Historical Ship Panels for Display?

Mal Riley, former Bureau of Meterorology frontman and master of the Lady Nelson, has a good idea for the next Australia Wooden Boat Festival. Mal suggests that we make a series of posters featuring interesting wooden ships from around the world. The ships can get on the list by either by virtue of their physical size (largest smallest, longest, highest), the history of the vessel or the interesting story of the vessel or the people on the vessel.

The posters could be large and printed on outdoor material. They can (if stored correctly) be used over and added to for several years. They would be placed at key display spaces around the AWBF where they can be seen and read.

Initially, Mal suggests the suite of posters could include:

• The Wyoming (main image)
• The French Navy’s 120-gun Bretagne, the largest wooden ship of the line ever launched.
• Baron of Renfrew – a disposable ship
• Eureka – San Francisco Ferry carrying 2300 passengers and 120 cars.
• Largest Viking longship
• Noahs Ark? Was it real, where did it land?
• Large Roman Ships
• USS Dunderberg – a 370’ iron-clad battleship
• SS Great Western – Isambard Kingdom Brunel

• 

  Isembard Kingdom Brunel

  Belyana – large Russian log ships

• 

  Volga River Log Boat

  Chinese Admiral Zeng He’s treasure ships

The largest of the Ming Dynasty ships were 137 metres long with a 55 metre beam.

Mal asks if AWBF members would like to suggest notable Australian ships that might be included.

Asking a graphic artist to design each poster individually might get expensive, so Mal offers a template that submissions could follow, with the cost of printing to be borne by AWBF. We think that’s a great idea and invite readers to submit their ideas. If you do your research properly and find some good images that we can use, we will credit you on the poster.

Ideas to: manager@australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au