Category: Sailing ships

Stan Hugill singing shanties in proper style

Stan Hugill, shanty singer

Stan Hugill sings South Australia at the Workum Shanty Festival in 1990

Here’s a treat that I just have to share – a Youtube video of a real old fashioned shanty singer, including the characteristic ‘breaks’ and shouts that are so unfamiliar to us now.

If the style of the singing may seem strange, it’s because we tend not to sing that way now – shanties and folk songs generally have often been very much sanitised and prettified.

But this is the real thing. As a young man, Stan Hugill sang shanties on some of the last commercial sailing ships, and went on to make a serious study of sea songs. He’s been gone from us for quite a few years now, but his books about sea songs are still classics, and his views are highly respected.

Tait’s Seamanship, or how to sail a ship, part IV

Tait's Seamanship page 57

‘Masters and crews of stranded vessels should bear in mind that success in landing them in great measure depends upon their coolness, and attention to the rules here laid down, and that by attending to them many lives are annually saved by the Rocket Apparatus on the coasts of the United Kingdom.’

Here’s another instalment of the seamanship manual published around a century ago by James Tait, Extra Master and teacher of navigation. For earlier instalments, click here.

Tait's Seamanship page 57 Tait's Seamanship page 59 Tait's Seamanship page 61

Tait's Seamanship page 63 Tait's Seamanship page 65 Tait's Seamanship page 67

Tait's Seamanship page 69 Tait's Seamanship page 71 Tait's Seamanship page 73

Tait's Seamanship page 75 Tait's Seamanship page 77 Tait's Seamanship page 79

Tait's Seamanship page 81

150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition

The Cutty Sark under repair in Falmouth Docks in about 1930

150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition 150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition 150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition

150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition 150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition 150 years of Falmouth Docks exhibition

British Realm, the first vessel to enter No 2 dry dock (Queen Elizabeth Dock) in May 1958; construction of No 4 dry dock 1928; dockyard worker cleaning sections of a tanker engine circa 1960; dockyard workers fitting new boiler tubes; major repairs to tanker circa 1950; workers removing the propeller from the 100,000 ton tanker British Admiral circa 1970. All photos courtesy of the David Barnicoat collection

A new exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Falmouth Docks opened some days ago at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Falmouth has been used as a harbour for over 2,000 years and the docks have been an industrial hub since their creation in the mid-19th century, and Falmouth senior pilot David Barnicoat and museum staff have worked together for months to create an exhibition including models, films, objects, paintings and photography.

Museum exhibitions development manager Milly Newman is particularly pleased to include a model of the docks. ‘In the heart of our exhibition is a beautiful model showing their scale and impact. It’s a real jewel amongst the many objects we have supporting the exhibition,’ she said.

‘Five generations of my family have worked at the docks. My great-grandfather helped build them, I worked in the fitting shop from the 1950s and my son works there today. You could say it’s in our blood,’ retired dock employee  Frank Eva said proudly. ‘This exhibition not only tells the story of the docks but in some ways tells a part of my family’s and other family’s histories and I’m very proud it’s being celebrated.’

The exhibition will remain on show until the 30th March 2011.