Collection of 15 items relating to Captain and Mrs Spring-Brown
Date1933 - 1941
Object numberANMS1385
NameArchive series
MediumPaper
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from David Spring-Brown
DescriptionThis collection of 15 items relates to the career of Captain John Frederick Spring-Brown as a Master Mariner and his wife Mrs Spring-Brown. These consist of two photographs of Mrs Spring-Brown; two musical programs featuring Mrs Spring-Brown; one envelope addressed to Commander and Mrs Spring-Brown in Vaucluse; one scrapbook featuring articles, photographs and letters relating to Commander Spring-Brown; one song sheet; one letter addressed to Mrs Spring-Brown; one handwritten list; and six newspaper articles featuring both Commander and Mrs Spring-Brown.HistoryThis collection gives a detailed picture of the life and career of a foreign-going master mariner at the turn of the century and into the 1930s. It has particular interest in the accounts of World War I activities, carrying troops in 1916 and carrying German prisoners and internees from Australia and New Zealand to Germany, then transporting Russian refugees around the coasts of northern Europe in 1919. The collection, and in particular the two journals recounting these voyages, also provides an insight into the importance of family relationships to seafarers like Spring-Brown, who missed his wife and family, and waited eagerly for correspondence on the long voyages away, and who described the impact of visiting his mother and siblings in England after 21 years absence. The collection contains documents relating to Spring Brown's father, also a master mariner, showing the strands of seafaring families which made their way to Australia through foreign voyaging.
3 December 1935
24 December 1935
