Visitor numbers were disappointingly 10% lower than the previous year. According to a recent market research project sponsored by Hampshire County Museums Service, the decision to visit the Museum is taken 60% of the time by the father in the family. The influence of the Soccer World Cup being staged in Europe thus probably hit us harder than other heritage attractions. The Museum also suffered two further local influences that did not help matters. The first was IFOS 98, the maritime international gathering held in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard over August Bank Holiday weekend. Not only did visitors hold back from visiting the region until the big event, but once here, they stuck like glue to the Dockyard in order to get maximum value from the not inconsiderable ticket price! The second was the construction of Millennium Walkway which turned the site into a builders yard and overran by two months (this was mainly due to the discovery of a hole beneath the road that would have swallowed a London bus). Before a practical solution was found to fill it, a certain amount of time was spent discussing to whom the hole belonged! The end result made the pain worthwhile however and the completion of the Museum spur to this flagship development in Gosport meant that its extension could be continued beyond our approaches with minimum interference to the major tourist season.

The same market research project revealed that the Museum scored the highest rating of visitor satisfaction amongst ten of its counterparts of similar size.

The drop in numbers inevitably affected the secondary income sources of the Cafeteria and the Gift Shop. The clouds of dust due to the building work were particularly unfortunate for our Cafe, because we had recently taken its running back under our own wing, and this year it made a loss. Fortunately the Gift Shop, under excellent management, performed above target despite reduced numbers and kept the trading arm solvent. Once again the retail performance was significantly enhanced by the efforts of our volunteers at external events.

Since 1982 the Museum has been operating on a month by month licence for the occupancy of its site. The negotiation of a Lease with the Defence Land Agency is well advanced, with the terms being a 40 year tenure at a peppercorn rent. The Museum’s occupancy of its Headquarters Building and Archive within Fort Blockhouse will continue on a grace and favour basis for the foreseeable future.

The Museum secured the let of a long single storey building adjacent to its car park. Its refurbishment was undertaken with the help of a grant from the Society of Friends. This initiative, which rose like a phoenix from the demise of HMS DOLPHIN’S Car Club, was one of the highlights of the year since it enabled us to put our Polaris Missile on display (after languishing in store for eighteen months) as well as getting a number of our vulnerable larger artefacts (guns and torpedoes) under cover and properly interpreted. We have thus fulfilled a major recommendation of the MoD Quinquennial Review Team that inspected us in 1997 (this is the team that report on whether we continue to justify our Grant in Aid from the Second Sea Lord). In addition the building has, for the first time, provided the Museum with a space large enough to develop a Schools reception and teaching area.

A further recommendation was that we should enhance our Curatorial expertise. Once again with the support of our Sponsor Department, this time through additional funding, we have met this requirement. Mr Bob Mealings has now been in post for just over twelve months, and he has brought his considerable skills to bear on a number of issues. Grants from the Society of Friends assisted him to push forward a number of pressing curatorial matters, most notably in the preservation of photographs and rare books.

The Curator has been taking stock of the needs of HMS Alliance, the memorial of the Submarine Branch. We have put development proposals on hold while we work out the full extent of challenges set by her long term conservation. As a first step we commissioned a full structural survey by the Fleet Support Agency which also looks after other historic ships (HMS Belfast, HMS Victory). Recently completed, the report has been a mixture of good and bad news. Overall the submarine is sound, however of particular concern is the extent of structural decay in the bows. In the coming year the Director and Curator will, in conjunction with our advisers, be looking at how to deal with these challenges by drawing up a long term plan for the Boat.

In October 1998 the Museum submitted an application to the National Heritage Lottery Commission for funding to complete the conservation and interpretation of HM Submarine No One, Holland 1. The plan, in essence, is to turn the conservation tank into an environmentally controlled gallery and to create a lively interactive exhibition about the vessel in one of two new ancillary buildings that will service the gallery. The conservation plan for the long term care of Holland 1 was a critical part of the application. Balancing the need to maximise visitor access against legitimate conservation requirements has been the key equation. In December we drained down the conservation tank and, with the assistance of colleagues from the Hampshire County Museums Service, carried out a series of tests to analyse the effects of three years of treatment. We were delighted to find the results even more positive than we had hoped. The application received considerable scrutiny and analysis by the Lottery Fund, notably by their chief maritime heritage assessor. In August 1999 the HLF gave Stage 1 approval to the scheme, offering a potential grant of £440,000 which represents 73% of the total costs.

