These awesome (trad meaning) pictures of shipwrecks off the coast of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – and hundreds more – have just been purchased by the National Maritime Museum, London branch, for £122,000.
They are from the family archive of the Gibson family, assembled over 125 years and four generations, who made it their mission to record shipwrecks off the Cornish coast.
I wish I had the locations of the wrecks pictured here but the names provide interest enough – wonderful titles like Tripolitania, Minnehaha and the Mildred.
The museum says that they will be digitising the material then lending it out to museums across the South West, so by rights I’m sure there will be a Cornish airing soon.
Images reproduced on pasties & cream courtesy of Sotheby’s. www.rmg.co.uk
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November 14, 2013 at 9:51 am
Sue Read Art by the Sea
Phew.. was really concerned about this great collection. What an archive and they are surely in the best place, although it would have been nice if they had stayed in Cornwall.
November 14, 2013 at 7:58 am
Chris
Wonderful pictures … If slightly disturbing to a boat dweller !! … Really brings home what hard work bringing stuff/people to & from our little island is & always has been