Category: History

Ship of the Day from Conway Books

The last photo of the Lusitania before she was sunk by a U boat torpedo in 1915

This is said to be the last known photograph of the Lusitania taken in 1915 before she was sunk by a German U-boat during World War I, and it comes from Conway Books’ splendid Ship of the Day series.

As its name suggests, Conway’s series presents an image of a ship each day, accompanied by a genuinely informative potted history. For example, I’d forgotten that the sinking of civilian ships including the Lusitania is said to have been among the reasons the United States entered WWI. Among the 1,198 lives lost when the Lusitania went down were some 124 US citizens.

The Ship of the Day series is all good. Lusitania was yesterday’s ship: today’s is the Hunley.

The Dark Eyed Sailor

The Dark Eyed Sailor – a classic English traditional song about the return of a sailor before the advent of satellite telephone, the Internet and even the photograph. I learned it from a recording of Fred Jordan.

Faversham’s Standard Quay in happier times – filmed by Simon Evans

Standard Quay Faversham Simon Evans film from happier times

Barges at Faversham’s Standard Quay, filmed by local historian, folklorist, author, photographer and BBC radio  presenter Simon Evans.

Simon made the film some time before the maritime industries and most of the barges left, and before it became clear that Faversham Creek was likely to become a sad, gentrified and squeaky-clean memory of a port.

To lodge your opposition to this development, go to the website www.ukplanning.com, search for Swale Borough Council, then go to the  applications and use the search box to hunt down applications  applying to Standard Quay. There are just a few days left to lodge your reasons for objecting to the proposed development.

The Faversham Creek Trust has published some trenchant views on the issue – see the organisation’s weblog. There’s more useful stuff here and here.