The conservation of historic wooden ships throughout the world is a fascinating subject allowing people like myself to delve into history in order to get the facts right before advising others how to bring a particular historic ship back to its original or former condition. There are many pitfalls. First and foremost is how does one determine what constitutes a historic wooden ship? The answer lies in how important a role did the particular ship play in local, national or international maritime history, it should be more than 50 years old, over 35 metres in length and in reasonable condition. This brings about great debate since the ship may have played an important role in local maritime history but be unknown nationally and internationally. In which case the burden of future restoration and conservation will fall upon the local community and it is entirely likely that the idea of promoting the local ship to historical status in the first place came from a handful of local enthusiasts. The local project may get started but records show that the majority are doomed to fail.
National recognition is therefore a must. The ship must be significant in terms of a nation's maritime history but even then the future of the ship will greatly depend upon the support it receives from the local and national community.
International recognition of a historic wooden ship's status will result in its long term survival but even then it needs a carefully planned and managed support structure.
The official voice of National Historic Ships in the United Kingdom records 1,091 ships on its Register; 210 of these comprising the more important and are included as part of the Historic Ships Fleet.
As is always the case in this world of ours it all comes down to money. Restoration and conservation requires big money support and a few recent examples of historical ship projects in the United Kingdom provides an insight into how important it is to be aware of the cost burden before embarking on such ambitious works. The period comered by the following figures is 2000 - 2010.
'Cutty Sark' exceeded £45m (US$72m)
'Mary Rose' exceeded £35m (US$56m)
'Great Britain' exceeded £15m (US$24m)
The above are, perhaps, extreme examples but the average ordinary project cost is rarely less than £1m (US$1.6m). With so many ships registered the struggle for financial assistance to keep many of the ships in existence in the longer term seems nigh impossible and it is likely that many will not survive.
Waterfront development sites are big business in many parts of the world and often the facal point in many of these developments is a historic ship. London with its SS 'Cutty Sark' and HMS 'Belfast', to name but two; Bristol with the SS 'Great Britain; Hartlipool with 'Trincomalee'; Glasgow with 'Glenlee' and Dundee with the RRS 'Discovery' and HMS 'Unicorn', are examples of this. It also illustrates that the survival of each historic ship depends upon how much money can be generated for its on-going upkeep and maintenance. It is well known that this cannt be achieved by revenues generated by the ship alone but depends to a great extent on its support infrastructure. In the current hard financial climate it has become more difficult to fund even small restoration and conservation historic ship projects and this is where people like me and media outlets such as Google can create awareness of the historic side of our International Maritime Heritage, which many people throughout the world take for granted, ignorant of the hard work and dedication that goes into the education and enjoyment that a visit to a grand old ship provides.
Over the next few weeks or months I would like to tell the story of the RRS 'Discovery', including a recent restoration nd conservation project tha I had the great fortune to manage. It is a story that begins in th year 1899 and continues to the present day tracing the ship's working life from the day she was launched in Dundee, Scotland, to the Antarctic and Southern Oceans, to Canada's Hudson Bay, to Europs and, would you believe the Black Sea.
A picture of the RRS 'Discovery' as she is today:
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