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Saving a ship for the future(Lloyds List Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Viewpoint White painted and smart, she lies stemming the ebbing tide in a permanent mooring on London's Embankment, a few yards from Temple underground station. At high water springs she looms over the stream of traffic thundering past. At low water she seemingly retreats with the dark waters into the river, the gangway steep and the mooring chains tight as the hull groans on her fenders. The Headquarters ship Wellington never goes anywhere but still retains the life of the warship she once was. Below decks you can hear the beat of passing propellers and with the bigger pleasure craft, or the gravel barges, she shivers and rocks at her moorings. Shut your eyes, if the meeting is a little tedious, and you can imagine yourself at sea again. Wellington has become a landmark in the London River, pointed out by the running commentaries aboard the passing pleasure boats, although their skippers are not always strictly accurate. 'On the right 'and side of the ship you will see HMS Wellington, a club house for old captings,' was one I heard a few years ago as 50 pairs of eyes scoured the decks to see if any of the old salts were taking their afternoon constitutional, parrots on their shoulders. This year the headquarters and livery hall of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners is 72 years old, a very good age for a lightly built warship and something of a tribute to the dockyard mateys in Devonport who built her for the Royal Navy in 1934. She was classed as a sloop like her sailing predecessors, a small, handy, lightly armed maid of all work for the Admiralty, designed for distant patrol lines and extended duties abroad. And for her first commissions HMS Wellington was about as far away as it is possible to be, patrolling the Pacific islands and the regions around New Zealand in what must have been an idyllic lifestyle in the relaxed years of the pre-war navy and far-distant stations. Summoned home again as the war clouds gathered over Europe, the ship was given her coat of dazzle-painted Atlantic grey and sent to sea in the very different environment of the North Atliantic, six hard years of relentless danger on convoy escort duties. At only 1,256 tons displacement she was a little ship for that huge, dangerous ocean and that long war, but steamed more than 240,000 miles in all weathers in those perilous years when freedom seemed to hang by a thread. She had a busy time, rescuing more than 450 torpedoed Merchant Navy men, evacuating troops at Dunkirk, taking part in north African landings and sharing the credit for sinking a U-boat. When it was all over HMS Wellingtonwas laid up with the hundreds of other warships suddenly surplus to requirements. Photographs of Pembroke Dock in 1946, where she lay, illustrate wall-to-wall warships, most showing signs of the long years of combat where there was little time for spit and polish. For some of these ships it would be but a case of waiting for the burners. Some were put into care and maintenance and years of waiting in the reserve fleet, a few would be sold or handed on to Commonwealth or other friendly navies. Today almost none of these ships survives. Thin skinned and only designed for short and violent lives, within a few years the corrosion would be eating away at the fishplates and wasting the structure. By a fortuitous chance a different fate awaited Wellington. Plucked out of the fleet in Pembroke Dock, perhaps because she was better built than ships flung together in the years of war, Wellington was bought by the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, one of the newer livery companies of the City of London with no premises of its own. From every point of view a ship seemed ideal and in 1947 agreement was reached for the HQS Wellington, now flying the Red Ensign, to lie on the Embankment in a procession of elderly ships which included Shackleton's Discovery and older warships used as drill halls. And in this role she has been very successful, providing a good home to the Hon Company all these years. The conversion was sympathetically done, the boiler and engine room, with all machinery removed, forming an elegant Court Room for meetings, conferences and dinners. But there are never any illusions about a ship, which will always require serious money to keep the ravages of time at bay. Wellington sits in fresh water and does not suffer the salt spray that drenched her upperworks for her first dozen years, but she is still a steel ship and as such needs consistent maintenance, without 100 or so matelots to do the dirty work, burnishing her brass and brightwork and holystoning her pitchpine decks. She is a historic ship, a unique survivor of a different age and of considerable interest for her antiquity alone, but the Hon Company has made something of a treasure house of her in a collection of maritime paintings and artifacts that have been gathered over the years. There are the silver and porcelain and loving cups of the livery hall, but some of the model ships are truly wonderful and artifacts like the wheel of Joseph Conrad's barque Otago or the bell from the famous Ohio of the Malta convoys are part of our history. An excellent library has been added to over the years and is available for research. Most people in the maritime industry, if they have passed time in London, have spent some of it aboard Wellington as the ship is a popular venue for shipping-related meetings, conferences and dinners. She repays a closer inspection for the ambience of her surroundings, the sun on the Thames shining through the portholes, the dark and sinister river flowing past by night across from the bright lights of the south bank. How long can such a ship be kept going? In 1992 she was given an extensive survey, drydocked, the hull stiffened by doublers where necessary. High specification Jotun paint was applied and the old hull has been regularly surveyed using ultrasonics. Structurally she is in good shape, but will only remain so as long as money is spent on her upkeep. It is a constant concern as, unlike a stone building, one cannot turn down the wick on the maintenance of a ship as one never quite catches up what has been lost. The Hon Company, which ought to understand something about ship maintenance, is determined that unlike many other cash strapped vessels and heritage sites Wellingtonwill not be allowed to reach such a state of disrepair that her survival depends on a huge injection of cash. 'Regular' and 'planned' are the keys to her maintenance programme. She may not be going anywhere, but Wellington is a working ship, with 16,000 people trooping up and down the brow to the Embankment every year. The International Maritime Pilots' Association has its headquarters aboard, while a whole range of maritime charitable trusts concerned with welfare and education are managed from the ship. She is a natural focus for the maritime industry of London and doubly valuable because of this useful proximity. Last year, seeking to preserve the long-term use of the old ship, ownership passed from the Hon Company to the Wellington Trust. The aims of the this charitable trust are threefold: - restoration, maintenance and preservation for the public benefit of the sloop HQS Wellington , as part of the nation's maritime heritage; - education of the public in the history and traditions of the British Merchant Navy; - supporting national maritime industries and activities. There will be increased public access. In practice no one with a genuine interest in the ship and the Merchant Navy is ever turned away, and a guided tour of Wellington is something to be sought out. The ship is 'marketed' very effectively and makes a useful income from corporate events and entertainment, book launches, conferences and the like. Wellington is a World Ship Trust vessel, which promotes her status as a historic artefact with a special award that is only the sixth ever made great to have, although it comes with no financial aid attached. The Wellington Trust, for its part, is determined that a proper balance will be struck between revenue earning and the public benefit of greater access for charitable and educational purposes. But day-to-day maintenance is projected to rise from more than GBP50,000 ($87,000) last year to well in excess of GBP60,000 from 2009. Historic ships still have to abide by changing health and safety provisions. The capital costs of a renovation, refurbishment and improvement programme that will ensure the ship's viability for another 30 years has been estimated to cost up to GBP1.3m. The Hon Company has provided a GBP250,000 grant to the trust, while members and friends have been generous with another GBP130,000 to be used for preservation purposes. The appeal is now for an endowment fund for future maintenance, restoration and continuing improvement. Wellington is an important ship, doing an important job for her tenants and for the maritime community in general. Part of the scenery of London and the Thames, a reminder of a maritime heritage with a continuing role for Britain's maritime future, she deserves our help. Because she's worth it. |