Our latest MFUK project – a film about the steam ship Shieldhall. She had a useful career in her first life as a sludge steamer. A what? Well, these serviceable ships had a useful, if not exactly glamorous role: taking sewage from big cities out to sea and dumping it in the deep. Necessary from the late 19th century on as cities in Britain grew apace and there weren’t enough facilities to deal with the, erm, outfall, from that. Not such a bad way to deal with the treated sludge in fact: sea action = oxygen + bacteria + motion – essentially what sewage farms do on land. Anyway, after sterling service for Glasgow and then Southampton, the chain was pulled on Shieldhall and she was about to be scrapped. But she’s of special interest – why..? Catch our next blog…
The Good Ship Shieldhall
12 February 2015
Share this
About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years’ experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four times 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.