World Ship Society

The World Ship Society (WSS) is an international society devoted to maritime and naval history. Founded in 1946 as Ship News Club in order to distribute shipping information to correspondents, the society now has thousands of members in dozens of branches across the world. It publishes the monthly magazine Marine News and the quarterly magazine Warships for its membership.

History

In 1946 Michael Crowdy started a mailing list in the United Kingdom. In order to share a growing amount of information as regards ships, Crowdy founded the Ships News Club and published two news lists covering all ships in alphabetical order. These two lists, published in 1947, are acknowledged by the WSS to be the first two editions of the Marine News.

From 50 Correspondents at the start of 1947, by the end of the year members of the Ship News Club numbered 200 and 330 in July 1948. Notable amongst its early members were the then editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, Francis McMurtrie, and former editor and noted naval historian Oscar Parkes. By February, 1949 there were members across Europe and as far away as New Zealand.

Society

A society is a group of people involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

Society (disambiguation)

Society is a grouping of individuals which are united by a network of social relations, traditions and may have distinctive culture and institutions.

Society may also refer to:

See also

Society (play)

Society was an 1865 comedy drama by Thomas William Robertson regarded as a milestone in Victorian drama because of its realism in sets, costume, acting and dialogue. Unusually for that time, Robertson both wrote and directed the play, and his innovative writing and stage direction inspired George Bernard Shaw and W. S. Gilbert.

Origins

The play originally ran at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, under the management of Mr A. Henderson, opening on 8 May 1865. It was recommended to Effie Wilton, the manager of the Prince of Wales's Theatre in London's West End, by H. J. Byron, where it ran from 11 November 1865 to 4 May 1866 Robertson found fame with his new comedy, which included a scene that fictionalized the Fun gang, who frequented the Arundel Club, the Savage Club, and especially Evans's café, where they had a table in competition with the Punch 'Round table'. The play marked the London debut of Squire Bancroft, who went on to marry Effie Wilton in 1867 and become her co-manager.