Tag: National Historic Ships

Volunteers and more Volunteers

November 25, 2014 /

Poly-tunnel hoops are up

There has been a nice sequence of pictures posted on the Facebook group by Dave Brooks describing the superb efforts some of the volunteers in erecting our poly-tunnel for protection this winter. The gang were listed as ” Skipper Ian Ruffles with Reggie Andrews, Mick Nolan, Basil Brambleby, Bruce Richardson, and his dad”. The hoops went up on 16th November and there were even some pictures of 3rd Hand (Reggie) getting down and dirty retrieving some metal parts which were dropped overboard into the ‘oggin’ climbing down a ladder over the side and I expect, trying not to have to get off the ladder while reaching an arm down into the mud. November. Must have been a bit chilly, but there’s volunteering above and beyond the call of duty!

Meanwhile, following our success in 2013 applying for the ‘Volunteer of the Year Award(s)’ offered by the Marsh Christian Trust under the wing of National Historic Ships, we tried again. In 2013 Cambria’s two heroic teenage Volunteers, Beth and Hannah Pihama, won the Young Persons’ award outright. This year we entered our man Richard Weekes in the adult section. Well, he didn’t win outright but we did get a lovely letter and a smart certificate from the Marsh Christian Trust / National Historic Ships teams, as follows…

“Dear Matt,
Application for the Marsh Volunteer Award for Historic Vessel Conservation 2014

I am writing to let you know the outcome of the judging panel’s discussions on the applications for this
Richard Weekes, whose name you put forward for this award has not won on this occasion. However, we
want to publicly acknowledge the valuable contribution Richard is making through all that he does for the
historic vessel Cambria. Please find enclosed a ‘Highly Commended’ certificate to be presented to him in
view of his unstinting support for the maritime heritage of the United Kingdom.

This year’s Winners, together with those of the Young Volunteer of the Year Award, will be published on the News section of our website later this month.

Many thanks again for your application; we hope the Awards will be of interest to you again next year. Kind regards,

Paula Palmer

Office & Web Manager

National Historic Ships UK”

Richard Weekes Cert

Richard’s Certificate.

Well done and a huge Thank You to all our volunteers, even if they do not all get themselves pictured scrambling down muddy ladders or get described only as someone’s Dad, or they don’t get entered for formal Awards. We greatly value all your works and know that we could not keep this barge out there and sailing without you.

Thank You

Volunteers of the Year!

October 25, 2012 /

Wow! A breathless e-mail from the painting volunteer teenage sisters, Bee and Hannah Pihama! Hannah writes,

“Hi Matt

We have just got back from London for the (National Historic Ships, Volunteer of the Year) Awards ceremony which we won! We had a simply amazing day and really enjoyed meeting Princess Anne, thanks you so much for nominating us. We got a framed certificate and a cheque for £250 each. Beth said she will write something for the blog asap. The National Historic Ships said the press release should be done by tomorrow.

Hannah

xx”

HMS Belfast; picture from the Belfast website.

We (the ‘grown-up’ Volunteers) had seen the advert for this and, after secret discussions, had sneakily applied on behalf of Bee and Hannah, filling out the form and describing in the most favourable way we could, their brilliant contribution to the Cambria from slapping on anti foul and paint to the underside and wales in the biting Nor’easters of that bitter winter, to hands-and-knees shovelling out old sawdust from the limbers through to the more pleasant tasks like cooking delicious chocolate cakes for the Volunteer session tea breaks. We told how they delighted us by joining in fully with our little community, swapping banter with the older Volunteers and getting fully involved in the conversations and jokery. They really were a joy to work with and we know they loved it too.

We sent off the forms to National Historic Ships and quickly heard back that the girls had been invited to attend the Awards Ceremony aboard HMS Belfast in the company of HRH Princess Anne but we did not know whether they’d actually won anything. We selected their Dad, Owen Pihama as the ‘Responsible Adult’ from the Trust to accompany them and the three of them had to submit their particulars for security checks and so on.

I will wait for Bee’s ‘Roving Report’ for the rest of this story.

Well done Girls (and Dad).

You earned it!

Autumn 2012 Mainsheet

October 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The latest edition of that superb magazine ‘Mainsheet’ arrives through the post to me here in Ireland. These are always excellent and always most welcome and this one, No. 92, Autumn 2012, arriving on a rain-swept day when I am dissuaded from outdoor jobs by the weather, bringing with it the promise of lots of fascinating reading, is especially so. These sometimes come out with a main theme, like the ‘Fire’ edition of Topsail I was describing a few posts back, and here there is a strong thread of Dickensian London running through it. Page 12 has the ‘Bookmark’ section covering a new publication called “Dickens’s Victorian London” and there is an excellent long, rich article on Henry Dodd, ‘The Golden Dustman’ which makes reference to the fact that Dodd was a contemporary of Dickens and that they knew one another. Dodd may have been the ‘model’ for Dickens’s character Nichodemus Boffin. There is a piece called “Expectation” about some convicts escaping into the marshes and references to the ‘Magwitch’ stuff in.

Cambria’s stayfall at night; Photo by Matt Care

I don’t want to give the impression that it is all ‘Dickens’, however especially if any readers are, like me, complete Philistines who hate Dickens with a passion having been forced to ‘do’ Great Expectations for ‘O’ Level in the most tedious, analytical, dry way imaginable…. The whole mag is full of the usual powerful, well written articles backed up by pains-taking detailed research and obvious hard work. Cambria’s re-dedication is covered, as is the sad loss of SB Trojan, the resurrection of SB Niagara, SB Edith May’s being awarded ‘Flagship’ status by National Historic Ships, another in the brilliant series “Frank Thompson Remembers”, stuff on the AGM, the Olympics and this year’s rush of barges appearing on screen. We had John Sargeant’s “Britain’s First Photo Album”, of course, and Rory McGrath’s “Pub Dig”, the BBC’s “Our Food” series featuring SB Lady of the Lea in a hop brewing story, SB Cygnet in Country File and finally SB Dawn recreating a stackie trip to deliver hay to the Horseguard’s Parade. It was a good year for barges on screen.

The mag is filled with other fascinating stuff and is well illustrated with plenty of excellent photo’s and has SB Thalatta under full sail in the Thames Match on the cover. I am also pleased from a ‘blogger’ point of view that the SSBR are now starting to include comment and praise for the new internet presence now beginning to come through from the innovative newcomers to its ranks. SSBR now has a Facebook page and there is a rich and informative blog written by Tricia Gurnett now on line.

So, well done once again, the Editorial Team at Mainsheet and all the contributors. Also to SSBR themselves – you should be rightly proud of this magazine. Anyone reading this who is not a member and does not receive Mainsheet and Topsail; you are missing a real treat and you should seriously consider joining up. It is only £15 per year in the UK. SSBR are on http://www.sailingbargeresearch.org.uk/ and Tricia’s “The Barge Blog” is on http://sailingbarges.wordpress.com/ . SSBR on Facebook are on http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Society-for-Sailing-Barge-Research/166172703419349?ref=ts&fref=ts

Good Hunting.