A fascinating collection of shipping memorabilia

FRIDAY, MAY 11: These photos offer a snapshot of some of the captivating artworks and artefacts currently exhibited in Captain Musson’s A Life At Sea show at Masterworks.

The exhibition includes the brass ship’s wheel of the Queen of Bermuda which Musson captained, as well as watercolour paintings, and model boats created by the self-taught artist.

The show also includes a display cabinet containing the quality tableware found on the Queen of Bermuda, another cabinet with some of his handwritten stories and art materials and shipping tools, and a large mechanical toy model of the ship with a cut out of Queen Mary waving a British flag.

The memorabilia was donated to the Gallery by the Musson family and is on display on the Mezzanine Floor until September. Masterworks director Tom Butterfield told the Bermuda Sun: “The show demonstrates the contribution that one man can make — he was a totally self-made, a real renaissance man.

“The gift came about unofficially a couple of years ago — I think the Musson family recognised that if it was to go anywhere, it needed to go in a place that was properly controlled given the sensitivity of watercolours, and that it would get out into the public — in other words we would rotate the artwork around based on themes.

“We did have his model boats up about three years ago for a show called We Are Sailing but this is the first time we have put all the work together.”

Musson was born in Louth, Lincolnshire in 1918 descending from a long line of seafarers. One branch of the family settled in Bermuda in 1754 and some descendants still live here today.

“Musson went to sea with Furness-Withy and worked his way up the ranks to become Captain of the Ocean Monarch, which served St George’s. In 1950, Musson became Staff Captain of the Queen of Bermuda and commanded a heroic rescue at sea for the Student Prince, which sank in the Atlantic in 1955. Upon the death of Captain Leslie Banyard, he became Captain of the Queen awnd was held in high regard by crew and voyagers until the Queen sadly left Hamilton Harbour in 1966 and went to the scrap yard in Scotland.