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2005
Friends of Orkney Boat Museum Newsletter
Summer 2005
PDF version of newsletter Chairman’s Letter
Welcome to the Friend’s summer newsletter.As I write the County
Show is just past and by tradition, summer is almost over. Since I last
wrote a number of significant things have happened.
Our AGM was held in April and the committee and office bearers were
re-elected with only minor changes. Paul Elmy stepped down and I would
like to thank
him for his support during our first hectic months. I know he will continue
to support us from the sidelines. Paul was replaced by Iain Macleod,
who some of you will know. Iain brings with him a wealth of experience
and other skills useful to an organisation such as ours. Since the AGM
William Bremner has also had to stand down because of other commitments,
again I know he will continue to support us and I thank him for his support
in the early days. No report of the AGM would be complete without thanking
Willie Groat who provided the talk after the business was concluded.
Willie showed the video of the film “Bank Ahead”. This was
a documentary about the floating bank which used to serve the North Isles,
of which Willie was manager. He then entertained us with anecdotes of
those days and answered questions from the floor.
In May we held a very successful “Celebrity Auction” for
which the prime movers were George Burgher, Malcolm Macrae and Erica
Halcro-Johnston who, firstly, canvassed a huge number of celebrities
and organisations in order to provide the lots and, secondly, produced
the fine spread of food and wine which helped to make the evening a great
and enjoyable experience.
Lots ranged from signed photographs of personalities such as the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the late Lord Callaghan through autographed books,
some very collectible, to sporting memorabilia. The British Olympic Team
were well represented. And finally, the star items-a weeks holiday let
in a luxury fishing lodge at Beauly and a beautiful oak gossip chair
carved with the FOBM logo, donated by the makers Sui Generis. Overall
we raised some £8000 which is magnificent and I would like to thank
everyone involved; the donors (at over 100 too numerous to mention individually),
the committee members, who were such a good team and made the event happen
and most importantly everyone who attended, made bids and turned the
evening into such a financial success.
Our second major fund raiser for the year the Prize Draw has kept us
busy through the summer with Jim Wallace MSP kindly drawing the winning
tickets at the County Show.Almost £2500 was raised- another splendid
effort. Again I have to thank numerous donors, in particular Northlink
and Loganair who both donated travel tickets as the major prizes but
also the many local businesses who, once again were most generous.
Christmas cards were on sale at the shows; nearer the the time we hope
to have retail outlets but in the meantime committee members will have
supplies.
We will shortly be finalising our winter programme which I hope will
include a repeat of last year’s popular quiz, some evening talks,a
prize bingo night and maybe some musical entertainment.
What, you may
ask, is happening to all the sums we raise? The majority of our income
is passed to the Boat Museum project itself. We have some
expenses to defray in support of our activities but we strive to keep
these to a minimum. As you know, the Boat Museum will require some £5
million if it is to become a reality. We, clearly, are not going to raise
that sort of sum through our fund raising but we can fund the fund raising.
In order for the Museum Company to be able to approach significant
funding bodies such as the National Lottery and The Arts Council a number
of
preliminary studies and reports have to be made. These include:- an environmental
impact study, an architectural study, an economic impact study, a museum
design plan and various legal processes.There are of course administrative
costs associated with all of these and the list is not exhaustive.To
date known costs are some £4200 and whilst some of the costs can
be grant aided the Trust has had to provide £8000 or so. Once all
of these studies and reports are completed and the lease for the Hall
is finalised then the major funding applications can be made. This will
not mean that we can rest on our laurels, there will still be some shortfalls
to be met and the project will still require our support. We have committed
ourselves to the ambitious, but I believe, achievable target of raising £250000
over the life of the project. To do this we will not only continue with
our local efforts but we will be approaching smaller charitable trusts
and individuals for sponsorship and donations.
I am not sure whether that amounts to a lecture or a homily, whichever,
I am sure you can now see why we will be delighted to see as many of
you as possible at our winter fund raising events.
