Essential Information
| Location |
National Maritime Museum
|
|---|---|
11 Mar 2009
Fresh Gales and Squally. Lost Logg lines three.
The entry for 11 March 1738 in the log of HMS Centurion highlights two concerns of a captain at sea: the weather and the speed his ship was traveling. Two hundred and seventy one years later and the same topics are still an issue as we continue to relocate manuscripts to off-site storage. A move from one location to another is always easier in good weather but perhaps more pressing is the idea of making good time.
As the move is limiting access to our collections it is a priority that we transport the manuscripts as quickly as possible. The public records have been moved first to enable them to be unpacked in time for 17 March when they can once again be viewed in the reading room. I'm pleased to say that the logbooks, including ADM/L/C/299, have now successfully completed their journey to the new store. Due to the scale of the move there will be a brief wait before the items are unpacked onto shelves but, with a bit of luck, only the severest of gales should hinder us now.
The speed at which the removal company works is quite something. In fact, I was only just able to get this photograph of their van leaving the museum before it disappeared round the corner. In the next few days I'll be posting the last entry in this series as we begin to unpack the logs ready for future retrievals.
Richard (Assistant Archivist)