Hocken Digital Collections

Farquhar, Ian J. : Maritime research papers

Details

Reference NumberARC-0777CreatorFarquhar, Ian James, 1931-DescriptionThe collection consists of research papers relating to New Zealand and Australian maritime history. It includes subject files relating to individual vessels, shipping companies, war losses, Port Otago, and other maritime topics. There is a large collection of newspaper clippings, including columns (indexed) and files on individual vessels. Also included are overseas serials and booklets of relevance to New Zealand.
Only a small part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyIan James Farquhar was born in Dunedin on 3 July 1931. His parents had a dairy farm at Highcliff, Otago Peninsula, which overlooked Otago Harbour and also had views of the Pacific Ocean out the back. As a teenager going to school Ian started to take an interest in the ships moving in the harbour or passing up the coast. It was just after World War 2 and many were still painted grey. He started recording information on their movements and in 1948 commenced taking pictures of them at the Dunedin and Port Chalmers wharfs. Between 1948 and the early 1970s he photographed many of the ships calling at the port and exchanged prints with other enthusiasts around the world in order to build up complete fleets of individual shipping companies. From early on, Ian had decided to concentrate his collection on New Zealand and Australian registered ships (coastal and Trans Tasman traders mainly) and the main overseas liner companies that had been mounting regular services to Australasia from the age of steam. The emphasis was on steamers and motorships, and from the late 1960s, Ian started writing historical articles on ships for 'New Zealand Marine News', the journal of the New Zealand Ship and Marine Society, and 'The Log', the magazine published by the World Ship Society, Victorian Branch, and now the Nautical Society of Australia, as well as other articles for the British journals 'Sea Breezes' and 'Ships and Focus Record' and other journals in New Zealand. In over fifty years he collected a huge resource of shipping records and books in order to provide reference sources for the books and articles he wrote.
Ian Farquhar's collection of glass plates and cut film negatives is separately filed in Hocken Pictures under the reference number P2000-021 and also entered on the Gordon Black Index.

Ephemera

M.V. Wanganella baggage label

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsHistoriansShipsShipping

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Farquhar, Ian J. : Maritime research papers

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