John Colin MacIver: salvager and engineer, Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) employee.

John Colin MacIver was an assistant engineer for the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board (MDHB) and was involved in the salvage aspect of the organisation. The MDHB had the right to remove or destroy stranded or sunken vessels which were obstructing safe navigation in the area. As a result a proportion of this collection deals with the safe navigation of the Mersey with the use of buoys, lightships and lighthouses. The ships salvaged were then sold to recover costs. J.C. MacIver was also an inventor, and a number of patents from his inventions can be found within the collection. This collection refers to John Colin MacIver’s work and inventions, containing no personal papers. In the collection are photographs of shipwrecks, salvage and buoyage operations; a certificate of membership to the Liverpool Engineers Society; blueprints of ships and various communication devices; and patents and related correspondence regarding MacIver’s inventions. The collection also includes plans of Liverpool, Manchester and New York Docks and charts of the River Mersey.