Maritime Matters

Maritime Matters was a website dedicated to news concerning ocean liners and cruise ships, launched in 1997 by writer and professional photographer Martin Cox.
History
Cox is the founder and web master of the site, much of the content on Maritime Matters is written by travel writer and liner expert, Peter Knego. Post and blogs cover contemporary cruise ships, stories of preserved or laid up ships, shipping news, such as an announcement of a newbuild for a cruise line, or updates on what ships are being scrapped. Maritime Matters went through an upgrade to a different format at one point, its old pages available via Google until the site was moved to a new server in May 2010. Knego was one of many press members who were on board the Norwegian Epic for a short cruise upon arrival in New York, and was able to post a large blog chronicling the ships interior, from the pool deck, public spaces, and suites. If visitors of the site enter their name and email to a commenting engine they would be able to comment on posts. In September 2010 Google announced that news posts from the website would be featured on the news aggregator Google News. It was also announced that the site would be undergoing an upgrade, which would include the option of changing pages to different languages.
In May 2013 The Steamship Historical Society of America awarded Martin Cox the "C. Bradford Mitchell Award" for services to maritime history in a presentation in Long Beach, CA.
In 2020 the site was closed.
Principal Contributors
Martin Cox
Martin Cox grew up in the major British port of Southampton, inspiring him to create the site. He went to art schools in Winchester and Devon, launching Maritime Matters in 1997 and later moving to Los Angeles to launch his career in photography in 2000. Cox co-wrote the book Hollywood to Honolulu: The Story of the Los Angeles Steamship with maritime author and researcher Gordon Ghareeb which was published in 2009. Cox was given the C. Bradford Mitchell for services to maritime history in May 2013 by the Steamship Historical Society of America and his photographic series, "Stranded" was exhibited at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum from June 2012 to January 2013.
Peter Knego
Peter Knego was born in Los Angeles to a fashion model and an actor, and graduated from UCLA with a BA in Theater Arts. While still a school boy in early 1974, he began photographing every passenger ship that came to dock in Los Angeles, sparking interest in the passenger shipping industry. He traveled on many classic ships in the 1990s, including the Achille Lauro weeks before it sank in 1994.
Knego has, since 2003, annually visited scrapyards at Alang, India, to document ships, mostly classic liners, being scrapped. His home near San Diego, California, is decorated with a large quantity of fittings rescued from the former Elder Dempster Lines flagship, the , when it was broken up at Alang.
Peter Newall
Peter Newall, author of books about Union-Castle Line and Orient Line.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu