Newsletter July 2015

JULY 2015 NEWSLETTER

Reception of Visitors

July 20th David Wells Chris Whittam Malcolm Ablett

27th Nigel Barnard Greg Bloss Charles Bull

Aug 3rd Tony Burrows Kath Calver Norman Cory

10th Adrian Dann Tony Dumper Denis Foster

17th Pat Heeney Norman Hills Doug Hutchins

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Dates for your Diary

Monday 20th July - Pre SEA FESTIVAL MEETING

Sunday 26th July - SEA FESTIVAL

Monday 27th July - SEA FESTIVAL debrief

Monday 3rd August - CLUB COUNCIL

Monday 10th August - BUSINESS MEETING

Monday 17th August - SPEAKER MEETING

Monday 24th August - RW/ Partners evening

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On Monday 6th July our President 2014/2015 John Wade handed over to Andy Fern and Andy handed his chain of office to Colin Hance. We wish them both a successful Rotary year and most of all we trust that they will both enjoy their time in office – it is up to our members to support them to achieve this aim. We must join with Andy to thank John for his year as President and I am sure that he would be the first to agree that there were difficult periods when the senior ‘jobs’ could not be filled.

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I am told that on Monday 15th June our Charter Night was a success, with the guest speaker being Tom Daly from the Mayflower Trust who explained how the project was progressing. A very good ‘Vote of Thanks’ was given by Charles Bull, who is himself involved with the Trust. Thanks go to Andy and his committee for organising this splendid evening.

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On Sunday 21st June our cyclists (Andy, Rodney, Tony, David, Colin and Denis) took part in the ‘Prostrate Cancer’ cycle ride to Walton and back and I think that they should all be commended and congratulated for their effort. With the sponsored money and donations from some members the total raised was £230 – for a very worthy cause.

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On Monday 29th June twenty Rotarians and wives/partners enjoyed an evening meal at ‘The Wooden Fender’ at Ardleigh – the weather and food was good but apparently the BBQ made plenty of smoke which blew in the wrong direction ! Thanks to Andy for arranging the evening.

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On the weekend of June 5th , 6th & 7th four couples visited our Link Club Bremerhaven Nordsee and enjoyed great fellowship with our German friends. On the Friday night we enjoyed a safari supper with our German hosts and other members, coming together at the Schiffahrtsmuseum (Maritime Museum) for desserts and drinks.

On the Saturday morning we had a conducted tour of the Alfred Wegener Polar Institute and experienced polar temperatures in their special ‘fridges’. The Institute have research ships working in the polar regions and also monitoring the North Sea – the Institute, founded in 1980, is named after Alfred Wegener, a meteorologist. climatologist and geologist who conducted research in the Arctic, mostly in Greenland where he unfortunately lost his life.

Then it was off to a very nice fish lunch at the cafe in the Sculpture Park of Thiele after which we had a conducted tour of the park which was founded by two brothers, Gustav and Georg Thiele. The park is a curiosity with local historic importance, an ‘art; garden that was started by the two brothers and the wife of one of the brothers , Grete. and the three together wanted to create the dream of a fusion of landscape, art and nature in the tough climate of Bremerhaven. There are ponds surrounded by exotic and indigenous plants and trees and many sculptures, a lot of which are the nude figure of Grete A most peaceful place within the city of Bremerhaven.

After a very short rest we enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Best Western Hotel, a new hotel built down by the old Fischereihafen – not a trawler in sight apart from a restored one moored alongside. An evening of short speeches and good food and fellowship. We had to say our goodbyes as in the morning after breakfast we left our hosts for the trip back to the Hook of Holland. A most enjoyable weekend and we look forward to welcoming our German friends in Harwich next June.

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On Monday 13th July our speaker was David Whittle from the Harwich Society explaining how with the rise in pleasure steamers and the railways and later the car, the seaside towns on the Essex, Suffolk and Kent coasts enjoyed a boom in tourists, which helped the local employment and bought money to these areas. David has a fascinating collection of photos from the Victorian period up to the time when a lot of members recognised the Harwich and Dovercourt landmarks. He also has a wonderful knowledge of the local area and I think that we are very

lucky to have such a dedicated person living in our midst and as David said ‘ he is always learning more every day’. Colin Crawford gave a very good vote and thanks and we all showed our appreciation in the usual way.

