Presentation by Commander John Paton RN MA Introduction Firstly can I say what a great pleasure and honour it is to present to you this morning. This conference for me has been a wonderful success and I would like to give my special thanks to the team here in Norfolk. I would also like to thank you the audience; I will certainly leave here with my horizons widened. As you can see I am an old sailor and I do not have to remind this audience that old ships and old sailors have a lot in common - they are both expensive to run, they both rot from the bottom if not used enough but most importantly they both have hidden strengths that make them well worth going on passage with. I hope the passage with me this morning will be similarly worthwhile. I am going to describe the UK's National Register of Historic Ships - it's a story about the Register's history, how it works and some of its problems - you are going to get the story "warts and all" as we say in England. The UK Context and Some Background You will all be aware that we have a large historic fleet in UK. There are at least 1200 vessels over 12m in length registered and we know there are another 500 smaller vessels, which we have not yet registered. We have many trusts and societies in support of the vessels but no over arching coordinating one like you have here in the States. The vessels themselves are under a diverse membership, some are in the care of museums but the majority are not. There are other players - the Department of Culture Media and Sport (only the British could complicate their Government so much) English Heritage, my Committee the NHSC and the Heritage Lottery Fund. It's a very diverse, fragmented, uncoordinated and messy context. The National Historic Ship Committee was formed by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in 1992. It established a project to create a database in 1995 because it saw a database as the key foundation to creating a properly funded and organised national policy. In 2000 the project was completed and the database officially set up as the National Register of Historic Ships. The Register
Our Register is a relational database with over 10 fields. It can store information on
function, builder, dimensions, construction, propulsion, history and location. The
database is built round a basic functional/type thesaurus and it can also store images. It is
linked to an Internet site, which is fully interactive and can be found on We manage the register through some strict entry criteria, which are currently:
When we score historical significance we also look at what we call the project variables - these try and measure how the project is going in terms of project feasibility, conservation practice, business approach and an area we call outreach - how is the project team communicating the vessels importance. We also have a variable that tries to assess overall project feasibility. All of this activity is monitored and governed by the Committee. They are key to its success, not only because they are acknowledged experts but also because both museum and sailing ship is represented - the register is about recognising the whole of our maritime heritage not just selected parts. The register gives us an accurate picture of the UK historic scene. It helps to guide funding priorities and we can establish specific needs from it. We know the vessels that are at risk, where they are and who owns them. The register offers no legal protection, has no enforcing conditions yet and does not hold any purse strings. Its very independent and I think people appreciate that. It does have credibility and does seem to work. Why Register? It's a very good way of getting useful data about the whole fleet - we can tell politicians, enthusiasts, visitors, anyone the location, status and importance of the ships. More importantly we have a handle on what the ships needs are and can put people with the same problem in touch with each other. At the same time we can give out information. Details of funding that might be available can be easily distributed and issues of good practice can be promulgated. The Register recognises owners and custodians of ships and that's important. There is plenty of scope to help establish partnerships - putting enthusiasts in the same region in tough with each other. We can slowly encourage better standards - teaching the sailor all about conservation practice and the museum curator all about sailing - sounds simple but there is a great need for this partnership between the so called academic and the practical expert - as all of you here appreciate, taking the ship to sea has always needed both, but certainly saving ships needs both even more. Challenging Times The condition of our historic fleet is deteriorating and the numbers diminishing. There are not enough resources to do what needs to be done. Maintaining a register is not cheap - as I am sure you can see, unless entries are kept up to date it soon becomes a useless tool. It also has to maintain a partnership - the register cannot work without the support of the ship owners themselves and they need incentives. Recognition counts for something but doesn't pay the bills, useful contacts and information helps but is not enough. Perhaps cheaper taxes, mooring fees and other small incentives given to ships on the register can be eventually achieved - particularly if we can encourage the sailors to be good conservationist and to show off their ships to the general public. Perhaps more historic ships can do "good" things like taking disadvantaged children to sea or attracting visitors into a port. There is a new way of doing things in the 21st century - by encouragement, learning, in partnership, using objects of great beauty and strength to raise awareness, making our societies more inclusive and open to those on the edges who need our help. The Future We hope to gain higher government recognition for what we do. This would help to pay some of our bills but more importantly would enable us to achieve a bigger and wider general public profile. We want to do more research and improve our guidance. We want to develop new partnerships and make the historic ship scene in UK more vibrant and purposeful. Above all we want to save our historic ships, getting more people interested in them and learning from them and ultimately using them more and saving them for us. Sustainability of the UK fleet is a key objective and this means not only registering and watching the ships but keeping an eye on the wider context. Its no good saving the ship if in the mean time experienced sailors' fade away, or the shipwright gets to old or we have no slip or dock nearby to put into and repair. Paradoxically it is this wider context, which we feel holds a golden key for the historic ship world in UK - we think its one of several issues that we want to actively encourage. We think that it should be both museum and sailing ship, shipwright, sailor and curator all drawing the people in together and in the same place. The Mystic Seaport model is what we sometimes call it across the pond in UK. Showing what fantastic working objects old ships are whilst at the same time giving space to restoration work and all the facilities of a museum. Providing both powerful visitor attraction but at the same time being a useful place for the local community, a working dockyard, a learning place and above all a place of movement and life not just venerable old objects. It is not rocket science, it's a well-tried model and it's a rich combination that has something to give the 21st century - properly done it has a future. Thank you very much for your attention - please don't hesitate to contact me with a question - johnpaton@thehornet.freeserve.co.uk
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