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Comment... October 2011

As anyone who owns an old house will tell you, wooden window frames, doors, bargeboards and suchlike are a constant headache when it comes to battling the effects of rainwater. Timber and water do not mix in the long term and steel and saline water aren’t natural bedfellows either. From the day a ship is launched it is already on the path to deterioration and the fact that we do have so many examples of preserved vessels to enjoy, whether under reconstruction or happily doing the job that they were built for, continues to fill me with respect and wonderment at their minders’ efforts.

Hat’s off to those who care for the likes of Shieldhall, Waverley, Balmoral, Kingswear Castle and the host of lake and loch-bound vessels that ply their trade for our enjoyment – and good luck to those who are restoring such examples as Daniel Adamson and the Medway Queen as their turn comes around again.

The same goes for those who care for our inland waterway heritage, the coal-fired narrowboat examples like President and the efforts of the Wooden Canal Boat Society – the very words ‘wooden’ and ‘canal’ in close proximity being enough to send shivers down my spine.

But when it comes to our nation’s heritage afloat, there is never enough money to go round or people around to be able to save everything. With the debacle that was Paddle Steamer Lincoln Castle’s fate last year still fresh in our minds it gives me no pleasure to report the imminent scrapping of TSS Manxman in this issue. Couple this with the news that the last-remaining example of a turbine-powered excursion steamer in the world – the Clyde-built TS Queen Mary II – failed to find a bidder last month when it went for auction and the picture looks very bleak indeed. Its now uncertain future has resulted in a flurry of letters to Scottish newspapers that someone in the country of its birth should ‘do something’. Sadly, my money’s on the fact that there’s no money and that a collective will to ‘do something’ when it comes to the crunch always seems to be a step too far.

Putting the magazine together just a couple of days after the Great Dorset Steam Fair, we’d like to thank all of our readers who found the time to visit us at the Old Glory marquee. We had a great show and we hope that you did as well. The weather gods certainly smiled on those hallowed fields of Dorset downland and the ‘wellies’ remained in the car all week. The place was thronged with visitors, which proves that you don’t have to have anything special theme-wise all the time – just the very fact that the show provides a focus each year for the whole preservation movement is enough to bring people out. Some folk have told me in the past that they find the show too big and too much to bear and I respect that. For the majority, it remains, pilgrimage-like, a must-do in the rally calendar and long may it remain so.

Colin Tyson
Editor