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Entry: The U-Boat Story, Birkenhead, Wirral, UK - A87904399
Author: SashaQ - happysad - Editor - U9936370

Here's an Entry about a museum I enjoyed visiting recently

This is a clear and interesting entry

If you wanted to add something, you might say something about how the U-boat was found.

Thanks mvp

I've added a little bit more detail and also addressed the points in another thread F22153277?thread=8319281 so I included more about the technical details of the U-Boat and added a link to the Mersey Tunnels Entry

I'm having trouble understanding the jump from a Danish diver finding it and it suddenly ending up in a Museum in Britain. It seems as though there is a bit of the story missing. Why didn't it go to a Danish museum? Or a German one? Sorry if it's an awkward question.

I've just looked at the German language entry but that doesn't explain the transition from Danish ownership either.

(on Wikipedia)

Always good to see more entries on the wonders of the Wirral.

I must admit it did seem odd to me too, that the (closest smiley to a sub) went from off-Denmark to the Wirrall especially if its restoration was paid for by a Danish millionaire. And there are much closer Naval Museums in the UK too – Chatham Historic Dockyard probably closest, followed by Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, both of which are state-run. Did Karsten Ree donate it to the Warship Preservation Trust, or did they bid for it?
Wikipedia implies that of the other 4 ships that used to be in the Warship Preservation Trust's collection, 3 have been scrapped and one, the last-surviving Landing Craft, Tank has been moved to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard – is this true? (I know that there is a Landing Craft, Tank in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard collection 'cos I've seen it)

Still, the important thing is that it has been preserved and is safe for future generations.

<BB<

Thanks for reading

The only piece I could find suggested that Denmark lost interest in the sub and didn't have anywhere to display it anyway, so it ended up in the UK, but that is a good question about why Birkenhead and not Portsmouth or other places...

Sadly I don't know anything of the Warship Preservation Trust's history apart from what is in the W*k*pedia, as I only learned about it and visited the museum shortly before it closed, sadly.

I have found that the U-Boat was owned by a company in Denmark at the time, so I will add more details and see if there is anything else I can find

I've updated the Entry

I found a video including words from the chairman of the Warships Preservation Trust. It seems the WPT organisation was a prestigious national body, so it was the right home for U-534, but it was a shame that it wasn't able to be saved by the state when its site was under threat...

I found news of the Landing Craft http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/15/d-day-tank-carrier-landfall-refloated-liverpool

The way I read that entry, the National Museum of the Royal Navy aka Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is the prestigious national body who partners the D-Day Museum down the road, while the Warship Preservation Trust is described as 'intend[ing] to carry out a full restoration but went into liquidation in 2006' and it is the Warship Preservation Trust that is referred to by 'the collapse of the previous restoration campaign'.
It is very sad that an organisation that sounds like it was full of ambition, dedication, good intentions, hard work and the desire to preserve history for the people didn't make it, while lots of penny-pinching corrupt companies thrive. But the story has a happy ending in that the submarine has survived and can be visited today – even if it isn't yellow.

<BB<

I'm not sure how you were reading what information, but how I read was that the WPT was a national body, not just a restoration campaign... I hope the way I phrased it in the Entry is OK for you, though...

"It is very sad that an organisation that sounds like it was full of ambition, dedication, good intentions, hard work and the desire to preserve history for the people didn't make it, while lots of penny-pinching corrupt companies thrive."

Very true...

"But the story has a happy ending in that the submarine has survived and can be visited today – even if it isn't yellow"

Yes indeed

To qualify as a National Body I thought you must be government owned/sponsored and, in the case of a national museum, come under what has been the Department of Culture (I can never keep up with the name changes). This applies to the National Museums, English Heritage, CADW and so on.

This bizarrely means that the National Trust isn't a National Body, despite the name, as it is a charity albeit one that operates nationally (and owns a fair chunk of the nation). NatWest isn't a National Body either - or a West Body come to that. I haven't been able to find anything to suggest that the Warship Preservation Trust was government owned or came under the Department of Culture, which makes me doubt, especially as Government bodies tend not to go into liquidation. Whereas Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is the National Museum of the Royal Navy's Portsmouth headquarters and definitely a national body.

<BB<

Ah I see - I didn't know a National Body was a thing, so I was referring to an organisational body that had a national remit and just happened to call it a national body Sorry about that.

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