All the grit and glory, tedium and tragedy of British maritime history is reflected in the 60 or so simple objects in Life at Sea, an exhibition currently touring nine maritime museums around the UK. One of the largest items is the 3m-high compass binnacle from HMS Canberra, which served in the Falklands War, lent by the Imperial War Museum.
Some of the smallest are fishermen's tobacco tins with paintings of trawlers on the insides of the lids, from the Fleetwood Museum in Lancashire.
From the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (NMM), there are soup tins from the ill-fated Franklin expedition and an early chart of the River Plate in Argentina; Merseyside and Southampton Maritime Museums have lent items from White Star liners, and the original half model of the SS Great Western hails from Bristol.
From the Orkneys there is a tin fiddle made by a herring fisherman to take to sea (it had to be tin as wood got damp and warped), and a tankard from the Piper Alpha oil platform from Aberdeen Maritime Museum.
The exhibition was set up by Aberdeen Maritime Museum with objects lent from 13 maritime museums, from Cornwall to the Orkneys, and neatly illustrates not only the regional and historical differences of our coastal communities, but why museums collect what they collect.
It is the kind of exhibition that could be put on by any group of specialist museums, but the critical element in successfully delivering Life at Sea is the collaboration that exists between UK maritime museums, in the form of a network called the United Kingdom Maritime Collections Strategy (UKMCS).
The UKMCS was set up in 1998 as an affiliation between 11 key museums including national, non-national, regional and local authority museums. 'It's primarily about promoting the wealth of maritime collections in the UK,' says Janet Owen, the head of the curatorial group at the NMM.
'But it is driven by the need to dovetail and rationalise collection policies, to make museum collections complementary rather than competitive.' As with any other specialisation, collections overlap, items are duplicated and opportunities for joint storage, transferrals, loans, disposals and partnerships are not exploited.
The UKMCS serves as a resource for museums to address these issues. Owen likens it to a trade association, which has a directors' group and lead members but which any other museum can use for advice, expertise, ideas and as a knowledge-sharing forum through its website.
The 11 lead museums were identified for their collection strengths, and for regional focus, and, while the NMM is the main driving force of the UKMCS (partly because it was starting its own reform programme at about the same time), small museums, non-nationals and regionals are not only involved but crucial to its effectiveness. Owen says: 'The collecting areas naturally overlap, and while we exist to help museums shape their collections, it's really about new collecting, growing expertise and developing for the future.
The Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth, for example, is the lead museum for maritime archaeology and Aberdeen Maritime Museum is the lead museum for offshore marine and gas industries, and they are regional representatives.
But any maritime collections can put their details on the website, and we work closely with the Maritime Curators Group, which is a membership organisation.'
While Aberdeen is a lead member, other partners for the Life at Sea exhibition are not, and the collaboration had many benefits. 'We weren't being offered many touring exhibitions so we suggested our own,' says Catherine Walker, the assistant keeper of maritime history at Aberdeen Maritime Museum. 'It gave us the opportunity to bring objects from national museums to Aberdeen and we also wanted to flag up 2005 and the Battle of Trafalgar bicentenary celebrations.
Being part of the UKMCS helped with planning - people are always more enthusiastic at face-to-face meetings, and then the emails were flying back and forth. It was really a case of identifying star items that we could bring up here and then working out what linked them.'
The partner museums also contributed to the HLF bid document co-ordinated by Walker at Aberdeen. Walker was also able to bid for HLF funding for new high security showcases for some of the items, for example the compass binnacle from the Imperial War Museum.
'It created a momentum and we developed a programme of events around the exhibition which in turn levered in extra funding, and hopefully it will be the first of many such initiatives,' adds Walker.
It also creates a culture of willingness to help each other out, she says. 'If you are offered objects you are more aware of more suitable places for them. For example, we were offered a plaque from a Hull-built trawler and we contacted Hull Maritime Museum who were absolutely delighted with it.'
On a wider scale, the NMM, within its own reform programme but also as a UKMCS initiative, has looked at rationalising and joint storage for parts of its collections.
For example, both the NMM and the Science Museum (a UKMCS lead museum) have large collections of compass binnacles, and the two museums have worked together to rationalise these and look at joint storage options.
The NMM also has ordnance items that would be more appropriate at Chatham Historic Dockyard. 'The beauty of it is that we can draw on the lead museums' strengths and share collections and expertise from different collecting areas with the broader maritime community,' adds Owen. 'By providing a map of museums' collecting areas, the UKMCS ensures the UK has good, strong representation of important artefacts that enable people to explore a particular area, and the increased awareness of others' specialist subjects means we can more fully exploit collections.
We are then better placed to free up resources, in both financial and intellectual terms, if we know what other museums are collecting. It's not meant to be public-facing, but ultimately the point is to increase access to Britain's maritime heritage.'
Duplication and disposal are typical areas of discussion. 'It's an opportunity to network closely and develop good relationships between national and regional museums,' says Andy King, the curator of industrial and maritime history at Bristol Industrial Museum. 'It's a reflection on the success of the Maritime Curators Group that the UKMCS was relatively easy to set up and stay effective by maintaining the interest of a wide range of museums.'
