Our Journey into the Uncharted - The Fiction

24 Jul 2015

In March 2015 Against Captain’s Orders opened to the public. A groundbreaking collaboration between the National Maritime Museum and immersive theatre makers Punchdrunk Enrichment, Against Captain’s Orders invites younger museum visitors on an adventure that will challenge their understanding of history. Now in a series of blogs the NMM and Punchdrunk come together again to discuss how the exhibition developed from initial concept stage to the first visitors through the door. However, like all things that go Against Captain’s Orders these blogs aren’t quite what they seem as the museum has agreed to Punchdrunk’s request to structure the series around an old museum myth, the apparent disappearance of curator Elinor Grey. Despite Punchdrunk’s fervent hope that they were about to uncover a real life mystery facts uncovered by NMM seem to point another way. Can Elinor Grey still help tell the Against Captain's Orders story? If you're new to this series we recommend you begin at the start here.  PD: Welcome to the Tulip staircase in the Queen’s House NMM: You’re remarkably chipper. PD: Of course. NMM: I thought our last session might have dampened your enthusiasm a bit (find that session here). PD: Why? Because your superior fact finding and evidence gathering skills all, but crushed my dreams of uncovering a genuine mystery? NMM: That sort of thing yes. PD: You underestimate my tenacity for hunting out a good story. NMM: I’m glad to hear it actually. So what brings us here? The Queen’s House doesn’t feature in Against Captain’s Orders at all does it? PD: Not exactly, but this is the perfect spot to tell a story. The story I’m going to tell, like Elinor Grey’s was one we came across whilst developing the exhibition, but ultimately, again like Elinor, we felt it wasn’t the right fit. The story concerns a Canadian couple, the retired Reverend R. W. Hardy and his wife, who visited the museum on the 19th June, 1966. During their visit they came here to the Queen’s House specifically to see the Tulip staircase and when they got here they did what all tourists do. They took a picture. Whilst standing at the bottom of the staircase, almost exactly where we are now Reverend Hardy aimed his camera upwards and, with his wife ensuring no-one passing up the staircase would ruin his shot, he took his photograph. CLICK. Then, who knows? Perhaps they wandered through the park or strolled along the river or did another one of the hundred things a retired Canadian Reverend and his wife might do on a visit to London in 1966. We don’t know. What we do know is that when the Reverend came to develop his image of the Tulip staircase weeks later he discovered something very unusual. Along with the beautiful curve of the stairway we see above us the picture showed something else. Halfway up the stair, just above the Reverend and his wife was what looked like a shrouded figure ascending into the darkness. Not only that, but, on closer inspection the figure seemed to be in pursuit of one if not two other figures above it. And yet there had been no figure. The staircase had been empty. Reverend Hardy’s wife verified it. In fact on that day in 1966 the stairs had been cordoned off. No-one could have been on them. Had Reverend Hardy accidentally caught an image of a ghost? Almost immediately the speculation and excitement began. There were attempts to explain it, to recreate the conditions of the shot to ascertain whether some mechanical glitch could account for the figure and even, in June 1967 an attempt to contact the spirits with a seance, but to no avail. No definitive explanation could be offered. The photograph and its spectral intruder remain a mystery. Despite this, or perhaps because of it the Queen’s House has a reputation. As recently as 2002 ghostly sightings have been made here, doors opening of their own accord, figures fleeing through solid walls, inexplicable sounds in the night. Perhaps the Reverend and his wife did experience the supernatural, perhaps they did capture the image of a ghost or ghosts and perhaps those troubled spirits still wander the halls of the Queen’s House. Still climb these stairs. There, above us. NMM: Brilliant. Thanks. I won’t sleep tonight. That story is why I don’t come here very often. PD: But do you believe it? NMM: Do I believe in ghosts? No personally I don’t. PD: Interesting then, don’t you think? NMM: How so? PD: This is a story that is well documented, famous even, it is recorded on your website with attendant images and references, but in the end none of that collected evidence adds up to a truth. Just because we can find and collate a lot of details about a thing doesn’t make it a fact. NMM: OK, true. PD: However knowing that the story isn’t true hasn’t lessened its effect on you or your relationship to this building and it’s history. You said yourself you don’t come here often because of it. The power of that fiction is enough to stir a real, emotional response in you. That’s a fact that inescapable. That’s a real truth. In the show we do something similar with the story of Drake’s Drum. NMM: The myth that in times of trouble the spirit of Drake can be recalled from death by the sound of his old drum. PD: Exactly. Now we don’t want the children to talk about that story as fact, but we do want to use it stir their emotions. Wake them up. It gets their imaginations going and from that point on they’re ready to explore. NMM: I think I understand... PD: I guess what I’m saying is this. I agree that we can’t just make things up, that we have a responsibility to the names and dates as they provide essential scale and context. However in the end history is subjective and very human isn’t it? Our ability to understand it comes from our ability to take imaginative leaps, feats of make believe that transport us to distant lands or long lost times. I think that’s what works best about Against Captain’s Orders. It’s a launch pad. We provide facts, but we also transport the children out of the comfort and safety of the everyday and kick start their imaginations. We deliver a story of historical fact through a magical, fictional truth. It’s what makes it an adventure. NMM: I absolutely agree with what you’re saying in relation to the show, which I guess is the point, but does that have to do with Elinor Grey? PD: Simple. Whether Elinor was real or not her story has fired up our imaginations and got us exploring. I’m not ready to stop just yet. NMM: Where then would you suggest we explore next? PD: Well, I do think you’re right in as much as we need to start with what we do know and I learned all I know about Elinor Grey in one place. The museum stores… Our Journey into the Uncharted continues here. Against Captain’s Orders, a maritime adventure for 6 - 12 year olds is open 7 days a week. Find out more including how to book tickets here.