Mick Bain
Chairman
New Boat Donated To The Museum
In June a rather interesting boat was donated to the museum service,
joining the 40 or so boats already awaiting a home in a dedicated maritime
museum.
The new acquisition is a Berthon Collapsible Boat. One of the late
Victorian solutions to the problems of carrying a small boat on board
a yacht,
the Berthon boat will make an interesting counterpoint to theHalkett
Boat already in the Stromness museum.
Writing in The Corinthian Yachtsman in 1876 Tyrrel E. Biddle had this
to say: “One of the difficulties of carrying anything other than
a very small dinghy on board a yacht of 5 tons is the room it occupies,
when from the dangers of towing it or other causes, it becomes a matter
of necessity to get the boat on deck. Various methods have been tried
to overcome this objection, but the most successful is that carried out
by the Rev. E. Berthon, whose invention, the “collapsible boat”,
is so well known. These boats are very handy, a 9ft. dinghy which shuts
up into a space 9ft. long by 10ins.
Wide, and being extremely light-the
size in question weighs something under 100lbs.- are exactly suited to
small vessels.”
There are very few of these interesting craft left. The Scottish Maritime
museum have 2 which they thought were the only examples in Scotland.
I believe there is in fact one Shetland at the Unst Boat Haven. In any
event this donation increases the number extant by a very substantial
proportion.
Visit of the Viking Ship Gaia
At the beginning of July the replica of the Viking ship Gaia paid a visit
to Orkney, and through the much-appreciated assistance of the Royal Norwegian
Consul Bill Spence, The Kirkwall Sailing Club and the Tourist Office, we
were able to benefit from this visit.
The ship arrived in Kirkwall on 1st. July to a welcome reception hosted
by OIC. The Captain and crew generously agreed to open the ship to visitors
over the weekend and to provide a few trips out into Kirkwall bay in
return for donations, the proceeds to be shared with the Friends. Committee
members
Mick, George and Jack arranged a rota to issue tickets and collect donations
and over the weekend about 80 folk enjoyed the experience of a trip in
a Viking ship, either under sail or under oars. Saturday was the better
day as on Sunday only one trip was possible owing to the windy conditions.
Nevertheless on Sunday afternoon several hundred visitors took the opportunity
to board the vessel, look round and ask questions of the crew, who were
suitably attired in authentic Viking costume. By the end of the weekend £660
had been taken donations which was shared equally between the Ship and
the Friends.
Gaia was built in 1990 as part of a project to promote environmental
and ecological awareness. The Ship and the Project took the name Gaia
from
the ancient pagan Earth Mother Goddess. The hypothesis being that the
Earth is in effect a single organism and that mankind needs to be aware
of the
effects of all our activities on the health of the planet. The Ship was
built near Bergen and was sailed across the Atlantic to New York and
Washington and onwards to Cuba,Manaus on the Amazon and Rio de Janeiro.
She carried
numerous tree seedlings which were given away en-route to raise awareness
of the project. She called at Kirkwall on this voyage in 1991 and a number
of schoolchildren visited her then and a fair number of seedlings found
a home here in Orkney. After the voyage she was shipped back to Norway
and was taken over by the town of Sandefjord inVestfold, where she is
currently based.
Being based in Sandefjord is rather appropriate as she is a replica
of the Gokstad Ship which was excavated not far away in Vestfold in the
late
19th. Century. She is not the first replica to have been constructed
as an earlier vessel, Viking was built in 1893 and sailed to New York
and
the Chicago World Fair where she is still extant.
Gaia is a faithful replica of the original hull-76ft. long by 17ft. beam,
constructed of pine on oak. She draws barely 3 feet except for the rudder
which, when it is in place extends a foot or so below the keel. As no
mast or rigging was found in the ship burial the rig is to some extent
conjectural
but other archaeological finds suggest it is reasonably accurate.
