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Personal Note Archive May 2007

21st May 2007

The Cutty Sark is on fire, a ship I visited a number of times as a boy. I remember standing on deck, looking at an impossibly big steering wheel, wondering how anyone could ever use the thing.

A spokesman for Cutty Sark Enterprises has talked of the fire as being one of many trials to have beset Cutty Sark through her long life. In a sense it's reassuring to think of the ship, even in dry dock, sailing on through the perils of the sea of time, even when her voyage on the oceans of the world ended long ago.

Ships are in my opinion one of the most interesting ways to view the past. Historic ships have sailed the oceans of the world, and they have sailed the ocean of time. A ship is very evocative of its particular time in history. Perhaps the identity of a time and place is more strongly concentrated in a small national community which lives much of its time in distant waters. As Captain Jack Aubrey says in Master and Commander: " though we be on the far side of the world, this ship is our home. This ship is England." I very much hope the Cutty Sark can be save

 

24th May 2007

The recent fire at the Cutty Sark, and the reaction to it, reminds us of the importance of ships to the history of Britain. Britain as an island has always depended upon shipping, but its relationship with the sea, and particularly with the navy is very revealing. The maintenance of the Royal Navy has had a profound impact on the country. Building a navy called for the establishment of all kinds of industry. The earliest centre for iron forging developed in the Weald of Kent to support the navy during Henry the Eighth's reign. There was a need for constant development of navigation science, and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich was set up for this purpose. The huge expense of the navy also helped Britain develop politically. The cost of the navy was the single most important force driving the crown into permanent partnership with Parliament, who could provide the crown with funds through taxation. The parliamentary system of Britain was really a result of the requirements of the navy. Democratic development also had an early champion in the Seventeenth Century naval administrator and diarist Samuel Pepys. Pepys made history in 1677 by insisting that progress through the ranks in the navy should be dependent on merit, judged by a young man's captain, and by examinations at the Navy Office in London. Now men like James Cook, son of a labourer, could reach the highest levels.

Ships are one of the best ways to explore the history of Britain.