If you were to choose a ship to save from the scrap yard, would you choose one that had spent years ferrying what is politely referred to as ‘sludge’ up and down Glasgow’s Clyde river? In 1988, that’s exactly what Southampton City Museum Services did, setting up a preservation society and paying £20,000, the equivalent of her scrap value, to save Steamship Shieldhall.

37 years later, Shieldhall is the largest working steamship in the UK and part of our National Historic Fleet. Why the interest? Essentially, she’s an anachronism. She was constructed in 1955 with the already outdated technology of triple expansion steam engines akin to those in the Titanic. But she was ahead of her time in other aspects, taking elderly passengers of low income on sailings ‘doon the watter’ for free, time on the river recognised to benefit wellbeing. Now a living museum, she’s run as a charity whose purpose is to conserve, maintain and operate the ship for people of all ages to enjoy and experience steam power at sea and alongside. To that end, Shieldhall operates public sailings from her berth in Southampton every summer and is entirely run and maintained by over 100 volunteers whose dedication led to receiving The King’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2024.

Layer steam on top of the already male-dominated maritime industry and those volunteers must all be male, right? Wrong. She has fantastic female volunteers across all functions, starting at board level with Trustees Charlotte Warr, a Maritime Lawyer and Executive Claims Adjuster and Ruth Sloss, an Executive Coach and ex-FTSE 100 senior leader. Reflecting the charity’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and continual improvement, Charlotte and Ruth joined WISTA on behalf of Shieldhall to glean thought leadership from the organisation and fellow members on supporting females in the sector.

Shieldhall has proved an inspiration for women of diverse skills, backgrounds and careers. Lucy Heather volunteers as a deckhand and is also a coastguard rescue officer based in Lee on Solent. Roz Jewell’s background is in fitting helicopter airframes and gas turbine engines. A key member of Shieldhall’s Engineering Team, she led recent work on boiler maintenance. Vanessa Wilkinson holds a physics degree with a background in the IT industry – plus a fascination with steam engines. Despite lacking engineering experience Vanessa joined the Engineering Team and learnt on the job. Val Contreras, Fleet Sr HR Business Partner for Azamara, started her HR career on land before spending the last 16 years on cruise ships. In her downtime, Val is Shieldhall’s Chief Purser, Catering Supervisor and First Aid Trainee for other volunteers.

Those who’ve sailed on Shieldhall will know the dulcet tones of Judy Theobald, ex journalist and BBC radio presenter now in her 10th year of volunteering, who entertains passengers with informative commentary during cruises. As an ‘access all areas’ vessel they may also have met Officer of the Watch and Master Mariner Jill Kernick on the Bridge, who trained on cargo ships and taught navigation at Warsash Maritime Academy, now part of Solent University.

2025 is Shieldhall’s 70^th birthday and is being marked with activities throughout the year. But maintaining an historic vessel is getting tougher. Headwinds such as changing MPA regulations have hugely raised operational costs, making the collective ambition to keep her funded and steaming until 2050 increasingly challenging.  What can you do to support? Donate. Join as a member. Book a cruise this summer or hire her for an event. Best still, bring your skills and expertise, be that engineering or ship handling, business development or marketing, and become a volunteer to swell her female ranks further. In the words of Judy Theobald “I volunteered on the Shieldhall because it wasn’t like anything I had done before in my life and I thought it would be a great opportunity for new experiences. I haven’t been disappointed”.

For more information please visit https://ss-shieldhall.co.uk/