THE warmest of welcomes to the first blog on my new website which will cover all aspects of the maritime life of Merseyside, North West England and North Wales past, present and future: its people, issues, waterways, ships and boats – big and small.
My hope is that the blog will stimulate discussions about this huge variety of waterborne subjects, as the Pool of the Lyver is a rich one in which to fish.
This is a good year in which to launch the blog, as it promises to be the latest milestone of many in the maritime history of Merseyside as we celebrate anniversaries which range from 10 years of Liverpool Cruise Terminal to 200 years of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.
We could also include the 300th anniversary of Liverpool’s beautiful Bluecoat School Arts Centre (the city centre’s oldest building). Built by Brian Blundell, who like many of the town’s 18th merchant’s made dirty slave trade money with his ships sailing the Liverpool – West Africa – West Indies – Liverpool triangle.
These three subjects illustrate what a broad canvas there is to work on. Already there is a new initiative to draw Liverpool closer to her historic fellow Irish Sea ports with the launch of the Three Cities Festival involving Liverpool, Dublin and Belfast, inspired by MAST, the Merseyside Adventure Sailing Trust. MAST’s well-established Irish Sea regatta, the Apprentice Ship Cup will be incorporated in the Festival, which starts in Dublin on 3 June, 2017, and ends at the Mersey Maritime Festival on 23 June. Such is Ireland’s commitment to the Three Cities Festival that it was officially announced by President Michael Higgins.
Merseyside is also home to four astonishing ship restoration projects. Longest running has been the incredible decade-long restoration to fully operational order of SS Daniel Adamson. This 113-year-old former Manchester Ship Canal directors’ inspection vessel is the UK’s oldest steam tug tender and received a £3.8m Heritage Lottery Fund grant and more than 100,000 volunteer man hours to get her ready to be relaunched into public service on 12 April.
The Mersey ferry, MV Royal Daffodil, regarded as a lost cause after four years laid-up in Birkenhead, now looks set to be taken over by the Mersey Ferry Preservation Trust from owner Merseytravel and converted to a museum ship (reverting to her original name of Overchurch) in Canning Dock, in the city centre.
MS Endeavour, a former north German ferry also known as Princess Royal and Orestad, is currently being renovated in Canada and Sandon Docks, with the aim is to use the 1958-built veteran vessel to reopen Liverpool – North Wales trips excursions.
Smallest, but not least, is the renovation of the former Baltic-trader Zebu as Liverpool’s dedicated operational tall ship. Presently, there is a taste of the glamour of sail with the UK’s largest tall ship Stavros S Niarchos, highly visible at her city centre winter berth in Canning Dock, until the end of March.
In contrast, further downriver is the newly completed £400m Liverpool2 container berth which allows the port to handle the new generation of ‘post-Panamax’ mega-container ships. This will embed Liverpool in the top 10 of European freight ports and encourage ships to berth in northern England rather than the regional get goods brought by land from southern England and continental ports.
Across the river, Cammell Laird shipyard, Birkenhead, is building the new £200m Polar research ship Sir David Attenborough, which will be the most advanced exploration ship of her kind when commissioned in 2019.
Campaigning will also be an important part of this blog and I intend to launch or support for the greater good of Merseyside’s maritime life. For example, already underway is the campaign for the Mersey Bar lightvessel Planet, headed by Merseyside Civic Society, to be returned to her berth in Canning Dock after a dispute over mooring fees.
My first campaign of this year is a public call for Fred Olsen Snr, 86, to become a Freeman of the City of Liverpool, which I announced during my monthly shipping reports on BBC Radio Merseyside’s Roger Phillips Phone-In Show.
Mr Olsen greatly deserves this accolade, as his family’s UK company, Fred Olsen Cruise Line, has been the anchor of Liverpool’s turnaround cruise programmes through some tough times. The company runs between 16 – 24 cruises a year from the Mersey, bringing in passengers from all over the northern UK who would never otherwise visit the city. Not only do these cruises attract around 20,000 people a year, but the entire operation immeasurably improves the city’s image and reputation.
I am also honoured to be asked by Rod Holmes, who masterminded building the hugely successful Liverpool 1 shopping centre, to work with him on raising the profile and upgrading the city’s Western Approaches Museum. This museum is the former Combined Services’ Command HQ for the Battle of the Atlantic. Its importance can be measured by PM Winston Churchill confessing that the German U-boat menace in the Battle if the Atlantic was the only thing which kept him awake during the war. Now forlorn and largely forgotten, this museum should be on a par with Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms, in Whitehall, London, which is rated as one of the UK’s top museums.
All of the above just skims the surface of the vast amount of material afloat on our waters, which I hope you agree will keep many stimulating blogs supplied for as long as I write them.