Collection: Hull Maritime Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Maritime Collection

  Probably the largest collection of Scrimshaw in Europe. Includes decorated baleen, jawbone, sperm teeth and walrus tusks some related to the 18th and 19th century Arctic fishery, but most of the striking examples are sperm whaling also known as the South Sea fishery.’ Scrimshaw- The art of the whaler’ published in 1995 illustrates many objects from the collection.ISBN 1 872167 72 1 350 items of scrimshaw, the unique folk art of the whaler comprising carved or decorated baleen, whalebone and sperm teeth. Modern examples include pieces from the shore station at Paita, Peru, whale factory ships of the 1950s and items from the Azores. Contemporary sailor-made ship models of British Arctic whalers are unique in a public collection; the only other examples are in Hull’s Trinity House. Rodmell collection contains examples of practically every piece of graphic art produced by the artist comprising printed posters, studies for posters, pen drawings, and hundreds of proofs of miscellaneous illustrations and adverts.’Shipping posters’ Harry Hudson Rodmell (1896-1984) published in 1999 ISBN 1 902709 01 2 Plan collection of ships from a variety of yards -Earle’s, Beverley Shipyard, Dunstons, Cochranes and Yorkshire Dry Dock. Beverley Shipyard, 1901-1975: 6000 plans and a series of photographs and engineering records. This yard was one of the main builders of distant water trawlers. Hull was the biggest fishing port in the world for 60 years in terms of the fleet size and tonnage of fish caught. The Beverley shipyard material is being studied for a forthcoming book describing the first 60 years of the yard. Selby Shipyard, 1902-1993: 5000 plans, and ledgers, documents and photographs. Selby rivalled Beverley in the production of distant water trawlers (as well as tugs, coasting vessels and specialist craft). A sample of plans indicating the range of vessels built is also in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The archives of these two yards are a vital source for tracing the origin and development of the steam trawler and its motor powered successors. Both yards were at the forefront of trawler design. The products of the yards dominated the Hull and Grimsby fleets, the former chiefly distant-water vessels, the latter a mix of distant and mid-water fishing vessels. Trawlers built here also played a key defensive role during both world wars. Richard Dunston of Hessle (and Thorne), 1931-1994: Documents, ledgers, build lists, photographs and models covering the yard’s development mainly on the Hessle site, (also a limited record of the Thorne site). This archive is shared with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which has the ship plans, including tugs, fishing vessels and M.O.D craft. W. H. Warren, New Holland, active 1897-1960: No less than 30,000 items from this small building and repair yard, including build lists and plans. They built iron and steel keels, crane and grab pontoons, specialist craft for the Admiralty in two world wars, and seaside pleasure steamers. The Beverley and Selby material is a vital resource for any study of trawler evolution. The aim over the last 20 years has been to build up a cross section of material relating to the yards based on the Humber and the Ouse. The trawler types were vital to the development of Hull and Grimsby as major fishing ports, but they were also sold worldwide to owners in Iceland, France, Germany, Spain and South Africa. Vessels peculiar to the Humber and its connecting system of waterways, like the keel, were produced by Warrens and Dunstons. Where possible it is intended to add to these collections, to enhance the documentation and acquire associated items like tools and ship models. The Whaling Collection This is the most comprehensive collection in existence of documents and artefacts relating to Britain’s involvement in the Arctic whaling trade (which Hull dominated c. 1790-1840) during the 19th century. It comprises a complete cross-section of whaling implements, log books, personalia, contemporary ship models (made by the whalers themselves) and paintings and prints of the Arctic fleet. There are also skeletons of the most important Arctic and Atlantic species. Hull dominated the British Arctic whaling trade from 1800-1840 and continued its involvement until the loss of the Diana in 1869. A particularly important acquisition is the journal of the Diana, the last of the Hull whale ships, recording her enforced wintering in Davis Strait 1866-1867. It