Museums right across Britain have been working hard to engage with the Government’s renewed emphasis on education and the learning society. Museums are attempting to reclaim the role that they clearly had in Victorian Society - that of great educational resources. At RNSM we have begun the process of developing an educational programme by commissioning consultants - firstly to research the schools market to find out what this important audience actually needs from the Museum, and secondly to work up our ideas for developing the link between submarines and science. This work is now complete and its results have been very encouraging since teachers have been highly positive about the Museum, and the way it can contribute to the National Curriculum in Science. The work of the consultants has enabled the Museum to set out with confidence a plan for developing a programme for schools and a wider educational policy for all visitors/users of the Museum. Crucially the consultancy should assist the Museum in its bid to secure Grant-in-Aid funding from the Ministry of Defence for a full time Education Officer post, and funding from elsewhere for developing new interactive exhibits.

The great strength of the collection as a whole is its diversity, ranging from whale tusks to torpedoes and photographs to propellers. This diversity was reinforced in 1998 with items as different as the remote submersible Cutlet, a torpedo recovery vessel, through to an exquisite original tinted photograph of Lieutenant Arnold Forster (Holland 1’s first Commanding Officer). The conservation of our valuable artefacts remains paramount if the collection is to survive long into the future. Given the success of the Weapons Gallery, the future challenge is to develop the site in such a way that other key exhibits, such as HMS X24 (a mini-submarine that saw service in WWII), and LR3 (an early deep submergence Rescue Vessel), can be properly housed in appropriate buildings.

Acquisitions for the Collection have continued to arrive in significant numbers. We welcomed home the Boyle VC and Horton memorabilia from the Wardroom of HMS DOLPHIN, and a major feature of the new galleries will be to introduce a security case in which to display these intrinsically high value artefacts. They were accompanied by several paintings, some of which are large, and their arrival (as if we needed to be reminded) underlines our need for additional space in which to exhibit our growing art collection (now in excess of 300 pieces). The quality of the library was significantly enhanced by the gifting by Lady Maureen Mackenzie of Vice Admiral Sir Rufus’ books, and the kind donation of the Gibson Collection of Gibson and Prendergast fame by Mrs Maggie Morris, a Friend of the Museum and a relative of the late RH Gibson.

Due to the improved telephone facilities introduced during the year and an uprating of the Museum’s Internet website, there has been a marked increase in the number of research enquiries. In addition to about 500 letters being received, there have been over 200 E-mail enquiries, 400 telephone calls and faxes, and 45 visits by researchers. With only a small staff to satisfy this thirst for information, it means that great care must be applied in prioritising work-loads in order to meet the other objectives of the Museum. Nevertheless it is pleasing to note the continuing interest that submarines in general, and those of the Royal Navy Submarine Service in particular, inspire around the world. This interest can only grow as the curtain is pulled back a little on submarine activity during the Cold War - a struggle that took place, to a great extent, underwater.

Given the Museum’s quality of collection and expertise, a number of international links with us have been sought, whilst others were strengthened. The Maritime Museum of Western Australia (Perth) is soon to exhibit HMAS Ovens; the Canadian War Museum (Ottawa) has been gifted HMCS Okanagan; and the city of Kure, Japan, is seeking to develop a submarine exhibit. Our relationship with the Museum of Charleston, South Carolina, which will recover and exhibit CSS Hunley, continues to flourish.

As soon as a response is received from the NHLF on Holland, it is the intention to progress with the Appeal for the next three elements of the overall project. These are (a) a new gallery building on the area formerly occupied by the redundant Dieso Tanks (b) refurbishment of the present building to an appropriate environmental standard and (c) provision of remedial and long term conservation measures for HMS Alliance. The Submarine Appeal Committee is now chaired by Vice Admiral Sir Roy Newman KCB JP, and has been enhanced by the voluntary effort of Commodore Martin MacPherson OBE (National Event Co-ordinator), Mrs Rue Hoddinott (Regional Co-ordinator), and Commander Ian Anderson OBE (Data Base Czar). The Committee Secretary is Mr Colin Way, a former submarine coxswain.

In conjunction with our colleagues at the Royal Naval Museum, Fleet Air Arm Museum and the Royal Marines Museum we have made considerable progress in strategic terms in establishing the RN Museums in their proper place in the overall national maritime heritage structure. Jointly we are now members of the National Museums’ Directors Conference, and we are significant players in the UK Maritime Collections Initiative, driven by HRH The Duke of York in his role as Chairman of the National Maritime Museum. In addition, we have seen the release of Defence Council Instruction 85/98 which officially recognises for the first time the role of the six principal service museums. Finally we welcomed the arrival of the formal Ministerial Document which provides an avenue to us to acquire redundant service materiel before it comes under an auctioneer’s hammer!

