THANKS to a New York advertising executive’s 45-year-long hobby, the Bermuda Maritime Museum now sports some 4,000 photographs of Royal Navy ships and several frigates which operated out of Bermuda.Collector Kenneth Kelly told the Mid-Ocean News of his love affair with the Navy and how he started collecting photographs purely by chance.

When the HMS Padstow Bay returned to the United Kingdom from Bermuda in 1947 the young Mr. Kelly joined its crew. But his two-year stint of national service came just too late for him to participate in what he refers to as “the glory days” of the Royal Navy on the North America and West Indies Station — as Bermuda was referred to at that time.

He was enthralled by stories his shipmates told of the places they had visited and the sights they had seen while “showing the flag” with the Royal Navy in the Western Hemisphere.

The withdrawal of the Padstow Bay>was but a small part of the economy measures put into force by Britain after World War Two, which would ultimately lead to the closure of the Bermuda Dockyard in the early 1950s.

After completing his national service, Mr. Kelly began his career in the advertising business in London and in 1956 moved to New York and learned of the closure of the North America and West Indies Station and of Admiralty House, which was the residence of the Commander-in-Chief.

He made up his mind — remembering the tales of his Padstow Ba$>shipmates — to “capture the days of the North America and West Indies Squadron with photographs”, while there were still people around who remembered.

Over the next 45 years, the scope of his collection expanded to include ships in North and South America, the West Indies, Hawaii, Commonwealth ships and important naval occasions.Mr. Kelly explained how he went about amassing his huge record of ships of the Royal Navy by starting with those based in Bermuda, and, following a list acquired by the Admiralty, wrote to retired commanding officers for information.

He also contacted newspapers in North America for file photographs: “In my job I used to travel around the country, so I used to visit museums, newspapers and libraries in places with a seaport and bought, or was given a lot of pictures.”

With a chuckle, he recalled writing to the National Archives in Washington some 17 times requesting information and photographs and admitted that he was “no expert” but that in his exhaustive research he had learned a great deal.

The main collection covers the period from World War One to the beginning of the present decade, but there are also earlier pictures dating back as far as 1863.

Mr. Kelly is a member of the World Ship Society and of Warships International and when he inquired of fellow members what institution he should consider donating his collection to, they all replied: “The Bermuda Maritime Museum.”

He says he contacted the museum’s executive director Dr. Edward Harris in 1994 explaining what he wanted to do. With the Royal visit by the Queen scheduled for March that year, it was suggested that he travel to Bermuda, meet the Queen and donate the “Kenneth Kelly Collection” to the museum in person.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he said, proudly providing a photograph of himself standing next to the Queen clipped from an old newspaper.

As for his love of model ships, he said that started off as a side interest in the 1980s.

“I’ve always liked them and happened to know a gentleman who had a few models made by an English model maker who was very sophisticated, and had made only about six ships, which took him between four and five years to build,” he said.

Mr. Kelly said he loved these model ships so much that every few years he would travel across the state to see them.

When the man died about three years ago, he persuaded the estate to let him have them as a donation to the Maritime Museum.

They agreed and these models are now also on display at the museum at the island’s West End.

Collector donates 4,000 Navy photos