All maritime mission organisations keep archives, but not all are as well looked after as these.

Locating Archives

IASMM’s Response to the Problems Here.

The problem of locating documents and other items relating to the history of maritime mission remains as acute as ever. Members of IASMM who are actively engaged in researching the history of maritime missions globally know the problems only too well. However, there have been some positive developments here and the following is a brief resumé of what we are doing.

In response to the on-going problems that people were encountering in trying to gain access to archive materials, a conference was held in London on 6 Nov 1996. The conference was small but successful in that at the end of the final session Bishop Bill Down agreed to chair a sub-committee (Bishop Bill Down, Dr Alston Kennerley and Stephen Friend) to look into the possibilities relating to archive conservation and accessibility. The following recommendations were made:

First, it was deemed important that as far as possible more appropriate homes should be sought for those major archives that are still not fully or easily accessible to the general public. This recommendation was subsequently followed up and, with the support and agreement of the bodies concerned, new homes were found for archives belonging to the British and International Seafarers’ Society, the Mission to Seafarers and the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen.

Second, a project was to be established to deal with the many other issues here, and to explore ways forward in the long-term. This project is now underway and consists of the following:

1) Funds will be sought for a range of equipment that will enable the conservation and accessibility of archive materials. This will involve making hard copies of rare documents, and copying other materials onto microfilm/fiche, CDs and the Internet (a process which has been going on in a small way with the various publications which IASMM produces).

2) A Researcher/Archivist will be employed for a minimum of two years to explore the issues here and to begin the process outlined in “1”. The Researcher will be employed by York St John College, York, with funds raised by IASMM (a necessity if we wish to avoid the various problems associated with employment). The researcher will also produce a report on the issues and developments, a copy of which will be sent to all interested parties.

3) The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust kindly supported the Secretary’s visit to Canada and the USA during the summer of 1999, to look at related issues there. One important outcome was the possibility of including a linked project with various bodies in Canada. The objective here is to preserve the oral history of the many people who lived and worked on a variety of Canadian Mission Ships in the first half of the 1900s.

4) A booklet has now been produced outlining the project, and this is to be sent out to potential funding bodies. It is hoped that we will be able to commence this very important project by late 2000 or early 2001.

Given that IASMM is a small organisation which relies entirely on voluntary support for research, publications, etc., we have no illusions about the limited amount which the project can achieve in the short-term. Nevertheless, it is intended that this project will begin a process which will continue for may years and which will make access to these all-important documents very much easier. Conversely, if we do not begin this work now, there is no-one else on the horizon who will do so – and in the meantime many more unique documents will be irretrievably lost.

First, a number of factors outside of IASMM’s control have disrupted the applications for funding. Hopefully, this will resume in the near future.

Second, IASMM helped the Mission to Seafarers and the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen to relocate a number of archival documents at the National Fisheries Heritage Centre in Grimsby, North Lincolnshire, England. The Heritage Centre was itself seeking grants to enlarge its library facilities, but the applications, sadly, were not successful. The library had to be moved and the contents were put into a temporary store. Some documents have since been returned to their owners.

Other archival documents, this time held by the British and International Seafarers’ Society, were relocated to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Unfortunately these have remained in their store for several years – and are not accessible by the general public. I contacted the Director recently to ask for an up-date on when the documents might be accessible. After several emails I was given the assurance that work would begin on this material when current projects are complete – hopefully in late 2002.

Third, I have recently discovered that a number of other organisations relating to the seafaring world in Britain have also had their applications for grants turned down. This is particularly worrying in that with the sharp decline in our seafaring, and specially the fishing industry, very little work seems to be currently under way to preserve the many related documents. Hopefully 2002 will prove to be a turning point here!