was written by the ship’s surgeon, and was bequeathed by his son in 1952. An important sub-collection is the series of some 350 items of scrimshaw, the unique folk art of the whaler comprising carved or decorated baleen, whalebone and sperm teeth. This is the largest collection of scrimshaw on this side of the Atlantic, and contains pieces associated with whaling in both the northern and southern fisheries, dating from the 18th century to the present. Modern examples include pieces from the shore station at Paita, Peru, whale factory ships of the 1950s and items from the Azores. Contemporary sailor-made ship models of British Arctic whalers are unique in a public collection; the only other examples are in Hull’s Trinity House. The outstanding paintings by local artists (see Works of Art below) are a vital pictorial record of the Arctic fleet covering the period c.1760-1869. In association with the Arctic whaling material is a small but important collection of Inuit artefacts including a Greenland kayak brought to Hull by Captain Sir John Ross, Arctic explorer (1777-1856). There are cast portrait heads of two Inuit and the ship’s master who brought them to England, made by the sculptor W.D. Keyworth in 1849, when they were shown at Hull and around the north of England. An attempt has also been made to illustrate other branches of the whaling trade: the museum has acquired a blubber pot from the South Seas fishery, sent from W. Australia with the last consignment of whale oil. Hull’s direct involvement in the whaling trade ended in 1869, but local men continued to be recruited for Polar expeditions. The collection includes photographic material and documents relating to Benjamin Leigh Smith’s expeditions to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya in the 1870s and 1880s, photos and items relating to Hull men sailing with Scott and Shackleton and with the whale factory ships in the 1930s and 1950s. In association with the Arctic whaling material is a small but important collection of Inuit artefacts including a Greenland kayak brought to Hull by Captain Sir John Ross, Arctic explorer (1777-1856). There are cast portrait heads of two Inuit and the ship’s master who brought them to England, made by the sculptor W.D. Keyworth in 1849, when they were shown at Hull and around the north of England. An attempt has also been made to illustrate other branches of the whaling trade: the museum has acquired a blubber pot from the South Seas fishery, sent from W. Australia with the last consignment of whale oil. Hull’s direct involvement in the whaling trade ended in 1869, but local men continued to be recruited for Polar expeditions. The collection includes photographic material and documents relating to Benjamin Leigh Smith’s expeditions to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya in the 1870s and 1880s, photos and items relating to Hull men sailing with Scott and Shackleton and with the whale factory ships in the 1930s and 1950s. Whaling collections are lagrely 19th century when up to 1840 Hull dominated the Arctic whale fishery;it continued up to 1869.. South Sea whaling and modern pelagic industry also represented. Scrimshaw collection is probably the largest in Europe, includes the Boynton Collection purchased in 1919 by Tom Sheppard, the first curator of Hull Municipal Museums. Fishing collections range from fine sacle models of local craft through photographs, charts, equipment, personalia to paintings relating to the inshore, North Sea, and deep sea fisheries pioneered by Hull in the 19th and 20th centuries of Barents Sea, Norway, Faroe, Iceland, Greenland and latterly the South Atlantic. Merchant shipping collection includes many ship models,both full and half, posters especially the work of Harry Hudson Rodmell, ship equipment, objects, figureheads, records and plans. Over 15,000 plans, associated archives and models represent the output of local shipyards at Hull, Hessle, Beverley, Selby and New Holland (c.1890-1990s). These demonstrate the range of vessels built in the region, from Humber Keels to trawlers, merchantmen and warships, both for local use and for ship owners worldwide. A series of plans (general arrangement and engineering), build lists, ledgers, documents and photographs from local shipyards detail their history and development. Smaller collections relate to Samuelsons (1834-1864) and Earles shipyards (1853-1932). Since 1995, the plan collections have been sorted. Almost three-quarters have been organised on specialist racking, enabling individual items to be located and researched.

