The Currie Line of Melbourne
Author: WA Laxon
Book Review by Jeff Simpson
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Summary: well written, albeit short, history. Published by the Nautical Association of Australia, 2002, softcover, English language, portrait format (210 x 150mm) 61 pages. Price of about $20 AUD This book gives a potted life history of Scottish born Archibald Currie (1830-1914) and the shipping line he founded after he migrated to Melbourne. The chapters are arranged chronologically and are illustrated with small but well reproduced photographs of some of the ships. Currie specialised in the export of horses to India, but also participated in some salvage operations and other sidelines. The story is enlivened with tales of the dramas and also some of the amusing incidents that occurred, I particularly liked the tale of the come-uppance of the unscrupulous cook on page 41. The Currie line was absorbed by British India in 1913. The subsequent fates of some of the ships are mentioned in the next-to-last chapter. The 29 ships owned by Currie and his partners are described, with dimensions in feet and brief notes of the builder and renamings and other key events, in an eleven page fleet list at the back of the book. There is an index of ships' names only. It is nice that this piece of Melbourne's history has been preserved in this way. The book is very well presented, but this does make it very expensive for such a small volume. |