Warship Management Ltd

  
By Liam Murphy Liverpool Daily Post Staff -  Jan 26 2006
 
 
A WEALTHY benefactor could be the best hope for a stricken warships collection which faces liquidation next month.

The historic collection of ships in Birkenhead docks has been told it has to move because of the conversion of the nearby corn warehouses into luxury apartments.

The Warship Preservation Trust, which runs the attraction has also been hit by the departure of its chairman Sir Philip Goodhart, who had previously underwritten its losses.

David Ball, Wirral Council’s head OF regeneration, said AS well AS losing money each YEAR the Trust has been unable TO carry out ALL the necessary maintenance TO the vessels AND they may now need expensive repairs.

Mr Ball said: “What we really need is a wealthy benefactor or organisation which can provide the initial £200,000-£300,000 and more in the future because visitor numbers are declining.” He said the council was doing everything it could TO help, butadded: “Some say the council should bail the Trust out, but councils don’t own warships or attractions, and because this is public money we have to balance this against other budget priorities. It’s very difficult but we’re doing everything we can.”

The Trust’s collection includes the German U-Boat U534, owned by Danish company Den Bla Avis, which retrieved it from the sea-bed after it was sunk in World War II.

  
Also at the site on East Float Dock in Birkenhead are HMS Plymouth which could be a focal point for the 25th anniversary commemorations of the Falklands campaign, as well as HMS Onyx, and HMS Bronington which is on the National Historic Ships Register.Mr Ball said: “Ideally, we would want to keep all the vessels together as a collection but we may not be able to do that because there does not seem to be the available space for them.”

The Warship Preservation Trust announced it was going into liquidation last week, making the future uncertain for the historic collection which is the largest group of preserved 20th century warships in Europe.

The moves to keep the ships in Wirral were given extra urgency this week after a senior Liverpool councillor said he was seeking a way to move the warships across the Mersey to a Liverpool location.

Cllr Joe Anderson, leader of the Labour group on Liverpool City Council, said the move would allow the collection to complement the Battle of the Atlantic war rooms already housed at the Maritime Museum on Albert Dock.

Wirral Council executive member for regeneration, Cllr Pat Hackett, said it would be a “bitter blow” for Wirral to lose the ships.

He said: “The council is doing all it can to keep them on Wirral. We want to build on the history around them. “But we want to keep the collection here, and it’s part OF Wirral’s long term tourism strategy.”

Wally Bennett, project director for the Trust, said they were working closely with Wirral Council to find a solution.

A spokesman for Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, which owns the current site, said: “We have offered Wirral Council another location further down the quay and that offer is on the same terms and conditions which applied to the existing location. The new location is just a matter of moving the ships some 50 metres or so down the quay.  “Where the ships are has never been a permanent position - it has always been on the agreement it would be available for a limited period of time.”

liammurphy@dailypost.co.uk

by Peter Elson Daily Post Staff

EVEN as a keen enthusiast of maritime history, I was a little uncertain whether I would enjoy a visit to the Historic Warships site at Birkenhead.

I was on assignment for the Daily Post, posing with my family as a tourist in Liverpool and Birkenhead for 48 hours.

Would the historic warships interest my wife who does not share my interest in nautical memorabilia? Would our sons, who were then eight and 12 years, find the exhibits too technical?

I need not have worried. It was one of the most enjoyable attractions we reviewed. All of the family found it entertaining and informative. The shop staff and volunteers on the warships were particularly helpful and friendly.

The boys loved crawling over the ships and especially through the Birkenhead-built submarine, HMS Onyx, truly one of the most unusual real-life exhibits in any museum. You can understand why this is Birkenhead’s ONLY international visitor attraction.

There cannot be a better location FOR these warships than IN Birkenhead’s East Float. This self-financing museum should be used as a nucleus to build up a bigger, more comprehensive museum. It’s practically NEXT door TO Cammell Laird’s old slipways, where some of the world’s greatest warships were built. This would be an ideal place TO tell their story.

Alongside IS the hulk OF U-534, raised by a Danish company AND loaned TO the Warship Preservation Trust, after Liverpool City Council turned it down.

It IS complete madness AND a profound insult TO demand that the Danes take it away, WITH the pathetic excuse there IS NO room FOR it ON this huge brown-field site.

U-534 together WITH the Daily Post campaign TO save HMS Whimbrel AND the Western Approaches HQ IN Derby house has the making OF the ultimate, Battle OF the Atlantic memorial.

Yet WITH familiar Merseyside madness we’re throwing our jewels down the drain.