Grumpy Volunteer's Corner

It's official, we are the champions according to a nationwide survey of eight hundred, yes 800, museums.

The NMMC has been awarded the Daily Telegraph 'Family Friendly Museum Award 2014', in spite of having a grumpy volunteer!

Congratulations to all the dedicated staff. It is a fitting accolade to Jonathan on his retirement after leading the ship for over a decade.

Who am I going to insult now? Life will never be the same again.

Keith Evans
'The Grumpy Volunteer'

Change of Direction

Jonathan is leaving,
so should we shed a tear?
or wait until he offers us
a farewell wine or beer.

His successor is from London,
No Doughty’ll welcome be;
But Staff & Volunteers
will have to wait & see!

He sorted out the Cutty Sark
(for us she’s far too tall!!) -
we’d love square-rigged boats on Waterfront
and a figurehead in Main Hall.

by Mike Pennell, NMMC Poet Laureate (Ret'd)

Grumpy Volunteer's Corner

by Keith Evans

It's about time I had another 'grump'. I have been neglecting you of late.

Summer is here and soon the kids will be rampaging around like a lot of psychopathic gremlins. Not that I don't like kids, as you know, but they just happen to be noisy, spoilt, over active, demanding little urchins. I was one myself once, so they tell me.

There is a very favourable report in the Sunday Telegraph this week from a father about the NMMC. The favourites with his kids were the helicopter, beach buggy and the life rafts. He said they learnt a lot without realising it. On the beach he was told off for not swimming between the safety flags.

There is a lull at the moment although there's a lot of oldies around. One old lady was flying around on her mobility scooter. "Fascinating place" she called out as she skidded to a halt inches from my toes. "My husband has gone shopping." "That's rather novel" I thought. It's usually the ladies who indulge in retail therapy.

Anne Powell

Many Volunteers and staff gathered to say a final farewell to Anne on Thursday 3 April.

George Hogg add a memory of Anne's work for the Museum, amongst other touching eulogies:

For the last eleven years Anne has been the mainstay of the Bartlett Library. Anne, ably supported by Bill on Fridays, has regularly worked two full days every week and between them they have contributed more volunteer hours than any other family.

A considerable achievement by any standards, however, hours are not the full story of Anne's contribution to the museum. The success of our museum depends on the way that individual efforts are blended together into one coherent whole and she showed how it could be done.

I first met Anne when I was interviewing prospective volunteers for the library back in 2001, it seems a very long time ago now. I was immediately struck by her bright personality and keeness to work in the Library. An automatic "Yes please and when can you start".... This was well before the opening of the Museum and a small team worked together in a store in Tregonnigie Industrial Estate cleaning sorting and preparing some of the books destined for the library.

Moving day was on the 4 Nov 2002, Anne was in the thick of moving , unpacking and shelving 5,000 books a day or two before the Museum opened. Anne worked with Keith Haddon to catalogue the books and magazines and when Keith died, took on the whole responsibility for the catalogue and was ideally suited for the task. Methodical and accurate she set very high standards for all of us.

Anne still managed to take a full part in the Volunteer community. At the Annual Party she often headed the list of shifts worked in a year and her table always provided most of the answers for the Quiz. Her efforts did not go unrecognised and Anne was chosen to attend the farewell celebrations for Lady Mary Holborow at Eden. It is very sad that Bill and Anne will not be able to go to the Buckingham Palace Garden Party to which they were invited this summer.

What does this all add up to? Anne considered it a privilege to work in the library it showed in the standards that she set and pride she took in whatever she did. Her example was everything and more than one could have hoped to see in a volunteer in an enterprise such as ours . I am sure when I say that I am proud to have known and worked with her, that I speak for everyone who knew her.

Thank you for sharing her with us, Bill.

JG

NMMC Volunteer Party 2014

by Ellen Winser

It was lovely to see lots of volunteers at the annual party last Friday – a particularly memorable evening from my point of view as it was the last time I would attend this event as Chairman. It is a wonderful opportunity for me on behalf of the trustees and for the staff to say thank you to all our volunteers for the magnificent contribution they make towards the well being of this great museum. As I have frequently said over the years I have been Chairman, without our volunteers our museum would not exist.

