Shamrock's New Sails

On Tuesday 19th June 2018 traditional sailmaker Patrick Selman of Gaff Sails, Falmouth, visited Cotehele Quay and delivered a new set of sails for Shamrock made from ‘clipper tan’ canvas. The new set consists of the :Mainsail, Staysail, Jib and Mizzen Sail, constructed in traditional form as a replica of Shamrock's original rig. These have been hand roped with all the eyes, reef ties and thimbles hand sewn. A bequest to the National Trust towards new sails for Shamrock from Lawrence Bordley covered a large percentage of the £36,000 total cost. Janet Bordley, representing Lawrence, along with Shamrock's skipper Shaune Blight, accepted the delivery of the sails.

To raise funds towards the cost of Shamrock's current restoration, for a small donation visitors can sign the rear of one of her new hull planks. Janet was the first to sign the plank on behalf of Lawrence. The crew is happy to report that the new sails are a lot lighter than the set they are replacing.

New set of sails for Shamrock.

Janet, Patrick & Shaune.

Thimble, eyes and rope detail.

Reef tie fleur-de-lis.

Plank signing.

Handover Day

Saturday 16th April 2016 has been chosen as the date to celebrate the handover of Shamrock shares held by the National Maritime Museum to the National Trust. The tide is right so the old lady should be afloat ready to welcome her visitors.

While preparing the handovers official paperwork, copies of Shamrock's old registry documents were found, including her first one which is dated 7th September 1899 with Tom Williams as sole owner and there is a single entry dated 27th May 1907 recording when Tom and his brother Fredrick became joint owners with 32 shares each. There is an entry in red which reads 'Registry closed this 14th July 1919. Vessel reregistered anew in consequence of material alterations'. This was the result of having an engine fitted and instead of being a pure sailing ship Shamrock became a sailing ship with auxiliary motor.

Shamrock's 2015 Review & 2016 Look Ahead

2015

Started with Shamrock's main and mizzen masts being removed to the boat shed where they were stripped back to bare wood, dried out, patched up, painted, varnished and finally stepped (put up) in March. After being rigged and a period of general maintenance (painting) her first trip of the year was completed in June with a trip to Saltash Regatta. The end of July saw Shamrock attend the Plymouth Classic Boat Rally with both the outward and return journeys completed in wet weather. Augusts 'Shamrock Day' was a success and with the increasing number of visitors during the year a new gangway was purchased in September to make access easier and more robust. The rest of the year was taken up with yet more painting. Finally, after years of hint dropping by the crew, planning and fundraising to fit an engine in Shamrock has started. This will make trips to Plymouth, and perhaps beyond, a lot less fraught with the added bonus of, when away for a weekend, being able to easily take her out into Plymouth Sound and actually sail her.

2016

Is the year the National Trust becomes the sole owners of Shamrock and some form of celebration is being planned, (party time). This will also be the ‘year of the engine’ with Shaune and Joe searching out the correct engine for her and Shaune working out how and where to fit it. The annual trips to Saltash Regatta and Plymouth Classic Boat Rally are planned with maybe some bonus trips.

Meeting and Greeting

Being a Shamrock meet and greet volunteer brings with it some different challenges from the normal duties of a National Trust volunteer.

Weekends are the most hectic with the need to arrive at least half an hour before opening to manhandle the gangway into place, not so easy if it's a high tide, open up the forward and after hatches, remove the forward starboard cargo hatch board and reinstate the guard rail. Then the bilges need to be checked and pumped out if required, we can't have the visitors getting wet feet and finally, notice boards need to be placed to inform visitors that Shamrock is open and they are welcome on-board. The notice about what hazards to watch out for whilst on board and the need for parents to accompany children, is of particular importance.
From Shamrock’s perspective the most important piece of equipment is of course, the collection box, this needs to be strategically placed before removing the keep off notice.
After having welcomed the first visitors on-board, with the usual "do mind your head" greeting, is when it is realised that the raising of the ensign has been forgotten!

Some of the questions visitors ask, in no particular order.

• Does she ever sail? Best answered after the first trip of the year.
• What did see carry? Originally manure, best answered after they have visited the hold.
• Where's the engine? The information board shows an engine but even though Shamrock was restored to as she was in the 1920's no engine was fitted during the restoration.
• What does she weigh? Approximately 32 tons.
• How much can she carry? Up to 50 tons.
• Can people take trips on her? Not at the moment, due to prevailing Health & Safety and insurance.

