Well in fact it wasn’t – moving the first wooden blocks from between HMS Victory’s hull and cradle was hard enough… but then came another historic moment, cutting the first of the giant black steel cradles supporting her. That had to be done under carefully controlled conditions, behind shielding and fire blankets, because of the threat of accidentally starting a fire – the nightmare of all mariners over the centuries, and never more so than with wooden ships… which despite being creatures of the oceans, yet had enough dry wood in them to burn down to the waterline in short and terrifying order. So… hard for us camera guys, our stills and video man David Botwinik and me, Rob White, to get the pictures we wanted… as you can see we couldn’t see! Sparking (bottom centre, just visible!)always looks good though…
IT’S A STEEL
28 March 2019
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four-time award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with the Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995 when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.