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Thread: Ship (of the line) Hulks

  1. #1

    Default Ship (of the line) Hulks

    While searching for French warship pictures, I found a few pictures with ship-of-the-line hulks and a wiki report about hulks:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_%28ship%29

    Interesting that the decomissioned warships were used for many funktions.

    I like to show here a few pictures.

    A hulk in the French harbour of Toulon used as a barracks. This is a photo!



    A prison hulk used by the British.



    A hulk in the French harbour of Toulon. Sometimes they used them as powder storage.



    Another prison hulk.





    While searching the net, I found pictures of an exhibition about live on a prison hulk.

    Did anyone of you know something about it, or visited such an exhibition?

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    Unfortunately (or fortunately, given what conditions on hulks were like), I've never seen or heard of such an exhibition on these shores, much less been to one.

    I suspect attempting to recreate the conditions of a hulk, esp. a prison ship, would be more appropriate to a Halloween house-of-horrors than a museum; said conditions would in the modern age be considered a War Crime.

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    Interesting information and images Sven. Thank you for posting these things.

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    Danke for the info. I am looking into this now that you have piqued my interest.

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    Still a few around today

    Name:  HMS_Unicorn1.jpg
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    HMS Unicorn, Dundee

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    It's nice to see when they restore these hulks. Here is a link to a newspaper article showing how they renovated the hulk of HMS Trincomalee to a fully restored frigate.

    http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.u...loating-t.html

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    From article:

    But a spokesman for the National Historic Ships Committee was adamant and defended the decision, "Despite meeting a number of the requirements to get on the list she wasn't built in the UK, if we included the Trincomalee we would have to look worldwide at all other ships not built in the UK" he said.

    ...

    DIAMONDBACK! SOMEONE OVER THERE NEEDS A GIBBS-SLAP, STAT! >:)

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    Interesting thread.

    I would like to see the inside of the HMS Unicorn, or some such conversion. I can easily envision someone turning such hulls into upscale apartments, art studios, restaurants, or clubs. I have seen similar conversions with old churches, some of which were pretty innovative in utilizing the original architecture.

    Nice article, Chris.

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    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    DIAMONDBACK! SOMEONE OVER THERE NEEDS A GIBBS-SLAP, STAT! >:)
    Chris, over the years I've learned not to expect competence, common sense or anything but self-interest in the civilian bureacrats of once-Great Britain or any other country for that matter.

    There's a REASON why back where my German ancestors came from, telling somebody "You work like a civil servant" was and in some circles still IS grounds to break out the swords...

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
    I would like to see the inside of the HMS Unicorn, or some such conversion
    Put Dundee on your list of places to visit when you come over. She is open to the public, although I'm not sure of the opening hours. Dundee is a great place to visit - the RRS Discovery and the Shackleton museum is there too

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diamondback View Post
    Chris, over the years I've learned not to expect competence, common sense or anything but self-interest in the civilian bureacrats of once-Great Britain or any other country for that matter.

    There's a REASON why back where my German ancestors came from, telling somebody "You work like a civil servant" was and in some circles still IS grounds to break out the swords...
    LOL, in my experience if you really want to f**k up, contract it out, or even better, get a politician involved and then contract it out to his mates. If you look at our great procurement disasters in recent years that have been blamed on civil service staff you will find a pollie and/or a contractor as the actual cause.

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    Quote Originally Posted by csadn View Post
    DIAMONDBACK! SOMEONE OVER THERE NEEDS A GIBBS-SLAP, STAT! >:)
    No, what they actually need is decent funding. It would be nice to see ships like Whimbrel and Melik returned to the UK and restored. They are nationally historic ships. Ir would also cost a whole s***load of money. And thats just to get them here. Restoring historic ships or even preserving them is expensive (look at the Cerberus near Melbourne for example). And once preserved, looking after historic ships isn't cheap, as the owners of the Olympia in Philadelphia are finding. I can't believe they honestly considered taking her out to sea and scuttling her recently. Even now her future is far from certain. And there are a number of other preserved ships in the US that are in serious financial problems.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diamondback View Post
    I've learned not to expect competence, common sense or anything but self-interest in the civilian bureacrats of once-Great Britain
    As one of those people you so easily denigrate I have to say I find that comment deeply offensive (and complete b****ks).