At the end of a hopefully successful day a quick check for stowaway children is required before finally securing everything and shutting up for the night.

Shamrock's information board.

 

The Shamrock Project

This post looks at the future of Shamrock and how to fund her once the National Maritime Museum grant ends.

As some of you may know, Shamrock is funded by a grant from the National Maritime Museum, which next year will be £36750. Unfortunately the grant funding will come to an end in 2015 and if the National Trust were to provide equivalent funding it would take much needed money from other important conservation projects. Consequently, we need to become innovative and find new ways to raise money to preserve Shamrock. A new ‘Shamrock Project’ has been established to lead the way and Nigel Tigwell has been exploring possibilities of raising money and reducing the costs of Shamrock without compromising her conservation standards.
The first big question to be answered in what Shamrock’s role is to be. From the 1970s restoration onwards she has been the country’s “Historian’s Ship”. This means she was restored to demonstrate to future generations the limitations of sail and the difficulties with which seamen of former ages had to contend. Her perpetual upkeep would keep museum curators and historians in touch with the practical challenges of traditional maintenance, preparing for sea and sailing an organic sailing ship. The combination of these roles helps historians better understand and interpret the naval campaigns and battles of the past, by supplementing the written records of operating larger, more complex wooden ships, both merchantmen and warships.
As the “Historian’s Ship” Shamrock was restored, not as a museum exhibit, but to sail in an identical material condition as she did in 1926. Cotehele Quay was reconstructed to provide a traditional Tamar small shipyard as her base, for her maintenance and to enable a holistic interpretation of the River Tamar trade under sail.  Shamrock is still maintained to traditional standards by traditional methods (OK, we occasionally use power tools) and she still remains as she was at the end of her restoration, with no anachronous materials and seaworthy.
Much of the cost of conserving Shamrock is in maintaining her in a seaworthy state and running her Boatshed, dock and slipway at Cotehele. If, for example, the powers that be decided the country no longer needed a “Historian’s Ship”, we could save a significant amount of money by not maintaining her to the same standard. Needless to say, the Shamrock crew and all at Cotehele are keen to continue with the “Historian’s Ship”, but the question has to be asked.
So, back to raising money, and how we might do it.  It really falls into 3 avenues: get better at what we already do; look for new revenue streams; or apply for grants from elsewhere. Covering grants first, this is superficially attractive but has a low chance of success. The Heritage Lottery Fund and others like to fund restoration projects, but not ongoing year-on-year maintenance. We might be able to get a grant to help with a specific expensive repair, but we would rather care for and maintain Shamrock so that she doesn't deteriorate to that state.
Our current money raising activities are primarily operating river trips on the Nancy Belle and inspiring people to make donations. We did 4 trips with Nancy Belle this year and made just over £100 for Shamrock on each trip. Obviously, we need to do more trips, but Nancy Belle’s engine is old and very noisy so perhaps we will need to spend money on a better engine first? Our visitors make donations when they have had an enjoyable experience onboard Shamrock, in the Boatshed and the Discovery Centre and when they understand the cost of preserving and operating Shamrock. If we can attract more visitors and further improve our visitors’ experience, hopefully Shamrock will receive more generous donations. We have some good ideas to achieve this, but again it all needs some level of investment.
In some respects creating new revenue streams is a fun and exciting prospect, but there is a cold reality check. We must, for example, comply with the rules for the National Trust’s unique charity status and, although the economy may be growing again, there is not a great deal of money floating around. Obvious things to consider are selling more Shamrock memorabilia, ideally from the information point within sight of her; we could sell experience days for people to join the crew on one of her voyages; but these alone will not raise the level of money we need. An opportunity we see at the moment is to use the expertise of Shaune and the Boatshed volunteers to take in commercial work: possibly maintaining, repairing or restoring wooden vessels; possibly making historic vessel replicas for sale; and running skills workshops. We are also considering establishing a ‘Friends of Shamrock’ fundraising group and starting a Shamrock raffle (for a desirable object made from Shamrock’s old timbers), but there are tight rules about these activities. Our final option currently is to seek commercial sponsors, again there are rules.
Nothing is decided yet, and there is a lot of work to do before any decisions can be made. However, take heart from our studies in the Shamrock Project that we are doing all we can to ensure our beloved Shamrock does not face a cliff edge when the grant funding ends. We will keep you updated with occasional blog articles in 2014.
In the meantime, if you know of any wealthy maritime history enthusiasts …
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The Shamrock Project