CPMH 30th Anniversary Conference: Centuries of #maritime history, 26 speakers, two days, one conference you don’t want to miss.
The Centre for Port and Maritime History is celebrating its 30th Anniversary Conference on 10–11 September 2026 in Liverpool John Moores University
A few of the stories:
Jules Verne’s greatest hidden secret? Independent scholar John Lamb makes the case that Captain Nemo — hero of 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas — was secretly modelled on Raphael Semmes, captain of the Confederate raider CSS Alabama, built at Lairds shipyard in Birkenhead. Verne even had the fictional Nautilus built at the same yard.
From WWII disaster to Spielberg’s Jaws: Sebastian F. Croft (University of Warwick) traces how the USS Indianapolis tragedy became one of cinema’s most famous monologues — and what it reveals about America’s relationship with Hiroshima.
512 years of history: Cedric Loughran of Trinity House — the maritime charity chartered by Henry VIII, whose past Masters include Samuel Pepys, Winston Churchill and Montgomery of El Alamein — shares the story behind the institution.
Can museums win the culture war with facts? Martin Bellamy (Glasgow Life Museums) takes on the controversy sparked by the Burrell Collection’s display on shipping magnate William Burrell, in a keynote that goes head-to-head with recent public criticism of “woke” museum interpretation.
Beyond hero and victim: Jo Stanley’s keynote challenges the old passenger/seafarer divide, looking at ladies’ maids, paying “apprentices,” and the real story behind figures like the “Cunard Casanova” — and what Titanic got wrong.
Plus: forgotten histories of Liverpool’s whaling trade, Black sailors fighting for freedom in the American Civil War, the Arandora Star tragedy and its legacy for third-generation Italian families in the UK, women running naval dockyards, 17th-century ceramic forgery in the Persian Gulf, and much more.
The conference closes with the Mike Stammers Memorial Prize for the best postgraduate paper (sponsored by Liverpool University Press), followed by a drinks reception with a performance from the Liverpool Shanty Choir at the Victoria Gallery and Museum.
John Foster Building, Liverpool | 
10–11 September 2026 Hosted by CPMH, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool.
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