  Subjects

  Industry and commerce; Maritime; Advertising; Fishing (commercial); Western European

  Transport Collection

  Largest side-winder trawler preserved in Britain. It is berthed behind Streetlife Museum in the River Hull and is open to the public as a guided tour at a small cost to cover future maintenance. The museum has examples of three types of small craft either unique to Hull or peculiar to Yorkshire: a Whitby Salmon Coble is one of the last of its kind to be built (1960); a Humber Gold Duster, the classic Humber waterman’s boat and one of the last of its type (c.1930) and a Humber yawl (1894), built and designed by George Holmes for the Humber Yawl Club for recreational sailing on the Humber. Vessels in the collection include the Spurn Lightship qv, a Humber Yawl, salmon coble, Humber Duster and the Arctic Corsair. They are all Hull or Humber based vessels, either working it or elsewhere; whenever possible the vessels are used in water. The museum has examples of three types of small craft either unique to Hull or peculiar to Yorkshire: a Whitby Salmon Coble is one of the last of its kind to be built (1960); a Humber Gold Duster, the classic Humber waterman’s boat and one of the last of its type (c.1930) and a Humber yawl (1894), built and designed by George Holmes for the Humber Yawl Club for recreational sailing on the Humber. An important early piece is the figurehead of the paddle steamer, Sirius, the first vessel to cross the Atlantic, east to west, entirely under steam.

  Subjects

  Industry and commerce; Transport; Fishing (commercial)

  Fine Art Collection

  Works of John Ward, marine artist (1798-1849) including many oils, lithographs, drawings from 1817 until his death. The Hull School showed a particularly high standard, including Robert Willoughby, John Ward, Henry Redmore, Thomas Somerscales, H. H. Rodmell and living artists, D.C. Bell and Colin Verity. A major acquisition in 1998 was Wards’s academy piece of 1847 ‘HMS Britannia and units of the fleet at Spithead’. Other artists represented include O. W. Brierley, William Huggins, Antonio Jacobsen, Frank Mason and Thomas Whitcombe. The Harry Hudson Rodmell collection of shipping posters and related advertising material is an outstanding collection (800 items) of work by one of the finest poster designers of the 1920s and 1930s. It includes his earliest published pieces in 1918, his magnificent shipping posters of the 1920s and 1930s, pen drawings and marine and topographical works. In addition we are building a collection of posters advertising Hull shipping companies and the docks by contemporaries of Rodmell, such as Frank Mason, H. Gawthorne and J. Merriot. Extensive collection of paintings, drawings, prints and watercolours relating to the whaling, fishing and shipping collections covering the whole period from 17th to 20th century by many artists, but in particular the Hull artists John Ward, Henry Redmore, Robert Willoughby, W F Settle, Thomas Binks and many others. A collection of 4,000 items Many are by local artists. They provide pictorial records of the variety of craft that were built locally or operated on the Humber. The pictures range from the work of pier-head artists, local and continental, to those of the highest quality. The whole forms probably the largest gallery of images of vessels associated with a particular port or region, demonstrating worldwide contacts. They give a detailed record of the progress of local shipping. They are a major source for anyone studying the transition to steam, the evolution from paddle to screw, from auxiliary steamers to advanced transatlantic steamers and the pioneering of the powerful triple expansion engine. The collection of marine paintings is enhanced by those in the Ferens Art Gallery.

  Subjects

  Fine Art; h2>Arms and Armour Collection The museum holds the Hull Museums collection of firearms mainly made in Hull from the mid 18th to the mid 19th centuries especially the work of George Wallis Snr, Mozeen and Needler. Also pieces associated with the Wildfowlers Association of Great Britain and Ireland and Stanley Duncan founder of the WAGBI. Harpoon guns for whaling developed by Greeners of Birmingham through their Hull factory following Walliis Jnr’s invention of the first reliable gun. Also included are other weapons used, made or brought back to Hull by locals. The Hull (4th) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment’s collection is at the museum made up of guns, uniforms, documents and objects on loan from the Regimental Trust.

  Subjects

  Arms and Armour

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC