WWI ships to chart past climate

WWI ships to chart past climate

This article from the BBC website details a fantastic project that anyone can get involved in - one that could provide reams of historical data and insight. I've signed up and already I'm hooked!

Although I remain sceptical about certain aspects of global warming and climate change, the reasons for which I shan't go into here, there is more than simply historical weather monitoring about this endeavour. It does, as the article mentions, provide fascinating detail of the movements and experiences of the Royal Navy in the First World War. One can get a small idea of the day-to-day routine as well as more out-of-the-ordinary occurrences by following one or more of these ships which were dotted about the globe. I've only been involved for a couple of days and already I feel a sense of "belonging", for want of a better term, to the ships I'm following. Maybe it's also because my grandfather was in the Navy during the Second World War.

Despite my misgivings about the whole climate change debate I can still see the meteorological value in the collating of near-100-year-old weather reports in order to help further the long-distance forecasts of today and am more than happy to be involved. Maybe it'll help the Met Office get something right for once too!

First Queen Elizabeth liner seen in archive film

First Queen Elizabeth liner seen in archive film

I've always had a hankering to go on a transatlantic ocean journey on a luxury liner, in such a fashion as was popular during the inter-war years. Art Deco staterooms, dressing for dinner, the Captain's table, dancing to live music, deck chairs and ship-board games - who wouldn't rather that than 10 hours crammed into a winged tube 30,000ft up?

So it has been with great interest that I have been following the development of Cunard's latest ship MS Queen Elizabeth. As part of the celebrations surrounding the completion and naming of this new liner, the BBC has unearthed some old Pathé film of the original RMS Queen Elizabeth, from her naming ceremony in 1938 through to her sad demise in Hong Kong harbour in 1972.

Now we have a new Queen Elizabeth to admire and be proud of, and what a ship! I can't say I'm a huge fan of modern ship design - the squared-off, stack 'em high appearance of the decks doesn't appeal to me - but the interior is something else! There's so much Art Deco styling inside that I could never do it justice on this blog, so I will simply encourage you to visit Cunard's own blog and in the meantime leave you with the "big money shot" - the main staircase. How I wish I could be walking down it in full evening wear!

Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

MATCHSTICK MODELS

Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

Here's a man who has spent an entire lifetime engrossed in the delightful hobby of matchstick model-making, with the result of many hundreds of examples of ship and aircraft design from down the years.

I love the painstaking details that chaps like Mr Warren, and the fellow in the above clip, take to ensure that the models are accurate scale copies of the real thing - and all with the use of everyday items that are matches and matchboxes!

I myself tried my hand at a matchstick model once, having cut my teeth on Airfix models before. However as I found to my cost the two are completely disparate and I soon realised how out of my depth I was (I had bitten off more than I could chew in picking a rather large model of a tram car - in hindsight I perhaps should have started with something smaller). Needless to say it soon left me in much the same state as it arrived and I resolved myself to stick to my little plastic kits in the future! My brief experience with matchstick models makes me appreciate all the more the great skill with which these modellers create these miniature masterpieces and how much of a passion it must be for them to create something so small and yet so detailed with nothing more than a tiny stick of wood. I hope Mr Warren continues to enjoy his fascinating pastime for many more years to come.