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Activities

The priorities for National Historic Ships in the short term have been agreed by the Committee to be:

  1. Maintenance and development of the National Register of Historic Ships (on-going).
  2. Creation of a conservation manual or handbook for Historic Ships over the next two years, working with key organisations such as the Conservation Institute, national museums, craft skills development bodies etc.
  3. Publication and promotion of frameworks for vessel recording and deconstruction (to be published shortly under the title Understanding Historic Ships).
  4. Production of a policy statement regarding the National Small Boat Register under development at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to clarify the relationship between this and the National Register for Historic Vessels, to ensure compatibility, common definitions; arrangements for shared pubic access to the registers, and examining the need for an associate register to the NRHV for vessels not meeting the NRHV length criterion but which are of national importance.
  5. Establishment of a central record for all core and designated vessels which have been broken up, with surveys complementing the information extant on the vessel or its type.
  6. Production of a paper mapping a way forward for developing a better understanding and linkages for inland waterways craft within the NRHV.
  7. Investigation of initiatives for ensuring the long term future of traditional boat and ship-building skills, along with dry-docking, slipping, and boatyard facilities where such skills can be carried out, working with key organisations in different parts of the UK with the aim of developing Maritime Hubs or Centres of Excellence where a combination of skills, facilities, and other resources (e.g. practitioners, university departments with maritime history / archaeology / naval architecture departments, maritime goods suppliers) could develop a critical mass.