The first phase of a £1.6m programme of improvements got underway at Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience on Wednesday 1 February when HMS Trincomalee moved out of the Maritime Experience dock ready to change places with the nearby paddle steamer Wingfield Castle.
In her first move in ten years, HMS Trincomalee made a short voyage into the neighbouring Jackson Basin where she will be temporarily moored alongside the Museum of Hartlepool.
This is being done so that the paddle steamer Wingfield Castle can be towed into the dock to enable three months of restoration work to be carried out on her hull.
The Wingfield Castle restoration is the first of several major improvements which the Council and the HMS Trincomalee Trust will make to Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience over 2006 - 2008.
These improvements, using money from One NorthEast, the Council, the Trust and other funders, will range from a new Fighting Ships audio-visual attraction and a new exhibition area to refurbishment of the existing suites of rooms for hosting events and corporate functions.
The Trincomalee’s move was planned to coincide with the afternoon high tide at about 4.30pm, but suitable water levels and weather conditions were not quite enough to guarantee a safe journey from the dock and the journey was fiunally completed 24 hours later watched by large crowds in a biting cold evening.
It’s expected that the two ships will return to their original berths in late April.
Bryn Hughes, General Manager of the HMS Trincomalee Trust, said: “There are a number of challenges to overcome during the move, but it should be a spectacular sight seeing this graceful ship being manoeuvred slowly out and across the basin to the other berth.
“Many people will remember her in the Jackson Basin during the early days of the restoration work, and it will be a change to see her in the basin area for a few months once again.”
John Mennear, Hartlepool Council’s Acting Assistant Director for Cultural Services, said: “These two much-loved ships changing places is an important event in its own right, but it also heralds the start of exciting improvements to Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience.
“These major improvements will help keep Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience at the cutting edge of the North-East’s visitor attractions and should boost even more the number of visitors it attracts locally, nationally and internationally.”
Built for the Admiralty in Bombay in 1817, HMS Trincomalee is the oldest ship afloat in the UK. She is the last of the commissioned frigates of the Nelson era and served in the West Indies and the Pacific.
She was stationed in West Hartlepool between 1862 and 1877 as a training ship and continued in a training role for young people at Falmouth and Portsmouth until 1986. She returned to Hartlepool in 1987 and was restored between 1990 and 2001 in a project which won international accolades.
Today, HMS Trincomalee is in the Core Collection of Historic Vessels of the UK due to her “exceptional importance to the maritime heritage of the UK” and in 2004 gained a Silver Award in the Excellence in England tourism ‘oscars.’
The Wingfield Castle was built in Hartlepool in 1934 by William Gray and Company as a passenger and vehicle ferry over the Humber estuary between Hull and New Holland.
She was later bought by Hartlepool Council in the mid 1980s, brought back to Hartlepool and restored to her former glory. She now serves as a floating coffee shop and museum.

images were taken using Canon 5D and canon 10D digital cameras and Sigma EX 24-70mm f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8 lenses on a sturdy tripod at exposures of between 1-5 seconds and using flash off camera when needed.

DIRK VAN DER WERFF

February 2006

HMS Trincomalee on the move for the first time in 10 years from Hartlepool's Maritime Experience to make way for PSS Wingfield Castle which was going into dry dock for essential repairs.

HMS Trincomalee captured in the early evening light at Hartlepool Marina.

At Rest: HMS Trincomalee at its new berth in Hartlepool Marina 2006.

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