This looks like a great symposium, next weekend at the Maine Maritime Museum at Bath, Maine.  I have also heard great things about the fish-house punch served a the evening reception.

38th Annual Walker Maritime History Symposium, April 10, 2010 @ 8:00am
Big Ship Smack-Down: Who’s Got the Biggest?

People associated with the Museum frequently are heard to say that the six mast schooner Wyoming (built at the Percy & Small shipyard, now part of the Museum) was the largest wooden vessel built in the US, or just the largest wooden vessel, period. How do people from other parts feel about this? What vessels are the Wyoming’s competitors? We will also have speakers from the shipbuilding and shipping industry talking about how the largest ships today are built and sailed. In odd moments we will have an open microphone for scholars and students to briefly mention work they have in progress or recently finished.