Losing these precious jewels in our maritime heritage crown would be nothing short of sheer madness by Peter Elson Daily Post Staff
EVEN as a keen enthusiast of maritime history, I was a little uncertain whether I would enjoy a visit to the Historic Warships site at Birkenhead.
I was on assignment for the Daily Post, posing with my family as a tourist in Liverpool and Birkenhead for 48 hours.
Would the historic warships interest my wife who does not share my interest in nautical memorabilia? Would our sons, who were then eight and 12 years, find the exhibits too technical?
I need not have worried. It was one of the most enjoyable attractions we reviewed. All of the family found it entertaining and informative. The shop staff and volunteers on the warships were particularly helpful and friendly.
The boys loved crawling over the ships and especially through the Birkenhead-built submarine, HMS Onyx, truly one of the most unusual real-life exhibits in any museum. You can understand why this is Birkenhead's only international visitor attraction.
There cannot be a better location for these warships than in Birkenhead's East Float. This self-financing museum should be used as a nucleus to build up a bigger, more comprehensive museum. It's practically next door to Cammell Laird's old slipways, where some of the world's greatest warships were built. This would be an ideal place to tell their story.
Alongside is the hulk of U-534, raised by a Danish company and loaned to the Warship Preservation Trust, after Liverpool City Council turned it down.
It is complete madness and a profound insult to demand that the Danes take it away, with the pathetic excuse there is no room for it on this huge brown-field site.
U-534 together with the Daily Post campaign to save HMS Whimbrel and the Western Approaches HQ in Derby house has the making of the ultimate, Battle of the Atlantic memorial.
Yet with familiar Merseyside madness we're throwing our jewels down the drain.
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