NRS-9851 | Papers relating to inquiries conducted by the Marine Board of New South Wales and the Court of Marine Inquiry

Full description

These files contain papers relating to inquiries, mainly conducted by the Marine Board of New South Wales and the Court of Marine Inquiry. These papers include incidents on ships in New South Wales waters or into overseas incidents involving ships registered in New South Wales. The incidents include wrecks, collisions, disappearances, sinkings, groundings, boiler explosions, incompetence or misconduct of masters and crew, and various breaches of regulations under the Navigation Acts.

The files, arranged alphabetically by name of ship, were created by the Library of the Maritime Services Board to provide a ready reference tool to information on individual ships.

The papers are mainly official records of the Marine Board of New South Wales and the Court of Marine Inquiry. These include telegrams from pilots, police, etc. reporting accidents; copies of summonses and subpoenas; statements by masters and crew; transcripts of notes of evidence; printed decisions; crew lists; letters from masters, crew, owners, solicitors, etc.; photographs; sketches; maps; newspaper cuttings; plans and blueprints. To these official records, the Library had added modern newspaper cuttings from the 1950s-1980s, of historical feature articles on the ships, reports about diving expeditions to wrecks, etc. Also, files have been made to accommodate copies of reports received by the Maritime Services Board from other authorities involved in the investigation of shipping incidents such as the Commonwealth Court of Marine Inquiry, the Commonwealth Department of Transport and the Court of Inquiry, New Zealand.