Posts | nemaritimetrust.co.uk | Repairing and Restoring Traditional Fishing Boats of the North East of England

NEMT Newsletter 2025

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Mick Dawson

Dear NEMT Volunteer

From the Newsletter produced by Mr A Renwick in the Spring of 2025:

Headline News – As you may know, our original website has been
hijacked by a former member and is being used to disseminate
incorrect information sometimes bordering on slander.

The original website nemaritimetrust.co.uk was produced from 2011 by me with the agreement of Mr Renwick, as he was going to be away on other business for some time and in 2014 nemaritimetrust.co.uk was registered with Nominet and it still registered with them under my name. It was never used to disseminate incorrect information, slanderous or not and if one were to ask Mr A Renwick for an example of my wrong doing he would fail to produce just 1 example.

This member left under a cloud of rancour and suspicion many
years ago and his membership was rescinded.

I never left many years ago under a cloud of either rancour or suspicion and was a member under the rules of the North East Maritime until Mr Renwick decided my membership would be wrongly forfeited because I would not hand over my website so he could broadcast misinformation such as shown in this post to a wider audience.

Our new official website can be found using the following link:
www.nemaritimetrust.org.uk.

As you can see the nemaritimetrust.org.uk was set up to replace the co.uk one and appears to be well out of date.

I’ll say no more for the time being.

Cheers
Mick Dawson

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The Gremlin’s Tale

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Mick Dawson

For the attention of the NEMT’s Chair and his supporters.
In August 2025, a comment was made by me about his use of a Gremlin to describe the goings on at meetings held in the workshop of the Maritime Trust and please bear in mind that it was not I who introduced us all to the Gremlin.

On Saturday, the second of August 2025, I decided to travel down from Amble to visit the North East Maritime Trust (NEMT) to see how their team of volunteers were progressing with the restoration of the Coble Golden Gleam and was disappointed to find both the workshop and slipway closed and discovered on my way home, the Rachel Douglas, looking like she had been abandoned in the so called ‘South Shields Marina’.

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Self-Promotion by NEMT Chair

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Mick Dawson

From: Alec Renwick alec.renwick@nemaritimetrust.org.uk
Sent: 15 March 2024 12:49
To: Peter W; Branson, Richard; Paul Nicholson; Mick Dawson
Cc: Kevin Lund kevin.lund@nemaritimetrust.org.uk; Barnard, Keith; Dr Griffiths, Sue
Subject: Consider Urgent

He starts his self-promotion by broadcasting fraudulent misinformation about two of its long time serving of its members, Peter Weightman and Mick Dawson:-

Mr Weightman
It is apparent that you, presumably acting for (NFHT), have sent an unauthorised personal letter to NEMT members which contravenes data protection laws and your previous position as Secretary of this Trust.
I shall also remind you that data protection laws state that unauthorised use of personal data is an offence which can carry very high fines. Hypocrisy! it was not Peter Weightman but Alec Renwick who associated his supporters, Messrs Lund and Barnard with the Trustees of NFHT: Peter, Paul, Richard, Mick Dawson and the Treasurer of NEMT: Sue Griffiths.
In this case any member can ask for all data and messages he has regarding them, which must be supplied within 28 days.
Peter Weightman responded soundly about 7 hours after receiving the false accusations made by Mr Renwick by raising four points:-

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Views per Month

Posted on March 2, 2026 by Mick Dawson

Over the week-end of the last day of February 2026, we passed 150 thousand views for the NE Maritime Trust and that was the 22nd month, since it was rescued by copying what was left of it into a sub-set of theharbourview.co.uk, and equates to 6,800 views per month. A review held held about a year and a half ago showed that there had been 50 thousand views in six months which equated to 8,300 views per month.

Both these figures compared very favourably to the 80,000, about 700 views per month, for the first decade of the site’s existence and while peak of over 8000 for the middle of 2024 was a pleasant surprise, here’s hoping that they won’t drop much below the current level of views of about a few % under 7000 a month.

Post Views: 100

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WordPress and this Website.

Posted on March 1, 2026 by Mick Dawson

Hi! Some themes have automatically updated to their latest versions on your site at https://nemaritimetrust.co.uk. No further action is needed on your part.

These themes are now up to date:
– Extendable (from version 2.1.0 to 2.1.1)

If you experience any issues or need support, the volunteers in the WordPress.org support forums may be able to help.

https://wordpress.org/support/forums/

The WordPress Team

This sort of notice is given out fairly regularly but it has only just occurred to me as the owner, that it could be put to good use, and that is to challenge the repeated demand by the self appointed Chair of the North East Maritime Trust, that I hand him the ownership of the site: nemaritimetrust.co.uk.¹

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Henry Frederick Swan?

Posted on January 16, 2026 by Mick Dawson

While the life boat moored next to the steps is not the Henry Frederick Swan, she showed so many similarities that one must assume she was built on the Isle of White by S E Saunders at about the same time as the HFS was built but what I first noticed about this old photo of Amble were the two coal trucks on the skyline, on the further of the wooden bridges or staithes. Those structures served at least two collieries and the remnants of one of them was still there and rather impressive when I first visited in Amble in 1974.

