Our Nautical Nights Speaker Series, in partnership with Kingston Yacht Club (KYC), has become an annual tradition at the Marine Museum. It’s one other way to keep us connected and warm during the cold winter (and spring) months!
We feature a wide variety of speakers who draw on the unique power of storytelling to share their perspectives and research. Speakers cover a range of topics surrounding environmental, social and military histories, as well as current issues or phenomenon. These unique evenings are currently offered virtually with $5 tickets to help cover speaker honorariums and future events.
Autumn Speaker Event - 8 December 2021 at 7pm
We invite you to enjoy dinner and a presentation with the Kingston Yacht Club's take-away menu available here. Just like the real thing, but from the comfort and safety of your home.
Course Correction: Shaping a Legacy for the Future
Chris Chafe8 December 2021
How the passing of sailing legend Francis MacLachlan inspired the organisation he founded to reevaluate its purpose, and to strive for greater meaning in a post-pandemic world.
This presentation will look at the impact of Francis MacLachlan's legacy, and how his passing inspired TSEC-Brigantine to dream big, undertake some ambitious voyages through Lake Superior, Maritime Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nunatsiavut, and develop new programming to help inspire a new generation of leaders, and to support our communities through the adventure of sail.
Register below.
Winter 2021 Speaker Series
Our 4th annual Nautical Nights Winter Speaker Series in partnership with Kingston Yacht Club was a virtual success. This year we featured a number of local historians, storytellers and maritime experts. Please check back for recordings of this series which will be made available for a nominal fee. Full speaker details are below.
Local Shipwrecks and Historic Sites
Jonathan Moore
13 January 2021
During the War of 1812, Kingston was the scene of a remarkable shipbuilding contest with American forces across Lake Ontario at Sackets Harbor. Some of these hastily built British warships had “as great bulk as any on the Ocean” as one contemporary Royal Navy officer observed. Following the war the vessels eventually fell into disrepair and ultimately were towed from the Royal Navy base at Navy Bay and sunk. Today, three of these wrecks (HMS St. Lawrence, HMS Prince Regent, and HMS Princess Charlotte) are commemorated as the War of 1812 Shipwrecks National Historic Site of Canada. Jonathan Moore will outline the story of these once formidable warships, illustrate the wrecks themselves and describe their commemoration as a national historic site.
Lady Franklin and the Lost Franklin Expedition
Dr. Erika Behrisch
27 January 2021
In the 1850s, the search for the lost Franklin Expedition was considered England’s “Modern Odyssey,” and Lady Franklin nothing less than the “Penelope of England.” Today, she is still often portrayed as a symbol, but now as a conniving strategist whose own ambitions propelled her husband to his tragic end.
This presentation considers the life of one of the Victorian period’s most compelling women in a new light: not as a Penelope or conniver, but as a master of narrative. Moving between history, biography, and fiction, Erika explores how Lady Franklin’s character continues to fascinate, rile, and inspire as much as the lost Franklin Expedition itself. Dr. Erika Behrisch is a Professor at Royal Military College.
Seaway Queens
Jim McRae
10 February 2021
Seaway Queens focuses on the design and beauty of the most celebrated Lakes vessels built on the U.S. and Canadian sides of the Great Lakes between 1950-69. Includes first-person accounts and interviews with some of the builders and shapers of both the vessels and the industry as a whole. It also takes a brief look at the modern era, where technology and innovation ensure the freshwater fleet continues to play a vital role in society.
Jim McRae has been on and around Lakers all of his life, beginning as a young boy when he first started visiting the ships during winter layup in his hometown of Montreal. Over the years, he had part-time jobs aboard ships during college, and has featured the Great Lakes - Seaway industry in much of his work over two decades. He’s probably shared stories with more sailors than anyone else in Canada, beginning with his dad.
A History of the Sandbanks
John Brebner
24 February 2021
A history of the Sandbanks, driven by political events both within Canada and in the United States in the 19th century.
How the Sandbanks of Prince Edward County appears today have been shaped in the 19th century primarily by political decisions taken in the United States since the War of Independence. From the appearance of Loyalist and Quaker settlers in the late 18th century, through deforestation for both farm lands and the production of ships’ masts for the Royal Navy, to American policies on alcohol consumption and trade, the Sandbanks bear the marks of each of these events and more over the past 200 years.
The presentation will explore these various key events and the resulting impact on this world-famous natural wonder.
If Lilacs Could Sing
Stephen Medd
10 March 2021
Stephen Medd is a performing songwriter of historical ballads and spiritual songs inspired by the remote Canadian landscapes that he traveled as a young exploration geologist. In 1999-2000 Stephen assisted Avril Lavigne in her early development by writing 3 songs for her that were Avril's first-ever studio recordings.
His recent project entitled, If Lilacs Could Sing is a book of ballads and accompanying recordings about the fascinating historical events and people of the Greater Napanee, Kingston and Bay of Quinte region in which he lives. The opening ballad, Ripple on the Water, is a tribute to the Loyalist refugee settlers and to the First Nations in their traditional territory (the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe). The historical compilation includes local stories from the 17th to the 21st Century including the tragic endings of two of our region's most endearing ships: the schooner Lyman Davis and the steamer Quinte.
Bush Runner
Mark Bourrie
24 March 2021
Known to some as the first European to explore the upper Mississippi, and widely as the namesake of ships and hotel chains, Pierre-Esprit Radisson is perhaps best described, writes Mark Bourrie, as “an eager hustler with no known scruples.” Kidnapped by Mohawk warriors at the age of fifteen, Radisson assimilated and was adopted by a powerful family, only to escape after less than a year. After being recaptured, he defected from a raiding party to the Dutch and crossed the Atlantic to Holland—thus beginning a lifetime of seized opportunities and frustrated ambitions.
A guest among First Nations communities, French fur traders, and royal courts; witness to London’s Great Plague and Great Fire; and unwitting agent of the Jesuits’ corporate espionage, Radisson double-crossed the English, French, Dutch, and his adoptive Mohawk family alike, found himself marooned by pirates in Spain, and lived through shipwreck. His most lasting venture as an Arctic fur trader led to the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
The Remarkable History of the Legendary Red Jacket, a Canadian Sailing Icon
Rob Mazza
7 April 2021
Red Jacket represented a quantum leap in both design and construction. Her short overhangs, stripped out interior, separate keel and spade rudder, large sail plan, and attention to detail would become the hallmarks of all future Ocean Racers. However, it was her obsession with light weight combined with high strength construction elements, embodied in her use of a fully balsa cored hull (the first vessel in North America to do so), that pioneered the way, not only for racing yachts, but the whole composite industry that followed. She was the first Canadian and non-American boat to win overall title at the Southern Ocean Racing Conference.
Join Rob as he explores the Museum's most recent acquisition, bequested by Red Jacket's last owner, Peter Milligan. The Museum expects to receive the vessel in spring-summer 2021.