King believes there are plenty of opportunities for regional museums to benefit and where they can present their case for local heritage. 'In some areas there is too much duplication, but with certain areas of national heritage regionals can argue to retain items. For example, Nelson - there's enough of him to go round.
And it works for less popular items, too. Nationals offloading what they don't want isn't necessarily a bad thing - if the regionals want it and can guarantee care and ensure its future, then all well and good.'
Because it has representation and support at senior level - for example, from Roy Clare, the director of the NMM - the UKMCS has the muscle to push policies and projects forward, rather than just being a curatorial talking shop.
'It's a holistic professional network with huge resources, which recognises both the human expertise and wonderful maritime collections across the UK ,' says Clare. 'It's about opening dialogues, and that's been a great achievement in itself. We've made a lot of headway - for example, we've agreed collecting areas to avoid duplicating collecting efforts, and there are opportunities for secondment, professional support, collection transferral and much more.'
UKMCS allows a framework to ensure collecting isn't just the domain of the lead museums. 'The lead museums provide the focus for national collecting without precluding other museums collecting in relevant areas,' says Rachel Mulhearn, the curator of maritime history and deputy head of Merseyside Maritime Museum, which is UKMCS lead museum for Atlantic trades.
This means that smaller and non-national museums are able to play a more active role because of the spirit of collaboration that has been built up. 'We actively collect material relating to the transatlantic slave trade but that doesn't stop Lancaster, which was also a slaving port in the18th century, seeking similar material,' she adds.
Other UKMCS-supported initiatives include the secondment of Colin White, the deputy director of the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth, to the NMM to work on the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
A national and regional partnership, the Understanding Slavery Initiative, is a DCMS and DfES-funded project which is developing learning resources for teacher training, and the UKMCS has facilitated knowledge and idea-sharing between the maritime museums at NMM, Hull, Bristol and Liverpool.
Ship models is an area where rationalisation and reform could benefit both museums and public alike. The UKMCS has undertaken an audit of the significant collections across the UK, and the Science Museum, the NMM and the Imperial War Museum have looked at the possibility of a new ship models centre at Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.
It makes existing initiatives more effective and it becomes much easier for museums to get together and deliver projects such as Understanding Slavery, says Owen. 'Projects have to benefit the individual partners as well as the network.
The idea is to make museums consider the historical and cultural value of their collections but also the pragmatic management aspects of maintaining collections, for the benefit of the public and museum sector alike. And of course this is all done in a voluntary capacity as part of the museum role. There is so much more we could do with more resources.' mj
The summer 2005 issue of Museum Practice has a special report on disposal
Some of the smallest are fishermen's tobacco tins with paintings of trawlers on the insides of the lids, from the Fleetwood Museum in Lancashire.
From the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (NMM), there are soup tins from the ill-fated Franklin expedition and an early chart of the River Plate in Argentina; Merseyside and Southampton Maritime Museums have lent items from White Star liners, and the original half model of the SS Great Western hails from Bristol.
From the Orkneys there is a tin fiddle made by a herring fisherman to take to sea (it had to be tin as wood got damp and warped), and a tankard from the Piper Alpha oil platform from Aberdeen Maritime Museum.
The exhibition was set up by Aberdeen Maritime Museum with objects lent from 13 maritime museums, from Cornwall to the Orkneys, and neatly illustrates not only the regional and historical differences of our coastal communities, but why museums collect what they collect.
It is the kind of exhibition that could be put on by any group of specialist museums, but the critical element in successfully delivering Life at Sea is the collaboration that exists between UK maritime museums, in the form of a network called the United Kingdom Maritime Collections Strategy (UKMCS).
The UKMCS was set up in 1998 as an affiliation between 11 key museums including national, non-national, regional and local authority museums. 'It's primarily about promoting the wealth of maritime collections in the UK,' says Janet Owen, the head of the curatorial group at the NMM.
'But it is driven by the need to dovetail and rationalise collection policies, to make museum collections complementary rather than competitive.' As with any other specialisation, collections overlap, items are duplicated and opportunities for joint storage, transferrals, loans, disposals and partnerships are not exploited.
The UKMCS serves as a resource for museums to address these issues. Owen likens it to a trade association, which has a directors' group and lead members but which any other museum can use for advice, expertise, ideas and as a knowledge-sharing forum through its website.
The 11 lead museums were identified for their collection strengths, and for regional focus, and, while the NMM is the main driving force of the UKMCS (partly because it was starting its own reform programme at about the same time), small museums, non-nationals and regionals are not only involved but crucial to its effectiveness. Owen says: 'The collecting areas naturally overlap, and while we exist to help museums shape their collections, it's really about new collecting, growing expertise and developing for the future.
The Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth, for example, is the lead museum for maritime archaeology and Aberdeen Maritime Museum is the lead museum for offshore marine and gas industries, and they are regional representatives.
But any maritime collections can put their details on the website, and we work closely with the Maritime Curators Group, which is a membership organisation.'
