Model ship completes trek from Ukraine

MUSEUM IN CORNWALL CELEBRATES MISSION

-  ANDY PHILLIPS

A MODEL ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton's famous ship, Endurance, has been handed to a museum in Cornwall, after it was rescued from the front line of Ukraine's war with Russia and brought back by a Plymouth businessman.

The scale replica was built by retired rocket engineer Vitaliy Vrubel, who was commissioned to build it by the Cornish Shipwreck Treasure Museum in Charlestown, near St Austell.

It became stuck in a 'hot zone' near the front line in Ukraine, after Russia's invasion and the recent destruction of a dam which flooded the Dnipro region in which Mr Vrubel lived.

While its maker was evacuated to Poland, the model itself was left in storage in Dnipro, much to the dismay of the museum, which had planned to use it in an exhibition about the explorer's famous Antarctic expeditions.

However, it has now been retrieved and handed over thanks to an effort co-ordinated by Plymouth man Andreas Evangelou, who personally delivered delivered the artefact together with Maksym Litvinov, a Ukrainian now living in Plymouth.

Mr Evangelou was taking tonnes of aid into Ukraine after a fundraiser backed by Plymouth veterinarian Edmund Shillabeer, who provided medicines and food for animals affected by flooding in Kherson, Ukraine.

Mr Evangelou said the ship was picked up by Lionel De Lange, a Kherson-based South African, who founded a charity called Warriors of Wildlife during Russia's first invasion in 2014.