But is it also true to say that without money it wouldn’t exist either. However many hours our volunteers put in we still need some staff and they have to be paid, we need to pay for various services like electricity and insurance, and things like publicity, computers, and other bits of essential equipment. What we earn from our visitors isn’t enough to cover all our financial needs and as we are not in receipt of regular funding from either local or national government we have to make up the shortfall by fundraising. In the first ten years of our existence we raised about £2million and last autumn at a big dinner attended by HRH the Princess Royal we launched our new appeal for the next ten years in which we hope to double our earlier efforts and raise £4million.

This is a big challenge, but made considerably easier thanks to a pledge we have received from a couple who wish to remain anonymous who have undertaken to match every pound we raise with another pound from them up to a total of £1million. With gift aid the pledge is worth £1.25million! Our hope is that we will be able to develop an endowment fund with the money to provide a regular income which will help close the gap between our income and our expenditure so that our long term future is secure. The quicker we raise money the quicker we can build the endowment fund and the quicker we can start enjoying the income from it. 

Raising money for something like the museum can be difficult. Compared with the charities aimed at supporting those with various unpleasant diseases, those aimed at funding research to eliminate those diseases, those aimed at alleviating suffering of any kind our appeal is more limited. That isn’t to say we don’t have a case but it isn’t of universal relevance. I believe this place matters because it celebrates aspects of our marine heritage which is fundamental to our island story, it matters to Falmouth, to Cornwall and the nation. Our boats allow our visitors the chance to dream, of messing about on the river, of sailing away over the horizon to goodness knows where, and our museum matters because some 250 people are directly involved with it and those people matter. You will each have your reasons to love the place. So can you help? All donations, however small, make a difference, particularly now that they will be worth more than double thanks to the pledge. Alternatively consider leaving a legacy – you don’t have to re-write your will – a codicil will do the trick. Linda Frost or Naomi Belert can give you the details.

Although I give up as Chairman at the end of the month I won’t be swallowing my anchor completely. ‘Trustee’ will remain on the pontoon and I will continue to serve on our fund raising committee, so I will be in and out of the museum but perhaps not quite as often as in the past. I will miss being directly involved but I feel I can now hand over to my successor with a clear conscience – our finances are in better shape than they have ever been. I wish the museum and all involved with it all the very best for the future.

Grumpy Volunteer's Corner

by Keith Evans

The smuggling exhibition is proving popular with many visitors having seen it on the internet. I'm thinking of opening my 200 year old creek-side cottage; a creek which was notorious for smuggling in years gone by. During renovations some years ago I came across what appeared to be a sealed cellar. Unable to open it without major demolition, I kept it as a feature. However, if I come in one morning looking the worst for wear you'll know I've broken into it and found some brandy casks.

The vintage boat 'White Owl' featured in 'Cornwall Life' magazine looks resplendent following her restoration by the museum team. In the photo she is being rowed away by the intrepid seafarers. Oh, on closer inspection it's Andy doing all the work with the bowman, who shall be nameless, resting on his oars.

... Part 2

I know, I know, this is getting repetitive: more lines on a chart. But here is the next big storm - the Valentine's Day storm - that passed through on Friday14 February. Thankfully it did not bring the spring tides but it did manage to swamp Newlyn, put back the repairs to the Dawlish railway line and uproot trees.

One of the more charming customer complaints was that the webcam on the tower was covered in grime and they could not see the harbour. Somehow we did not feel inspired to go up during the storm to clean the lens. I cannot think why not.

The Porthleven storm

You may have noticed it has been raining recently. The weather-buffs will have been fascinated by such things as mm of rain, hours of sunlight - sun: a big yellow thing that appears from time to time -, wind strength - it is not often that we actually have a forecast of 'Storm' on land - and the pressure. Thankfully, John Draper has a barograph and here is the print out for the week of 2 - 9 February. The big dip when the Porthleven storm passed through is obvious.

After some sterling work by the local community, the inner harbour was cleared of boats and debris.

Grumpy Volunteer's Corner

by Keith Evans

I'm back, having been out of circulation for most of the summer, so it's about time I had another 'grump'.

The museum hasn't changed much during my absence. The kids are still rampaging around, the oldies are still asking for the toilet, the recent storms have formed a few more leaks and the washing up still needs to be done in 1912.

I missed most of the summer including the crabbing, ah! I believe that over 300 crabs were hauled up, although it was rumoured to be the same crab with a fetish for plastic buckets. The penguin sat on his iceberg on Waterfront all summer. What happened to our bikini-clad damsel? The summer wasn't that bad!

