HelloSailorExhibit

Hello Sailor! Exhibit At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Hello Sailor! was an exhibit about gay seafarers - cruise ship crew, merchant mariners, and Canadian Navy sailors, at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 2011. It was adapted an exhibition from National Museums Liverpool, UK, which was based on a book by the same name about gay crew on the cruise ships of the 1950s and '60s. The local museum added a unique Canadian component to reflect the LGBTI maritime experience at sea.

It was a brave move by museum administrators at the time, and attracted vast amounts of media attention and was opened by an very enthusiastic speech in Province house by David Wilson, then-minister of Communities, Culture and Heritage, David Wilson. The link to that is below.

The exhibition ran for about seven months, from May 19, 2011 to November 27, 2011. and included a mildly interactive display about the language, "Polari" spoken by many cultural minorities including the gay crew.

There was a local research component including links to out LGBT seafarers Chris Cochrane, William Andrews, Frank Letourneau, Bryson Syliboy, and Helen McFadyen. The report from that is in the second link, below.

• Hon. David Wilson's Ministerial Statement to the Legislature
• The report by local researchers about their interviews with the five locals for the exhibit.

Media coverage

• Introductory article about it by RandallPerry in the April Wayves.
• 2011-05-17 story in Global Maritimes
• Canadian Press
• Haligonia Magazine video interview with author Jo Stanley
• MacLean's, 2011-05-18