Featured Artists Conference: Living Landscapes, June 2009 SUB: SAIL: STEAM Universal P57: a site-responsive event A project by Anna Farthing (University of Manchester) and Paul Gough (UWE Bristol)           On 5th February 1946 the Aberystwyth Lifeboat was launched to come to the aid of HM Submarine Universal P57. In a ferocious westerly gale the vessel floundered and drifted in a north Easterly direction 11 and a half miles west south west of Aberystwyth. The motor lifeboat was aided for a short while by the New Quay lifeboat under the command of Coxswain Arden Evans. This lifeboat was of the old pulling and sailing type and this was probably the last service launch of a sailing lifeboat around the UK coast. During a lengthy, dangerous and dramatic rescue 27 submariners were rescued from the stricken submarine. The survivors were taken to an hotel in Aberystwyth and provided for by the ship wrecked mariners society, their clothes dried by the town's steam laundry.       Anna Farthing and Paul Gough plan a sequence of events in response to the largely unrecorded and uncelebrated event of 1946. Through drawings and writings made from the promontories overlooking the bay, photo-montages of contemporary events, and charts of the harbour approaches, the project will unfold through fieldwork, storytelling and digital narratives created during the course of the conference. How exactly the responses will be communicated and opened up for critique will be determined by the site itself, though walking, measuring and scrutiny.          Drawing on Farthing's work in digital storytelling and dramatic scene-development, and Gough's work on topographic survey and memorialisation, the project will consist of presentation, physical and virtual display, as well as memorial objects left to mark untold and untellable pasts. Film Clips: Above Us The Waves / We Dive at Dawn Anna Farthing - Spinning Dits '‘Spinning dits’ is naval slang for telling stories. The following quotation confirms the value that is placed upon maintaining ‘dit’ culture among, in this case, The Royal Marines. Telling stories or ‘spinning dits’, so fundamental to life in the Corps, has become an important way of sustaining our ethos. The Royal Marines have a dit for every occasion and a good dit is precisely the one, which correctly reflects ‘Royal’s’ understanding of himself….Dits are a crucial means by which members of The Royal Marines maintain their history, communicate to each other knowledge and skills, but most importantly the attitudes so necessary to the performance of our role.' The events that took place in Cardigan Bay in February 1946 are documented in the records of The Royal Navy, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Hansard. But these official accounts are impersonal, they do not communicate knowledge, skills or attitudes, and therefore cannot function as ‘dits’. The story first came to my notice through the first hand account of Des Davies, the last surviving member of the Aberystwyth Lifeboat, Frederick Angus. He spins a great ‘dit’ and his dramatic personal recollections can be found online at : www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/aberystwyth/pages/des_davies.shtml Some of the smaller details of Des Davies’ account, and the comments that followed from online contributors (quoted below) inspired me to imagine what the ‘dits’ of those on the margins of this event might be. I have therefore attempted to fictionalize a voiced text and dramatise the sub-text. My creative responses take the form of the following digital audio stories. They are constructed from voice performance and selected sound effects. They are available both here and/or as downloads so that they can be listened to near Cardigan Bay if desired. Washing the White Wooly Pully Written by Anna Farthing, performed by Saskia Portway 'The survivors were taken to a hotel and provided for by the ship wrecked mariners society, their clothes dried by the Aberystwyth steam laundry.' Watching and Waiting Written by Anna Farthing, performed by Anthony Moll 'Some public spirited individual brought a huge telescope on its stand and positioned it outside the public shelter opening on to the prom between the band stand and the Marine Hotel. He allowed us all to look at the submarine (I was 13 years old at the time)' William Cantrell Ashley Written and performed by Anna Farthing (It is interesting to note here that this lifeboat was of the old pulling and sailing type and that this was probably the last service launch of a sailing lifeboat around the UK coast.) Acknowledgements I am grateful to the RNLI archives in Poole, The Lifeboat Museum in Chatham, The Submarine Museum in Gosport, The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth, The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea and especially to my yachtsman father, Tony Farthing, who has shared my enthusiasm for this research. Thanks to the RNLI, an entirely voluntary service, he survived his youth and I exist. www.rnli.org.uk Conference website Previous Featured Artists: Nicola Donovan Anna Farthing & Paul Gough Anthony Boswell Elizabeth Turrell Gail Ritchie back