Society

Nomadic Preservation Society

Save Nomadic!

In 2005 Kathleen Neill of Belfast Industrial Heritage was trying to raise awareness help save the SS Nomadic when she approached John White & David Scott Beddard owners of White Star Memories at the ‘TITANIC – MADE IN BELFAST’ exhibition. 

Kathleen already had the help of one of the world’s leading experts on Nomadic, Philippe Delaunoy, who lives in Belgium and had many valuable contacts within the Titanic & Nomadic world in Europe, particularly in France and knew both Nomadic and her previous owner very well.

With a wealth of knowledge about all things related to Titanic and the White Star Line, a huge database of clients, collectors and historians worldwide, the team quickly devised a plan of action and savenomadic.com was born. An internet-based appeal seemed to be the best way forward and the easiest way to communicate the threat to the last floating link to the ill-fated RMS Titanic.

On 26th January 2006 Northern Ireland’s Department for Social Development (DSD) stepped in and bought Nomadic for €250,001 Euros or approximately £170,000. At this point £57,000 had been raise through SaveNomadic.com and was in theory now no longer needed. Through Kathleen, the DSD was asked if they would like the money towards the cost of her purchase, but they politely declined and requested the funds be used towards recovery of missing artefacts and initial restoration. The people who had pledged were all informed and asked if they still wanted to honour their offers. Most agreed and £40,000 was donated to be used. 

The Society

The Nomadic Preservation Society arose out of the SaveNomadic campaign with those who had pledged £50 receiving an annual membership and £250 or more, lifetime membership. A quarterly journal was to be sent to members along with a membership card. This fledgling organisation already had nearly 200 members, but the vision was much greater than that. Application forms were printed and the NPS was officially launched at ‘TITANIC – MADE IN BEFAST’ during Easter 2006. 

Offers of support come from surprising areas and November saw the Belfast Operatic Society present “TITANIC – THE MUSICAL” on stage once again, at Belfast’s Grand Opera House. They offered to dedicate their final performance to Nomadic, so on 25th November, 100 special guests joined the sell-out final performance. Afterwards, the guests retired to the Europa Hotel for a buffet and further fundraising. 

In the background Philippe had been working hard and located many of Nomadic’s interior panels that were removed from the vessel in the 1970’s. Also, some of her superstructure, doors, portholes, staircase panelling, tables & table legs which where recovered and brought back to Belfast for use in the restoration using SaveNomad funds.

Also located and retrieved was Nomadic’s last remaining lifeboat.

Membership of the Society continued to grow when Nomadic opened her doors in 2007 with some of the committee working aboard her in various roles and many of the members in helping maintain and restore the vessel in a voluntary capacity. 

The Lone Star magazine documented much of the happenings on-board as did the publication of The Belfast Child by Nomadic’s maintenance officer Mervyn Pritchard which was sold as one item in the range of merchandise the Society created.

Over the years the Society held various fund and profile raising drives from information and merchandise stands at maritime festivals to three successful conventions:

During Easter 2007, the NPS, held our first convention in the Europa Hotel, attracting delegates and visitors from all over the world.

The NPS as a Society became a charity in the eyes of HMRC in 2010 this would enable the Society to have the increased ability to raise funds by means such as Giftaid.

In 2011 Nomadic celebrated her centenary and the Society hosted a celebratory convention at the Holiday Inn Belfast 3-5 June 2011 with a reception with Belfast’s Lord Mayor in the City Hall followed by the Welcome Buffet on the Friday evening. Saturday included tours of the Thompson Dock, Harland & Wolff’s Drawing Offices and SS Nomadic (undergoing restoration) then rounded off with the Gala dinner. Sunday had a Belfast Harbour boat tour and a visit to the Harbour Commissioners office and Sinclair Seaman’s Church.

By 2012 Life member were asked to take up annual membership instead, a decision not taken lightly by the Committee. It had been realised as early as meetings in 2007 that due to an overabundance of Life Members compared to Annual member the Society would face financial difficulty as the monies raise as part of SaveNomadic had been used to retrieve items and not contributed to the Society costs. The Committee unanimously made plans in 2007 but held off enacting this decision for several years until the situation became urgent.

In 2014 the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland came into being and our Charitable status was transferred which necessitated an amended Constitution as well as Reports and Accounts submitted retrospectively for each Financial year. These are publicly available from 2018.

In 2016 there was a joint convention for Nomadic Preservation Society and British Titanic Society 8-10 April 2016 at Hilton Belfast with a buffet style dinner on Friday night in Lagan Suite followed by talks and British Titanic Society AGM. Saturday included visits to the Thompson Dock where Titanic was outfitted, Titanic Belfast and SS Nomadic followed by a sparkling wine reception and Gala dinner on Saturday night in the Hilton’s Lagan Suite. On Sunday the convention ended with a guided bus tour of Belfast and a stop at the Titanic memorial garden and an optional Boat Tour of the harbour.

By the end of 2016 the committee released that with Nomadic and the Lifeboat restored, fewer volunteering opportunities, a shrinking membership and the mounting cost of producing the Lone Star magazine there would be hard choices ahead.

At the last members meeting in October 2016 it was put to the members that the Committee could no longer offer the level of commitment they preferred without new support. Unfortunately this was not forth coming and with the continuing decline in membership beneath a level that allowed the Society to be financially viable the remaining Committee members made the difficult decision to put the Society into a period of dormancy while continuing to asses any opportunity that might arise for the Society to become financially or practically viable again in continuing our aims in supporting SS Nomadic and educating the public about her history.

The following year after the Society lost access to the original site and the ability to access the Merchandise accounts but continued to maintain a web presence via the Facebook Group.

Trustee reports