Friends of Lady Daphne

The Friends of the Lady Daphne Volunteers sail her around the coast, each volunteer fitting in to an area that suits both their skills and enjoyment. Andy and Ali began as cinema events visitors and eventually offered their time on board. Andy graduated to front of house where he welcomes visitors and guests, and Ali trained to become the Bar Manager. Alan and David are both local musicians and the ship’s Musical Directors, organising Shanty Nights with other local groups. Claire is a local artist who organises multiple events to cater for any creative painting visitors, and Emily is a local writer who helps to promote literature events and courses that are run onboard. David and Richard are a duo ‘Off The Hook’ and set up regular and popular Open Mic Nights for all. Local traditional boat owners volunteered their time to aid with maintenance assistance and other volunteers including John, Nicola and Myles, were able to help with everything from painting to rigging. The Lady Daphne also has Children’s Activity Coordinators, Robin and John, who run successful activity days for young people including organising trips for local schools.

Restoration Crew PS Maid of the Loch and SS Freshspring Volunteers

Restoration Crew PS Maid of the Loch

The volunteers have always been at the heart of the restoration of the Maid of the Loch, providing visitor services to the public and directors and also managing the whole restoration process, engineering, finances, marketing and supply. The restoration process has excelled over the last 18 months, with careful management to finish extensive and urgent repairs to the hull. A lot of the work was done by a small group of volunteers, some who had prior skills and others who had to learn on the job but still managed to facilitate the work of professional welders. The maintenance and restoration to the vessel involves hard and skilled physical work on a regular basis  which the volunteers have spent thousands of hours doing. The trained volunteers are fully committed to relating the Maid of the Lochs story and are on site regularly to provide ‘hard hat’ tours and to tell the story of  1950’s Shipbuilding on the Clyde. The restoration could not have been achieved without the hard work that the volunteers have provided with a can-do attitude.

SS Freshspring Volunteers

The volunteers are fundamental to the survival and conservation of the SS Freshspring. They have continued to work on the maintenance of the vessel and they have been focusing on new ways to engage with the public and new audiences. The volunteers have worked on a mast project to shape a tree into a new mast for the vessel which took hours of fine workmanship skill. SS Freshspring has also recently celebrated its 75^th anniversary where they welcomed over 300 visitors and ran a range of activities to engage with the public, and to raise awareness of the steamships and maritime heritage within Northern Devon. This was followed by further engagement through their ‘Sea Shanty and Seafood’ event in which they partnered with local organisations to strengthen their relationships within the local community . As well as the public, there are opportunities for students to visit the ship for educational activities to include them in the heritage and skills to show what life would be like on board.

The Daniel Adamson Crew and The Steamship Shieldhall Charity

The Daniel Adamson Crew 

The steamboat Daniel Adamson (‘The Danny’) was relaunched in 2016, has sailed into the elite ranks of the National Historic Fleet and has become a place for people of all ages to volunteer, share and learn in a rural and economically mixed community. Volunteers are involved in everything, from manning the engine rooms, running the decks and carrying out maintenance to running the organisation’s outreach and engagement activities. The Danny has built a sense of pride in local history and created connections in the community amongst generations. They have encouraged volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to get involved, thus reducing isolation amongst the older generations and encouraging those who would not usually be involved with a historic vessel to do so. The vessel requires all manner of skills to keep it running and the volunteers share their skills and experiences both with each other and with visiting members of the public. The volunteers have provided a bespoke learning experience for schoolchildren and have even adapted their approach to meet the learning needs of young people with autism and their families.  

Volunteers and Trustees, The Steamship Shieldhall Charity 

Steamship Shieldhall is the largest working steamship in Britain and is owned and operated entirely by volunteers. They offer day trips for the general public as well as Experience Days for 16–18-year-olds. The volunteers have shown immense commitment and consistent effort, despite the adverse impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their ability to carry out their usual activities. They are an extremely well organised and passionate team which delivers tangible results and has worked hard to ensure the secure future of the Steamship Shieldhall. The volunteers have produced a 5-year business plan, secured a 10-year berth agreement with Southampton port authorities, successfully applied for a number of vital grants and have updated their website and social media to better increase their engagement with the public.  

