Nelson & His World

Discussion on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson
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 Post subject: St George Strandings Museum, Denmark - Online Petition
PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:34 pm 
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Location: Stockholm, Sweden
In late December 1811 the Baltic fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir James Saumarez and charged with the task of maintaining trade between Sweden and Great Britain in the face of French, Russian and Danish hostility, set sail for England, there to reside for the winter months before returning north for a final season. The fleet, led by the C-in-C in the Victory, were beset by gales.

The majority of the fleet managed to escape and claw off the Danish coast but two ships, the 98 gun St. George and her escort, the 74 gun Defence, were caught by the storm and came onto the lee shore of the western side of the Jutland Peninsula. Unable to get back out to sea, try as they might, the two ships (the St. George having been jury-rigged after an earlier gale) finally struck the coast just north of Esbjerg and broke up, on the 24th December. Of the combined crews of both ships, perhaps 1,300 men in total, only 18 survived. The Danish King Frederik, when he was informed, ordered that the local population give all the help that they could to the few survivors and to treat the dead with respect. The local population were in all likelihood already doing so and the bodies were buried, in a mass grave, at a spot now known as Dead Man's Burg.

Since then, a Service of Commemoration has been held annually on the Anniversary, to the memory of the men lost from both ships, and a museum has been established at Thorsminde to house the remains of the two vessels which have been found and recovered, including the four-ton rudder from the St George which was discovered not so long ago. Over the years the museum, with its precious exhibits, has become very popular and not only within Denmark.

However, another storm now looms. Approximately two years ago the Strandings Museum joined with another under a reorganisation of museum resources. Unfortunately over those two years things have not worked out as planned and recently the Friends of the Strandings Museum have been told to leave the Board of the joint venture, which effectively leaves them with little control over what goes on in their own museum. This, and the wrangling of politicians, have left the Friends at a pass, with the former threatening to take over the artifacts and documents, although this is thought doubtful in law.

The Friends, therefore, have decided to take the bold step and attempt to run the Strandings Museum as a separate entity in its own right. This decision is at least sure to get a great deal of support from the people of the local area and beyond, but they need more, particularly from abroad. One of the other decisions they have made is to put forward an online petition, to gain support for this move, and they are particularly keen to gain international signatures. The link to the petition, and to the Strandings Museum itself is given here:

http://www.strandmus.dk/uk-version/underskrifter_uk.htm

Please sign it. I am sure that the members on this site, especially since the subject of the museum falls within our interest (the St George was briefly at one time Nelson's flagship), will have no hesitation in doing so. The more signatures the Friends can get, to run the museum in the way they want to, the better. Thank you.

Finally, I am sure the Friends of the Strandings Museum, will be grateful to Anna for allowing this appeal on her site. I know that one of them David Ashton, a member of the Nelson Society and now also of Nelson and His World, will be very pleased.

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Kester.


Last edited by Devenish on Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:50 am, edited 5 times in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:39 pm 
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Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:06 am
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Location: mid-Wales
Thanks for updating us on the events regarding the museum and posting the on-line petition.

I have made it a 'sticky' for the moment and will let it revert to a normal post in due course.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:19 am 
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Anna,

Many thanks for your consideration and in helping to make the plight of the Strandings Museum more widely known through Nelson and His World. I know that a some of us have signed the petition to date.

At my request, David Ashton has asked the other member of the Friends of the Strandings Museum if it would at all be possible to view the other pages, to keep some sort of check on the signatures and where they were from. However, it seems as though this cannot be done.

Anyway, David has assured me that the petition here will help, so if you haven't already signed it, please do so! :wink:

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Kester.


Last edited by Devenish on Tue Sep 14, 2010 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:43 pm 
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Kester, I am very keen to support the St. George Strandingsmuseum, and have posted a couple of questions for you in the private forum.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 2:26 pm 
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The Strandings Museum is enormously important to the history of the Royal Navy.

It is easy to forget that the weather in the North Sea was a far greater danger to seamen than the enemy. The Defence fought at Trafalgar, but the Royal Navy lost more men in the wreck of the Defence (let alone the St George), than were killed in the entire British fleet at Trafalgar. And further south in the same storm the following day (Christmas day), the 74-gun Hero was lost on the Haak Sands on Texel Island, Holland. Only 12 men survived. A year earlier, the Minotaur, another Trafalgar ship, was also wrecked on the Haak Sands with only about 100 men surviving.

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 Post subject: Latest on the Strandingsmuseum
PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:56 am 
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Location: Thorsminde, Denmark
You may already have received direct mails from David Ashton about the progress in the matter of the Strandingsmuseum Sct.George, but to be on the safe side here is the important info:

Last night (10'th of november) the ‘Holstebro District Council’ decided the following:

"Holstebro District Council seek the Danish Minister for Culture permission that, The St George Stranding Museum’ Thorsminde, becomes a Danish State Museum is recognized as a paragraph § 15 museum there by safeguarding of the stranding, marine archaeological mission."



- It is wonderful news, congratulations to us all and great thanks to you for your important support !

Kind regards
Erik

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Erik Rytter
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http://www.strandmus.dk


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:57 pm 
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Erik:

I am sure everyone here will be delighted to hear your news!

Congratulations, and very best wishes for the success of the museum in future years.

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Anna


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:03 pm 
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Anna,

Thank you very much. There is more info at http://www.strandmus.dk on the English pages. We try to keep the info up to date.

Kind regards
Erik

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:35 pm 
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Erik,

I received an e-mail from David regarding this today, but thanks for posting the information here.

It is indeed very good news and I think, and indeed hope, that better things will come your way in the future. You certainly deserve it!

Kind regards,

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Kester.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 9:39 pm 
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Location: Thorsminde, Denmark
Kester,

Thank you so much. It has been good to see all the support we have received from the English speaking world, too, and I do believe that it has had an impact here.

The fish has not yet been brought all the way ashore, so to speak, but it is moving in the right direction now.

Kind regards
Erik

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Erik Rytter
webmaster
http://www.strandmus.dk


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 Post subject: Re: St George Strandings Museum, Denmark - Online Petition
PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:13 pm 
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I was sorry to hear via Kester that David Ashton, who did so much to preserve the independence of the St George Strandings Museum, died on Sunday morning after a long illness which did not inhibit him from working tirelessly for the museum.

We mark with gratitude David's work and express our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

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Anna


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 Post subject: Re: St George Strandings Museum, Denmark - Online Petition
PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:55 am 
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Thanks Anna. I should just like to add that an obituary will appear in the Nelson Dispatch in due course, and that the Nelson Society intend to make a donation to the hospice where he died, as I believe was David's wish.

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Kester.


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