Shipping forecast
I hope that many of you visiting this site will have time to look at our report Shipping Forecast (PDF file, 375k download). This report was the first output from the English Heritage and National Maritime Museum Partnership Project. The report is a result of a survey that was undertaken in the first half of 2003 about the NHSC Core Collection. The Project Team visited every vessel on the Core Collection and found that overall the collection faces significant challenges. The report outlines the current needs of historic ships and the ways in which those ships can be sustainable.
If you are the owner of one of the vessels listed in our Core Collection, I am sure the report will be of interest to you. It is a long read but there is a comprehensive summary at the beginning for the busy reader.
It is a report about the whole collection so not every point we make applies to every ship and we have tried to present both the good as well as the bad. It is really a report that tries to outline the current needs of historic ships and present them in a way that makes sense not only to those close to the scene but to the many in this country who are not.
I want to make one point absolutely clear and I think the whole team feels this very strongly – we know that all the historic ship teams are achieving an extraordinary task against the odds. It is their commitment, their energy and their resourcefulness, which is keeping many of these grand old ladies afloat and in good shape. The team here emphatically salutes that.
We hope that this report and the one that follows early next year on the DV List will prompt central government, national executives, regional authorities and local councils to wake up to the importance and potential of historic ships and act accordingly. We want to make sure that together and with your support, we can get better systems in place to help you in any way we can so that you can carry on successfully conserving this extremely important part of our national heritage.
As always we are here to listen to your views – they are as important as any of ours here at the NHSC – so any feedback on the report will always be welcome.
Best regards
John Paton, Secretary NHSC
The Shipping Forecast is a PDF document which can be downloaded and viewed using Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your machine, you can download it here.