Founder of Steam Trawling - the records of Richard Irvin and Sons Limited

Kim Smith is taking over the Maritime Museum on Wednesday 21 October for a talk on the records of Richard Irvin and Sons Limited, the steam trawling company. It's part of the museum's lunchtime talks programme, so it's a mid-week, mid-day thing rather than an evening out.

If you've never come across the name, Richard Irvin and Sons were a company of trawler owners and fish sellers founded in North Shields, with business sites across the North East of Scotland, including Aberdeen and Peterhead. Their creator, Richard Irvin, was described as the 'Founder of Steam Trawling' — a title that puts the scale of the operation into perspective. The talk draws on the collection held by Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, so it's built from the actual records the company left behind rather than just a general history.

Kim Smith is an archivist at Aberdeen City and Shire Archives, and the talk is one of the museum's lunchtime sessions, which means it's designed to fit into a break. It runs from 12:30pm to 1:15pm, so it's forty-five minutes of talking through the company's history and the records that document it. If you're into the city's maritime past, it's a good way to spend a lunch hour.

The museum is on Shiprow, AB11 5BY, and the price is pay what you can, so you can chip in what you're comfortable with. It starts at 12:30pm on Wednesday 21 October.