MARITIME MUSEUM

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume 4185, Issue 4185, 20 November 1934, Page 2

MARITIME MUSEUM

BRITAIN MOVES AT LAST * SIR JAMES CAIRO’S GIFTS MONEY FOR EQUIPMENT “ My Lords, seventy-eight years ago, on March 4, 1856, my grandfather moved the following resolution in your Lordships’ House: — “‘That a humble address be presented to Her Majesty praying that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to take into her Royal consideration the expediency of forming a gallery of the portraits of the most eminent persons in British history,’ “ That resolution was accepted by the House and the Government, and so the National Portrait Gallery was brought into existence and a gap in the national collections began to be filled,” said Earl Stanhope; the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in the House of Lords.

“To-day it is my privilege to bring before your Lordships the National Maritime Museum Bill, which is designed to fill another gap —a museum to illustrate our great history at sea by the actions of the Navy, the mercantile marine, and our great sea explorers,” continued Earl Stanhope, in moving the second reading in the House of Lords (x’eports ‘ Public Opinion ’).' “ It is a curious fact that while Franco,.Holland, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, and Russia all have had their National Marine Museums, and Italy, Denmark, and the United States are now organising National Museums, England, whose Empire is founded upon the Seven Seas, and whose long history has been inextricably bound up with the ocean, has never had a National Maritime Museum.

TEN YEARS AGO. “It was only in 1924 that the •Society for Nautical Research began o draw attention to the question, and early in 1927 its chairman, Admiral Sir "George Hope, wrote a letter to the Admiralty on the matter. It came before me as Civil Lord, and naturally 1 became enthusiastic about it. I am glad to say that the Board of Admiralty and the First Lord, Lord Bridgeman, recommended the matter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Society for Nautical Research was authorised then to make a statement saying that in due course of time a National Maritime Museum would be instituted. “ That statement was made not a moment too soon. Already many objects of great national and historic interest have passed to foreign lands, never to return. As a result of that announcement that a national collection would be formed, Sir James Caird, who had already given £65,000 to the restoration of the Victory and £15,000 towards the restoration of the Implacable, bought the Macpherson collection of naval prints, the greatest collection of naval prints in the world, and then went on to buy the collection known as the Mercury ship models. If this Bill becomes law the Mercury models, together with those now in the' small naval museum in the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, will form the finest collection of ship models in the world. “ Sir James Caird and other donors have presented pictures, busts, grisailles, engravings, atlases, charts, navigational instruments, medals, scale models, signal books, and relics of all kinds, and there must be now, I think, more than 500 drawings and paintings by the two Van de Veldes, and I do not suppose any museum in the world has got more than 200 to 250. “ There are works by Hogarth, Samuel Scott, Monamy, Luny, Reynolds, Allan, Ramsay, Lely, and many other distinguished artists, and busts by Chantrey and Nollekens. Your 1 Lordships will realise that the collections which Sir James Caird is offering to the nation, and thos objects which have already been given by other people, form a very, wonderful collection . NOWHERE TO LEARN. “ At this moment there is nowhere in this country where the public can learn of our naval history by studying periods as it is hoped to display them at Greenwich. We hope to be able to display a picture of a great naval commander, with, perhaps, below a picture of the action in which he fought, and, close by, a model of a ship which took part in that action. “ Similarly in regard to the mercantile marine, which 1 for one am ver.> anxious to see developed in its history to the fullest possible extent. 1 believe that many bills of lading and other documents of that character may reveal how we have gradually developed our Empire, and how the flag has followed trade rather than trade following the flag. Further, there is no place where students can engage in serious study, nor is there any place to which knowledge already in the hands of individuals can be sent in order thaT it may bo kept and made available for those who require it. ‘ “ Buildings are available. The Queen’s House, built in 1655 for Queen Henrietta Maria by Inigo Jones, has been handed over to the care of the Commissioner of Works. “ When that is restored to its original condition, as is in course of being done now, your Lordships will see one of the finest houses in England, with a succession of beautiful ceilings, and a house such as will gladden the eye of' every visitor. Further, the school buildings which were inhabited by the Royal Naval School at Greenwich which were built between 1807 and 1816, and they are quite sound, but unsuitable for a modern school.

| ANOTHER OFFER. j “ Sir James Caird once more came 1 forward and offered to the Government ; to pay the cost of altering the buildj ings in order to fit them for the National Maritime Museum at an esti- ! mated cost of £29,000. In all, his gifts | to the State amount, vvith that recon--1 ditioning, to a sum of just over £JSI,'OOO, and I think your Lordships will I wish me to express on your behalf the : thanks of the country for his great | generosity. , . . ~ . “This museum will be in wmdertul surroundings. It is round the Queen’s House built by Inigo Jones, and it is 1 alongside the Royal Naval College built by Wren. It was at Woolwich and ' Deptford close by that Henry VIII. set up his new naval yards. It is rumoured —of course, it is perhaps only a fable—