Most people would know of HMAS Brisbane (2), the Guided Missile Destroyer, now a dive site off the Sunshine Coast of Queensland and some would know of the Port Line’s Port Brisbane and the Blue Star Line’s Brisbane Star, but how many would know of the colonial cutter of 1822 named Brisbane or that there have been 5 vessels named City of Brisbane and 16 named Brisbane.

Marine artist Don Braben has researched vessels with the name Brisbane and found over 60, beginning with the cutter Brisbane and ending with Brisbane, in 2007, a bulk carrier. It was surprising that there are so many vessels with the name Brisbane. Several seemed to have little connection with the city, such as the Panamanian Brisbane built as the Norwegian Vera in 1948 that was beached in Ecuador in 1979 or the French Brisbane built in 1909 as the Noruega for the Norway-Mexico Gulf Line then with other owners before being sold to French owners for trading in the lucrative but dangerous Spanish Civil War, during which she was bombed in 1938.

Understandably shipping companies trading to Australia often named their ships after Australian cities such as the German Australia Line’s Brisbane, the Blue Star Line’s Brisbane Star (1 and 2), the Port Line’s Port Brisbane (1 and 2) and Ellerman Line’s City of Brisbane (1,2 and 3). Other ships named City of Brisbane have been the Black Ball line ship which made only one voyage with immigrants in 1862 before being lost on the return to England and the ASN paddle steamer of 1864 that plied between Brisbane and Sydney before being sold to the Hunter River Steam Navigation.

Many of the smaller vessels have interesting histories like the schooner Governor Brisbane of 1822 which was engaged in the sealing trade before being ‘pirated’ and sold by the Dutch in Batavia in 1827; the 1842 Scottish paddle steamer Lady Brisbane that pioneered the Largs-Millport service; the Brisbane City, a 4 masted schooner in the timber trade built in 1914; the schooner Brisbane Adventure of 1878 lost on a voyage from Keppel Bay to Cairns; the Welsh owned barque Brisbane which sailed the world until broken up in 1887 and the North Sea trawlers Hull252 Brisbane and Grimsby1281 Brisbane.

Some of the ships were lost during World War I (the City of Brisbane (1) and the Brisbane River) and during World War II (the Port Brisbane (1), the City of Brisbane (2) and the Brisbane Maru). The Brisbane Star (1) was damaged and was one of the few survivors of Operation Pedestal carrying essential supplies to the beleaguered island of Malta.

There were 4 tankers bearing the city’s name Stanvac Brisbane, Esso Brisbane, Caltex Brisbane and Amoco Brisbane.  Two ships traded out of China before the advent of containers and these were the Brisbane formerly of the Melbourne SS Co. Ltd lost in 1921 and the Brisbane Breeze ex Adelaide SS Co. Ltd’s Borda. With containerisation ships of many nations took the city’s name: Zim Brisbane (1 and 2), Contship Brisbane, Maersk Brisbane, ER Brisbane, COSCO Brisbane, P&ONedlloyd Brisbane, CSCL Brisbane and APL Brisbane.

Other ships include yachts, tugs, ferries, dredgers and launches representing in total 18 nationalities. Two of the vessels are named for the Californian city in USA, the bulk carrier Brisbane and the Sea Scouts former Admiral’s barge Brisbane Star SSS134. 

Don Braben, Fellow and Vice President of the Australian Society of Marine Artists has created 58 detailed paintings featuring  the ships bearing the name Brisbane in interesting settings, together with an 68 page illustrated catalogue. The exhibition will be from June 24, 2008 until August 24, 2008.