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Maritime Group: Past Activities

A Brief History on the Maritime Group

The group started in October 2001 with the first meeting being in my house, about 12 members attended. We discussed details on what the group hoped to achieve, decided on a format, day of the week and time – always the first Monday in the month at 10:00am. The group was initially called the Maritime History Group.

Following the first meeting, our subsequent meetings were in the river bailiffs rooms on the Hythe in Maldon, however as numbers increased we had to find an alternative venue, after some discussion it was agreed to meet at The Little Ship Club on The Hythe. Here we had many interesting talks on a wide variety of subjects and during one meeting, we decided to re-name the group as The Maritime Group. At this venue apart from talks, we also had the first Maritime dinner to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the battle of “Trafalgar” with a guest speaker and some 60 members, all in period costume. The groups second dinner was based on the theme of “The Mary Rose”, one of our members was the “Guest” speaker, and some 70 members all of whom came dressed in period costume.

In 2004, we also started Maritime-themed holidays with the first one being to the south coast. Since then we have had a further thirteen such holidays, some to Scandinavia and also to Belgium. One holiday took us to Liverpool to see the “Three Queens” which were all in the port at the same time.

As numbers attending meetings increased, we moved to The Blackwater Sailing Club, here we continued to have interesting speakers talking on various Maritime subjects; one talk was given by the Chief Officer of the “Canberra” during the Falklands conflict, another talk was on sailing the world by only using cargo ships. We also had a talk on the re-rigging of the Cutty Sark after the fire.

As a group we continued to have Maritime dinners, with a further three being held at The Blackwater sailing Club. All of dinners were always well attended with members coming dressed for the occasion.

Since the group started, we have had 180 meetings, five dinners and, to the end of 2019, fifteen Maritime holidays.

Malcolm Case
July 2019

2024

Monday 1st January – no meeting – bank holiday.

Monday 5th February – talk by Gordon Davies on 'Brunel’s SS Great Eastern'.

Monday 4th March – Talk by Raj Kehal of the Port of London Authority, who will talk about the History of the PLA over the years from their beginning up to the present day, including the industries, wharves, docks etc within the Port limits, type of trade and volume.

Monday 1st April – no meeting – bank holiday.

Monday 6th May – no meeting – bank holiday.

Monday 3rd June – Talk by Malcolm & Rosemary Case on the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar, from its source to the Andaman Sea.

Monday 1st July – Talk by Linda Cook on the History of the RNLI. Beginning with a brief description of the founding of the RNLI and some of its developments along the way. Followed by its work today centring around the Southend lifeboats and the work that they do, moving on to examples of rescues around the coast , focusing on the Tower lifeboat station in London. Finally, some information about the training given to crew members and the facilities at Poole.

Monday 5th August – Trip to Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge.

Monday 2nd September – Trip to Chatham Dockyard for a tour of the dockyard including the Ropery, Submarine and various other exhibits.

Monday 7th October – Talk by Gordon Davies on the Emigration 1850 style to Australasia.

Monday 4th November – Talk over Zoom by Roger Butler, with a colourful introduction to all aspects of Waterway Heritage. Roger will include fascinating engineering and architecture, historic boats, and plenty of unusual landmarks. He will also weave in some archive images as well as important contemporary features such as the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland. Aspects include grand warehouses and quirky cottages, tall lock flights and sweeping aqueducts, deep tunnels and a vast array of bridges and even tiny bollards. Many such buildings and structures still reflect the work of the original distinctive canal companies, including of course, the famous Roses and Castles canal boat artwork.

Monday 2nd December – Talk by Julie Hobby and Padre Ruth on the work of the Seafarers Centre, Tilbury. The talk will cover all aspects of their work for seafarers and will include details on how your donations to the centre are used. The talk will be followed by some Christmas cheer, nibbles and discussion on our 2025 programme.

2023

Monday 2nd January – no meeting – bank holiday

Monday 6th February – talk by Gordon Davies on 'Brunel’s SS Great Britain'.

Monday 6th March – talk by John Rogers on Sagas and Experiences from 70 years of ‘Messing around in boats’, this will be a light-hearted illustrated talk about some of the things that John has got up to since he was involved with boats from the age of around 9. John has a long memory when it comes to boats and there will be no exaggerations!

Monday 3rd April – trip to Dover Castle, this will include a visit to the Secret Wartime Tunnels together with other tours. Cost per person is £30.00, this includes cost of entry, coach, drivers’ gratuity, and coach parking in Dover. Depart West Maldon Community Centre at 8:15 (please park your cars at the far end of the car park), arrive Dover Castle at 10:30. Depart at 4:00pm.

Monday 1st May – no meeting – bank holiday.

Monday 5th June – talk by Jimmy Byam Shaw on 'Sailing multi-hull boats'.

Monday 3rd July – talk by Barbara Jones of Lloyds Register about the history of Lloyds over the past 260+ years.

Monday 7th August – visit to Foxton locks / incline with a guided tour and visit to the museum.

Monday 4th September – talk by Simon Gregor, who will take us on “a virtual tour of the Thames from Vauxhall to Westminster”.

