Southampton Part III

April 2019

I applied for another library role, this one in the nearby town of Portsmouth. Only a thirty minute train ride from Southampton, this was a much easier and less time consuming trip. Another dreary day, I didn't notice the city much on my way there, as my brain was filled with interview prep. 
It went better than the last interview, although I missed out on the role by a hairs breath, they liked me so much they offered me a casual basis role with the possibility of permanent later - but it was too much of a risk with where we were financially so I had to reluctantly turn it down.

Considering I had taken the train to somewhere new, I decided to make an afternoon of it, and go for a good explore. As always with English cities, it had a long history, having been given the status of 'market town' by Richard I back in 1194. This status could only be granted by royal charter and allowed the town to hold a market regularly. These towns usually flourished economically, and set them apart from villages and cities due to this.

Unfortunately as a significant navel base throughout history, it was bombed heavily in World War II, meaning most of the buildings are that post-war rather depressing style featured so prominently in Southampton.

In fact, so many bombs were dropped on Portsmouth that they still find unexploded ones to this day. Feeling hungry from my wanders, I stopped at a nearby pub (pictured below) for a toasted sandwich and a pint. 

Portsmouth is probably best recognised nowadays for its Spinnaker Tower which was completed in 2005, and celebrates Portsmouth's navel history. Apparently you can go up it and admire the views from the observation deck, but I was rather cold and damp from the constant rain at this point, so hopped on a train back to Southampton instead. Portsmouth was better than Southampton, I decided (not that this was a high bar) but nothing special. 

Feeling rather downtrodden by the scores of refusal emails from job applications, I started volunteering once a week at Southampton SeaCity museum, in the hopes of gaining more experience and thus more likelihood of work.

 It was actually a pretty cool role, we had a bunch low value artifacts (such as candlestick holders from the 1800s) each one came with an info card that I could memorize, and then I picked and chose which ones to display at a table, and waited for interested parties to wander up to take a look. 

My role was to engage with people of all ages and tell them about the artifacts, answer questions, and get them to handle the artifacts carefully. It was sole charge, so I could approach it however I liked, and I actually really enjoyed this role, especially with the level of autonomy and trust given.

Sadly volunteering there one day a week wasn't going to turn into an actual role, but I hoped the experience might help me elsewhere. 

It was through working at the museum that I learned about Southampton's history with the Titanic. The Titanic launched from Southampton, and is still the main port of call for all cruise ships. Over 500 households lost a family member when the Titanic sunk, as not only did the passengers board the ship from this city, but so did the crew, and many of them were from Southampton itself. To put it into perspective, of the 908 crew members, 724 were from Southampton.