The Cairns Maritime Museum….. [email protected]

Cairns Maritime Museum Inc has its origin in Cairns and the Coral Sea.

Many purpose built Pearl shell and Trochus shell Luggers were harvesting the Mother Of Pearl from Cairns to Thursday Island in a post WW2 Coral Sea.

MOP bearing shells mostly for button manufacturing were supplied as raw material for artisans and as a decorative inlay in fine art pieces furnishings and musical instruments.

Pinctada Maxima, the largest of the MOP oyster, occasionally might produce a Gem quality Pearl ..

Quite rare , the gem pearl, could be sold to pay for another Pearl Lugger.

HB was one such vessel

“Harry”Herbert Bowden commissioned HB in 1938.

CMM restored HB in 1993 to tell the story of the East Coast Sailing Lugger.

We have been at sea since having to close the doors at the PIER museum shopfront in 2002 .

Then a 3 year gig on the Duyfken replica ship on Exhibition in Cairns Harbour , revealed a business model for the ongoing Pearling ship story, travelling and telling tales since the GFC of 2008.

After the Big wet Monsoon 2025

We have a job ahead to dry out the ship

Evict the nesting and resting pigeons and their droppings

Open up get ready for Easter and beyond

Magnetic Island Marina

Nelly Bay

First opening of the ‘container’ eggs manifest and set for 2025

Netted ‘salvaged’ from Wet tropical storage to temperate dry tropical keeping place in South Townsville.

Management and Vision

thoughts and feelings

entropy versus a force of nature

Ship meets catastrophic force majeure ; material recovered from the Great Barrier Reef and Islands before the historic shipwreck Act of 1976

Ben Cropp bronze and ballast cargo

Collection ; Aarhus Bega Cato Gothenburg Mermaid Pandora Porpoise Sir Charles Eaton

Cambus-Wallace Merchant Endeavour Jennie Deane’s

Bounty or Pandora’s Box

Dates and times TBA

[email protected]

shipwreck relic stations of dramatic unfolding dilemma in diorama

After over a year in the planning, and with the generous support of Ports North , the AMSA recovery crew, IAS fine art logistics team, Bells Cranes, REV Cranes, LK Drain heavy Haulage and the TMML / CMM volunteers , the shipwreck museum artefacts and Ben Cropp collection have arrived in Townsville.

Yongala , Cato, Endeavour just to begin with….

Shipwreck Museum Containers to travel to Townsville Maritime Museum
Light House Artefacts to return to AMSA
Ben Cropp Legacy and Provenance preserved
AGM
Floating Museum stories proposal
Pearling Industry … Life on the Line… Coral Sea Exhibition…

Hector opened the door to our visit thank you Hector and Colleagues.

CMM @ Netherland National Maritime Museum

Royal Barge jolly boat meets Pearl of the Coral Sea HB

Ships are safe in Harbours but that is not where they are made for being.

Harbours rot both vessels and crew

Crew application form at

NFA Endangered Species Watch and Maritime Museum research vessel

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