HMS Unicorn Maintenance Volunteers and Dartford and Crayford Creeks ‘Banks Team’, Dartford and Crayford Creek Restoration Trust

HMS Unicorn Maintenance Volunteers 

It is only through the tireless efforts, hard work and dedication of the HMS Unicorn Volunteer Team that this incredible historic ship can both survive and thrive. With only a handful of staff, the support that is provided by the volunteers is truly incredible and it is thanks to them that HMS Unicorn, the 6th oldest ship in the world and the 3rd oldest afloat, preserved and open to the public into the 21st Century.  

In 2019, there was an average of 15 volunteers helping on the ship each week which amounted to a total contribution of 3,366 hours. There were 7 special maintenance work nights throughout the year, with an average of 10 volunteers each night, giving 210 hours in total. Volunteers completed a wide range of maintenance tasks which are vital to the restoration and maintenance of the ship. 

The volunteers were instrumental in preparing the ship to be reopened after the Covid lockdown. They did a huge amount of the deep cleaning and tidying, both on and around the ship, which made reopening possible. They also assisted with setting up safety equipment, including signage, one-way systems and hand sanitiser stations. As most of the ship’s staff were on furlough for a long period of time, the role of volunteers became even more crucial. 

The Dartford and Crayford Creeks ‘Banks Team’ – Special Commendation 

The Dartford and Crayford navigations were an important part of the commercial life of the area for centuries, but when commercial traffic came to an end in 1980, the creeks and locks became overgrown and rubbish filled. The DCCRT wants to bring this area back to life and a key part of this vision is the provision of moorings and maintenance facilities for historic vessels.  

The Decima arrived in Dartford in 2017 and immediately became an important tool in the restoration of the creeks. The ‘Banks Team’ have cleared the Priory Lock and the surrounding land, working with the Decima’s winches to clear broken equipment so that barges can use the lock. The team are now working at the head of Crayford Creek and the Decima is again supporting the work. They are also working to clear the embankments of the River Cray, allowing them to be used by the public without harming the wildlife. 

The clearing work, also involving removing fallen trees, will reopen Crayford Creek fully. The winch used to move barges within the mill basin has been discovered and is being restored so that it can be re-instated along with information about the history of the mill. 

Watch the Awards Presentation here: https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/page/awards-2020

Ross Revenge Restoration Group

The Ross Revenge Restoration Group have been responsible for saving and restoring the Ross Revenge, the largest vessel in the Ross fishing fleet and the base of Radio Caroline in the 1980s. They have raised a great deal of funds and awareness to cover the costs incurred in salvaging and refurbishing the ship which has constituted a huge financial commitment to the vessel. They have established two highly effective volunteer teams which have allowed volunteers to use their skills efficiently. Their hard work has meant that the ship is now ready to be enjoyed by the public, hopefully for many years to come.

Around and Around Volunteers

The Lively Lady was built in 1948 and was made famous when greengrocer Alec Rose completed his single-handed trip around the world twenty years later. Between 2006 and 2008 Alan Priddy, founder of the Around and Around charity, took charge of the Lively Lady and circumnavigated the globe with the help of a crew of disadvantaged young adults. Around and Around volunteers have restored the Lively Lady to mark the 50^th anniversary of Alec Rose’s voyage, after a professional project to do so did not take off.

The volunteers spent over 4,000 hours working on Lively Lady, including laying a new deck and rebuilding the engines, and collaborated with a dozen local companies who provided materials and support for the work. Once she had been restored, Lively Lady recreated the famous 1968 homecoming journey into Portsmouth Harbour and was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers.

The restoration would not have been completed without the dedication of the volunteers who cleaned, stripped, mended, remade, modified and preserved this iconic Portsmouth vessel.

