58 Ships

26/09/2023

Who would have thought it? ........ our very own HMS Seahorse was involved in the career of Horatio Nelson.......... TC is my research assistant for this one........

25/09/2023

We have a 58 Ships presentation in the Electric palace on Friday 13th October as a part of the Harwich International Shanty Festival. For tickets go to

Tickets & Souvenir Programme Online advance ticket sales are now available! Please note that the vast majority of events are free and are not ticketed. A full schedule is available in the souvenir programme below. The 2023 souvenir Festival Programme is available now from our online store. Visit the...

12/04/2023

In case you missed it, Owen Ward recorded an interview with Mick & Paul last month for the Essex By The Sea Podcast

The Essex By The Sea podcast is a twice monthly podcast telling the stories of the Essex coastline. From industrial areas in the south to sandy beaches on the county's sunshine coast in the north, Essex has a rich and varied boundary with the sea. Essex By The Sea explores all of the 350 miles of co...

02/03/2023

Our Wrecks page is now live but it's at an early stage - we'll add wrecks as we can verify them!
https://58ships.org.uk/ship-graveyards/

26/02/2023

Richard Oxborrow explains the history of Navyard and the ships that were built there. HMS Fan Fan gets an honourable mention.

Richard Oxborrow (58 Ships & Harwich Society) describes how Harwich Navy Yard developed in the 16th/17th century.Filmed at Harwich Museum on 25 February 2023.

25/02/2023

Many thanks to everyone who participated in our Open Event earlier today at the wonderful Harwich Museum. A longer video will follow but here's Mick Verrier's latest incarnation of the 58 Ships song

This song, by Mick Verrier, references some of the vessels built in Harwich in the 17th & 18th centuries, and which are the subject of the 58 Ships Project.T...

22/02/2023

https://www.facebook.com/HarwichStandard/posts/pfbid0g6JocRfmViGVWjmkRetWuenzfTPfkoAcrWM7yKkmDKW8u9mNrEzPbADa3fhg8hJ8l?__cft__[0]=AZXG9JpufoiNuko6zmI0RooaLvShddoUjkrk_ecnxQQOQYgakZMws3PKdv7KWA197G2aTpOzYNonsU6i3l-0cP99gIYTerar4SpXkSusTPhYzQTEAlPDtyOPMK51GEas3IPoV1PvdD0IzI2Db8x8-h3JrL7sK8ExHJqfe7d1AAaB9HPIlN7TlppT6gH_kPXQfao&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

A SPECIAL event is to be held as part of a unique research project to discover the history of 58 naval ships built in Harwich.

16/02/2023

On Saturday 25th Feb we'll be holding an open event at Harwich Museum. Anyone who would like some more information about the project, or would like to discuss their research with one of the team, can join us between 2 & 4pm that afternoon.

11/10/2022

58 Ships is a collaborative research project into the 58 ships listed on a board outside Harwich Navyard. It was launched on 8th October during Harwich Shanty Festival 2022

We are looking for members of the public, whether they are professional or amateur researchers , or even if they have never attempted research before. There is very little existing detail about most of the 58 ships so there's plenty to be discovered.

And then there's the social history, what could we learn of the crews, the dockhands, the shipwrights?

Many of the ships, or the dockyard, have untold stories that could be communicated in verse or any other art form?

The video and powerpoint presentation (PDF) from Saturday's launch event at the Electric Palace are now available on our site.

The Powerpoint presentation used during the launch event is now available:   The launch event video is also available on our Youtube channel

10/10/2022

For those who couldn't get to the 58 Ships launch event at the Electric Palace on Saturday, here's the video.

04/10/2022

There's an intro to the 58 Ships Project at the Electric Palace at 1230 on Saturday 8th October as a part of the Harwich Shanty Festival. Tickets £8 on the door or via

Tickets & Souvenir Programme ​ Online ticket sales are now available! Please note that the vast majority of events are free and are not ticketed. A full schedule is available in the souvenir programme below. Click the poster to download our 2022 Souvenir Harwich Shanty Festival Programme for just ...