The Mercantile Marine Memorial Trust

The Mercantile Marine Memorial Trust holds a new national collection of paintings of British merchant vessels collected by Michael Charles that were bought for the nation with a LIBOR grant in 2017. 

In the modern age of mass containerized transport, we forget too easily how the merchant marine was so intricately woven into our daily lives until very recent times.  Today, we are rarely close to the ships and planes that move our goods, as their vast sizes need industrial scale ports that are inaccessible to public view.  Our urban harbour jetties and cargo handling buildings have been replaced with pleasant riverside walks and stylish housing, too often without recording the spirit of the many men, women and children who worked there.  Our generation no longer sees or empathises with the ships, trades and skills so familiar to our parents and forebears as they are lost from view.  Many of these ships were lost at sea with their crew, not just in war but from the extreme hazards of seafaring.

The Mercantile Marine Memorial Trust is being established as a charity whose purpose will be to care for and provide public access to this significant collection of paintings by way of exhibitions and loans. It is envisaged that the collection will be accessible for research, and that a programme of educational outreach will be developed. We regret that public access is not presently available due to the paintings undergoing museum standard cataloguing, and with a programme of digitization in development.  We hope to be displaying work from summer 2019.  We are grateful to the National Museum of the Royal Navy for their assistance in establishing the Trust and their guidance in bringing this important national collection in to the public eye.

We welcome enquiries, especially from those offering assistance and support in achieving our aim. Please contact office@mmmt.org.uk for more information