The Australian surf boat evolved. The first real one that came—we have these old pictures of the Sly Brother of Manly. But they weren't real surf boats, they were fishing boats. The first real surf boat that came to Australia was designed on a Norwegian lifesaving boat.

"When you are out at sea for months on end and you don't get to see your family, it's also like a nice warm beacon that reminds you that civilisation is just on the coast right there. It gives them a feeling we are there to look after them and help them get on with their journey safely.

"It shouldn't just be a small organisation in Darwin trying to save this vessel, it should be the Australian government looking after the heritage of their military history." Mr Brokenshire said the vessel was "sacred" to a lot of military people.

Williamstown, a seaside village in Melbourne’s west with a historic waterfront and city views, is a highly desirable residential location. AV Jennings has built apartments across the road from the shipyard, but the site is likely to remain industrial for the foreseeable future.

The story of the mass suicide has been regarded as potentially factual since the late 1700s, when three tunnels were bored into the burial mound, revealing nails, animal bones, a bronze cauldron and a seated skeleton with a sword.

My partner is convinced that my demanding mistress has a mind of her own. When told the engine needed removal, she said, “Of course! She wants new Bling; her big birthday is coming up!” After letting that statement settle into its rightful place on the astral plane, I informed her of my horsepower foible. “Safety First,” was the cut through response.

"These findings not only open a new chapter in Australian, Melanesian, and Pacific archaeology but also challenge colonialist stereotypes by highlighting the complexity and innovation of Aboriginal communities,"

"It gives us an opportunity to move forward as a nation and as a community … By not creating those opportunities for those conversations, we stay in the status quo."

“It has good 1960’s functionalism with the double stack control rooms seemingly cantilevered off the lift core. All braced and laced by one slim leg and a zig-zag stair.”

“All too often, we expect history to be definitive, to pass judgement and announce a verdict. But understanding Cook is about much more than apportioning praise or blame.”

First noted in the 3rd century BCE, the Romans called this game ‘capita aut navia’, meaning heads or ships, and both its invention and its name are shrouded in mystery.

A vessel is registered as historic after a rigorous process, including their relevance to Australia’s social history, and their particular significance to our maritime heritage.

On a moonless night in August 1943, a US torpedo boat commanded by Lt John F Kennedy, on patrol in Solomon Islands, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer.

The Couta Boat Association has posted a wonderful record of the early years of the Class on its website. There are about 50 Editions of “SCOOP” on line, starting 42 years ago in 1981 and ending in 2011.

Prof Morieux said: "When we are separated from loved ones by events beyond our control, like the pandemic or wars, we have to work out how to stay in touch, how to reassure, care for people and keep the passion alive. "These letters are about universal human experiences, they're not unique to France or the 18th Century."

Entering a maze of muddy islands, the mouth of the Victoria is a vast delta within the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf that does not easily explain itself to mariners. We are in the 65-foot Island Explorer, decked out for group fishing tours but now temporarily repurposed in an attempt to locate two anchors that were cut free from the Beagle at a point on the river named Holdfast Reach 180 years earlier.

While not a boating story, it’s boating related in so many ways; Surrounded by Australia’s most recognisable sailing ground, emblematic of the canvas of wind powered craft and designed by people with maritime history running through their veins.

Following on from last week’s Article The Lost Loot of Lima we had a wonderful update from Richard Bell, on the ground in Queenscliff. These Documents are part of a Queenscliff Historical Museum project about the Fishermen and Families on Fisherman’s Flat, Queenscliff.

In thinking about trade routes in the parallel universe of Indian Ocean sail cargo it is important to understand that in spite of the desert, the heat, humidity and the vast areas, there was an active trade of considerable size and variety centuries before the discovery of oil or the building of the Suez Canal.

It's an ignominious resting place for the 99-year-old wooden paddle wheeler, which attracted national headlines when it was trucked nearly 1,750 kilometres from country Victoria to Longreach in May 2022.