March 2012
Volume 2 Issue 3
THE MHC NEWS
Since the Last Time We Met...
On the 27th of January, a potluck
was held for MHS/MHC members
to show our thanks for their
continued support and their
contributions to the centre and
society.
At the potluck, Marv Everett announced the following membership
perks that have now been put in
place:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Paid members are allowed
free BCP45 tours for family
and close friends.
Paid members can purchase any of our in-stock
merchandise sales items
for the price the centre
pays for the item plus 10%
instead of the higher price
listed for the public.
Paid members can rent any
of our facilities for family
functions at the “nonprofit” rate.
Within each calendar year,
every time a paying member gets another person to
sign up for membership,
their name will be put into a
jar for a $100 draw at the
next year’s potluck.
In addition to the unveiling of the
membership perks, each tour
guide was given a vest and a hat
as a type of “uniform” and as a
thank you for their time. They
were also each given a $25 gift
certificate to the Riptide Marine
Pub.
It has been decided that, once a
year, the society will choose a
few individuals who have
significantly contributed to the
society/centre in some way and
those individuals will be
recognized at the next potluck
which will most likely be held in
January 2013.
Over the next little while, the
museum portion of the centre is
undergoing the arduous process
of having each artifact in the
museum relabeled,
photographed and then entered
into a visual artifact catalogue
which will make future
identification of artifacts
substantially easier.
Alongside the process, we have
been going through the
Boardroom Archives and scanning
all of the photograph albums which
provides us with a digital copy of
each picture we’ve collected over
the years. We then create a
back-up copy of those pictures on
an external hard drive. Doing this
ensures that, in the event of a
natural disaster, we will still have
some form of the photographs,
even if the physical copies are
lost.
The other reason this is beneficial
is because, by having digital copies, they can be put on display in
the centre using digital picture
frames. This is effective as it takes
up significantly less space than
having physical photograph albums
and it also doesn’t risk
compromising the integrity of the
original photographs. We hope to
begin creating these new displays
in the near future.
If you have any photographs that
you think would be a worthwhile
contribution, feel free to bring
them to Sarah or Trish in the front
office.
Maritime
Heritage Centre
Contents
Since the Last Time We
Met...
Condolences to the Rose
Family
Goals for the Future
Test Your Knowledge
Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
Our C ondolences...
The Maritime Heritage Centre and Society
wishes to extend our deepest condolences to
the Rose family for their loss of a father and
husband. Fred Rose was an irreplaceable
asset to the centre and it was a privilege to
have known such an inspiring person. He will
be deeply missed.
Goals for the Future
Increase museum interest within the community
Increase the number of active MHS members
To produce digital photograph album displays
Upgrade the computers within the centre
To remain open seven days a week
Test Your Knowledge!
1.
What is the average wingspan of a Wandering Albatross?
2.
At which pole is Antarctica located?
3.
Most modern editions of old poems come with a gloss. What is a gloss?
1. 3.1 meters (10 feet) 2. The South Pole 3. A brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Written in 1797—1798 by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, “Rime of the
Ancient Mariner” is his longest
major poem and was published in
Lyrical Ballads in 1798. With a
message along the same vein as
Robbie Burns’ “To A Mouse”,
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
was part of the push into modern
poetry and the cultural shift
regarding the appreciation for
non-human life.
AN EXCERPT FROM “RIME OF THE
ANCIENT MARINER”:
Down drop the breeze, the sails
dropt down,
‘Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath, nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That even this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with
legs
Upon the slimy sea.”
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is
a tale of a mariner who has
returned from a ghastly voyage.
The Mariner stops a man heading to a wedding and begins to
tell him his tale. At first the
guest is entertained, then
grows impatient, then frightened and finally fascinated. The
ancient Mariner describes how
his ship and shipmates were
blown off course into Antarctica. They thought all was lost
until they saw an albatross —
an omen of good fortune. The
Mariner shoots the albatross,
killing it and angering the spirits
they picked up in Antarctica that
are now haunting their ship. One
by one his shipmates dehydrate
and die until the Mariner is the last
person alive on the ship. His tale tells
of slimy creatures besieging the ship.
It’s only after he can see the beauty
and feel love towards the abhorrent
creatures and realizes the value of
other living things that the spirits are
satisfied. At this point, the ship is
pulled into a whirlpool and the Mariner is miraculously saved by a hermit
who had sailed out to sea after spotting the ship. From that point forward, the Mariner is cursed with guilt
over slaying the albatross which
causes him to travel the earth retelling his story to passersby. After
hearing the story, the wedding guest
continues on and wakes up the next
day “a sadder and a wiser man.”
Maritime Heritage Centre
PO Box 483
621 Island Highway
V9W 5C1
Contact Information:
Phone: 250-286-3161
Fax: 250-286-3162
E-mail:
[email protected]
We’re on the web!
www.bcp45.org
Contact Trish or Sarah in the front
office if you’re interested in becoming
a tour guide.
If you would like to be on the newsletter mailing list, please contact Trish or Sarah in the office, or send an email to:
[email protected]