I set myself the task a little while back of finding all of the cold war structures that were in Wales. Found quite a few to be honest, and it showed me a lot of different things that I never knew either. So what was my next task? Well how about finding out about some military ships and seeing if they can be raised and restored? Only one way to find out!
So where to start? If only there was some way of finding out where there were some ships wrecked between 1900 and 2000? Now the good thing about that one is that I asked what to do to raise a ship. If you look further down the list on that one then you notice that there is something there about how to raise a ship. So now we have the basics. A list of ships and how to raise them. So is that the only thing that we need? Surely it would be easier to just restore a ship that is already above the sea?
So who would have the coolest ships? The Ministry of Defence! So, with this in mind, let's ask them for a list of their old ships and what they do with them after they have served their purpose. One of the most interesting things is that they are sometimes sold to other countries (another FoI request there, maybe? I should also point out that a lot of ships are disposed of by the UK Ship Recycling Strategy).
The other is that they also gave me the amount of submarines that they owned, too. So would any of these be used for a museum? Should be an interesting situation. Now it should be pointed out the Department for culture media and sport do not offer any guidelines for the creation of a museum. So there is no reason not to use a ship.
There is something that I haven't mentioned. Underwater mines. When WW2 was going on, the MoD used underwater mined to make sure that the UK was safe, so wouldn't it be useful to know where they are so that we don't have to worry about going into them? The Maritime and Coastguard agency didn't have any information on this one. So, let's turn to the people who may know, the MoD. They would be able to tell us, surely? Yes they may, and don't call me surely… (Sorry, couldn't resist that one!). Now, there is a European agency called the European Defence Agency, maybe they could give us more details? Probably, but I will have to tell you when they get back to me I am afraid.
So what about money that would help us to restore the ship? Would that be available? Lets try the Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships. They give funding to old ships to restore them to their former glory. Looking at the amounts that they handed out they don't give a lot, but it is still something. A quick look at the national lottery fund give us SOME idea of sources of money to help restore the ship.
Would someone be willing to lend us items for this museum ship? The National Maritime Museum? Well, it turns out that this information is available to the public, so no need for FoI there.
So what have we learnt from this? There there are tonnes of wrecks around the UK and there are still a lot of ships that can be used. We also know how to use them and where to purchase them. Seems an interesting idea for us, doesn't it?
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