The prize for the top maritime media person of the year has been awarded to Manuela Sarris and the Sea Vision UK Campaign Team. She received the Desmond Wettern Media Award, an engraved ships decanter and a cheque for £1,000, from Admiral Sir Alan West, First Sea Lord, on behalf of Countess Mountbatten of Burma, President of the Maritime Foundation, at a dinner held on board the MV Silver Sturgeon on 11th November.
The Guest Speaker was Christopher Lee, Younger Brother of Trinity House, and well-known broadcaster and author of “This Sceptred Isle”. He reminded those present of the crucial part played by the Merchant Navy between 1939-1945: “This is Remembrance week and on Sunday we must remember that up to 50,000 British Merchant seafarers lost their lives in preventing our island nation from starving.”
Before presenting the Awards, Admiral West said: “A wide-cross section of the British population has forgotten in these days of cheap, easy and rapid international travel, that we are first and foremost a maritime nation.”
“One only has to look at the statistics: we export almost a quarter of everything we produce, and 95% percent by volume of the UK’s trade goes by sea. In 2002, 542m tonnes of freight passed through our ports, compared with only 2m tonnes by air, and the maritime commercial sector in Britain has an annual turnover in excess of £37 billion – more than the agriculture and aerospace sectors of the economy combined.”
The Desmond Wettern Media Award
The Desmond Wettern Media Award was made in recognition of the pre-eminent role the Sea Vision team has played in promoting Britain’s maritime affairs at national and regional level.
Receiving the Award, Manuela Sarris said: “I am very delighted to accept the Award on behalf of Sea Vision UK. It’s success comes from the ongoing support of our partners – without their belief and efforts in the campaign to support the maritime industries we could not have achieved our progress to date.”
The Mountbatten Maritime Prize
Receiving the engraved silver Armada Plate, Tom Pocock said: “This is a great honour, particularly because the Award bears the name of Mountbatten. When Lord Mountbatten was a Dartmouth cadet, my father, Guy Pocock, taught him naval history. They remained lifelong friends, so I was fortunate in knowing him myself.”
Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, Chairman of the Trustees, presided at the dinner, which was also attended by the Second Sea Lord, other senior members of the Royal Navy, the maritime industries and the media.
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Notes to Editors:
- Before taking up the appointment as the Development Manager of the Sea Vision UK Campaign, Manuela Sarris previously worked for both Lloyds Register and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology – more details from Sea Vision on 0207 417 2841 website: www.seavisionuk.org
- Tom Pocock works as an author – more details from Catherine Benwell at John Murray on 020 7873 6000.
- The Awards are made annually in memory of the late Desmond Wettern, writer on maritime affairs for over thirty years. They commemorate his single-minded dedication to the belief that the United Kingdom’s economic wellbeing and security are inextricably bound up with the sea and to encourage publicists and writers to draw attention to this linkage.
- The sponsors of the Awards include the Telegraph Group, the Swire Group, BAE Systems, P&O Nedlloyd, the Chamber of Shipping, the George John Livanos Trust and the Wettern Trust.
- For further information, please call Anthony Harvey, Secretary, The Maritime Foundation on 020 7928 8100 / secretary@bmcf.org.uk or Sue Lloyd in the Defence Press Office on 020 7218 3258 / press@dgics.mod.uk.
- The web-sites and photographs can be found at www.mod.uk and www.bmcf.org.uk.
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Gallery
A selection of photos from the Maritime Media Awards 2004. More photos are available from the Maritime Foundation’s Flickr Photostream.
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