Since 1905, when the Tyne Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (now Royal Naval Reserve) was founded, HMS 'Calliope' has been its headquarters. The first ship used in this capacity from that year at Newcastle, moored off Elswick, was the most famous; the 'Calliope' which had survived the Samoa hurricane of 1889. She continued in service until replaced in 1951 by HMS 'Falmouth', in turn re-named 'Calliope'. In 1968 the unit moved ashore but retained the name for its headquarters (now at Gateshead).

This picture of the original 'Calliope' was painted by the National Maritime Museum's former Keeper of Weapons and Antiquites, John Munday (1924-2012). After leaving the Northern Grammar School in Portsmouth at 16, he worked in the City Library there until called up into the Navy in 1942 and was demobilized at a sub-lieutenant in 1946. He then attended King's College, Newcastle, to study fine art, where one of his teachers was (Sir) Roger de Grey, later President of the Royal Academy. This picture was painted in the year he gained his BA there (awarded by the University of Durham). He then joined the Museum in 1951, originally as its Librarian, and retired as Head of its Department of Weapons and Antiquities in 1984. At Greenwich, Munday became the great authority on the work of the Victorian marine painter E.W. Cooke, gaining a Durham MA on him in 1961 and publishing a definitive study in 1996. He also continued to draw and paint for pleasure all his life, including as a copyist of historical works. His copy of the Museum's 'Portuguese Carracks' (BHC0705) is in the maritime museum at Lisbon and one of the 'Battle of Lepanto' (BHC0261) in that at Barcelona. He died at Alresford, Hampshire, on 20 April 2012.