In this blog Maritime volunteer, Julie Corbett talks about the connections between Philip Larkin's poem 'Here' and the changes to Hull's skyline.
In 1964 when Philip Larkin's poem ‘Here’ was published the sky line of Hull was different. In the poem we travel by train from the west beside the Humber Estuary. The landscape before reaching was still as flat as today but now the Humber Bridge straddles the Humber and introduces the outskirts of the city from quite a distance.
Since mid-March this year two phrases from the poem keep returning to me.
The one phrase which springs to mind most easily is, ‘Pastoral of ships up streets’. You can still see vessels in the docks and on the River Hull from Hull’s streets. It is not such a common sight.
When Larkin wrote the poem there were far more shipping movements in and out of Hull docks. St Andrew’s, Princes and Victoria Dock were still active with the deep sea fishing fleet and cargo vessels.
On the River Hull many barges and lighters served the industrial corridor of Wincolmlee and beyond to Beverley. The Arctic Corsair (more on the Arctic Corsair here) was launched from Beverely in 1960 and was towed down the river prior to its fitting out.
Today you can still see a variety of shipping vessels including representations in public art. I wonder what the old harbour looked like when it was full with sailing ships. The masts would have dwarfed many of the buildings in Hull.
Here you can see from a street the IWS Seawalker is a repair/repair vessel. Its deck superstructure is very specialised. This vessel was built in 2024.
It left its berth from Hull on 20 March 2025.
The second phrase of Larkin’s poem I think capturing Hull’s waterside skyline this March is, ‘ spires and cranes cluster’.
When I first glimpsed the vessel WIV Wind Peak it was at night and for a moment I wondered if it was something to do with the Humber Science Festival Colliderfest (details here), or that Hull Fair had changed both its traditional dates and relocated east of the city.
The vessel WIV Wind Peak is a purpose-built vessel designed to both transport and be an installation facility for wind farm components. It is huge. The WIV designation indicates that it is a Windfarm Installation Vessel.
Here it is berthed at Hull Alexandra Werner Berth 1. It sailed out to the North Sea two days (20th March 2025) after this photograph was taken.
Until I walked along the promenade of Victoria Dock Village I had not realised that the vessel was not floating at the berth. It has legs, four sets of triangular trusses (more details on here)
These two vessels seem very advanced from the ones Larkin was seeing in the early sixties. Containerisation of cargo was still in its infancy and the deep sea fishing fleet was still active sailing from Hull. The engineering and purposes of these two vessels are very removed from that time.
Thinking back to when I went to see the people learning to tie sheet bends and hitches (read here) both these awesome vessels will be secured by rope either to berth or to be manoeuvred into positions by tugs.
And certainly as both had passages into the North Sea scheduled the waters they are navigating are as mercurial as those when ships used wind power in their sails.
