A maritime theme at the Lord Mayor’s Show
“The Maritime Powerhouse” was theme of last weekend’s 800th anniversary edition of the Lord Mayor’s Show, chosen in honour of the incoming Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman the Lord Mountevans, a director of brokers Clarksons Platou and chairman of Maritime London.
As a result many of the 155 floats taking part had a nautical theme, in addition to those organized by shipping-related bodies and companies such as the Baltic Exchange, Clarksons Platou, Lloyds Register, Maritime London, Port of London Authority, the Sea Cadets, Seafarers UK, the Society of Maritime Industries (SMI), Trinity House and the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
“The first maritime Lord Mayor for many decades was an ideal opportunity to trumpet the strength of the UK maritime engineering sector through the Lord Mayor’s Show,’ SMI chief executive John Murray told Seatrade Maritime News. “The theme of Lord Mountevans’ year in office is ‘innovate here, succeed anywhere’ which ideally gels with our members’ technology and innovation agenda.”
Hence SMI opted to build one of the parade’s most high-profile floats in the form of a hi-tech whale spouting pyrotechnics (pictured).
“We could not miss this highly visible way of reminding the City of London and the country at large of the economic importance of the maritime and marine sector to the UK,” added Murray.
Lord Mountevans himself pledged that in his year as Lord Mayor he would “champion a sector that is both new and old – the maritime sector. With a 43-year career in the shipbroking business, I know that maritime is one of the global industries where the UK leads the way, contributing £20bn to GDP and supporting almost half a million jobs. As a nation, we need to have a better understanding of this important sector, integral to the jobs and growth agenda.”
The parade, said to be the oldest in the world, proceeded with flags at half-mast, no closing fireworks and preceded by a two-minute silence, out of respect for victims of the Paris terrorist attacks the day before.
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