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The first one hundred and fifty years of the Salvation Army

It was in the summer of 1865 that William Booth, a preacher, was walking in the East end of London in the vicinity of two pubs – ‘The Vine’ (no longer there) and ‘The Blind Beggar’ still going strong – when he came across a group of evangelists who asked him to preach. They liked what he was preaching and asked him to take on the responsibility for their mission meetings and under his guidance the mission began to spread. He took the message out into the streets and being such a commanding figure, people stopped to listen and the Christian Mission went from strength to strength and they were able to purchase a coffee shop which they used as a refuge for poor, friendless and penniless girls. In 1878 The Christian Mission was described as a ‘Salvation Army’ and the name stuck. They used posters to generate interest and wrote new words to the popular music hall songs - they marched the streets sometimes being met with violent opposition. Both William Booth and his wife Catherine became ministers and he used the emerging technology of the motor car to go on preaching tours of the country. The movement spread to other countries and in the UK opened shelters for the homeless and even had its own labour exchange before the Government inaugurated its own labour exchanges. But, of course there was plenty of opposition – it mainly started after the name ‘Salvation Army’ was used and members started dressing in quasi-military uniform and holding meetings in the streets preaching against the dangers of the demon drink. So many people gave up the drink that the landlords and the breweries were struggling to make a living and given that many magistrates were connected to the drinks industry, any Salvation Army members who were arrested for obstruction did not receive a fair trial. The ‘Skeleton Army’ opposition is formed in towns across Southern England and bloody battles become the norm and went on from 1879 until 1892 until with Booth lobbying Home Secretaries and an MP, Henry Fowler, asking Parliament to repeal the Eastbourne Improvement Act which had enabled religious persecution to be carried on. But during this period ‘The Salvation Army’ had managed to open 1,200 new centres in the UK and expanded globally to 23 countries. William Booth died – or in Salvation Army terminology was ‘promoted to Glory’ in 1912 but the work went on and during the world wars, Salvationists gave food and drink to military personnel in battle zones and to bombed-out civilians Today, Salvation Army canteens attend emergencies and hand out food and comfort the victims and we all know the good work that they do and we are always pleased when the Club can help them.

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Cunard’s 175th Anniversary

I think that with all the publicity we will all know that Cunard is celebrating this anniversary – we have all seen pictures of the three Queens in the Mersey and Southampton. When they came together in Sydney a couple of years ago, we were there and they generated so much interest

that people travelled many miles to see them and Sydney became gridlocked and the locals found it very difficult to get to work. How did Cunard start all those years ago ? In 1839, one Samuel Cunard, a Nova Scotian, was awarded the first British trans-Atlantic mail contract and in 1840 formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, His partner was Robert Napier, the famous Scottish engine designer and builder, and they were to operate four paddle steamers between Liverpool and Halifax and Boston which, for the next 30 years held the Blue Ribbon for the fastest crossing. In the 1870’s they faced stiff competition from the White Star Line and the Inman Line and to meet this threat and to raise capital the Cunard Steamship Company Ltd was formed in 1879. In 1902 the British Government gave Cunard loans and a subsidy to build two superliners to compete against the White Star Line which had joined with the American International Mercantile Marine Company. These two vessels were the Mauretania (held Blue Ribbon from 1909 to 1929) and the Lusitania (sunk by German submarine in 1915 south of Ireland and was one of the reasons that America came into WW1). When the Germans, French and Italians started to build large liners, Cunard faced more competition but unfortunately the work on the new superliner had to be suspended because of the Great Depression. However, in 1934 Cunard were offered a loan to finish the Queen Mary and to build a second ship , the Queen Elizabeth on the condition that they merge with the ailing White Star Line and form the Curnard-White Star Ltd. The name reverted to the Cunard Line in 1950 when, in 1947, it purchased the White Star shares and Cunard went on to regain its position as the largest Atlantic passenger line, operating 12 ships to the USA and Canada. With the age of new jet liners, the ships became unprofitable and in 1968 Cunard withdrew from all year round service to concentrate on summer trans-Atlantic sailings and cruising. The Queens were replaced by QE 2 and later the QM 2 (2003) , Queen Victoria (2007) and finally by the Queen Elizabeth in 2010 after the company was acquired by the Carnival Corporation in 1998. Cunard is, at the moment, the only company to operate a scheduled passenger service from Europe to North America.

As most people know and I’m sure that some members have seen and been onboard the original Queen Mary at Long Beach, California where she has been moored since being sold in 1967. Now a hotel with restaurants and a museum she has had longer in this role than she did on the high seas, and as a ship lover it is gratifying to see that she is being well looked after. The Queen Elizabeth was less fortunate after being sold in 1969 to the Queen Corporation and going to Florida to become a hotel complex, similar to the Queen Mary. However the Florida weather is not as benign as California and in 1970 she was sold to C Y Tung , a Hong Kong shipowner (he also bought Shaw, Savill & Albion, my old shipping company) She was destined to be a student educational cruise liner but while being refitted in Hong Kong Harbour she mysteriously went on fire and with all the water used to put out the fire, it caused the vessel to capsize and to become a total loss. A sad end to such a grand vessel. The QE2 was sold to a Dubai outfit Istithmar in 2008 and still awaits any concrete plans to convert into an hotel ship. Watch this space. If anyone has up to date information please let me know.