Tag: Mcmanus

The Ship Models are ‘Batten Down’

The ship models are ‘Batten down’.[1]

Dundee, Caledon and the Gourlay,

constructed the Tay’s floating crown.

 

The skilled and well-trained creators.

Drillers, engineers, and foundry workers,

hold memories of boilermakers.

 

The sailors in search for the whale.

Fisherman, sea captains, and the crew,

so many whalers were built to sail.

 

The Privateer[2] will prey to pursue.

Fore, Main Mizzen and the Spanker,

even a Bumboat[3] is here to view.

 

The industrial world of pride and concern.

Shipbuilders, shipmasters, and the owners,

inspecting their keels from bow to stern. [4]

 

The Beam end boats for your observation.

Skysail, Mainsail[5] and the Topgallant,

a legacy of Dundee’s shipping nation.

By Lise Olsen

 

The ship models have arrived at their final destination and can be viewed in the new permanent exhibition at the McManus Galleries.

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When I visited the exhibition, the display transported my mind to a magnificent vision of a fleet of ships, floating upon the Tay Estuary. The detail in each model shows off, the skill and craftsmanship needed to create such detailed objects. In Dundee, shipbuilding needed many Maritime related trades and different skills to build an actual ship, here is a list of just a few. [6]

Rope and Sail Makers

Carvers and Gilders

Tin Plate Workers

Wood Merchants

Iron Merchants

Ship Chandlers

Wire Workers

Electricians

Stevedores

Engineers

Tallymen

Joiners

Listen to a story about a Caledon apprentice engineer by clicking the link below.

To find out more about Dundee’s shipping history and the Ship Models exhibition, visit the McManus Galleries, early May 2017. (Free admission)

Please note: Audio file is on loan from the Cultural Services Oral History.

[1] ‘Batten down’ means make secure[1] “Archibald, M (1999). Sixpence for the Wind. Caithness: Whittles Publishing. P138-140

[2] ‘Privateer is a Private vessel licensed to attack ships of opposing nation” Archibald, M (1999). Sixpence for the Wind. Caithness: Whittles Publishing. P138-140

[3] “Bumboat carried waste from ships and brought back provisions” ibid

[4] “The Stern is the Backbone of a ship” ibid

[5] “Mainsail is the largest sail” ibid

[6] Robertson, H. (2009). DUNDEE SHIPBUILDERS. Available: http://ninetradesofdundee.co.uk/download/mariners_&_seamen/historic_extracts/2009%20Dundee%20Shipbuilders.pdf. Last accessed 6th May 2017.

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Shipbuilder’s and their Homes

With the safe arrival of the model ships, now being ‘put into’ [1] a new permanent exhibition at the McManus Galleries. I began to wonder where did the Dundee shipbuilders live? At that time, good housing was in high demand, the shipbuilding company Caledon need to build new homes for their employees. However, the shipbuilder’s built some unconventional, homes at Cragiebank with alternative building materials. Click the link below to find more…

The Caledon constructed house’s at Cragiebank in Dundee.

Cragiebank Homes
Rivets Exposed
A House That Rusts

More traditional style Caledon Housing can also be found at Abercorn Street. I decided to visit the street to see if the houses were still there. Upon arrival, I found white semi-detached cottages with neat gardens.

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Feeling curious, I knocked upon a cottage door with a delightful garden, in hope that the resident might have a little shipping knowledge. To my surprise, the man who opened the door was a retired senior technical manager at Caledon, Mr. J. Riley. He shared his story by telling me he had started his career at the Caledon yard in 1955. Now, he dedicates his time to write and document Caledon’s history in his book called ‘The Caledon Shipyard: The Foundation, The People, The Ships and its Demise.’

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Mr Riley has over 500 images of ships in his book and his final objective is to get a picture of every ship the Caledon yard ever built…

Click the link below to hear a story from Abercorn Street.

To find out more about Dundee’s shipping history and the Ship Models exhibition, visit the McManus Galleries, early May 2017. (Free admission)

Please note: Audio file is on loan from the Cultural Services Oral History.

[1] MacMillan Publishers Limited. (2009). What ships and boats do. Available: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/british/what-ships-and-boats-do. Last accessed 26th April 2017.

Meeting Ninety school children

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Feedback from one of the school children

I was asked to attend the gallery as an introduction to how the creative team at the McManus work with groups. Ninety school children from Broughty Ferry ascended upon the museum, to learn about a Bonnie Prince and some Jacobites. Fortunately, the creative team had logistics already in place, to navigating so many children carefully around the gallery space. I watch as military precision and planning was organised that would make any soldiers heart race. Two hours later a troop of happy children marched out bearing newly made Jacobite shields and returned, homeward bound to the ‘Ferry’.

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Things I have learned about children in a museum:

  • Ninety children are very loud in an acoustic space.
  • Movement in the space has to well planned and organised.
  • Children spend a lot of time looking up or crouching down.
  • They mix factual and fictional description of things.
  • They enjoyed interacting with the space in the gallery.

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Please note: Documentation for this project has photographic restrictions in place.

Introducing ‘The People’s Story’

I have recently started  (a Making the Most of Masters) student placement at the McManus, Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum. Working on a project called ‘The People’s Story’, running as part of a programme organized by the museum’s Learning & Engagement Team to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the McManus. The project will explore the relationship between Dundee’s diverse communities, the museum and its collections.

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The McManus already has an established form of engagement with a wide range of groups, trustees and communities. Each group engages with the museum in a different way and I would like to consider, what is normal? How do these different audiences normally engage with the museum, the gallery space and interpretation of its artifacts?

Beginning a project is always a daunting task but I’m happy to be working with a fellow student, Stuart McAdam and the creative learning team.  To begin my journey, I have decided to treat it like a walk. ‘The People’s Story’ will allow for an exploration into the relationships between city and the museum. Giving me the resources to collect stories about Dundee and to continue my research, into the dynamic engagement of public and private spaces, using similar methodologies from previous projects involving the tramlines and edgelands of Dundee.

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Quite unexpectedly, my first visit involved being followed by a Seagull who seemed to be heading in the same direction, the McManus, Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum.

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My initial walk through the McManus was to observe the building, space and collections.

Everyday objects from seemingly insignificant past events have just as much validation as an object from a significant historical event.

I noticed the reflections of objects, being mirrored upon the glass of the display cabinets. This reminded me of the process of memory and how people’s stories could place new memories, upon old memories projecting, spatially into a fourth dimension.[1] I wondered if a soundscape of stories collected around and about the McManus could also project into a new dimension.

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I considered how a walk around a gallery, allowed the place to suggest appropriate sounds. I felt a sense of urgency moving in-between emotions and happenings. A sonic signature is an in-between space where the place is the symbol and the sound, the meaning.[2] The sound of a museum creates an in-between awareness. How people feel in the museum, or about its historical objects, could add something unique to our perception of the McManus and within that thought I found a new line of direction.

[1] “the process is that of continually compounding one and the same topomnesiacal resource.” Casey, E.S. (2002) Representing place: Landscape painting and maps. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.p77

[2] “Thus for the poet in his ecstasy- or perhaps, agony- of the composition the trees are the symbols and the words are the meaning. He concentrates on the trees in order to get the words.” A.N Whitehead (1985). Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect. New York: Fordham University Press. P12.

copyright © Olsen 2017