The scrapping of paddle tug RELIANT

[Walter Snowdon]

Hello everyone, here goes for my first missive! (Hope I have got the hang of it!) Most will have heard of the sad demise of paddle tug RELIANT and the feeble excuses by the Nnational Maritime Museum for her destruction.  The paddle steamer Kingswear castle site has anexcellent article covering this in the Jjanuary gallery. Go to www.pskc.freeserve.co.uk and look for Ppicture of the month for a very interesting read (and photos). one ofd the best paddler sites around. Cheers for now, Walter.[/url]

[Eddy Matthews]

A fascinating article Walter - Unfortunately it just goes to show how pathetic we are in the UK at preserving our maritime history! :-(

How the National Maritime Museum can claim that they are interested in "dispersal" rather than "disposal" is beyond me - They have a LOT to answer for! And according to the the article they are now in the process of getting rid of another 4500 articles from their collection. That is nothing short of a national disgrace!

Regards
Eddy

[Khephre]

Hi Walter,

many thanks for the update on Reliant and for the link to the Kingswear Castle website where I found some wonderful pictures of Reliant that I had not seen before.

I must say that the actions of the NMM seem extraordinarily self-serving. And to describe the desecration wrought on her as 'dispersion' and 'an example of reform in action' is arrogant beyond belief.

Notwithstanding the loss of a fine tug, and a wonderful display, I was absolutely disgusted at the way her paddlewheel has been butchered. The curators had all the materials on hand to be able to build a fully operating original feathering paddle wheel and side-lever engine but have chosen instead to display a nonsense! Rather than providing a heritage or educational feature they have effectively displayed their own ineptitude. :cry:

Our own NMM here in Auckland may not be a well-known or well-funded organisation but they do have commonsense approach to heritage that appears to be utterly lacking at Greenwich.

Back to the Kingswear Castle News of the Month for a final comment: wonderful stuff Walter, many thanks again. I seem to recall quizzing the PD list some time ago about the two dark rectangles down on the paddleboxes - wondering if they were steps or broken paddlebox laths. Unfortunately the list was unable to resolve this smallest of dilemmas. The KC photos confirm they are indeed steps and so I shall have a bit of retrofitting to add these to my version.


Kind regards
Grumpy (and Disbelieving) Tony
Auckland, NZ