wife of this sailor, whose husband must soon depart for many weeks or months on board ship without contact from home.

 

A sailor’s life was a dangerous one, where being swept overboard or wrecked without hope of rescue were a constant risk.  Forget texts or Facebook, this young woman would have to wait until he returned home to know if he was safe or not.

Known as ‘The Sailors Farewell’ this porcelain teacup and saucer was made in China in the early 1800s for sale to European socialites who enjoyed the delicate art of tea drinking.

Due to be displayed in the new Museum of Liverpool opening this July, this rare example of a European couple painted by Chinese artists will feature in the Global City gallery alongside some of the best examples of Liverpool and Chinese pottery from the 18th and 19th centuries.

East meets West the story of Shanghai and Liverpool illustrates how potters in Liverpool upped their game by imitating Chinese porcelain (even going so far as to add fake Chinese marks to the base) to meet the insatiable demand of consumers.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

All the later ones were plastic. I have fond memories of making a big model of HMS Hood with The Searchers on the radio in the background singing 'Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya'. Strange how music can imprint pictures in the brain.

My favourite aircraft construction kit was a Swordfish - I marvelled how this hugely-successful biplane was put together, with a lethal torpedo slung beneath its fuselage.

Among the measures used by Britain to protect beleaguered convoys in the Second World War was a unique type of ship which catapulted fighter aircraft into action.

From the summer of 1941 onwards Britain converted 35 newly-built cargo ships into Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen – known as CAM ships. Each was able to launch a Hurricane fighter using a rocket-propelled catapult to protect a convoy from air attack.

The CAM ships had no flight decks on which the aircraft could land. Pilots would bail out and the fighters plunged into the sea after just one mission – a wasteful way to wage war.

Although in reality rarely launching their aircraft, between 1941 and mid-1943 (when they were withdrawn from service) the CAM ships were a useful deterrent against enemy aircraft on Atlantic, Gibraltar and Arctic routes.

On display at Merseyside Maritime Museum is a photograph of a CAM ship preparing to launch its Hurricane.

The CAM ships were replaced by MAC ships – short for Merchant Aircraft Carrier. These were grain carriers or oil tankers fitted, whilst being built, with a basic flat deck for three or four Swordfish aircraft (pictured).

These ships could not only provide air cover for convoys but also carry much-needed grain and oil for Britain.

From mid-1943 at least one MAC ship crewed by the Merchant Navy but carrying aircraft and men of 836 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, sailed with every North Atlantic convoy.

The Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber – affectionately known as The Stringbag by its crews - was one of the last biplanes to be built but gained a fearsome reputation.

First flown in 1934, they were considered outdated at the outbreak of war but went on to achieve some spectacular successes.

They famously crippled the German battleship Bismarck, leaving her floundering to be finished off by British warships. An Italian battleship was sunk and two others damaged by Swordfish in the Battle of Taranto.

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 or bookshops.

Emma Martin says goodbye to Bengali scroll before it goes to Prescot Museum

This week Ethnology curator Emma Martin said goodbye to some contemporary Bengali scrolls that will tour the northwest region over the next year.

Telling Tales: Story Scrolls from India features six never seen before, beautiful and vibrant scrolls, created by leading contemporary Indian artists.

The tour starts at Prescot Museum on 15 February 2011. The scrolls then travel across the North West over the next year as part of a partnership programme lead by National Museums Liverpool to share its ethnology collection with a wider audience. Later this year the tour will also bring the scrolls to World Museum before they continue the rest of the tour. 

Traditionally 19th century patuas or picture makers of West Bengal would to go from town to town to spread news of local heroes and of epic battles between good and evil using song and picture scrolls.

Telling Tales: Story Scrolls from India will display contemporary scrolls by modern-day patuas, that tell ancient stories alongside issues affecting society today. Their scrolls highlight important issues such as AIDS, women’s rights, global events like the tsunami and war in Afghanistan.

On Sunday 13 February 2011, hugely successful cricketing exhibition Beyond the Boundary, will come to an end.

This exhibition of powerful and emotive photographs at the International Slavery Museum explores aspects of cricket that have not been seen before.

Since the exhibition opened in March 2010 the International Slavery Museum has had over 380,000 visitors including cricketing legend Henry Olonga, who gave the Slavery Remembrance Day memorial lecture in Liverpool on 20 August 2010. During the inspirational lecture Olonga spoke about wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup in protest against Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe government.

Beyond the Boundary explores the relationship between cricket, culture, class and politics and how it can be seen as a legacy of British imperialism and colonialism and, paradoxically, as a means of resistance against it.

Through photographs featuring cricketers such as Viv Richards, Paul Adams and Basil D’Oliveira, the exhibition celebrates contemporary players who, by playing in the boundary of the cricket pitch, broke the boundaries of racial apartheid. Beyond the Boundary explores the story of enslavement and oppression of people from the African Diaspora globally, and their deep connections with cricket. 

Cricketer Henry Olonga pays a visit to the Beyond the Boundary exhibition

A detail of 'St Lucy' by Vouet - one of the paintings featured in the exhibition 
© David Lewis family interests

We've just released a new video to give you all a sneak preview of our upcoming exhibition 'A Collector's Eye: Cranach to Pissarro', opening on Friday 18 February at the Walker Art Gallery! 

• Watch the video here

Our video gives a taste of what's going to be on display and lets you 'zoom in' and get closer to some of the paintings.

The exhibition will show the changing tastes of prolific art collector, David Lewis and his family. Expect to see serene landscapes by Sisley, a dramatic battle scene by Rubens and stunning portraits like the Vouet work pictured above.

If you want to see the exhibition before everyone else, then enter our Twitter competition! Up for grabs are 3 pairs of tickets to the private view of the exhibition at the Walker on Thursday 17 February.

To enter you should:

1. Log into Twitter
2. Go to @livmuseums and make sure you are following us
3. Find our recent tweet about the new video (tweeted on 1 February)
4. Re-tweet it
5. Wait and see if your name is picked out of the draw!

Do make sure you are following us though, so we can let you know if your name has been pulled out of the hat! The competition closes at midnight on Monday 14 February and we will inform all winners via Twitter, on Tuesday 15 February.

Full competition details can be found here.