Maritime Museum goes slightly mad with launch of new exhibition
Celebrating British eccentricity, and the desire to do something different, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall’s new Mad Dogs, and Englishmen? exhibition opened on Monday 22 January.
This mad but intriguing exhibition focuses on people and their crazy crafts involved in daring, different or just plain silly adventures.
Opening this week, Mad Dogs, and Englishmen? will be on show for a whole year and to celebrate its launch, the Museum Curator, Director and Exhibitions Manager will be giving free guided tours to visitors on Sunday 4 February, from 11am.
Impossible to miss is the bath tub that famous comedian Tim FitzHigham rowed across the English Channel from Calais to Tower Bridge. After a gruelling nine hours of rowing, FitzHigham became the first person in history to cross the Channel in a bath and in doing so raised more than a few eyebrows and over £20,000 for Comic Relief.
Also on show is Hugo Vihlen’s 5’4” boat Father’s Day, the smallest boat to have ever crossed the Atlantic. Living on ready meals and M&M chocolates, Vihlen spent 105 days at sea in his tiny yacht and one night nearly suffocated in his sleep due to the extremely cramped space.
The exhibition also includes Britannia, the very first boat to be rowed single-handedly, by John Fairfax, across the Atlantic Ocean in 1969. Fairfax completed his challenge on the same day that the first man landed on the moon. Amazingly, the crew of Apollo 11 heard of Fairfax’s achievement and sent him a message from space.
Returning, and as ever popular, is Frank and Margaret Dye’s 5m Wayfarer dinghy, Wanderer, with stories of unbelievable expeditions featuring broken masts, gale force winds and capsizes; proving what the sheer determination and perseverance of the Dyes achieved.
Finally, visitors will be able to step back in time to imagine being the Victorian John MacGregor, considered the father of modern canoeing. Camping in canoes during adventurous trips to Europe and the Baltic, he even took the Rob Roy canoe, as featured in the exhibition, to explore the Middle East.
For further details of the tours on 4 February, which are included in the usual ticket price, please call 01326 214558, otherwise simply turn up on the day to book yourself a place. Don’t forget, pay once and get in free for a whole year.