  14. #14

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    Intersting, that there are still some existing hulks in a good condition.

    Thank you for the information, Mr. Manley & Moideeb.

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    Quote Originally Posted by David Manley View Post
    Put Dundee on your list of places to visit when you come over. She is open to the public, although I'm not sure of the opening hours. Dundee is a great place to visit - the RRS Discovery and the Shackleton museum is there too
    Will do. Thanks.

    As to the discussion about funding, I am afraid we live in an era where the appreciation of history is lessening in general, and is only compounded by revisionist history. What, at one time, was seen as something grand, today, is often lamented. Think of the changing attitude towards Columbus in the U.S. I am not saying that Western nations have unblemished histories, but they are not the reason for the world's ills as they often are made out to be in our educational systems and political discourse. When such an attitude prevails, why bother funding the preservation of such histories. It is sad, and at times, unjust.

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    Quote Originally Posted by David Manley View Post
    As one of those people you so easily denigrate I have to say I find that comment deeply offensive (and complete b****ks).
    C'mon, he denigrated the whole world at once. If everyone took offence, this thread would catch on fire. Don't be so thin skinned. Have a drink.

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    I can appreciate David's comment. In all my interactions with him, he has ever shown himself to be someone truly committed to his craft, and does so in service of others.

    I think if DB had specifically stated politicians, he would have received a hearty, "Hear, hear."

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by OmegaLazarus View Post
    C'mon, he denigrated the whole world at once. If everyone took offence, this thread would catch on fire. Don't be so thin skinned. Have a drink.
    I am not sure I agree there, he did mention Britain by name. He made a sweeping generalization and assumption based on one line in a long article about the restoration of a historic ship in another country. IMO people should take more care before posting comments like that.

  19. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moideeb View Post
    It's nice to see when they restore these hulks. Here is a link to a newspaper article showing how they renovated the hulk of HMS Trincomalee to a fully restored frigate.

    http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.u...loating-t.html
    Back on the topic - Thanks for posting this article. I visited the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in August and they had a display about the shipyard in Bombay and a nice model of the HMS Trincomalee.

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    Quote Originally Posted by David Manley View Post
    No, what they actually need is decent funding. It would be nice to see ships like Whimbrel and Melik returned to the UK and restored. They are nationally historic ships. Ir would also cost a whole s***load of money. And thats just to get them here. Restoring historic ships or even preserving them is expensive (look at the Cerberus near Melbourne for example). And once preserved, looking after historic ships isn't cheap, as the owners of the Olympia in Philadelphia are finding. I can't believe they honestly considered taking her out to sea and scuttling her recently. Even now her future is far from certain. And there are a number of other preserved ships in the US that are in serious financial problems.
    Restoring these ships is indeed expensive. Right now HMS Victory is undergoing major renovation work. Just to get her back to her glory from how she is now is costing £50 million pounds, or $80 million US dollars to do. Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Donald Gosling, whose foundation is paying for half the cost even admitted that to build the ship from scratch would cost less than the money required to conserve her. I can see why sometimes they consider scrapping and scuttling ships rather than preserving them. I think its fantastic to see that even with the huge expense of these projects, that there is still enough interest that some are still preserved, even if it is never as many as we would like.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Diamondback View Post
    Chris, over the years I've learned not to expect competence, common sense or anything but self-interest in the civilian bureacrats of once-Great Britain or any other country for that matter.
    Indeed, the burro-crat who is actually willing to do his job with any amount of concern for anyone besides himself is painfully rare (and the ones who do rarely get the attention they deserve; all the attention goes to the Biblical screwups) -- which is where this comes in:

    http://www.ncoer.com/wall.htm

    (Skippy was wrong -- there *is* a manual for Wall-to-Wall Counseling.... >:) )

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