Knight Errant of Historic Ships: A Memorial Service Address in Celebration of the Life of Frank G. G. Carr by Ralph Hammond Innes Frank would have been touched, as I know Ruth is, that so many of his friends and fellow ship-lovers have come here today, not only to remember him and to wish him Godspeed now that he has embarked on the greatest voyage of all, but also to give thanks for the privilege of having known such a man. Wedo so in a very proper place, here in the heart of Greenwich, which was so much a part of his life. Frank was a man possessed by the sea--obsessed by ships, particularly old ships, and very particularly old wooden ships. "Never again," he vowed, hi s emotional Wel sh nature bringing tears to his eyes at the sight of Implacable, last of the Navy's line of battle two-deckers-seventy-four guns and captured at Trafalgar- being towed out to Spithead and deliberately sunk there for lack of fund s to maintain her. That warship had been important to him , for he had already worked out plans to bring her into the Thames and dock her there. Frank was fifteen when he acquired his first boat in 1918, a skiff-dinghy called Maud. In it, then later in the St. Hilda, he explored the estuaries, broads and fens of East Anglia. By the time he was at Cambridge, he needed a boat which could safely poke its bows out into the North Sea. He bought the six-ton Lily and changed its name to Quickstep II. In 1926, his last year at Cambridge, he took on the Cariad, a Bristol Channel pilot cutter that is now in the Exeter ship museum. And then he met a girl who had never sailed a boat, but who was to prove a natural sailor, impervious to sickness and a born helmsman. Frank and Ruth were married in 1932, boarded Cariad at Pin Mill on the Orwell, and sailed for Holland! They went on to sail thousands of miles together, and throughout their long married life they had a marvelously close relationship. Both ashore and afloat they were very much a team. Peter Stanford wrote to me of Frank's first official visit to America in 1974: "He dazzled admirals, politicians and collectors of whaling memorabilia, speaking with great emotional intensity." And of Ruth he said , "She was terrific. Behind the scenes she was invaluable in advising us and in helping Frank to adjust to a new kind of audience. Nothing fazed her." When he died , Ruth and he had been together for almost sixty years. Frank's idea of heaven on earth was the cozy confines of a boat's cabin, lying to the tide after a day 's sailing, the warmth of the stove and the glow of the lamplight on wood panelling, a glass on the table and his pipe in his hand, and the company of like-minded fellows with whom to swap tales of the sea, ships and sailing companions. Those early sailing days and the girl he married set the pattern of hi s career and achievements. His first book, Sailing Barges, is a minor class ic, the definitive work on the East Coast barges that are still match racing to this day. Frank had studied law, and hi s first job was librarian at the House of Lords. Then war intervened. At the end of World War II, Frank returned from serv ice in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander RNVR, and was invited to apply for the post of director of the National Maritime Museum . Created in 1934, the Museum didn ' t actually open till 1937, and then it closed almost immediately for the War. Frank was faced with the monumental task of retrieving exhibits scattered around the country for safe-keeping and starti ng the museum all over again . He was director for close to twenty years, and in that time
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he laid the foundations of the world-renowned museum we know today. This was the platform from which he launched himself as a sort of knight errant of maritime heritage. Frank gathered a few enemies on the way, of course. He fo ught the Treasury to extract the necessary funding. He was impatient of red tape and bureaucracy. But he also made a great number of friends and a fund of goodwill that reached into many countries and contributed to the growth of a worldwide consciousness that the age of commercial sail was over and that we should all look to our maritime heritage. In this he had the backing of Prince Philip, a special relationship which gave him support after his museum days were over. His departure from the Museum in 1966 was highly controversial. Frank was dismissed by the trustees two years before he was due to retire. They wanted a change of course. Earl Attlee, who had appointed him, pressed the matter with the Government of the day and there were protests in the House of Commons. It was a shabby return for years of dedicated service. Fortunately, Frank's vitality and his abiding sense of humour carried him through and on to otherthings. In 1952, whilst still director of the Museum, he had become deeply involved in the move to save the Cutty Sark, then acting as a training ship downriver off Greenhithe. He had been campaigning for some time for the establishment of a National Maritime Trust. In thi s, again, he had the support of Prince Philip. By 1954 the Cutty Sark had been restored under the guidance of Frank and Alan Vi ll iers, the dry dock just outside the College gates here had been constructed, and the beautiful China clipper was floated into position. Contrary to the widely-held bel ief that an old sailing ship couldn ' t possibly earn its keep, the Cutty Sark proved an incredible success. No less than twelve million visitors have now trod her decks. Frank was Chairman of the Cutty Sark Ship Management Committee from 1952 to I 972, in loco parentis to a whole raft of good nautical causes. He was awarded a CBE in 1954 and made a CB in 1967. And in 1978 he still had the vision and the energy to found and direct a completely new organization, the World Ship Trust. This may yet become the most widely known monument to his enthusiasm for old ships and hi s urgent desire to preserve some of the world's priceless maritime heritage before it is too late. The book Cathedrals of the Sea is nearing completion. Through its title, taken from something Prince Philip wrote, Frank is underlining the need to preserve the fabric of the best of what is left to us. I'll finis h this tribute with a quotation from Masefield 's Dauber, in which he stressed the harmony of creations of both man and God: "Ships and the sea; there 's nothing finer made." D Following the above remarks by one ofFrank's close and dear ji¡iends, the people assembled to bid Frank Carr farewell went down from the Royal Naval War Co llege Chapel to the clipper Cutty Sark, the ship Frank saved for the nation and the world with the support of Prince Philip. Just inland lay the National Maritime Museum, brought up under Frank's direction from obscurity to its present standing as the world's great center of sea lore and learning-as the paintings celebrated in this very issue of Sea History attest. Ed Zelinsky, our Vice Chairman and member of our American Ship Trust, was there to greet Ruth Carr on our behalf and to help mark the passing of an inspiring leader in our field . PS SEA HISTORY 60, WINTER 1991-92