Pudsey's visit on 'Children in Need' evening was a great success although no-one noticed my 5 seconds of fame when I appeared in the background. Jonathan also appeared on TV recently on the 'Antiques Road Trip' but there were no offers for him, so you're stuck with us both.

May I wish you the best of grumbles for the coming year.

There now, I feel better for that.

2014

Just when we thought our Museum Poet's muse had finally dried up, he has sent in the following new year offering:

So Twenty-Fourteen’s here at last,
I hope it brings good cheer –
To Staff & Volunteers alike,
I wish a great New Year.

I thought “What makes a Grumpy”?
I guess they must be old,
And do their bit regardless –
Whatever they’ve been told!!

It’s tourists that make problems,
They keep on asking questions! -
And some just won’t believe you;
When you offer bright suggestions.

If their background’s Nautical
It can pose some awkward queries –
“Have you secured your futtocks yet”?
“Oh yes, they’re spliced in series!!”

Nine years on, and senile,
I miss the cut and thrust –
But Grumpies have a “sell-by” date
So retirement was a must.

We are still contemplating the idea that Grumpies have a 'sell-by' date. we thought they just got grumpier and went on until they dropped (or joined the Friday afternoon team).

Happy New Year to our reader.

Kissing in Cornwall

Some light relief for Christmas. We came across the attached recently. The source is not clear although the language and type makes it look historical. It is entitled Kissing in Cornwall.

It is an interesting study, that of tracing the history of curious old customs of various places. Some Cornish customs have very much struck the attention of strangers who find it difficult to account for such a difference in adjacent localities. A Cockney who has lately been doing Cornwall made a note of the following peculiarities in regard to kissing in the different parts of the County.

• Redruth girls keep quite still till they are well kissed and then they say 'I think you ought to be ashamed.'
• When a Camborne girl is kissed she smiles, blushes and says nothing.
• At Helston the ladies receive a salute with Christian meekness and follow the Scriptural rule, when kissed on one cheek they turn the other also.
• A Penzance girl on being kissed immediately proposes a walk along the Esplanade.
• A Falmouth girl insists on giving a return after four kisses.
• A Lostwithiel girl on being kissed pays a night visit to some neighbouring Druidical remains, some ancient inscriptions on which are considered to have talismanic powers in influencing her dreams and future destiny.
• Truro girls when kissed say 'Isn't it nice to be kissed by a Cockney in our own City.'
• The St Blazey girl acts decidedly on the give and take principle and objects to be under any obligation.
• A Penryn girl when kissed closes her eyes in ecstasy and does not open them again until the process ceases.
• A Hayle girl, while you are kissing her, falls into your arms and sighs aloud 'Oh! how nice.'
• When a Bodmin girl is kissed she smiles and simpers, puts on her bonnet and shawl, and proposes a walk along the railway to Dunmere, and have tea, junket and syllabubs by the romantic riverside dell.
• Chacewater girls say 'Now, if you go kissing me, "Ma" will hear, but if I make the gate creak, kiss me then, and she will not know the difference.'

Our Cockney was obviously diligent in his research.

Happy Christmas - the Office Crew

Ho ho ho!

Thanks to Father Christmas and his Elves for taking time out of their busy schedule to visit the museum over the weekend.

Father Christmas spent lots of time talking to the children, finding out who had been naughty and who had been nice, and adding it to his little book ready for his deliveries on Christmas Eve.

Gala dinner - another Museum triumph

 

The Gala Fundraising dinner was a triumph last night. Held in the presence of HRH the Princess Royal, we raised over £20,000 for the Museum in the auction alone and there was even better news to come.

The event was held in the cafe (the reception) and Main Hall (dinner) which looked absolutely stunning. HRH mingled with the guests before dinner, chatting away in a very easy style. She is her father's daughter and enjoys nothing more than a good intelligent discussion about a relevant topic. That day she had already opened something in Southampton, had two appointments in Exeter and then came on to Falmouth.

Dinner in the Main Hall was supplied by Stein's with wines by St Austell Brewery. The decor was fantastic, masterminded by our President Alexandra Bolitho. Some 124 people dressed in their finery sat down to a wonderful meal which was served by the staff team (minus one grumpy one who had to be smart and wear a tie) all dressed in their blue shirts. No one spilled anything and it looked very professional.

