What's on board the Arctic Corsair?

   Arctic Corsair bridge.

The Arctic Corsair is one of the most visible links between Hull and its fishing history. Whilst preparing for the ship’s impending move for refurbishment, we at Hull Museums have removed around 1200 items ashore for safe keeping. These items in the main consist of everyday objects which assisted the crew in their arduous work. In the second blog focussing on the Arctic Corsair, I thought you might find it interesting to take a look at some of these items.

Many of the items are the sort of objects which people take for granted. You may have walked past them whilst on a guided tour of the ship without taking any real note of them. This is not to downplay their significance, for their very everyday nature helps to recreate the setting of a sidewinder trawler. You may not notice them, but they are part of the link with the past which the Corsair represents.

Whilst cataloguing the ship’s collection, volunteers documented seat cushions, pillows, mattresses, curtains, and duvets in the crew’s accommodation. In the case of the seat cushions, these items are likely to have been on board the ship whilst fishing, though may not be originals from 1960. Other examples are less clear. Some of the duvets are in the style used by trawlermen, though may have been added at a later date, possibly donated by former trawlermen. The story behind some of the curtains follows that they were recreated to the same design as the originals by the same company after the Corsair had been purchased for preservation by the council.

 

Items from the Corsair collection.

Moving on to the galley, pantry, and mess areas and our cataloguing volunteers came across cutlery, cooking equipment, and food props. Ships such as the Corsair would sail for around three weeks at a time and, whilst fresh fish was always on the menu, the number of perishable items carried was limited. A quantity of tinned food was a necessity. The collection contains tinned soup, tinned skipjack tuna, a packet of custard powder, tinned garden peas, and other similar items. Props include an aluminium pan containing four rubber eggs, wryly catalogued with the note ‘still not overdone!’.

Another area which our volunteers catalogued was the forepeak or, to give it another name, the covered bit at the front of the ship. The collection here reflects fishing operations. It includes items such as nets and floats which are immediately identifiable as connected with the industry. Shackles, spanners, and pulley blocks add to the sense that this was the working end of the ship. The majority of these items were added when the Corsair’s opened as a museum, though represent the sort of items which would have been stored in this area when the ship was in service. Some of the nets were braided by former trawlermen, using the needle skills which would have served them in repairing torn gear whilst fishing.

One of the most interesting parts of the Arctic Corsair is the wheelhouse and wireless room area. This was essentially the office from where the ship was run. The skipper and mate took it in turns to supervise the bridge. All manner of equipment survives here, including the ship’s rudder indicator, fish-finding sonar equipment, and a tannoy system. In the adjacent chart room, volunteers catalogued a number of reminders of the everyday life of a distant water fishing vessel. This includes a diary for 1958 noting catches and fishing locations, and numerous charts showing fishing grounds in areas varying from the North Sea to Snaefellsjokull on the west coast of Iceland.

A representative from Marconi Marine, the manufacturers of much of the electronic equipment in the radio room, would have manned the wireless system. It was a legal requirement for trawlers to carry such a person following the safety campaign led by the ‘Headscarf Revolutionaries’ in 1968. The radio room contains numerous examples of Marconi equipment, including Marconi Mimco 2235 and Marconi Atlanta receivers, and a Sailor VHF radio. The extent to which these items are original depends on who you ask, but it seems likely they are mixture of original items and authentic pieces which were added after the Corsair became a museum.

Radio room on board the ship.

There was at one time a stuffed ships’ cat on board, however, in the tradition of maritime superstition, this was thrown overboard by a volunteer several years ago on the grounds that it brought bad luck!