One of the premiere lecture series in Hampton Roads, The Mariners’ Museum Lecture Series offers Museum members and Hampton Roads residents dynamic and memorable stories of mankind’s relationship with the sea. The Lecture Series has grown and now presents approximately 15 lectures each year designed to enlighten and engage curious minds with thought-provoking topics and meaningful dialogue.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Unless noted, Lecture Series events are held in the Main Lobby of the Mariners’ Museum at 100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA. Lectures begin at 7:00 P.M. and doors open at 6:15 P.M.

Each lecture features a presentation by the author, a Q&A with the audience, book signing, and a light reception.

All lectures are free and open to the public. Mariners’ Museum Members may make a reservation by calling the Lectures Hotline at 757-591-7751 or emailing bhill@marinersmuseum.org. Reservations are not required, but encouraged. General Admission seating is available for non-Members.

Author’s books are sold in the Museum Shop and will be available the evening of the lecture. For more information, please call the Museum Shop at 757-591-7792.

View the Civil War lecture Series.

The Mariners' Museum Lecture Series is made possible, in part, by support from the Peninsula Community Foundation of Virginia.
 
The Mariners’ Museum Summer Lecture Series 2012 

Callum Roberts The Ocean of Life Monday, June 4

Ben Hellwarth Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest Wednesday June 13

Duc Nguyen Bolinao 52 Wednesday, July 11

Michael Tougias The Finest Hours Wednesday, August 1

Monday, June 4, 2012 - 7:00 p.m.
The Ocean of Life:
The Fate of Man and the Sea
Callum Roberts  

The Earth’s waters are changing. As the seas are subjected to an increasingly potent cocktail of stresses, the result has become the now-familiar stories of overfishing, melting icecaps, and dying penguins. Locally, it seems it has become harder to find the “big fish” that one could regularly reel in as recently as 30 years ago. 

On Monday, June 4, Callum Roberts – one of the world’s leading conservation biologists and author of the new book, The Ocean of Life – recounts the tremendous impact that humankind has had on the earth’s great bodies of water. From fishing techniques of the first homo-sapiens to today’s computer-enhanced, bottom-scraping fishing techniques, to the impact of pollution, Roberts tells the story of humankind’s long relationship with the sea and its creatures. The result is that the fate of our oceans will ultimately determine our own future.

Callum Roberts is the author of The Unnatural History of the Sea, selected as one of the “10 Best Books of 2009” by The Washington Post. Roberts has appeared in numerous documentaries, lectures worldwide, and is a Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York, England. He is also an avid fisherman. 

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 7:00 p.m.
Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest
to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor
Ben Hellwarth

In October 1957, the Soviet Union shattered the perception of the United Sates as the technological superpower with the launch of Sputnik 1. As it made its way across the skies over America, the small satellite forced the United States to renew its emphasis on science and technological research. These new endeavors included all possible areas: military, education, space...and the depths of the ocean.

How long can a diver stay underwater? How deep can a diver go? These were questions post-WWII oceanographic researchers wanted to answer. Conventional dives at the time had strict depth limits and lasted for only a few minutes. By the early 1960s, the US Navy launched a series of daring experiments that sought to prove divers could live and work from a sea-floor base, i.e., a sea lab.

The underwater Right Stuff, Sealab was the marine equivalent of the space station and forever changed man’s relationship to the sea. The revolutionary work inspired explorers like Jacques Cousteau, broke the depth barriers, and revolutionized deep-sea diving.

Join award-winning journalist Ben Hellwarth on Wednesday, June 13, as he speaks on this exciting story and his new book, Sealab: America’s Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor.

“Sealab is a must read for anyone who wants to know the true story behind America’s Man-in-the-Sea Program, complete with all of its triumphs and tragedies.” - Dr. Robert Ballard

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - 7:00 p.m.
Bolinao 52
Film screening and talk with Director Duc Nguyen 

Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the new communist government sent many people who supported South Vietnam to “re-education camps” or forced them to migrate to “new economic zones.” Fueled by this persecution and widespread famines, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled their homeland. Known as “Boat People,” the refugees risked their lives on the perilous escape across the South China Sea.

Often departing via boats not intended for navigating open waters, many died of drowning or starvation and thirst. Others were lost at sea while some were pillaged by pirates. On Wednesday, July 11, Director Duc Nguyen – himself a Boat Person – will screen and discuss, Bolinao 52, a Regional Emmy award-winning documentary film on this extraordinary story.

The film follows Tung Trinh, who boarded the crowded boat with her young son in May 1988. The boat’s engine quickly died, leaving them adrift with little food and water. After 19 days, a US Navy ship stopped but the captain refused to pick them up. Facing death, they resorted to cannibalism. After 37 days at sea, the refugees were rescued by Filipino fishermen. Of the 110 who boarded the small boat, only 52 survived. This is their story.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - 7:00 p.m.
The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind
the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue
Michael Tougias

In the winter of 1952, New England was battered by the most brutal nor'easter in years. As the weather wreaked havoc on land, the freezing Atlantic became a wind-whipped zone of peril. One mile off the coast of Cape Cod, the 500-foot oil tanker, Pendleton, split in half. At the same time, twenty miles away, another tanker, the Fort Mercer, also broke in half. On both tankers, men were trapped in the severed bow and stern pieces as they sank in 60-foot seas, setting the stage for one of the most heroic rescue stories ever lived.

On Wednesday, August 1, join award-winning author Micahael Tougias as he recounts the gripping attempt to rescue the souls huddling inside the broken halves, vividly described in his book, The Finest Hours. Battling high waves, blinding snow, and one of the most dangerous shoals in the world, Coast Guardsmen were able to save 70 of the 84 crewmen.

Described as “Saving Private Ryan meets The Perfect Storm,” The Finest Hours is being made into a major motion picture by the Disney Corporation. Michael Tougias is the author of 19 books, many on maritime disasters, including Overboard (2011) and Fatal Forecast (2009).

This lecture has been funded, in part, by the Hunnicutt Lecture Fund.

Find additional resources on these subjects and more at The Mariners’ Museum Library at Christopher Newport University. Information on the Museum Library – the largest maritime library in the Western Hemisphere – can be found at www.marinersmuseum.org/library