DETAILS OF UPCOMING TALKS & SPEAKERS

2.30pm, Saturday, May 8th 2021 

~ The Trinity House Story ~ with Capt. Karl Lumbers ~
...one of Britain's best kept secrets ... with a Younger Brother of Trinity House ... lighthouses, wrecks & more...

Have you ever wondered who looks after the major lighthouses around England, Wales and the Channel Islands? How did they come to be there in the first place? Incorporated by Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1514, Trinity House is today a vital part of Britain’s maritime community. In addition to owning and operating lighthouses, light-vessels, beacons and buoys to keep safe all mariners at sea around our shores, Trinity House is called in to mark—and clear if required— wrecks, help develop state of the art electronic navigation tools, and to act as Nautical Assessors in Admiralty Court cases. Add to that a sizeable maritime fraternity which regularly advises on current maritime issues and future opportunities, and a charitable side that donates in excess of £5m a year to worthy maritime causes, and you start to get a picture of Trinity House. Then add cadet schemes to train future Merchant Navy mariners and leisure seafarers, almshouses for the use of retired mariners, holidays in converted lighthouses and even public tours and private receptions offered in its stunning historical London HQ on Tower Hill. To hear more, our Trinity House Ambassador - Karl - will offer a fascinating talk with film and pictures. 

Capt. Karl Lumbers … Younger Brother of Trinity House

Karl became a British Foreign Going Master Mariner with P&O -  serving on ships in the Refrigerated, General Cargo and High Speed Ferry sectors. He later established himself as a Marine Surveyor / Consultant involved in Marine Incident Investigation and damage assessment involving collisions, groundings, fires & engine failures on behalf of owners, governments and insurers. Karl has represented Liability Insurers involved in, claims management, marine incident investigation, claims analysis and risk assessment on ocean going ships in the Passenger, Bulk, Tanker and Container sectors. Karl recently spent 12 years as Director of Risk Management & Loss Prevention at Thomas Miller P&I Ltd (a leading British marine liability insurer insuring some 4000 ocean going ships totalling gross registered tonnage of over 200 million)

SUMMER SPECIAL ... don't miss out on seeing and hearing from internationally renowned speaker Bill Miller ... 

2.30pm, Saturday, August 14th 2021 

~ Rule Britannia: Bygone British Ocean Liners ~ with Bill Miller ~
... Biggest passenger fleet of the ‘50s & '60s … Cunard, P&O, Blue Funnel, Shaw Savill & more … a nostalgic review ...

In the 1950s & '60s, Britain had the biggest, most diverse passenger shipping fleet on the seas. There were so many great ship-owning names - such as Canadian Pacific, Cunard, Blue Funnel, P&O and Shaw Savill. In this "maritime scrapbook," Bill Miller recalls dozens of bygone British passenger ships.  A nostalgic fleet review - the whistle is already sounding!  

Bill Miller

Bill Miller is an international authority on the subject of ocean liners & cruise ships. This includes great ships of the past, those “floating palaces,” as well as the current generation of cruise ships, the “floating resorts”. Called “Mr. Ocean Liner,” he has written over 60 books on subjects from early steamers, immigrant ships and liners at war to celebrated passenger ships of today.

Opening our NEW SEASON of EVENTS ...

2.30pm, Saturday, September 11th 2021 

~ Shout at the Devil ~ with Kevin Patience ~
... German cruiser Königsberg … East Africa 1914/15 … blockaded and destroyed by Royal Navy & RN Air Service ...

A unique piece of naval history from the First World War about the German warship Königsberg blockaded and destroyed by the Royal Navy and the Royal Naval Air Service in an East African river in 1914/15. One of the lesser-known campaigns of WW1 took place in (what is now) Kenya and Tanzania. With a British presence at Zanzibar, only 20 miles off the coast, and Germany holding Dar es Salam and a coastal strip - a German surface raider had to be stopped. 

Kevin Patience

Having grown up in Kenya and taken up commercial diving, in the seventies Kevin became a commercial diver based in the Gulf and went on to establish a marine salvage company. In the early eighties Kevin was appointed MD of a Kenya diving company in Mombasa responsible for operations in East Africa. Later he established a new diving company back in Bahrain with contracts throughout the Gulf and East Africa. With an interest in military history, Kevin has been a published author for over 30 years, many on military and transport history, together with presenting talks on a variety of subjects.