Our research sessions normally take place every Monday (excluding Bank Holidays) in the Maritime Archives and Library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum commencing at 10.30am.
Our monthly presentations are open to members (and invited guests by arrangement) and cover a balanced programme of topics within an overall maritime theme.
Presentations are held at The Athenaeum, 18 Church Alley, Liverpool L1 3DD, usually on the third Thursday of each month from September through to May at 12.30pm, with coffee available from midday. The calendar of events is as follows:
For 33 years the Aurora was a successful Arctic whaler and sealer. In a career change she then became a support ship for three Antarctic explorations. Caught in the ice for many months of her last expedition, she survived but then met a sad end in World War One
A review of the River Mersey Defences, including those proposals that never came to pass! Most of the ‘battles’ involved were between the City and the War Department although the Wirral did once fire on Lancashire…
With Trafalgar Day (21 October) just a few days away, Captain Hugh Daglish looks at the lasting impact of Nelson on the Royal Navy
This talk covers the origins of Liverpool’s Whaling trade, life on board a Liverpool Whaler, how the trade affected the port’s built environment, the trade in the post-1945 world as well as the global politics of Whaling
Brian, a long-serving former Cruise Director on the Queen Mary 2 will give a light-hearted talk about running away to sea and ending up working on one of the world’s most famous liners
Sea Shanties have become an important part of maritime heritage. This talk traces their origins, the way they were preserved and collected, often being given new meanings by succeeding generations
This talk will recount the career of the MV Cap San Diego as a cargo-passenger liner between Europe and the South Atlantic from 1962 to 1986. The essential focus will be on the ship’s design and facilities but her current status as a fully functioning museum ship in the port of Hamburg will also be explored.
En-route from Germany to the USA, the Flying Enterprise’s dramatic plight and the bravery of her Master Captain Carlsen and the First Mate of the rescue tug Turmoil, Kenneth Dancy, gripped the British nation which was unaware of the top-secret cargo the vessel was carrying
The SS Great Britain was conceived and born in Bristol but lived her life operating out of Liverpool for thirty years. This talk is about her owners’ Liverpool business and their liner service to Australia
After WW2, with an increasing threat from the USSR, the UK implemented a major increase in the RN’s ability to deal with the threat of mine-laying in home waters. The inshore threat was countered by building 243 Inshore Minesweepers that proved so useful that their roles developed well beyond that envisaged with some serving the nation for over four decades’
