HMS Gannet Under Restoration

Last Update: 16 March 2010

Training Ship Mercury in Pictures

The history of the restoration of HMS Gannet can be said to have started in 1979, some 9 years after the ship arrived in Gosport where she now languished in a sorry state. Mercury Old Boy, David Muffet, decided to raise the profile of the ship and contacted the local newspaper, The Portsmouth News. Following the publicity this generated, David was contacted by The Maritime Trust (who owned the ship), a few other Mercury Old Boys and a number of local people who, although they had no connection with Mercury, were interested in preserving the ship. As a result, the HMS Gannet (1878) Society was formed with David as chairman. The aim of this new organisation was to restore the ship to her original HMS Gannet state. The Maritime Trust agreed that the Society should be responsible for the ship, at least for the interim.

Initial priorities were maintaining her such that she would not deteriorate further and also to perform some restoration work to make the project more attractive to potential benefactors. And, of course, various fund raising activities were pursued. Major sponsors included Hampshire County Council and Gosport Borough Council.

In 1985, however, The Maritime Trust decided to offer the ship to the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust for full restoration and for her to be the centrepiece of a planned maritime museum in the old Royal Navy dockyards. In 1987 she was towed to Chatham where, after some false starts regarding funding, restoration continued in earnest such that she was opened to the public for the first time in 2004. TS Mercury is represented on board in the form of a small exhibition