Tag: National Maritime Museum

Geoffrey Robertshaw’s stunning photos from the last days of sailing ships

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Geoffrey Robertshaw’s photos of ships’ crews in the the final days of cargo-carrying sailing ships. Click on any of the images for much larger photos

Over 70 years ago Geoffrey Robertshaw kept a personal log and took many remarkable photos of life on-board cargo-carrying sailing ships travelling between Australia and Falmouth.

The photographs were taken on a Kodak No. 2 Box Brownie camera but their quality is remarkable; they were issued by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to promote a lunchtime talk given by Elvin Carter a little earlier this month at the NMMC in connection with the Farewell to Sails exhibition. However, life caught up with me a little and I apologise for failing to post them in time to publicise the event. Hopefully we’ll still be able to draw attention to the exhibition itself!

Some of Robertshaw’s diary entries are as striking as the photos. One reads:

‘Day 127, Friday June 29th 1934. At 4am this morning we are dead opposite the Lizard Point. I can plainly pick out the villages of Cadgwith, and Coverack and the dangerous Manacle rocks.

‘It may have been hell at times, we have been short of food, fresh water and cigarettes, we have had fights, we have been wet through and hungry and thoroughly worn out with continuous work. But it has been worth it.

‘I love the sea and what is more I love the old sailing ships and without doubt Cape Horn will call me back again, and I shall not refuse.’

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Smugglers: brutal thugs or jolly free traders?

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For much of the 18th and early 19th century, Britain’s coasts were the setting for a vast smuggling industry. In some areas huge gangs of men regularly unloaded contraband in full view of the outnumbered and outgunned customs authorities. Whole communities shared in the risks and profits of these illegal free trade enterprises.

The traditional story-book image of smugglers is of generous, jolly, harmless chums who just enjoyed a drop of untaxed brandy and used peaceful persuasion to get the co-operation they needed. But just how accurate is this cosy stereotype? Were real-life smugglers actually more like today’s Mafia or Triads?

In an illustrated talk at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall at 6.30pm on January 28th, Richard Platt will compare the grim facts with the romantic legend.

Richard is the author of two books on this topic Smuggling in the British Isles and The Ordnance Survey Guide to Smugglers’ Britain.

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Cockleshell Hero canoes at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

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A new National Maritime Museum Cornwall display explores the evolution of fighting canoes used by the British in World War II.

The oldest canoe in the collection, the Mark II, was made famous by Operation Frankton in December 1942, which was the basis for the film The Cockleshell Heroes.

The real Cockleshell Heroes were Royal Marine Commandos, who got their nickname from the canoes that they used, which were known as cockles. They were difficult to spot at night  and easy to hide, launch attacks and seek out suitable landing places, and could even be used to and could be used to land and collect secret agents. Collapsible types could be carried and launched from submarines.

A brief description of the raid and a collection of relevant links appears at the Wikipedia.

I should explain that much of the information now available and some of the artifacts on show is available thanks to the painstaking research work of  Quentin Rees, who has recently published a book on the topic: The Cockleshell Canoes: British Military Canoes of World War Two.

The exhibition, which runs until the 26th April 2009, includes two other canoes in the exhibition are built of aluminium for use in the tropics, and the display is said to bring together three of the rarest military canoes of the time.