PMarione
Site Admin
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 883
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 Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject: Charity may run HMS Victory!! |
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From BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/7612554.stm
| Quote: | Historic warship HMS Victory could be run by a charity or a public body, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.
The 249-year-old ship was Lord Nelson's flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar when the Royal Navy defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet.
The MoD is examining a series of options for its future maintenance.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, where the ship is based, said it was "in the Royal Navy's and the dockyard's interests to see her future secured".
HMS Victory, where Admiral Lord Nelson also died after being shot during the battle, is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.
She was built between 1759 and 1765 and is the only 18th Century ship of the line still to be found anywhere in the world.
However, the cost of maintaining her is reportedly about £1.5m a year and more, if major work is needed.
An MoD spokesman said: "This is not a case of the Navy giving away HMS Victory nor are we decommissioning it.
"We are looking at a range of funding options for the continued support and ongoing maintenance of HMS Victory."
Keeping the current status quo, public ownership by another government department or non-departmental public body as well as establishing a new charity for the vessel and employing an existing charity are among the options the MoD is investigating as part of its consultation exercise.
Some 500,000 people a year visit the ship in the dry dock in Portsmouth and it is one of the city's major attractions.
Robert Bruce, managing director at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, said: "It is clearly in both the Royal Navy's and the Historic Dockyard's interests to see her long term future properly secured and we will work with the Royal Navy to ensure that." |
"O tempora, o mores"
I would like comments on this one.
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alexlitandem
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 129
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| Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:56 am Post subject: Victory not for Sale |
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In contrast to the usual scare-mongering reporting by those enemies of reason, otherwise known as Daily Mail journalists, and even in contrast to the BBC's selected observations referenced by Patrick, here is what one finds actually being noted by the Royal Navy itself:
QUOTE:
"HMS Victory will remain part of the Royal Navy. We will not be giving her away or decommissioning the ship. It is currently run by the Navy and retired Navy personnel show the public around the ship.
The consultation is designed to produce a relationship between the RN and any of the options below which secures the necessary funding and the long term good health of the vessel, without the Royal Navy and the public losing control of the ship.
We are committed to securing her future and want to make sure that she is as well looked after as possible in her old age. That is why we are looking at a range of funding options for the continued support and ongoing maintenance of the ship.
Considerable expenditure will be required over the coming years to maintain her material state, and we will consider options that will secure these funds. These will include: maintaining the current status quo; alternative public ownership by another Government Department or Non Departmental Public Body; a new independent Charitable Organisation, either a company limited by guarantee or a charitable trust; or an existing Charitable Organisation.
In her 243rd year, HMS VICTORY is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and as such has numerous and complex maintenance requirements. The review will seek an arrangement which guarantees this future material support. Contributing to the development of Naval Heritage in Portsmouth , continuing access for the public and maintaining her status as flagship to the Second Sea Lord are all important conditions of all the options under review.
Defence Minister Baroness Ann Taylor said:
“HMS Victory will remain part of the Royal Navy. Nothing will change in that respect. The objective for this study is the sustainability of HMS VICTORY as a museum ship and commissioned Royal Navy warship. Continued access depends on extensive works being carried out over the coming years. An examination of the full range of options will seek to ensure that HMS VICTORY is preserved in a sound condition in her home port of Portsmouth for generations to come.”
Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Alan Massey said:
“The review will openly and equally examine all the options available to us to ensure that HMS Victory continues her distinguished Naval career in the best possible state. We are consulting across the full spectrum of stakeholders and interested parties and their views will play an important part in the recommendations that flow from the review.
“A veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS VICTORY is a vital part of our heritage, not only for the Navy and the people of Portsmouth but to the country as a whole and the MOD is committed to securing her future. The review will be aim to identify the option that best secures the long term material, financial and cultural viability of this much-loved ship.”
END QUOTE
Should `securing her future' ultimately involve some participation or co-stewardship by an appropriate Charity, should we be unduly concerned?
In a nation of `National Trust' devotees, `Heritage'-obsessives, surely not?
I may be mistaken, but I had understood the venerable Mary Rose herself has for many years been in the expert `custody' of a registered charity.
Let's re-read what the Vice-Admiral says once more:
" HMS VICTORY is a vital part of our heritage, not only for the Navy and the people of Portsmouth but to the country as a whole and the MOD is committed to securing her future. The review will be aim to identify the option that best secures the long term material, financial and cultural viability of this much-loved ship[/b]"
Contrast that to the asinine posturing of the Daily Mail headline-writer's alarmist: "Navy's handover of Lord Nelson's legendary flagship HMS Victory branded 'a tragedy'".
A non-existent, not-happening, handover remember.
But the article nonetheless begins, in characteristic moronic Mail-journo fashion, with this absurd, uninformed and downright false assertion:
"The government today sparked uproar by revealing Lord Nelson's legendary flagship HMS Victory could be given away to a private owner as a cost cutting measure."
What total tosh.
And who brings us this idiocy?
The by-line is "By DAILY MAIL REPORTER".
Well, if you are going to write such distorted rubbish, I suppose anonymity isn't such a bad idea.
Of course, I do genuinely respect - and empathise with - the view that says `the Nation should pay' from the public coffers, whichever budget-header is used, MOD or otherwise, essentially whatever is needed to secure HMS Victory's well-being, without limit of time.
But it may be - I stress may - that a systematic review of administrative, preservative, display and access-management issues & options etc., rather than merely unthinkingly maintaining the status quo, could yet reveal benefits to the Ship, to the Navy, to Portsmouth and to us all, as `Nation', not yet anticipated.
Whilst still, in the words of Baroness Taylor ensuring that:
“HMS Victory will remain part of the Royal Navy. Nothing will change in that respect. The objective for this study is the sustainability of HMS VICTORY as a museum ship and commissioned Royal Navy warship."
All of which is a million miles away from `Victory' being `given away'!
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