Clive Sweetingham

Clive was born  in Southampton, where his father was a Customs Officer when the liners of the day, like R.M.S. Queen Mary, were still the most popular form of transatlantic travel. So as a child, Clive remembers well the docks being his playground and being taken on board the ships that his father was attending to.

At the age of 12, Clive drew a cut-away drawing of Titanic on a roll of wallpaper, and from that time onwards, his passion for White Star and Cunard liners was cast, remaining with him ever since.

Qualified to degree level in electrical and electronic engineering, Clive started his career working for the Medical Research Council as a development technician. But the family ties with the sea, with all of the male line back to 1734 being in either the Royal or Merchant Navy, he was restless for adventure and travel.

In 1974, he joined British Antarctic Survey as a scientist and sailed to Antarctica from Southampton on R.R.S. Bransfield. He spent two years living on the ice shelf just a few hundred miles from the South Pole, before returning home and continuing his career in high-tech manufacturing at senior management level, and helping to grow a number of flourishing businesses.

For the last 25 years, Clive has run his own business consultancy, specialising in the development of management systems that meet international standards across a wide range of business sectors.

Through all of this, Clive’s passion for all things White Star and Cunard has continued to grow and he has amassed a considerable collection of maritime postcards, and images of liners, and ships, that used Southampton and Liverpool in the golden era of sailing across the Atlantic. Other areas of interest include the history of Southampton, dockside and floating cranes, WW1 submarines and the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson. He has written many articles connected with his collections and also written an in-depth study of the Evolution of the British Naval Gun. Clive is also an authority on Admiralty Floating Docks and has again written many articles about them.

In what spare time he has left, Clive enjoys graphic design, photograph restoration and photo-colourisation, 3-D computer modelling and creating short movies about his maritime and associated interests. 

Clive is the editor of of official quarterly journal, The Atlantic Daily Bulletin, and writes many of the articles.