Memorandum submitted by The Old Gaffers
Association
Thank you for the invitation to respond to the
New Inquiry for Maritime Heritage and Historic Ships to which
The Old Gaffers Association are pleased to take part.
The UK has a wide and diverse collection of
historically significant vessels of all types. This varies from
the one off example of a particular type to significant numbers,
an example of this being Thames Barges where their numbers remain
significant due to commitment by the owners and a public interest
and passion for them.
Maritime Heritage is undoubtedly the forgotten
sector of our heritage, and every opportunity should be explored
to bring this major aspect of the United Kingdoms heritage to
greater public awareness and educational advantage.
In the interests of brevity we set out our main
observations and thoughts in bullet format to assist with your
inquiry process.
National Register of Historic Vessels. The
National Register of Historic Vessels (NRHV) was conceived and
set up a number of years ago as an attempt to register UK built
craft of historical significance, that survive, having been built
before a particular cut off date and conforming to the criterion
"not less than 40ft or 40 tons". This revealed a considerable
number of craft in varying conditions—the great majority
of which were in private ownership, which includes bodies set
up by individuals to maintain or rescue particular craft. This
National Register is of inestimable value in the future preservation
(overview) management of the UK's Maritime Heritage. As time goes
on it could be progressively expanded to catalogue craft of (progressively)
lesser size, as we believe was intended, to become a comprehensive
archive for future reference.
Museums. It has to be acknowledged
that museums undoubtedly have a place in assembling and displaying
artefacts—in this case of a maritime nature—but their
resources are limited and it may be that they are better suited
to to providing technical and historical advice rather than the
burden of care. It is here that organisations like the Old Gaffers
Association (OGA) have a part to play in the encouragement of
owners in the care of the smaller heritage, craft saving them
from oblivion. The very thing that brought the OGA into existence
in the first place, in preserving, and then promoting, the Gaff
Rig into the success it is today with many new designs of craft
being built to sail under this rig. The Old Gaffers Association
holds a considerable archive of Gaff Rigged vessels gathered over
the Association's 42 year history. This is available for members
use in the research and preservation of their craft, and could
if requested, be made more widely available.
Private ownership. Private owners
do not own heritage vessels as such—they consider that they
are their custodians for the period they are in their care.
Given the above museum comments we
would consider that private ownership is to be encouraged where
appropriate as another way of conserving the country's maritime
heritage. Thames barges, already mentioned, are being rebuilt—with
a passion—providing employment and skills retention, as
does their sailing and use, not to mention the sheer joy of seeing
them under sail doing what they were designed to do. This is wonderfully
typical of most of the larger vessels surviving, other well known
examples being the Paddle Steamer Waverley and the three
masted trading schooner Kathleen and May built in 1900
in North Wales to serve ports around the country.
Smaller heritage craft in private ownership
likewise benefit from the same passion and joy of ownership. The
difference here is that the smaller vessel is more manageable
in terms of cost and expertise to maintain. Indeed a great many
owners derive great pleasure from that work of rebuilding and
maintenance, keeping those vessels in gleaming condition. Those
owners though do it because they enjoy it and in most cases—in
our experience perhaps as high as 95%—are ordinary working
folk.
As a general guide 40ft seems to be
a manageable maintenance size for most owners with many coping
admirably with vessels of this size. Given the comment that most
owners are ordinary working folk a case could be made for funding
assistance for specific items for what to them would be major
expenses. Private owners find the best way of maintaining these
vessels is to actually use them and send them to sea.
Funding. The funding of work to
many private vessels does not have to be significant. It is undoubtedly
difficult to correctly assess and may appear unjust. A register
could play a major part in identifying worthy craft when assessing
them for a particular financial application. It could be something
like the rebuilding of an old but unique example of a marine engine
or replacement of an old and decayed deckhouse with a new one
of the same design.
Government Funding. Government funding,
or at the very least an initial acknowledgment of funding need,
would be of valuable assistance.
It could be offset by what existing
provision there may be, or that of General Education, as in the
recent proposed expansion of skills development in schools. Skills
use and development which were used in the re-building of Thames
Barges in London, Essex and Kent, and the Kathleen and May,
which worked to support west country communities, for example.
These could be used to demonstrate to children within the Teaching
Curriculum how their environment was supported and came about.
Funding does not have to be direct.
There are already examples of preferential treatment to attract
vessels to a particular area, capitalising on the revenues thus
brought in by the leisure sectors visitors to the local economy.
The French are particularly adept at this knowing almost to the
"centime" beforehand of the financial benefit to the
local economy.
The waiving of fees as an example would
be a considerable hidden but very real assistance to the maintenance
of our maritime heritage for vessels of all sizes. Easier said
than done perhaps with many harbours now given over to costly—often
exorbitantly so—closely packed marinas, but it would attract
heritage vessels to those harbours and inland waterways historic
sites where the public could also collect to delight in them.
A Public Access issue is addressed here and resolved at little
relative cost but with huge social and political benefit.
Legislation. Legislation seems to
get ever more weighty. Recognition needs to be made therefore
with old and new legislation that to get a vessel to conform often
will destroy the very thing we are trying to save. The paradox
is that a vessel that has survived many many years in service
being made to comply to rules which have a high financial penalty
and limited practical improvement, still survive. A better awareness
of the match between older designs and current Maritime Legislation,
we would suggest, needs to be a consideration of this enquiry.
Skills retention, employment opportunities
and public participation. In maintaining the older vessel
skills are retained and passed on to the next generation. In these
days of computers it is often forgotten just how skilled this
old workforce was and how diverse the type of work is—shipwrights
in wood, riveters and caulkers in iron, wire splicers, the list
goes on. Lose the craft and we lose the skills.
In retaining the craft we retain the
skills and importantly we provide work, not only to those already
in the industry but also to those with a desire to train in those
skills to carry the skills in their turn forward. This applies
also to those in the peripheral industries such as providing the
hard to find timbers (forestry) manufacture of traditional sail
cloths (weavers) etc.
Those skills can be further harnessed
for public enjoyment at selected locations. Here museums actually
owning vessels could play a leading part in demonstrating those
skills in a real working environment. Examples are to be seen
in other industries, like glassblowing factories demonstrating
to the public, with maybe an attached shop for the products and
a cafe being just one example. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
on the East Coast of the USA is a good example of bringing the
skills and interest to the public for them to join in and participate.
A site worth visiting as an example is at http://www.cbmm.org
where some of what is possible, with just a little vision, can
be seen.
Enclosed with this "New Inquiry" response
is the latest copy (December 2004) of our quarterly newsletter
Gaffers Log for your interest (not printed).
27 January 2005
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