CRUISE SHIP TALKS
by Carol Baxter
Carol Baxter, the history detective, is a cruise ship "enrichment speaker" telling true tales of murder, mystery and mayhem.
Carol believes that cruise ship passengers wish to be entertained as well as educated. Thus, each session is a gripping fully-memorised storytelling performance.
Carol Baxter speaking on the Regent Seven Seas Explorer in 2024.
AVIATION TALKS
What really happened to Amelia Earhart?
In 1937 the world’s most famous aviatrix sets off across the Pacific on the final leg of her world flight … and disappears. Did her empty fuel tanks force her to ditch into the ocean? Was she spying for the US government? Was she captured by the Japanese? Join the History Detective, Carol Baxter, as she seeks answers to this fascinating mystery.
The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller series
Why haven't you heard about Australia's first internationally-famous female aviator, Jessie Miller, who became a close friend of Amelia Earhart? All is revealed in this three-part talk.
Carol's book about Jessie Miller, The Fabulous Flying Mrs Miller, is being turned into a TV series called The Aviatrix.
The Feisty Mrs Miller
Bored 1920s Australian housewife Jessie Miller joins World War I British aviator Bill Lancaster in a (hopefully) record-setting flight from England to Australia in 1927. But aloft in their open-cockpit biplane, events soon spiral out of control.
Click HERE to watch a video snippet from this talk (filmed late 2023).
That Magnificent Gal in her Flying Machine
Australia’s first internationally famous aviatrix, Jessie Miller, travels to America in 1928 where she becomes a record-setting celebrity, the world's first female test pilot, and a close friend of Amelia Earhart. Then one day she disappears ...
Click HERE to watch a video snippet from this talk (filmed late 2023).
Be Careful What You Wish For
As the Great Depression grips the globe, world-famous Australian aviatrix Jessie Miller finds herself the world’s most notorious scarlet woman and a central player in a sensational celebrity murder trial.
Click HERE to watch a video snippet from this talk (filmed late 2023).
Mayday!
When retired US Navy pilot Jay Prochnow sets off from San Francisco in 1978 to ferry a Cessna to Sydney, little does he realise that his navigation system is about to fail. Soon, he's lost over the deadly Pacific Ocean as darkness falls and his fuel tanks empty. Can a nearby Air New Zealand DC-10 save him?
Click HERE to watch a video snippet from this talk (filmed late 2023).
INTERNATIONAL MARITIME TALKS
Shipwrecked
When Britain loses its greatest possession - America - and sends the First Fleet across the world's oceans to establish convict settlements in Australia and Norfolk Island, little do they know (or perhaps care) that these new outposts of the British Empire will soon be plunged into a life-threatening crisis.
NB. This talk could instead be called Danger! Danger! However, the title Shipwrecked keeps the passengers on the edge of their seats wondering if each dramatic shipping incident is about to become the shipwreck disaster foretold in the title.
The Catalpa series
Little do most people realise that Ireland's centuries-long crusade to achieve independence from their British overlords was critically boosted by a bold plan set in motion by some Irish-Americans.
The Catalpa Conspiracy: The Plot
In 1875, Irish-born Americans plot to help their homeland throw off the yoke of British oppression. Their plan to liberate Irish political prisoners – Fenians – from Australia's last convict colony is both audacious and perilous. Could it possibly succeed?
The Catalpa Conspiracy: The Execution
The American whaler Catalpa docks in Western Australia in 1876 on a secret mission to liberate Irish political prisoners - Fenians - from under the noses of their British captors. But nothing goes according to plan.
The Mary Celeste series
Have you heard about the American ghost ship that became one of the world's greatest maritime mysteries? These two talks grippingly recount the discovery, the investigation, and the theories proposed to explain its abandonment.
The Mary Celeste Ghost Ship
In November 1872, the now-famous American brigantine Mary Celeste sails from New York for Italy carrying eight crew members, two passengers, and a cargo of alcohol. Soon afterwards, it's found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean. What did the investigators discover?
The Mary Celeste Mystery
After the Mary Celeste is found abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes one of the world's greatest maritime mysteries. After 150 years of theories, speculations and outrageous claims, can the History Detective, determine what really happened on that fateful day?
TRUE HISTORICAL CRIME TALKS
The Murder that Kickstarted the Communication Revolution
When a wealthy one-time Australian convict flees an English murder scene via one of Britain's revolutionary new railway trains, he's unaware that the poles positioned beside the railway tracks carry a revolutionary new communication device that's struggling to attract attention: the electric telegraph.
From Carol's book The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable.
Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt
Join outlaw Captain Thunderbolt – aka Frederick Ward aka the “gentleman bushranger” – on a rollicking robbing ride across 1860s Australia as he exposes the mostly British and Irish cops as a bunch of bumbling incompetents.
From Carol's book Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady, which is being turned into a TV series called Thunderbolt and Bugg.
Australia's Largest Bank Robbery (aka Breaking the Bank)
In 1828, audacious convicts tunnel into the vault of Australia's "gentlemen's bank", delighting their fellow felons. Can the authorities catch the thieves, reassert their imperious authority in this convict colony (of all places), and save the settlement from a devastating economic collapse?
From Carol's book Breaking the Bank.
Black Widow
In 1888, the year Jack the Ripper launches himself onto the world stage, Louisa Collins finds herself in Australia's spotlight. Nicknamed "The Lucretia Borgia of Botany Bay", she is declared by some to be worse than the Ripper. But is she innocent or guilty of the arsenic deaths of her husbands?
From Carol's book Black Widow. Watch a video snippet from her "Black Widow" cruise talk (filmed 2018).
WORLD WAR 2 TALKS
Australia's Pearl Harbour
In 1942, only ten weeks after the Pearl Harbour attack, Japan turns its deadly gaze towards Australia. Hundreds of Japanese planes bomb Darwin, a vital asset in the nation's strategic defence system. Are they planning an invasion?
GENERAL TALKS
It's About Time
As we cross the world's oceans changing time zones along the way, let's explore the surprisingly strange subject of how we came to shackle the eight units of time that drive our lives today and what precipitated the establishment of the different time zones that plague us during our travels.
For Want of a Clock ...
Shipwrecks. Drowned sailors. And these disasters would continue to destroy ships, lives and trade opportunities while navigators couldn't accurately determine longitude at sea. How did the world solve the greatest technological challenge of its time?
(Talk to be completed in 2025)
IDEAS FOR FUTURE TALKS
A Daring Escape
In 1791, Mary Bryant, her babies and eight male convicts flee NSW convict servitude by stealing a boat and sailing north. Will they elude their captors, survive the arduous voyage to the Dutch East Indies (Timor) and conceal the truth?
(Talk should be completed in 2025)
Captain Bligh's Disastrous Voyage
In 1789, Captain William Bligh and seaman Christian Fletcher face off in the world's most well-known shipboard uprising: the mutiny on the Bounty. What really happened during the infamous voyage?
SMITHY: They said he couldn't do it
Australian pilot Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew become the laughingstock of San Francisco in 1928 as they attempt (over and over again) the most arduous flight of all: across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.