Blog at the Ballast

This week's photo is the first military photogaph I've included. Dan's collection does have a number of images of military craft but it was often harder to photograph these ships during the wartime for obvious reasons and they are definitely outnumbered by the puffers and sailing vessels.This is picture of the HMS Geranium which was a Flower class corvette launched in 1940 and...

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Today I'm in Edinburgh attending an information session on the archive pace setter scheme. This is one of the things I'm doing with my University of Glasgow hat on rather than purely for the Ballast Trust. So I'll be reporting back to colleagues at the University when I am in on Tuesday about the scheme and what it means for them.However, as the...

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This week's photo is another puffer photographed by Dan called the Arran Rose. It was built as the 'Garmoyle' by William Denny & Brothers in 1904 but renamed for the final time as Arran Rose in 1946. Other previous names were Stronshira (1921) and North Inch (1919). It was renamed the Arran Rose when it was bought by the Arran Sea Transport and...

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Accessioning is the name given to the formal process which documents the transfer of a collection from client repository or other source to the Ballast Trust for storage and/or processing.It is one of the most important steps as the information created and captured at the accessioning stage will help to shape how the collection is managed and processed.Until recently the Ballast Trust has...

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This week's photo is of a Puffer, the Strongbow. It was built in 1927 by Scotts of Bowling to be used by the tug company Steel & Bennie Ltd.Full information about the tug is available on the Clydebuilt database here. ...

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Today's picture is of a tall ship with a very interesting history. The Padua was built in 1926, not on the Clyde, but in Bremerhaven-Wesermünde. I'm assuming that Dan McDonald photographed her on a visit or stopover in Scotland. The Padua was commissioned as a cargoship for the German shipping company F. Laeisz of Hamburg who specialised in the South American nitrate trade....

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The Ballast Trust has a backlog of nearly 400 linear metres. This is made up of around 15 distinct collections ranging from 90 linear metres down to just 2 linear metres. It is my job as Archivist to decide how to tackle the backlog, making best use of the expertise we have from other staff and volunteers and what our priorities should be.There...

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So far I've focused on the shipping side of things on the blog which is not very representative of what the Ballast Trust does. Particularly not the work of our 3 volunteers who are all processing railway collections. I thought this podcast by The National Archives at Kew on "God's Wonderful Railway" would help balance things out. It is a recording of a...

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