Strange creatures in a Hull museum
Published: Fri, 06/08/18
I am just waiting now for people to arrive ready for the HEMA Diversity Camp. Camp might be putting it a bit strongly, the original plan was to hold the event in a field and a barn in deepest, darkest Norfolk. We later decided to hold the HDC at our place instead, but we will have at least four people sleeping in tents in the garden so there will still be camping involved.
Venetia has taken Allen and April to York to see the Yorvik museum, on Tuesday I took them to see the Royal Armouries at Leeds and yesterday we had a trip to Hull, on the train, to see the Ferrens Art Gallery and the Maritime Museum. I like the Maritime Museum, it is very much about Hull and the history of Hull as a sea faring town. The best part is the whaling section with a skeleton of a Right Whale, apparently not fully grown but still about 30 feet long. Also skeletons of other, smaller whales such as Narwhales, which were probably responsible for the myth of the unicorn. If you have never seen a Narwhale skeleton then have a look on line, or find one in a museum. For some reason Narwhales have one tooth that grows straight out of the front of the head as a kind of spiral lance and can be a metre or even longer. Take one of these teeth and superimpose it on the forehead of a horse and you have the classic example of a unicorn.
Okay, unicorns are mythical but Narwhales are just plain weird. If we didn’t have their skeletons in museums and photographs of these creatures being caught by whaling ships then I doubt we would believe in them any more than we believe in unicorns today.
In fact all whales are pretty improbable creatures when you think about it. On the one hand it is tragic that they were hunted so close to extinction. On the other hand the men who sailed to the other end of the world to find, kill and process these extraordinary creatures, certainly did not lack courage and determination. Little seems to have been wasted when the whales were properly processed either. A huge list of valuable products could be produced from the carcase of a whale. Apparently, even today, there is no real substitute for Sperm whale oil as a lubricant for use in extreme conditions of pressure and temperature.
The Hull Maritime museum is quite basic, low tech and very down to earth. Yet, it still shares some extraordinary information and tells stories of the great courage and fortitude of very ordinary men and women who would seek their fortunes, support their families, and brought a degree of prosperity to their home town.
The HDC this weekend won’t be anything fancy either, but we will be sharing solid information and highly developed skills from many years of training, learning and teaching. Allen Reed shared this history of the US Marshals service with a few of us last night. Over the weekend he will actually teach how a law enforcement officer deals effectively and yet humanely with an armed suspect. Yes, we have all seen it on TV, but actually been shown how to do it by someone who has done it countless times for real? I am always happy to learn something I didn’t already know from a genuine expert. I have been making the equipment we are going to need too, guns and batons here https://www.screencast.com/t/GfuffOaI
I am also looking forward to learning from Milo Thurston and Fox Walters, also two excellent HEMA teachers.
I will let you know how it goes next week and will do my best to have some good pictures and some video to share with you.
regards
Graham
PS Stavcamp 2018 is filling up (only 10 place and 6 already paid for) so book your place soon if you want to come http://www.stavcamp.org/