Listen Again: High Seas & High Teas – The Story of the Stirling Castle
Dr. Peter Hobbins Completely Captivated Us!
What an unforgettable talk! Dr. Peter Hobbins swept us away on a salt-stung, time-traveling voyage through the SMSA’s origins, told through the incredible story of the Stirling Castle. And what a story it turned out to be!
Picture this: 1831, the Stirling Castle sets sail from Scotland carrying Henry Carmichael and fifty skilled artisans – all brimming with Enlightenment ideals and hungry for new beginnings in the NSW colony. That voyage turned out to be the starting pistol for something extraordinary.
Just two years later, their dreams and determination built the very foundations of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts but it does beg the question, what unfolded in those wild years between? Reinvention! Shipwrecks! A story so gripping it almost feels like fiction!
As part of our 192nd birthday celebrations, our brilliant librarian Šárka embarked on a mission to unearth more of our history, so she teamed up with the wonderful Vaughan Evans Library at the Australian National Maritime Museum and together, they brought the real people behind the passenger list to vivid life – uncovering a legacy that shaped not just the SMSA, but Sydney itself.
And who better to guide us than the incredible Dr. Peter Hobbins? This historian and curator specialises in stories where science, technology and medicine take wild turns – think shipwrecks, snakebites, pandemics and aviation drama, all unpacked with his signature wit and captivating energy.
What an absolute triumph of storytelling!