Monday 2nd October – John Rayment – a talk and updates on the restoration of the Sailing Barge “Pudge”.

Monday 6th November – talk by John Pomfrett on 'City of Lakes and Rivers - waterways in and around Berlin'. Following a brief introduction to the early, largely natural river navigations that served Berlin from its founding in the 13th century, this talk traces the development of the canals and river navigations around Berlin.

Monday 4th December – talk by Simon Stephens of the National Maritime Museum Greenwich on “Model Boat building for the National Maritime Museum”. Followed by discussions on our 2024 programme and some Christmas cheer.

2022

Monday 3rd January – No meeting – Bank Holiday

Monday 7th February – Talk by Gordon Davies on – 'Brunel and the Great Western'

Monday 7th March – Talk by John Rogers on "An Affair with a Dolly", an essential shipwrighting tool. A light-hearted look at John’s restorations of wooden boats, the intrigue of researching their heritage and the highs and lows of shipwrighting.

Monday 4th April - no meeting.

Monday 2nd May – Bank Holiday - no meeting.

Monday 6th June – Talk by Malcolm Case on the training of Merchant Navy Deck Officers from the early 1960’s to the 2020’s.

Monday 4th July – Trip to the National Maritime Museum's stores for a guided tour with Dr Megan Barford of the various ancient nautical maps and other artifacts. This is a follow up from Dr Megan Barford’s talk in November 2021. The plan is to leave Maldon in the morning, travel to London by coach, visit the Greenwich Maritime Museum, have lunch and then by coach to the 'Stores'. Cost £20 per person.

Monday 1st August – Trip on the river Medway. Cost per person to be advised.

Monday 5th September – Talk by Roger Smith on Southampton Docks, its history including information on various ships..

Monday 3rd October – Talk by John Pomfret on The Middle Danube and its Connected Waterways.

Monday 7th November – Talk by Alison Mainwood on Lighthouses which have been built all around the coasts of many nations to guide mariners away from dangerous rocks and reefs

Monday 5th December – Talk on the Regents Canal by Simon Gregor. Simon is a Blue Badge Guide for London. He is also a World I and II battlefield guide. Simon currently lives in the USA so he will be talking to us via a video link. This will be followed by a discussion on our programme for 2023.

2021

Monday 4th January – Zoom talk by Julian Wong on 'Seafarers Centres around the World'. To donate, go to www.stellamaris.org.uk/donate/.

Monday 1st February – Zoom talk rescheduled to November due to technical problems.

Monday 1st March – Zoom talk by Jane Robinson on 'Clothing of East Coast Sailing'.

Monday 5th April - Easter Monday. Zoom talk by Lieutenant Samuel James Williams Royal Navy on 'The Royal Navy of the 21st Century A Personal Perspective'.

Monday 3rd May – Bank Holiday - no meeting.

Monday 7th June – Zoom? talk by Janet Hall on 'The steam tug "Brent"'.

Monday 5th July – Zoom? talk by Andrea Raiker on 'The Maldon and Heybridge Heritage Harbour Association (MHHHA)'.

Monday 2nd August – Virtual talk on Trade under Sail, the past and the future.

Monday 6th September – to be decided.

Monday 4th October – David Griffith’s talk, Part 3, on 'Life aboard a submarine'.

Monday 1st November – Zoom talk by Dr Meghan Barford on 'Maps and Cartography'.

Monday 6th December – John Rayment on 'The history and restoration of the SB Pudge', followed by discussion on 2022 programme.

2020

Monday 6th January – Part 2 of David Griffiths very interesting talk on “Life Aboard a Submarine”

Monday 3rd February – Talk by Alison Mainwood on “A Brief History of Women in yachting”. Most of the people you see and hear of in small yachts are men why? We will look at several very notable women who are the exceptions to this and see how they now can compete with men on (almost) equal terms, but few still chose to do so.

Monday 2nd March – talk by John Rogers – “East Coast Magic”, a personal view of the magic of the east coast told in pictures and stories – from his long, over 70 years, association with sailing the east coast.

Monday 2nd November - Zoom talk by Gordon Davies – 'Safety at Sea, 19th Century style'. We will look at the development of safety measures in the 19th century, from the introduction of weather forecasts to the development of life-saving equipment.

Monday 7th December – Zoom talk by Alison Mainwood on 'Sailing around Scotland'.

Each of the links below open in a new window

2019

Talks and Trips

2018

Talks and Trips

Report and pictures of the trip to Norfolk in September.

2017

Talks and Trips

Report and pictures of the trip to Portsmouth in September.

Report and pictures of the trip to Harwich in August.

Report and pictures of the trip to Kingston-upon-Thames, Windsor and Runnymeade in July.

2016

Report and pictures of the trip to Exeter in September.

Report and pictures of the trip to Bawdsey Radar Museum and Woodbridge Tide Mill in August.

Report and pictures of the trip to Brightlingsea in July.

2015

Report and pictures of the holiday to Liverpool to see the three Cunard Queens in June.

Report and pictures of the outing to Shell Haven and London Gateway on the 2nd March