Collection of 10 items relating to Captain Spring-Brown
Date1923 - 1933
Object numberANMS1387
NameArchive series
MediumPaper
ClassificationsCommemorative artefacts
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from David Spring-Brown
DescriptionThis collection of 10 items relates to the career of Captain John Frederick Spring-Brown as a Master Mariner. These consist of one set of Association Rules of the Merchant, Service Guild of Australasia; seven receipts from the Merchant Service Guild of Australia and Wellington; one handbook of rules of The Wellington Merchant Service; and one set of Union rules relating to The Wellington Merchant Service Guild.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 who made their way to Australia through foreign voyaging.