While Aberdeen is a lead member, other partners for the Life at Sea exhibition are not, and the collaboration had many benefits. 'We weren't being offered many touring exhibitions so we suggested our own,' says Catherine Walker, the assistant keeper of maritime history at Aberdeen Maritime Museum. 'It gave us the opportunity to bring objects from national museums to Aberdeen and we also wanted to flag up 2005 and the Battle of Trafalgar bicentenary celebrations.
Being part of the UKMCS helped with planning - people are always more enthusiastic at face-to-face meetings, and then the emails were flying back and forth. It was really a case of identifying star items that we could bring up here and then working out what linked them.'
The partner museums also contributed to the HLF bid document co-ordinated by Walker at Aberdeen. Walker was also able to bid for HLF funding for new high security showcases for some of the items, for example the compass binnacle from the Imperial War Museum.
'It created a momentum and we developed a programme of events around the exhibition which in turn levered in extra funding, and hopefully it will be the first of many such initiatives,' adds Walker.
It also creates a culture of willingness to help each other out, she says. 'If you are offered objects you are more aware of more suitable places for them. For example, we were offered a plaque from a Hull-built trawler and we contacted Hull Maritime Museum who were absolutely delighted with it.'
On a wider scale, the NMM, within its own reform programme but also as a UKMCS initiative, has looked at rationalising and joint storage for parts of its collections.
For example, both the NMM and the Science Museum (a UKMCS lead museum) have large collections of compass binnacles, and the two museums have worked together to rationalise these and look at joint storage options.
The NMM also has ordnance items that would be more appropriate at Chatham Historic Dockyard. 'The beauty of it is that we can draw on the lead museums' strengths and share collections and expertise from different collecting areas with the broader maritime community,' adds Owen. 'By providing a map of museums' collecting areas, the UKMCS ensures the UK has good, strong representation of important artefacts that enable people to explore a particular area, and the increased awareness of others' specialist subjects means we can more fully exploit collections.
We are then better placed to free up resources, in both financial and intellectual terms, if we know what other museums are collecting. It's not meant to be public-facing, but ultimately the point is to increase access to Britain's maritime heritage.'
Duplication and disposal are typical areas of discussion. 'It's an opportunity to network closely and develop good relationships between national and regional museums,' says Andy King, the curator of industrial and maritime history at Bristol Industrial Museum. 'It's a reflection on the success of the Maritime Curators Group that the UKMCS was relatively easy to set up and stay effective by maintaining the interest of a wide range of museums.'
King believes there are plenty of opportunities for regional museums to benefit and where they can present their case for local heritage. 'In some areas there is too much duplication, but with certain areas of national heritage regionals can argue to retain items. For example, Nelson - there's enough of him to go round.
And it works for less popular items, too. Nationals offloading what they don't want isn't necessarily a bad thing - if the regionals want it and can guarantee care and ensure its future, then all well and good.'
Because it has representation and support at senior level - for example, from Roy Clare, the director of the NMM - the UKMCS has the muscle to push policies and projects forward, rather than just being a curatorial talking shop.
'It's a holistic professional network with huge resources, which recognises both the human expertise and wonderful maritime collections across the UK ,' says Clare. 'It's about opening dialogues, and that's been a great achievement in itself. We've made a lot of headway - for example, we've agreed collecting areas to avoid duplicating collecting efforts, and there are opportunities for secondment, professional support, collection transferral and much more.'
UKMCS allows a framework to ensure collecting isn't just the domain of the lead museums. 'The lead museums provide the focus for national collecting without precluding other museums collecting in relevant areas,' says Rachel Mulhearn, the curator of maritime history and deputy head of Merseyside Maritime Museum, which is UKMCS lead museum for Atlantic trades.
This means that smaller and non-national museums are able to play a more active role because of the spirit of collaboration that has been built up. 'We actively collect material relating to the transatlantic slave trade but that doesn't stop Lancaster, which was also a slaving port in the18th century, seeking similar material,' she adds.
Other UKMCS-supported initiatives include the secondment of Colin White, the deputy director of the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth, to the NMM to work on the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
A national and regional partnership, the Understanding Slavery Initiative, is a DCMS and DfES-funded project which is developing learning resources for teacher training, and the UKMCS has facilitated knowledge and idea-sharing between the maritime museums at NMM, Hull, Bristol and Liverpool.
Ship models is an area where rationalisation and reform could benefit both museums and public alike. The UKMCS has undertaken an audit of the significant collections across the UK, and the Science Museum, the NMM and the Imperial War Museum have looked at the possibility of a new ship models centre at Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.
It makes existing initiatives more effective and it becomes much easier for museums to get together and deliver projects such as Understanding Slavery, says Owen. 'Projects have to benefit the individual partners as well as the network.
The idea is to make museums consider the historical and cultural value of their collections but also the pragmatic management aspects of maintaining collections, for the benefit of the public and museum sector alike. And of course this is all done in a voluntary capacity as part of the museum role. There is so much more we could do with more resources.' mj
The summer 2005 issue of Museum Practice has a special report on disposal
