Bottle not such a bad idea (From South Wales Argus)

Bottle not such a bad idea

3:55pm Wednesday 27th June 2012 in Letters

I’VE always enjoyed Julian Powell’s letters ever since he offered me a pair of kippers by way of consolation when the whale washed up by the lighthouse was dismembered and incinerated, and not preserved as I had hoped.

Recently he made me chuckle by suggesting that the 1950s schoolboys digging in an unidentified photograph were burying the timbers of the Newport ship. His latest letter suggesting that we should put the ship in a bottle is not quite as frivolous as he might think.

The ship, when reconstructed, will need to be in a monitorable and controllable atmosphere. Maybe the ship couldn’t be put into a bottle, but it could be kept inflated, requiring very little energy, and sited within an existing building at a fraction of the cost of a new build.

Alternatively, this could provide temporary accommodation while a more permanent home of structural glass is built around it.

Thank you for your suggestion, Julian. Now, where are my kippers?

Charles Ferris, Fields Park Avenue, Newport