World Ship Trust Report: The First Ten Years by Peter Elphick The World Ship Trust was ten years old on 29 December 1989, the anniversary date of the signing of the Trust Deed that gave it legal and charitable status. The formation of the Trust, at the initiative of past Chairman and now Honorary Patron Frank Carr, had been mooted for some five years prior to the signing of the Deed. In 1974 Frank Carr visited the United States at the invitation of the National Maritime Historical Society to advocate the establishment of such a body.* He envisaged it as an instrument designed to raise interest in the world 's heritage of historic shipsto do on a worldwide basis what Britain's Maritime Trust had been established to do within the British Isles. In Frank Carr's own words, the first objective of the World Ship Trust should be "to promulgate the fact that ships and smaller craft, unlike shore-based structures built of long-lasting materials, are generally, and certainly until recently, constructed of perishable stuff I ike wood and hemp, which unless cared for and maintained, will quickly decay from the assault of the elements and eventually disintegrate and disappear. Once gone, perhaps beyond recovery, some unique part of the world 's maritime heritage will have been lost forever." One decade on, it is possible to look back on a catalogue of major achievements. The Trust, through the connections of its Trustees and Vice-Presidents, has built up a worldwide reputation and created links with personages and organizations interested in ship preservation from all quarters of the globe, including some quite surprising ones. (In this category are the Zanzibar State Barge presented to the Sultan by Queen Victoria, and the "golden barges" of Thailand.) Correspondence and news items are now received from museums, societies, and ship preservation organizations everywhere. The Trust's Maritime Heritage Award is an honor that has grown in status over the years . To date, seven presentations have been made: 1980: Film "Ghosts of Cape Horn" 1982: Vasa of Sweden 1983: Mary Rose of England 1985: Jylland of Denmark 1987: USS Constitution 1988: Sir John Smith for his leadership in restoring HMS Warrior 1988: Polly Woodside of Australia Without doubt, the status of the awards 12
has been enhanced by the status of the dignitaries who presented the awards on behalf of the Trust, the award to the Mary Rose being presented, for example, by Queen Elizabeth II, the award to USS Constitution by President Reagan. Over the years of its existence, the Trust has sponsored, or given moral support to, or arranged expert advice for, several ship preservation and marine archaeological projects. It is not possible in the space available to list all
On March 15 , HRH Prin ce Philip , Duke of Edinburgh (at rig hi) presented the first maritime heritage award of !he Cutty Sark Maritime Trust to Frank G.G. Carr, founding chairman of the World Ship Trust. Mr. Carr, whose871h. birthday was celebrated on April 23 , was hailed as "savior of the Cutty Sark."
these, but they included the joint WSTOxford University-Palermo University expedition to the Mediterranean, which included work on an Etruscan ship of circa 600 BC; the Trust offered advice and arranged the gift of a large quantity of preservation material to the Cheops ship of Egypt; the Trust gave encouragement to the Government of South Korea and arranged a suitable itinerary for the Assistant Curator of their project to recover the wrecks of 13th century junks off the southwest coast of that country; in 1987, the Trust was one of the sponsors of the 5th International Reunion on the History of Navigation and Hydrography, at Sagres, Portugal; the Trust has an on-going interest in the Yavari project, the preservation of the Lake Titicaca steamship built in England in 1862. To sum it up, through the activities of the Trustees and Vice-Presidents, and *This visit was commemorated in "Take Good Care of Her, Mister," published by NMHS in 1974 and available in Xerox from NMHS for $5.00.
the scouting activities of its ordinary members, the Trust has sought to coordinate ship preservation activities worldwide to the mutual benefit and advantage of all. The highest profile project in which the WST has been involved to date was the publication in 1985 of Norman Brouwer' s International Register of Historic Ships. The book, with its 706 entries from around the world, filled a gap in the literature of the sea. It is now being updated with new material which has become available in the past five years. It is hoped that the new edition can be produced in such a format that it can be updated frequently and expeditiously. The World Ship Trust has carried out many of the tasks originally set out in the enabling Deed, but there is still much to be done. It is not enough , of course, just to generate interest in ship preservation; once generated , that interest must be nurtured and maintained. We can all recall instances where such projects once started, have fallen by the wayside-or to use a more appropriate metaphor, have been wrecked, sometimes on a maiden voyage. (This is not a new development in the field of ship preservation. Queen Elizabeth I of England ordered that Drake 's Golden Hind was to be preserved for posterity. That historic vessel stood for many years in its Thameside dock, but it was not maintained and gradually disintegrated. Except for some of its timbers which were made into a chair and a table, that ship now lies buried somewhere under the Deptford waterfront.) The Trust now needs to build on the foundations that have been successfully laid over the past ten years. The proposed International Maritime Heritage Year in 1992 will help to do this. In addition, the Trust is now considering an outline plan for its second decade, one that will carry it successfully into the 21st century. Captain Peter Elphick is volunteer public affairs officer for the World Ship Trust.
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SEA HISTORY 54, SUMMER 1990