After a short speech by HRH, made without notes and saying all the right things both about the Museum and the importance of the maritime heritage, Ellen Winser made a very personal speech, recounting the achievements of the Museum, praising the staff and volunteer team, and counting herself proud to be one member that team. She also talked of the need for the Museum to raise funds and set a target of raising £4 million over the next ten years. She ended by reporting that we have received a pledge by a mystery couple who have offered to match £ for £ any money we raise up to £1m. This is an incredible challenge and one that will encourage us all to work even harder at our fundraising.

As HRH left she was delighted to see the whole staff team lined up in the foyer where she thanked them for their work. Then the party relaxed and got down to the important business of the auction. Masterminded by new trustee, Buddha Hunt, this raised over £20,000 and the raffle will have raised even more (this is written early in the morning and we have yet to count the loot). All of this will be doubled of course.

Finally the guests had had enough of the delicious food, drink and networking and the team worked into the small hours, turning the Main Hall back into a Museum display.

As they left, many guests praised the work of the Museum, complimented me on the team and the work that they have done and emphasised their commitment to help.  Someone even used the dreaded words 'Next time ...'

Congratulations to everyone who helped make all of this happen, especially the core team of Tamsin, Naomi, and Dayna who anchored the thing and kept me away from seemingly endless committee planning meetings and to people like Michael and Annette who appeared un-phased by the workload. We will post some photographs when they are available.

Jonathan Griffin
(without tie, with addled brain after a few hours' sleep but awake enough to be proud of his team)

Visit to Hamburg International Maritime Museum

by Nigel Rimmer

I visited the Hamburg International Maritime Museum in Hamburg's town centre on 25 May on a very wet and windy afternoon.

Their displays were very different to ours. They had 40,000 boat models and a vast array of Naval uniforms, weapons through the ages and shipbuilding through the ages including welding and riveting. There were also warships and sailing ships, viz windjammers etc. The museum contained some very old ships' paintings, mainly by Dutch and Flemish artists. There was a large (20ft long) cabinet with a medal display and one of the items was a small diamond encrusted award. There was a mock-up of a first class cabin on a German liner with a double bed and commode. Similar to NMMC there was a knotting and splicing display.

We were able to present to Rotenburg (Falmouth's twin town) two model boats from our shop, one of which will stand on the window sill of Herr Hachemoller's office.

Overall, I could have spent 2 days' holiday in there.

Museum pirates took the Falmouth Carnival by storm

Many thanks to the ‘motley’ crew of pirates that turned out to promote the Museum in the Falmouth Walking Carnival last Saturday. The disguises were so good that I don’t think anyone spotted who we actually were but we were certainly noticed by the crowd and managed not to squash anyone with our big museum ship.

Life behind the scenes at NMMC

by Clive Mathison

On the afternoon of Saturday 27 July 2013, the pontoon was busy gearing up for a crabbing activity for the enjoyment of school children and parents alike. Tickets were in demand and visitors were eager to have a go.

Meanwhile in other parts of the museum there was a steady flow of visitors. I soon found myself engaging with a group of schoolchildren and their tutor who asked where was the best place to start their vistation to the NMMC. The schoolchildren were all Japanese and the English tutor explained that they were all from Sendai (Japan) where the tragic earthquake occurred recently. The group were visitors from the Cambridge English School and had come to visit Falmouth.

Here we see them taking an interest in what was happening on the Pontoon at the crabbing session. Their tutor hopes to come back next year with another group of pupils.

My encounter with our foreign national visitors continued throughout the afternoon. I was next asked about the Search & Rescue helicopter by two mature students from the Republic of Czechoslovakia who were impressed by the scope of exhibits in the NMMC. One student said that she would be bringing her husband to see the museum next year.

Finally, two Finnish nationals who had come to stay with a friend in Penryn spent the afternoon enjoying the exhibits and Falmouth's beaches.

David Barnicoat's last big pilotage

by Colin Spargo















The Artania was the last big passenger ship that Senior Pilot David Barnicoat took charge of.

Some of the Cruise Ship Ambassadors saw them off.

Ahoy cruise ships & others

by Clive Mathison

Wow! What a delight to see the luxurious cruise ship Wind Surf arrive for a one day stop in Falmouth docks on Saturday 13 July. This is Wind Star Cruises 310 guest flagship which has 7 decks and an international crew of 191 staff. The ship is registered in the Bahamas.

