Twenty-two days. Twenty-one ships. Eight museums. Four base locations in Australia. Amazing content from a group of creators you enjoy – videos, podcasts, articles, social media threads, academic papers and online talks.

All while boosting the profile of museums and ships that will benefit from the extra attention in improved awareness and visitor numbers.

That’s the simple pitch. That’s what you’ll be enabling by backing this fundraiser. More content, from creators you like, which we can never otherwise create, without your help here.

Intrigued? Watch our trailer to find out more.

You can find out more about our planned itinerary, including museums and ships we intend to visit and a rough guide to where the money goes on our expedition outline page. Australia is expensive, and our plan ambitious, but with your help we’re confident we can make it happen. Read on to find out more about the trip, and what backers will get exclusively in return.

What is ShipShape?

The idea behind ShipShape started in Canada last year. As creators, we’ve all known each other for some time. We’d also all done projects together, sometimes ad hoc, sometimes on a continuing basis. We’d never, however, considered that there might be major benefits to all of us working together on a project as a full group. It turned out that we created more, and better, content when we worked together. We also witnessed something else: even while we were at the museums and ships we visited, they started to draw more visitors and attention. Museum staff and curators commented on it, and talked enthusiastically with us over beers then, and emails after. Visitor numbers went up, and so – just as importantly – did donations. We saw, in person, how much of a difference our presence made for ships and museums that often struggle to get the word out that they exist, and we decided that this meant it was worth us doing this again.

So that’s what ShipShape is about. We are a naval history collective, currently comprised of four historians/creators. Right now, it’s purpose is to support an annual expedition but part of the reason we want this fundraiser to succeed is that we think there is scope for a lot more than that. More specifically, we want to broaden our range of membership, make it more representative and diverse, and use the privilege and reach we have to run events and other fundraisers that lift others up with us. You can find out a bit more about the founders and our goals here.

This is why funding this expedition matters. We need to prove that there is interest – and yes, money – in doing things like this. That then opens up more opportunities for funding and sponsorships elsewhere.

Why Australia?

Three key reasons, all of which we cover in our expedition trailer:

1. The goal of these expeditions is to cover ships and places people don’t know about, or can’t easily access. Australia fits this to a tee, both for those who love naval history and for history creators.
2. We need to send a message to potential funders and sponsors that there is serious interest in what ShipShape can do. That means we have to start with something big.
3. On a local level, making Australian audiences more aware of some of the amazing ships they have on their doorstep is something we know many of those museums and ships need right now. This helps them.

All of these, really, add up to the same thing though: there is so much naval history in Australia, and we want to get it in front of you.

What do I get for backing this?

To be clear: it’s not our goal to restrict the research or majority of content generated by this trip to backers. What we’re mostly doing is asking for your support to generate content we wouldn’t otherwise be in a position to create. We do, however, have some unique rewards for backers beyond our undying gratitude, lots of amazing naval history content and the excitement of knowing that there’s going to be so much more of this in future.

The full list is beneath each backing tier on this page. Those rewards all stack, so at each pledge level you automatically receive all the rewards of the earlier ones as well. Let’s look at some of the highlights.

At Midshipman you will receive access to our backer-only Vlogs during the trip. Recorded both at the ships and museums, and moments throughout the day, these will give you bonus insight into the ships and places we visit, and a look behind-the-scenes at how our expeditions work.

In addition to daily Vlogs, lieutenants will be invited to an exclusive online talk and Q&A with expedition members when we return. In this, we’ll cover some of the highlights and low-lights, and give you a sneak peak at some of the research and footage we obtained. You’ll also have an opportunity to ask us your questions about the ships, logistics, events and anything else you fancy.

At this level, the first of the physical rewards kick in. In addition to the previous digital rewards you’ll receive a cloth mission patch. We’ve not finalised the design of this, yet, but it’ll follow the format used by navies to recognise special anniversaries and events, and feature the ship we’re most looking forward to seeing – HMAS Vampire, the last surviving Daring Class.

In our view, this is the point from which backing us gets really fun.  Because at Commander you get two new rewards – one digital and one physical – as well as everything else.

The first of those is exclusive access to a Virtual Battlefield Tour courtesy of our friends at Battle Guide Virtual Tours. These tours provide a unique virtual guided tour, led by a recognised Battlefield Tour Guide from a wide variety of wars and battles throughout history. Look carefully, and you may even spot one of our expedition members in the back catalogue. We’ve included an example tour below, to give you an idea as to what to expect.

Just as exciting is the extra physical reward you gain at this level: the first official ShipShape challenge coin. Challenge coins are an important part of naval culture and tradition. They’re exchanged to mark particular events or shared experiences, and they are always limited in number. For each expedition, we will be issuing a challenge coin series available in a series of colours linked to pledge levels. This is the first level at which you will be eligible for one: the Australia 2023 bronze challenge coin featuring the one and only HMCAS Vampire.

You can find out more about the history of challenge coins, and see our first mockups of this year’s coins, in Alex’s brief history of challenge coins below.

At Captain rank, you will receive everything listed previously but now you will receive the Australia 2023 silver challenge coin and an Australia 2023 pin badge. Beyond this though, you get something truly special – which none of us have ever done on video before.

For subscribers at Captain rank, Dr Alex and Dr Dan will face off against Drachinifel and John Bull as they refight the battle of Trafalgar in table top wargaming. The results of this, complete with bonus historical commentary from naval historian Kate Jamieson will be released on video exclusively for Captain rank backers and above.

You’ll even get to vote on who gets to lead which side…

At Commodore rank you unlock the greatest of rewards. In addition to everything else, your challenge coin will be the rarest of the rare. A challenge coin in the only colour that is truly acceptable to naval historians and scholars. The Australia 2023 Irn Bru challenge coin. You will also receive a personally selected book from our bookcases. We all have extensive collections of naval history books, many of which are truly odd and obscure. It will be our pleasure to send you a book from one of our collections.

At Rear Admiral the rewards start getting truly personal. Not only do you get everything else listed above (and our undying love and appreciation) but something very special on top: we want to meet you.

The expedition members will, quite literally, buy you dinner. Come join us in London (or an alternative venue of choice, if practical for the team) for dinner. We will talk naval history, expeditions and a whole lot more over good food and a tot or two of rum.

The pinnacle of nautical donations. We are forever grateful. You will get everything listed previously (including, importantly, dinner and rum) but you will also get something extra special. The expedition members of your choice will give you a personal tour of HMS Warrior, HMS Victory or HMS Belfast. We look forward to seeing you.

There is one final tier. A tier so special that it doesn’t carry a specific pledge. Nor does it bring with it any extra backer bonuses (other than all the previous ones). But it does have the greatest reward of all: honour.

For this expedition (and future ones) one individual will be granted the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. This will be awarded to the person who donates the highest amount over the course of the fundraiser. Because whatever amount that is, it deserves special recognition.

Oh yeah, and we will also send you a really really nice hat.

What if you don’t raise the required funds?

Then we’ll face some tricky choices. We really want to do this expedition as our first one, but we accept it’s a big ask. We hope you’ll back us and we’ll hit target. If we don’t, then we will pick from a number of options:

• Refund the trip and try again next year
• Continue, partially-funded, while making up the remaining expenses from our own pockets
• Reduce the party size for this particular trip, with one or two expedition members opting out.

We hope it won’t come to that, though.

I have a question not answered here…

Not a problem! Just email us at questions@ship-shape.org.uk and we’ll do our best to answer.