Viola Trust embarks on fundraising campaign to bring back former trawler

Pictured (from left) are trustees Dominic Ward and Dr Robb Robinson, Lord Mayor Sean Chaytor, Paul Escreet and Alan Johnson MP.

THE charitable trust behind plans to bring a Beverley-built steam trawler back to the Humber is to embark on a campaign to raise up to £3-million to fund the project.

Leaders of the Viola Trust began discussions with fundraising experts after securing charitable status. They hope to set a target figure and a project timetable after a survey next month into the condition of the ship.

Paul Escreet, chairman of the trustees, said: “The funding target will be influenced by various factors including the condition of the Viola and the market cost of the various services which we will need to commission to bring her back to Hull.

“We’re working on a figure of £3-million at the moment and we’re talking to people who have experience of raising that sort of money. If we can raise £1.5-million initially then we can bring the Viola back and apply for Lottery funding, but we can’t do that until she is in British waters.”

The Viola, which is also known as the Dias, was built in Beverley in 1906 and sailed off to war in September 1914 with a crew of local fishermen after being requisitioned by the Admiralty. She was in the maritime front line throughout the Great War and involved in sinking two U-boats, making only a brief visit to Hull whilst still on Admiralty service in 1918. After demobilisation in Milford Haven the vessel worked around the world as a trawler, a whaler, a sealer and an exploration vessel.

In 1982 the Viola was one of the vessels targeted by Argentine scrap metal merchants in the landing which sparked the Falklands War. In 2015 the Viola was featured in a set of stamps which were released in South Georgia, where she still sits on a beach.

The Trust has secured the support of Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson as patron and of Hull City Council, which envisages incorporating the Viola into a new display promoting the city’s maritime heritage. Some of the key figures met to discuss the project at Hull Marina, which as the old Humber Dock was the Viola’s departure point on the last occasion she sailed from Hull.

Mr Johnson said: “The Viola is part of our fishing and our maritime heritage. There is one surviving steam trawler in the whole of the world and it is beached out there. It was actually the cause of the Falklands War when the scrap metal merchants who came as the vanguard of the Argentinian army said they were coming to look at the Viola.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring it back up the Humber to its home city, restore it and have it as part of our nautical heritage? If you look around this city there are too few monuments to what went before. This can be a real part of the postscript to City of Culture. What we are keen to do is restore it to its former glory and then have it on display as a visitor attraction.”

The Lord Mayor of Hull, Coun Sean Chaytor, said: “The City Plan and Cultural Strategy clearly define our ambition to improve the cultural offer and celebrate our maritime history. We have the Spurn Lightship and the Arctic Corsair trawler and we want to support the Trust and other partners on the Viola.”