Heritage Afloat

A Better Deal for Historic Ships

One of the issues on which Heritage Afloat has long campaigned, along with other organisations, is that there is no public policy to help or support the preservation of historic ships. Ships and boats are conspicuous by their absence from the heritage policy statements of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and neither English Heritage nor any equivalent body (other than the Heritage Lottery Fund) accepts ships as being eligible for support. For a country whose maritime past is such a central part of its history this is unacceptable.

Heritage Afloat believes that a policy for supporting the preservation of ships and boats would have wider benefits in influencing other public bodies and regulators. Other measures which Heritage Afloat supports include concessionary charges (e.g. licence and mooring fees) for historic vessels and sympathetic treatment on regulation. See our Regulations Page.

One of the most practical ways in which historic vessels can be supported is through Festivals, open days and other public events at which private vessels can be put on display and opened to the public. Some of the festivals held in recent years have greatly helped, but we have a long way to go to match the best of continental practice.

As UK representative at the European Maritime Heritage Congress, Heritage Afloat has been working on the Barcelona Charter, to help historic vessels secure a better understanding from all public authorities across Europe. View the Barcelona charter.