No such ill-fate befell the HMS DOLPHIN heritage collection. Thanks to Commander John Prime, the last RN CO, the collection was well catalogued, and dispersed with great sensitivity among other service establishments and the Museum. In addition, a close record of the external disbursements was made, and most significantly, they remain the property of the RN Submarine Service (through Flag Officer Submarines), with the Museum Director as the Keeper.

The Museum is the ‘de facto’ Regimental Headquarters of the Submarine Branch. The de-commissioning of HMS DOLPHIN (the Alma Mater of the Submarine Service) in September 1998 was a highly emotional event at which representatives of Submarine Old Comrades Association and the Submarine Officers Life Members Association attended. The last White Ensign to fly over the Establishment and its bell are now on display in the Museum. The Museum’s new landlord (The Director, Defence Medical Training Organisation) has made it perfectly clear however that he would not wish to inhibit any of the traditional events celebrated by the Submarine Service on the former naval turf, so for at least the next few years Fort Blockhouse will continue to host the variety of reunions we celebrate. The reunions in late September were extremely well attended, with the unveiling of the statue of The Submariner in the Memorial Garden by FOSM as a highlight. Grateful thanks are due to Mr Tommy Topham MBE, who provided the stone.

Members of the Archive Working Party, under the leadership of Mr Brian Head, have once again been unstinting in giving of their time and expertise. They give up every Saturday, sifting and cataloguing significant paper collections. Dr Nick Lambert, our expert in the early strategy of submarines, has emigrated to America, however he is not totally lost to us since he is writing a book on the history of the Service up to 1918. This will be published by the Naval Records Society in 2000 as a prelude to the Centenary of the Submarine Service in 2001. We have also enjoyed the expert volunteer help of Messrs Alan Ferris and Alan Smith who have been cataloguing the expanding Library and inputting into the databases a constant stream of submarine related documentation.

A major future addition to the collection (loan) will be the famous HMS E11 periscope currently on display in the Imperial War Museum. Mrs Elizabeth Dunbar-Nasmith has been instrumental in fulfilling a long term family desire to see this artefact in its ‘rightful’ home, and it will serve as the centrepiece of a temporary exhibition celebrating the life of Martin Dunbar-Nasmith VC. Other personal artefacts are kindly being lent by the family to enhance the exhibition, which when shown alongside E11’s bell and the Cornish medals already owned by the Museum, will make a display worthy of this outstanding submarine Commanding Officer.

We have been again active on the publishing front this year. HM Submarines in Camera was re-published by Alan Sutton & Co in paperback, and in conjunction with Tick-Tock Publishing The Snapping Turtle Guide to Submarines by JJ Tall is now on the bookshelves. A major undertaking for the team (in partnership with the Royal Naval Submarine School) was the development of the CD-Rom The RN Submarine Service - Past, Present and Future. Intended as a ‘well-done’ for all successful students passing through the School, it was also designed for public consumption and enjoyment and is on general sale. The profit will be shared between the Museum and the School, repaying the latter for the not inconsiderable investment required to get the venture off the ground.

The success of the Submarine Centennial Appeal and the progress of the Development programme will be the Museum’s main concern but there are also a number of other major objectives that must be met. These are:

• following up on a recent Education Study which identified several areas in which we have a direct contribution to make to the National Curriculum, particularly in science subjects. We wish to develop a Learning Centre and Schools Reception Area.
• achieving Museums and Galleries Commission Phase II Registration status. We are due for review in November this year, and the Curator and his team are heads down on meeting the demanding standards.
• achieving Designation - The Mark of an Outstanding Museum status for the Collection. This is a category announced last year by the Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, the Minister for Culture Media and Sport. Although the public perception of the Royal Naval heritage collection is of a national standing, this is not reflected in official ‘national’ status. This is because the four naval museums do not obtain total capital funding, nor is 80% of their running costs provided by HM Treasury. The marque of Designation is thus the next best thing to recognise the importance of our collection.
• undertaking the construction of a disabled lift which will allow access for wheelchairs and our less mobile visitors to the present first floor gallery. Its position will also provide future access to the new galleries. The funding (£97,000) is being provided by the MoD, and will be a significant enhancement to our facilities.
• playing a full part in planning for the Centennial Year in 2001 in conjunction with Flag Officer Submarines.
• playing our full part in executing developments for the Millennium Commission backed Renaissance of Portsmouth Harbour project.