What was Sir David Attenborough doing at Liverpool Waterfront?

An early November walk (just before the second lockdown, and with Liverpool in Tier 3) got us into the Sailors Church, the iconic St Nick's as it is fondly named by the Liverpooldians. It is one of the oldest sites in the city, marking its seafaring history and heritage.

We have taken a quick peek inside. The interior is solemn but modest, bearing in mind this is the main parish church of Liverpool. The coping is truly impressive and it looks like an upside-down boat. The church had served the sailors arriving and leaving the port, for decades, if not centuries. Maritime themes continue in the sideway vaults. 

Going through the church's scenic garden, passing the Tower entrance to Ma Boyle's alehouse and eatery, now serving only takeaways, it was not hard to notice some serious construction work on Water Street. The massive refurbishment of the historic India Buildings takes some time now, and certainly, it will look splendid in all its original glory.

Passing the dual carriageway, now also under huge road works, named... well, this is quite tricky in Liverpool. The city suffers from a completely unorganized and confusing street name system, in our opinion. 

Just take this one short crossing: commonly we refer to it as the Strand but the north-south carriageway is named Goree, then both lanes further up are named George's Dock Gates and it becomes New Quay only a few yards forth. And this is one of the main thoroughfares in the city. Well, ordinary people with common sense call all of it the Strand (which is part of the Dock Road, really but we'll write about it another time). Anyway, we managed to cross this point of street-name confusion, and we head towards the Liverpool waterfront on the River Mersey. 

To our astonishment, there was a huge vessel berthed at the landing stage. Normally, there would be big cruisers during summer months, humming with tourists from all over the world. Not in November, however, and not in Covid-down-stricken in-hospitality world, moreover. Normally, secondly, there would be a mention in the local news that a shipping vessel of this size has berthed in Liverpool waterfront, as it was the case with magnificent Prince of Wales worship, for instance. The local press was all over it. Now, in Covid times stirring the public attention to a gathering on a windy landing stage is a no-no situation. Anyway, what was this thing down there, really, we wondered inconceivably, while marching towards it - with exploratory determination. 

After a while, we both exclaimed simultaneously 'It's Sir David Attenborough!

'For god's sake, what is it doing down here?'

We could not believe our own eyes. Such an exceptional visit and nobody around to wave a friendly 'hello'. It looked eerie, enigmatic and a bit ghastly. One can only imagine what a warm welcome the ship and its crew would have gathered in pre-Covid times. Huge crowds. And then, imagine, there was not a single mention about RSS Sir David Attenborough in Liverpool anywhere on the web, in the press. Nothing. Not a bit. We have always known the press is selling off cheap 'fakish' news, collaborating quietly with the authorities, pretending to be informative but selling only agreed agenda, propaganda and murder stories. We found ourselves in a huff. 

The ship is going to the Arctic or the Antarctic soon, we found out later and thought of the ill-fated Titanic, of which memorial stands just nearby the Landing Stage.

Waving goodbye to Sir David, in blank, jaw-dropping bewilderment still, we walked back the waterfront, saying 'Hello, Goodbye' to the Beatles, and nodding past the equestrian Edward VIII on Pier Head. There was a new addition to the completely unused, (thus inscrutable and inexplicable) steps leading to some non-existent entrance of the Museum of Liverpool bizarre building. It supposed to be the Liver Bird, we knew, but could not see exactly how. The other half explained to me, after a while 'It is shaped from its front'. 'Oh yes, indeed' said I. 'I like the colour'.