Month: September 2010

Hidden collection of maritime paintings on show at Falmouth museum

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RSMA Exhibition - Pamela Drew (1910-1989) Ship Building, Belfast 1946 oil on canvas.

Ship Building, Belfast 1946 oil on canvas – Pamela Drew (1910-1989)

A collection of paintings by members of the Royal Society of Marine Art on being admitted to the organisation are on show at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall at Falmouth until the 29th November.

This is a rare event, so catch them if you can.

Founded in 1939, the RSMA collects and promotes contemporary British marine painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, and is a focal point for much of Britain’s finest marine art.

Like other national art bodies, the the Society asks new members to submit one piece of work to its ‘diploma collection’, which today includes over 100 paintings.

The collection has been stored by the museum for years, but lack of space has meant it hasn’t appeared in public before. That’s a great shame if they’re as good as the sample painting above by Pamela Drew, but I guess this reflects the reality for museums – there’s always far more in store than the public will ever see on a single visit, or even on many visits.

SS Robin returns proudly to London

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ss robin arrives at Tilbury

SS Robin arrives at Tilbury

SS Robin leaving Lowestoft SS Robin tied up at Tilbury SS Robin in her prime

SS Robin leaves Lowestoft; tied up at Tilbury; in her glory days

The SS Robin has arrived at her temporary berth at the Port of Tilbury after the trading port stepped in to offer the newly restored ship a home.

After delays due to bad weather, on Friday she left Lowestoft, where she has undergone two years of conservation and conversion works to create a floating museum for London funded by the Crossrail project, and arrived at Tilbury on Saturday 18 September having celebrated her 120th birthday last week.

SS Robin is one of only three Historic Ships Register core collection ships based in London, and is our last remaining steam coaster. For more posts on the SS Robin, click here; also see the project website here.

Project manager David Kampfner said the floating museum would display the entire ship to the world for the first time, and that he and his colleagues were very excited to finally bring the important historic vessel back to the Thames.

Port of Tilbury MD Perry Glading added that it was a a great opportunity for the port to play its part in ensuring the SS Robin can bring the history of merchant shipping alive for future generations. The Port of Tilbury opened in 1886, just four years before the SS Robin was launched.

PS – We’ve also heard that the 1938 pilot vessel MV Bembridge has been taken to Poland to be restored and used as a shipping company office. Sailors will know her as the vessel that until a short while ago was the floating club house of the Essex Yacht Club. There’s more about her at the Ships Nostalgia forum.

PPS – We have also received an appeal for help in restoring the SS Kyle, built on the Tyne, England, in 1913. The appeal came from Libby Earle, daughter of the ship’s last skipper, Captain Guy Earle – for the past 43 years the vessel herself has lain on a mussel bed at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, where she arrived after colliding with an iceberg.

If you’re interested in British coasters, at the time of writing Amazon has three copies of Charles V Waine’s book Steam Coasters and Short Sea Traders.

An Islay skiff, a stripper canoe and a model Folkboat – three more summer BBA launches

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Martin McMahon Islay Skiff

Martin McMahon Islay Skiff

James Downs - strip-built Canadian Canoe

Model Nordic Folkboat Tim Price - model Nordic Folkboat

The final three boats launched by Boat Building Academy students this year are a 16ft 5in Selway Fisher-designed Islay skiff built by Martin McMahon, a 14ft 3in Canadian canoe built by James Downs, and a 1m remote controlled model Nordic Folkboat made by Tim Price.

After 40 years of sales and marketing, the lure of boat building training could wait no longer for Martin, who is an experienced sailor. Like a number of other BBA students in the past, he chose to build a Selway-Fisher design, and this time it was the strip planked Islay skiff in red cedar.

James joined the Academy straight from college where he studied carpentry
and joinery.

Originally from South Africa, Tim came to the BBA via Alderney in the Channel Islands.  He built his 1m remote control model of a Nordic Folkboat in his spare time.

The next Boat Building Academy student launch will be 9.30am on Thursday the 9th December. Up to five boats will be launched from the class of march 2010.

The builds include a replica of the traditional clinker-built Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Worbarrow (see more of this project here), a 13 ft 6 in cold-moulded electric motor launch, a 14ft Whitehall skiff, a 15ft Chestnut canoe and an 18ft strip-planked, gaff-rigged daysailer.

The latest on these builds can be seen at the BBA website.