History ahoy at maritime conference in Auckland

Maritime museum directors Adriano Gil (Spain) and Mary Williams (Australia) with Larry Robbins outside his New Zealand National Maritime Museum. Picture / Greg Bowker

A dozen diverse subjects regarding things historic and nautical were aired in Auckland this week at the International Congress of Maritime Museums.

Sixty delegates from 13 countries at the National Maritime Museum at Hobson Wharf in Auckland heard presentations titled from What Captain Cook Would Have Done Had He Had GPS, to The Last Great Migration, and a host of topics in between.

The ICMM is a group of many of the world's major maritime museums and the congress is held every three years.

This year's event went to New Zealand after a competitive bid from the museum's chief executive Larry Robbins. The Royal New Zealand Navy Museum was co-host of the congress.

Taking part were Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, Jersey, France, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Argentina, Canada and the Bahamas.

The programme was put together by Robbins and Commander David Wright, from the Navy Museum. Although there was a strong Pacific influence, it included papers with international appeal.

Two of the keynote addresses were by two noted Captain Cook scholars, Dr Nigel Rigby, head of research at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, and Dr John Robson, of the University of Waikato.

The Rigby presentation covered exploration by Cook and George Vancouver in the Pacific northwest.

The life and voyages of Vancouver were related with considerable insight into an unusual seafaring character.

The Robson address looked at how Cook's voyages and mapmaking would have differed had he been able to use GPS.

Robson, who has written two books about the great navigator, concluded GPS would have added a considerable dimension to the accuracy Cook achieved with his charting and that Cook was the sort of man who would have embraced GPS wholeheartedly and seen its full potential.

He said, however, that with the limited tools of his day Cook produced charts of wonderful content and accuracy.

Cook's chart for Dusky Sound remained in use until HMNZS Monowai, under Commander Robbins, surveyed the area toward the end of the 20th century.

Dr Hanna Hagmark-Cooper, from the Aland Maritime Museum in Finland, chose as her subject Is There a Woman's Place in Maritime Museums?

She told delegates that as museum professionals it was important that they make women's experiences in maritime life more visible in their presentations of maritime history. She looked at three different areas where she believed women's experience has been neglected. One area covered the "peasant sailings" to Stockholm in the 19th century. The other areas were the experiences of seafarers' wives, and women sailors.

Another presenter was Dr Rodney Wilson, the Maritime Museum's founding director, who also supervised its construction.

He is now at the helm of the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Wilson discussed the exhibition and book Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors, which opens at his museum in December next year and will tour Asia, Europe and the United States.

Yachtsman and marine historian Harold Kidd took delegates on a journey through the early days of leisure boating in New Zealand from 1840 to 1914, covering the growth of yachting as a sport from 1880 onwards, the great boatbuilders Logan and Bailey, and the evolution of yacht clubs.

The congress was opened by Judith Tizard, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, who commended the organisers on the exhibition mounted to coincide with the congress.

Titled Snapshots: Moments from New Zealand Maritime History, it was also widely praised by delegates.

The minister urged Aucklanders to make to effort to see the exhibition, which is an excellent legacy of a landmark event in the history of the National Maritime Museum - the country's first ICMM congress.