The length of Wind Surf is 162m (535ft) at waterline, 183m (677ft) including bowsprit it has a draught of 5m (16.5ft).

The impressive 7 triangular self-furling computer operated sails with 2,600 square meters of Dacron surface area must be a stunning sight to see. Alas they were not unfurled whilst arriving and departing from Falmouth docks.

Its graceful arrival and departure was a sight to watch.

NMMC visit to the Met Office

By Anne Pond

 Another early start on 3 June 2013 for a group of us, leaving Falmouth at 7.30 am we were on our way to the Met Office in Exeter. Once again Phil was after his Costa coffee and with time to spare we met up at the M5 services at Exeter for coffee and cake. The drive up was good with lots of sunshine – thank you to the Met Office for arranging this for us!

We were warmly welcomed at the reception by the Met Office staff; where screens on the wall displayed the current weather patterns over the UK and the forecast for the following 24 hours. Once signed-in we were taken through to the library and introduced to the team and given our agenda for the day.  Our visit started with a tour of the building.  The Met Office moved from Bracknell to its current site in September 2003.  Built on a green belt site on the edge of Exeter, fully funded by the Government, built on time and within budget. The building is on 3 floors and running through the middle is an open space known as The Street; where people meet, chat and have coffee. The Met Office previously came under the MoD but since July 2011 became part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and operates on a commercial basis.

The tour started at the Hadley Centre, which is a world leader in climate research. Next, the Operations Centre where information comes in from Europe, NOAA and many locations worldwide and models of weather patterns are analysed and passed on to give forecasts for aviation, marine, UK weather forecasting and forecasting for events and much more. The shipping forecast comes from Aberdeen. 

The Met Office operates 24 hours day, 365 days a year, has two separate electricity supplies (in case one supply goes down) and an IBM 775 Superhuman computer; developed for high performance computing for weather and climate modelling. It has the capacity to make more than 100 trillion calculations a second and takes in hundreds of thousands of weather observations from all round the world used then as a starting point for analysing weather patterns. The first computer used in 1959 was capable of 30,000 calculations a second. Weather forecasting has come a long way in 50 years.  The Met Office, currently number one, is proud to be ranked in the top two in the world, with Japan (who has similar climatic conditions to the UK).

Travelling the seas you will see yellow weather buoys similar to ODAS22 (Ocean Data Acquisition System). This type of buoy gathers scientific data on local sea conditions such as water temperature, air pressure and temperature, wind speed and direction, average wave height and period. After lunch we were given a tour of the library and the archives which hold one of the most comprehensive collections on meteorology in the world. The Met Office was opened in 1854 and in the library is an exhibition of meteorological equipment and artefacts used throughout the 150 years of its existence.  Available to the public is a wealth of journals and books including the UK Daily Weather reports back to 1869. If required, you can request the meteorological report for a specific day. Fact sheets and guides are available in the library and on the website, in PDF format, on subjects such as The Shipping Forecast, Interpreting Weather Charts, Clouds and the Beaufort Scale. Historical weather fact sheets are available for certain events such as the Penlee lifeboat disaster, D-Day, departure day for RMS Titanic and coming up to current day with the Royal Wedding in 2011.

We then walked across to where the archives are deposited, in a separate building; shared with the Devon Heritage Centre. The Met Office has four repositories with a wealth of archive material including synoptic weather charts, daily index cards on rainfall and ships meteorological logs including historic voyages such as HMS Beagle, on which Darwin sailed with Captain FitzRoy to the Galápagos Islands in 1837. Several documents were made available for us to look at including the weather records of Scott’s Antarctic expedition from 1911, showing a fascinating drawing of a gramophone and candle set up as an alarm system to wake them when they were sleeping, a register of weather observations for Falmouth, an account of John Narborough’s voyages and discoveries to the Straights of Magellan, the South Seas, Greenland and Spitsberg, published in 1694 and the original Beaufort Scale.

We all had a fascinating experience and an enjoyable time.

Your blue museum card

A couple of weeks ago we, whilst on holiday in Dorset and Somerset, decided to visit the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. At the cash till (being cheeky) I produced my blue museum card and asked if there were any discounts available. Imagine our surprise when she scanned the card and said "Yes, free entry for yourself and a guest." This saved John, a friend and me a total of £39.

So, whenever you're visiting a museum give it a try. They can only say no!

Pauline Fortey