Trust, doing for ships what the World Wildlife Fund is already doing so effectively for living species in peril of extinction. No great sum of money would be needed to begin with; just enough to establish a small office-a room at the Headquarters of the National Maritime Historical Society would be ideal-with a Secretary and a modest fund from which advances could be made in the form of interest free loans to aid ship preservation projects to get under way. Its aims, however, should not be limited to the provision of financial assistance. I would like to see it build up, over the years, both a register of historic craft throughout the world that may be worthy of preservation, and an archive of expertise on ship restoration methods . This would contain records of failures as well as of successes, so that methods which had not worked satisfactorily could be avoided in future, while experience in well proven ways would be made available to all. In ship preservation, one cannot afford to make the same mistake twice. Three Questions
As I visualize it, the scheme would work in this way. Let it be supposed that information is received of some historic craft which may be anywhere in the world, that is in danger of being lost. The World Ship Trust would then advance a sufficient sum of money to secure a "stay of execution" long enough to enable three questions to be asked and answered. First, "Is the ship (or other craft) worth preserving? ' ' bearing in mind that there will never be enough money to preserve other than the most important maritime relics. If the answer is "Yes", Question Number Two is "How much will it cost?" When this is known, Question Number Three, inevitably the most difficult, will be "How is it going to be done, and by whom?" But until these questions have been put, the endangered vessel will not be left to perish by default. Some projects will doubtless fail; but some will succeed, as the Cutty Sark isdoing at Greenwich, England, where she not only earns her keep, but enough over and above that to pay for all the extensive repairs completed during the last few years and to build up a capital sum to take care of all foreseeable future contingencies. It is in the initial stages of ship preservation that money, or the lack of it, is crucial; and it is then that a loan from the World Ship Trust could make all the difference between failure and success.
Above and right: the Implacable (1 789) 74 gun, two deck line-of-battle ship, built in France as the Duguay Trouin, lies in Portsmouth in 1949 alongside the 46-gun frigate Foud royant, ex-Trincomalee of 181 7 (which still survives as a schoolship).
Below, Dec. 2nd, 1949, the "actual moment of shame;" exploding the charges that sank th e 160 year-old Implacable. Photographs courtesy of the Greater London Council, England.
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