In memory of ships: the Shiplovers' Society of Tasmania 1931-1961

In 1989 Frank Broeze noted that traditionally maritime history was concerned with ships and navigation and that consequently 'many people perceive maritime history as being narrow, antiquarian and separate from other kinds and fields of history'. But from the 1970s maritime history was more broadly defined 'as embracing all aspects of man's relationship with the sea'. In his 1995 survey of maritime history in Australia Malcolm Tull stressed that maritime historians dealt with 'a wide variety of issues in technological, economic, social, and political history, making the subject multi-disciplinary in scope'. The adoption of approaches from economics and sociology allowed 'a greater degree of analytical rigour and helped reduce the antiquarian image of the subject'. It is that antiquarian heritage that I want to bring to the forefront of discussion in this paper. In the 1930s shiplovers societies were formed in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia and these societies did much to enrich understanding of Australia's maritime past at a popular level and preserve important artefacts for future generations to view. Yet in Broeze's and Tull's surveys of maritime history their contribution is barely mentioned or too easily dismissed