Sunlight breaking through the trees in the New Forest
The history of SS Shieldhall, now based at Berth 48, Eastern Docks, Southampton, is well documented. Originally serving as a ‘Clyde Banana Boat’ carrying a cargo of treated sludge, she was sold in 1977 to fulfil a similar role for Southern Water, but was withdrawn in 1985 and laid up pending disposal and possible scrapping. The Southampton University Industrial Archaeology Group (now the Hampshire IA Society) drew the attention of the City Council to the ship and a public meeting was called, leading to the creation of a charity preservation group, The Solent Steam Packet Limited. Three years later the charity had raised the £20,000 required to purchase the ship, and Shieldhall was transferred to her new owners on 28 July 1988.
The £1.4 million lottery grant – awarded earlier this year – has given the Shieldhall crew another great reason to celebrate, and also enabled the staging of two ‘Young Persons Days’ on board in June and July, where teams of scouts and sea cadets learnt seamanship skills under the watchful eye of Training Officer Richard Jarvis and Vice-President Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. Activities undertaken during the training days included learning the duties of the Officer Of the Watch, how a ship is steered, compass, radar, communications, weather and signals; chart work and how to plot a course; heaving a line and how to handle heavy mooring ropes. A rescue RIB was launched whilst participants were taught about boat safety and how to steer a Fig.8 course, whilst down aft attention was paid to fire hazards on ship, the different types of extinguishers and an opportunity given to run-out hoses. As if this were not enough, all involved were given a full tour of the ships main machinery spaces where they were shown how steam is raised and used to power the ships two mighty triple expansion engines and the many essential auxiliary engines set about. 