About 30 years later I was persuaded by a good friend to acquire a coble very much like one of the cobles moored in Amble Harbour along side the lifeboat and I brought her up to the Tyne from Hartlepool. She was the Glad Tidings and I gave her back original name, Peggy to avoid confusion with any of the Glad Tidings to be found in Newbiggin, Amble or Seahouses and she was restored, firstly by Fred Crowell, with myself as one his ‘apprentices’ and later by another member of the NE Maritime Trust, Dave Parker.

By the time I finally made my home in Amble in 2019, she had been sold to the sister Trust to NEMT¹ and while she is now over a 100 years old, having been built in 1924, I was lead to believe she had been sailed during the summers of 2024 and ’25 by the members of the North East Maritime Trust and their friends though sadly I have no photographic evidence that she had been laken out for a sail in the last couple of years².

Mick Dawson
Amble
16 & 19 January 2026

1. Now re-registered as Northumbria Fishing Heritage, Company Number: 1210068

2. – recent photos are not available at the moment because the content isn’t available. Facebook says “When this happens, it’s usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can see it, or it’s been deleted. picture are not available” There is however, a photo of her sailing off Souter Lighthouse as part of the event in the 2010s and that’s Mick Dawson using an oar to get her out of ‘stays’. I believe the event was to celebrate an anniversary of the handover the Lighthouse and the keepers cottages to the National Trust.

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AI v AR

Posted on January 6, 2026 by Mick Dawson

A public declaration of the ownership of nemaritimetrust.co.uk

AI Overview

The domain name theharbourview.co.uk is currently associated with an individual named Mick Dawson (or Michael Dawson), based on information from the North East Maritime Trust website.
This individual has been listed as a contact for email addresses associated with the domain, and public snippets from the North East Maritime Trust site discuss a dispute over the ownership of the domain, in which Mr. Dawson was involved.
Due to UK data privacy regulations (GDPR), the specific personal registration details of most .uk domain owners are hidden from public WHOIS searches by default unless they have explicitly opted to make them public.

AR’s view: for those who are new to this site AR is Alec Renwick, the Chair of the North East Maritime Trust and his view was explained in some detail in a post made on the 24th June 2024 and updated 3 months later on the 26th September.

Mick Dawson
6th January 2026

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Threat by Mr A Renwick

Posted on November 26, 2025 by admin

with corrections and adjustments by the owner of nemaritimetrust.co.uk:-
From: Alec Renwick <alec.renwick@nemaritimetrust.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 15:49
To: Mick Dawson <daw50nmdj@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: Fwd: NEMT Membership 2005-6
Not 2005-2006 but from 2005 to 2025

Mr Michael Dawson;

Relating to our previously sent emails regarding this matter.

On the 8th July 2024, with no explanation, the owner of nemaritimetrust.co.uk was sent by the Chairperson of NEMT, the owner of nemaritimetrust.org.uk:-

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None Welcome by the Chair of NEMT

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Mick Dawson

From: Alec Renwick <alec.renwick@nemaritimetrust.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 15:49
To: Mick Dawson <daw50nmdj@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: Fwd: NEMT Membership 2005-6

Mr Michael Dawson

Relating to our previously sent emails regarding this matter.

As you know your NEMT membership was cancelled and is therefore no longer valid.¹

For security reasons, until you cancel or give up the co.uk website by returning it to NEMT and stop using its email address;² You are not welcome to enter NEMT buildings or vessels at any time now or in the future.

If there is a financial recompense needed to ensure the details above are completed effectively please reply on our new email address: info@nemaritimetrust.org.uk³

In the meantime, please stop sending £15.00 to this organisation.⁴

We understand you have changed address which we don’t have⁵; therefore, unfortunately, until that is corrected we will not be returning your standing order donation of £15.⁶

Alec Renwick, NEMT Chairperson.

Misinformation/Fraudulent Misrepresentation repeated by Mr Alec Renwick over the last six years. Since he heard that NEMT had been left a pair of flats situated near Jesmond Vale to the East of Newcastle Town Centre.

1 – reason for cancellation was not known in 2024 but became obvious on the receipt of this email: 21-Nov-25 from alec.renwick@nemaritimetrust.org.uk.
2 – the reason, ‘until you cancel or give up the co.uk website by returning it to NEMT and stop using its email address’, mick.dawson@nemaritimetrust.co.uk, he will carry out his threat to make me publicly ostracised from NEMT boats, slipway and workshop.
3 – has anyone associated with NEMT ever received a response from ‘info@nemaritimetrust.org.uk’?
4 – I have not resigned from NEMT, so it makes sense to continue paying the subscription.
5 – Simply a lie, he has known from his days as Secretary of NEMT, 2019, that I now live in Church Street in Amble. Please see letter of that time from a fellow Trustee.
6 – the reinforcement of his threat ‘until you cancel or give up the co.uk website by returning it to NEMT’ etc. with the additional threat: ‘we will not be returning your standing order donation of £15’ was more akin to sort of threat, currently being made by the US President, than one that should be made by the Chair of any UK Charity.