Newsletter - June 2022
Covid restrictions
While routine maintenance and work to ensure that the vessel remained watertight was able to continue in accordance with the various Covid restrictions, we are now trying to get back to normal.
As a start, we would like to invite all members to join us on board the vessel to celebrate Explorer Day on June 25th to mark the anniversary of the vessel's launch in 1955. There will be some light refreshments, information on our progress over the last couple of years and the chance to catch up with old friends and meet a few new faces.
In addition to the work that the volunteers have carried out on board, we have been busy in a number of other ways;
- we have completed the conversion of the Society from a Company Limited by Guarantee and a registered Charity to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) which is a much more appropriate form for a charity like ours
- We have recruited new Trustees including Dr Meredith Greiling who is Principal Curator of Technology at National Museums Scotland with responsibility for all land, sea and air transportation in the collections with a particular interest in Scottish maritime history
- We have made an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund to cover the next stage of the project works which will include the commissioning of a Conservation Management Plan to guide our conservation works on the vessel - including a long-overdue drydocking
- With the support of our MSP Ben Macpherson, we have begun detailed discussions with Forth Ports and other relevant parties about finding a suitable publicly-accessible long term berth for the vessel once the drydocking and other conservation works are complete.
We have faced a number of challenges - not least the limit to our ability to raise funds through open days and other public events such as Open Doors. We are currently working hard on fund-raising with a number of potential partners but in the meantime, we need to ask all of our members for two things - firstly please ensure that you have paid up your membership subscriptions and secondly please consider if you can make a donation to SS Explorer. For both membership subscriptions and donations you can use the following link One off Donation – The Explorer – Leith, Edinburgh
SS Explorer Preservation Society
June 2022