The SS Nomadic, a ship that is reaching a century in age, was bought by the Northern Ireland government and Belfast City Council to be restored in Belfast, Harland & Wolff's Hamilton docks. A status update up till beginning of November is presented here.
The SS Nomadic was commissioned by the White Star line to take passengers from Cherbourg's coast to the Titanic in 1912.
After its useful service life was depleted, it went trough different stages of its life but eventually ended up in Paris, France at 1974, remaining there as a restaurant for 30 years, after which the restaurant seized to continue and the ship was moved to another port. The Paris port authority originally had plans to auction her off with a reverse price set at 500,000 £ but later reduced this to 250,000 £
The Nomadic preservation society and Belfast industrial heritage lobbied the Belfast city council and Northern Ireland government to buy the ship. Nomadic was succesfully acquired at a little above the 250,000 £ reserve price the Paris port authority has set.
After the inspection and preparations for return to Belfast were completed, a barge vessel transported the Nomadic ship, In the mean time the Belfast city council gave berth rights so that the ship could stay in Harland & Wolff's docks, where she was built.
At the beginning of November, the ship is behind scenes and it seems that not a lot is happening with Nomadic, but behind the scenes, a lot is happening. The first thing that had to be done was to set up the Charitable Trust to oversee the restoration work and her future. This was done in October; Now after this was done, the work can at last start. This last weekend(just before Halloween) work started by removing all her interior fittings to strip her back to a shell.
She is still in the same position as in the photos for this same reason.
There are many people here in Northern Ireland who want to see her open as soon as possible, but I don't know if she will be open for viewing straight away, or if we will have to wait until she is fully restored. I will let you know as soon as I hear.
As far as where she will end up, it will be somewhere in the Harland & Wolff area, probably the Hamilton Dock(the small dock on the left just before the old H&W building), I doubt it it will end up at the Folk & Transport Museum at Cultra - too far away.
Stay put for updates!
