Newsletter - September 2023
Historic Environment Scotland Visit to The Explorer in Leith
We had a visit from Dr Miles Oglethorpe and Mark Watson - respectively Head and Deputy Head of Industrial Heritage at Historic Environment Scotland. After Jim’s tour of the vessel, we explained our progress so far and our plans for the next stage.
While the focus of HES is primarily on Built Heritage, they suggested that we should approach their Grants Manager to see if we can qualify for any of their funding streams.
National Launch of Heritage Harbours
A new status of Heritage Harbours was launched last month to help safeguard the harbourside, buildings, facilities and businesses that are vital to support our working maritime heritage vessels.
Supported by Maritime Heritage Trust, National Historic Ships UK and Historic England, local communities in each location are developing outline plans to maintain and enhance the historic port area, its environmental features and the facilities such as shipyards and drydocks which vessels need to operate.
The Heritage Harbour concept started in northern Europe as a way of providing free or low-cost mooring to historic vessels in exchange for public display. In the UK the idea has evolved to include a wider range of local community links such as encouraging heritage skills e.g., wooden boatbuilding and cultural heritage activities as well as maritime festivals and events which benefit traders and visitors.
It’s not clear if there will be any support for a similar initiative in Scotland but we plan to raise the issue with other local heritage organisations to see what benefits and burdens of expectations it may bring.
Conservation Management Plan
The Explorer has contracted Wessex Archaeology to produce a Conservation Management (CMP) plan for the ship.
Early 2023 The Pilgrim Trust granted The Explorer with purpose bound funding to commission a CMP for Explorer. This document is one of the key conservation principles that drive a ship conservation project. It is a recorded basis for conservation process decisions. We can demonstrate that decisions on repairs, changes to the ship and to its significance will be managed effectively and sustainably through this plan.
Our hope is that the CMP enables us to receive large scale funding, which is needed to dry dock the vessel and progress on our journey towards becoming a floating museum.
The document will consist of 4 parts and help understanding the asset, state the significance of the vessel, address issues and policies and include an implementation and action plan.
Wessex Archaeology are a renowned provider of archaeological and heritage services. They have produced CMPs for HMS Victory and HMS Trincomalee among others. They began work in April 2023 and have completed the full compartment survey with the help of the volunteers recently. The final report is expected in September this year.
Explorer pdate
The Explorer has been berthed in the Port of Leith for a number of years with a team of dedicated volunteers working to keep her wind and watertight.
We received funding this year from Pilgrim Trust to allow us to commence work on the development of a Conservation Management Plan – which is being carried out by Wessex Archaeology. This work is due to be completed in September 2023 and will allow us to draw up a budget for our major conservation works over the next year or so.
However, in the meantime, we still need to fund our day-to-day costs including Insurance (Hull and Machinery and Liability cover) and pay for fuel and other routine costs to support the work of our volunteers.
SS Explorer Preservation Society
September 2023