Floating museum cleared ahead of move to fitting home in dry dock
FROM POIGNANT telegrams to loved ones, to lifejackets and an immaculate pin-striped suit to be worn ashore, the decks of a floating museum are being cleared of some 2,000 historic artefacts.
The Arctic Corsair will be towed from its berth in September, as part of a project which will eventually see it in dry dock, and one of the star attractions of Hull’s £27.5m Yorkshire’s Maritime City project.
Yesterday volunteers had logged their 1,387th object, as work continues to clear the former sidewinder, which used to do 2,000-mile round trips to Iceland, before it is moved to a temporary home, ahead of flood defence work on the river Hull.
Former marine fitter and now volunteer Bill Pitts said: “If you went back to 1970 this was Hull. It was the city’s biggest employer – it supported 15,000 jobs. My two boys – 36 and 38 – don’t know what a trawler is.
“The former fish dock is in a sorry state and if you didn’t have this there would be nothing left.”
Aged nearly 60 now – she was built in Beverley in 1960 – the trawler has had a lifespan twice as long as she would have had she continued fishing. “I think we would shake her to bits if we started her up,” said Mr Pitts.
The trawler rises twice a day on the tide. “The water and air mix is very corrosive on metal. I think if she stayed where she is, she wouldn’t be here in 10 years – she would rot away,” he added.
The Heritage Lottery and Hull Council funded project will see the trawler conserved before going to a new home at North End Shipyard, in what was the original entrance into Queen’s Dock. A dry-dock setting should suit the grand old lady, revealing her phosphor bronze propellor and rudder.
Assistant curator Tom Goulder said: “You could pretty much say it is unique, it is the last of Hull’s distant water sidewinders and the only publicly accessible sidewinder trawler that we know of. Because of the size of the vessel it is a big undertaking to preserve, so we are very lucky to have the funding to be able to do it for the next 50 years.”
Guided tours are still available.