Minor concessions to modern life include a small engine and modern
navigation equipment. Gaia has been logged at almost 17 knots under sail;
she made
almost 9 knots on the Saturday of her visit in winds that were no more
than a fresh breeze. Under with a trained Swedish Naval crew she achieved
3 knots. She is without doubt primarily a sailing vessel.
The current voyage is being made along one of the old Viking trade
routes. From her home port, Sandefjord, she will be calling at Kirkwall,
Stromness,
Port Ellen, Peel, Dublin, Wexford, the Thames and Kiel before returning
home. The inspiration for the trip comes from this being the 100th. Anniversary
of Norway’s independence from Sweden and the inclusion of Dublin
stems from the fact that the chieftain buried in the original Gokstad ship
was probably Olaf Geirstadalv who founded the town which became the city
of Dublin.
More information on the ship and her voyage can be found on the internet
at: www.gaia.no.
Viking Ships
Following the visit of the Gaia in July, this extract from The Orkney
Herald of the 23rd. May 1883 is of particular interest: “Among
the many exhibits at the International Fisheries Exhibition held in
London recently was a model of the Viking ship Ellida.
The original was found in 1880 at Gokstad, a farm near the town of
Sandefjord, west of the mouth of Christiana Fjord in Norway.The great
interest attached
to it is in consequence of its having been one of the burial war-ships
in which noted men according to tradition were interred in the 9th
10th and 11th centuries A.D.
This mode of burial has proved of great importance to archaeologists,
since on excavating some of the grave mounds in which it was adopted,
ships from that remote period have been brought to light in a more or
less perfect state of preservation. The period is the later Iron Age
or “Viking” period.
It rarely happens that grave-mounds consist of a substance in which
wood can be preserved for centuries, but this ship (like one other, found
in the parish of tune in 1876, between between the Christina Fjord
and
the Swedish border) seems to have been buried in a mound of blue clay,
a species of earth specially selected for its excellent qualities as
a preserver of wood. It was excavated Mr. Nicholvasen, and now belongs
to the University of Christiana.
The original is 77ft. 11ins. in length.As she now stands a few pieces
of wood work, wanting in the original have been replaced and can be
seen to be a different colour.
The ship is entirely of oak, clinker-built, the boards connected with
iron nails,and the seams caulked with oakum, made of cow hair spun into
a three stranded cord. The planking is about one-inch thick.”
“Also
at this exhibition Dr. John Rae lent boats and fishing gear of Eskimaux
and North American Indians.”
Postscript
What on earth is wrong with the secretary?
As the day of the Celebrity Auction approached Jack Drever’s fellow
committee members noticed his complexion assuming a strange green hue
and he was seen to drool whenever our star lot, the Sui Generis chair
was mentioned.
On the evening of the auction the chair was duly offered for sale and
at the fall of the hammer all became clear as Jack leapt off the stage,
rushed across the hall, threw his arms around his wife and kissed her
roundly on both cheeks. Knowing how much Jack coveted this beautiful
piece, Frances bought it for him! A fitting reward for all his hard
work on behalf of the Friends. That concludes all our doings for the past six months. When the next
Newsletter falls through your door it will already be 2006.
Contacts:
Mick Bain - Chairman
Karona
Garson Loan
Stromness
Orkney
KW16 3LE
01856 851339
Jack Drever – Secretary
Warbister
Dounby
Orkney
KW17 2JB
Email: jdreverboat@aol.com
How
to join the Friends of Orkney Boat Museum
Membership of the Friends of Orkney
Boat Museum costs £10 pa (£15 for a family) and gives
free entry to the museum when it is completed.
An application form is available to download
from this website in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format.
Completed forms should be sent to:
Jack Drever, Secretary, Friends of Orkney Boat Museum, Warbister, Dounby, Orkney, KW17 2JB, UK
If you wish a membership form to be posted to you, please telephone the Secretary of the Friends, Jack Drever, on 01856 771889 - (+44 1856 771889 from outside the UK) or email friends@orkneyboatmuseum.org.uk |
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