Friends of President and Skylark IX Trust

The members of this team are responsible for the maintenance, operation, promotion and fundraising for both President and Kildare, two narrow boats owned by the Black Country Living Museum. For both the Friends and the Museum, it is important that the boats are seen outside of the confines of the museum, travelling the national canal network as they both represent an important part of the history of the canals.

The Friends organise regular maintenance work parties and also training weekends for new members. They are actively involved in fundraising, holding bucket collections at shows and selling merchandise to raise money for maintenance work, such as their current project of replacing the boiler tubes. The Friends have also organised crewing rotas to operate both boats at the same time, and those on duty are encouraged to dress up in historical costume to add to the history of the vessels. They actively engage with visitors at boat shows, selling merchandise and generally talking about the history of the canals and their vessels.

Without the contribution of the Friends, the boats would remain on static display at the museum and far fewer people would be able to appreciate their importance. It is due to the Friends of President that the sight, sound and smell of a steamer with a butty in tow can still be enjoyed and appreciated.

Skylark IX Recovery Trust (Spirit of Dunkirk Team)

An Award of Special Commendation was given to the Skylark IX Recovery Trust. Skylark XI is the only little ship from Dunkirk in Scotland, having returned there after saving over 600 men during Operation Dynamo. Unfortunately, she fell in to disrepair and sank in 2010, destined to be broken up before a Trust was formed to raise the vessel and transport it to a location where it could be restored.

The ‘Spirit of Dunkirk’ team are a group of volunteers in recovery from addiction who have found a way to help their own recovery journeys, through the recovery and restoration of this vessel. The team have carried out some incredible fundraising activities over the past year, including a 95-mile hike around the Isle of Arran and the 3 peaks challenge – completed while carrying the propeller from the Skylark!

The team is a group of ordinary young people with their own complex difficulties who have stepped up to raise money for this vessel’s future, and many of them are now learning woodworking skills which will enable them to physically help restore the Skylark.

Daniel Adamson Preservation Society Engineering Department

The restoration of the Daniel Adamson tug boat began in 2008 and by August 2016 had entered Canning Dock under its own power, thanks to the restoration of no less than 11 steam engines and pumps aboard, as well as the engine driven air pumps.

The Daniel Adamson Preservation Society boasts a large number of very capable volunteers with a wealth of engineering knowledge, including lathe turners, machinists, engineers, pattern makers and instrument technicians. Over 20 volunteers worked on the restoration of the Daniel Adamson from 2008 to 2015, undertaking repairs and refurbishment as well as testing all of the pipework and machinery to determine its condition prior to work being carried out.

A workshop with suitable tools was set up for the restoration project and it was decided that all the mechanical work for the restoration would be done in house by the volunteers, thus saving the society approximately £1.5 million.

Group 199 and the HMS Belfast Warship Conservation Team

Group 199

Group 199 volunteer aboard Steam Pinnace 199, a member of the National Historic Fleet which was restored in 1970 and is currently owned by the National Museum of the Royal Navy. A recent survey highlighted the need for a ‘100 year’ refit and the group managed to raise £110,000 towards the project. The refit began in 2012 and Group 199 contributed over 13,000 hours of labour carrying out a whole range of tasks – the hull was stripped back, and hull timbers were replaced, as well as the engine beds and supporting timbers. The volunteers tried to maintain as many of the original features as possible and their hard work has meant that the ship has been relaunched and is now displayed afloat to the public.

HMS Belfast Warship Conservation Team

The HMS Belfast is a cruiser which was in active service with the Royal Navy from 1938 until 1965 and is the last remaining example of the gunned warships built in the first half of the 20^th Century. The ship is now open to the public and provides displays, exhibitions and function spaces. This committed group of volunteers are dedicated to the conservation of the vessel, working on three main projects across the year – restoring the boat crane, restoring the mount of the ship and conserving one of the close range blind fire directors. The volunteers also put on demonstrations to the public using equipment they have restored and give talks to visitors and professionals about their work.