Signals, issue 120

SIGNALS quarterly NUMBER 120 SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER • NOVEMBER 2017

ANMM.GOV.AU $9.95

INSIDE THE BOX

The container revolution

BAUDIN’S VOYAGERS

Early views of Australia

A TURBULENT TIME

Rattlesnake in troubled waters

Contents SPRING 2017

Acknowledgment of country The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the bamal (earth) and badu (waters) on which we work.

We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the land and waters throughout Australia and pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders past and present.

The words bamal and badu are spoken in the Sydney region’s Eora language.

Supplied courtesy of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Cultural warning Warning: People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that Signals may contain names, images, video, voices, objects and works of people who are deceased. Signals may also contain links to sites that may use content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people now deceased.

Cover: Shipping containers and how they have transformed the global economy are the subject of Container, the museum’s first outdoor exhibition, opening in October. See story on page 15.

Image E G Pors/Shutterstock

ANMM.GOV.AU

3 BEARINGS From the director 5 RISING THROUGH ADVERSITY French artists record the first European views of Australian people and animals 9 FRIEND OR FOE? The possible dual purpose behind an early French visit to Australia 15 CONTAINER - THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD A free outdoor exhibition on how shipping containers shape the global economy 18 NAWI 2017 ‘TRAVELLING OUR WATERS’ Australia’s Indigenous Watercraft Knowledge Conference returns 22 SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS A US Marine’s torrid tour of duty on Guadalcanal forges ongoing links with Australia 28 THE ‘WATER RATS’ OF NORFOLK ISLAND Convict lifesavers from the 19th century 32 A TALE OF TWO TEMPERAMENTS HMAS Rattlesnake’s harrowing time in the tropics 42 A DESPERATE ORDEAL The fate of the Admella 45 MESSAGE TO MEMBERS AND MEMBERS SPRING EVENTS Your calendar of activities, talks, tours and excursions afloat 55 MEMBER PROFILE David and Jill Mueller: Sea days 58 WINTER EXHIBITIONS Gapu-Mon- uk Saltwater; Wildlife Photographer of the Year; the Batavia Tapestry 64 MARITIME HERITAGE AROUND AUSTRALIA The ARHV appoints a research assistant to research Tasmanian craft 70 DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS Illegal salvage devastates the wreck of HMAS Perth 79 TRAVELLING THE MARITIME SILK ROAD Maritime cultural heritage in China 81 FOUNDATION

Inaugural Museum Ambassador Christine Sadler and her reasons for giving 84 EDUCATION An international learning program focuses on World War II 87 COLLECTIONS

Midget Farrelly’s trophies and Aurora’s lifebuoy join the museum’s collection 94 AUSTRALIAN REGISTER OF HISTORIC VESSELS Thunder, a family story 100 TALES FROM THE WELCOME WALL Answering an advertisement changes the lives of a young Turkish couple 106 READINGS Hidden in Plain View by Paul Irish; Badge Boot Button by Craig Wilcox 111 CURRENTS A generous donation gives SY Ena to the museum; World Indigenous Peoples Conference 113 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We recognise the museum’s principal sponsors

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > BEARINGS

Bearings FROM THE DIRECTOR

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IN 2014 Bangarra Dance Theatre unveiled Patyegarang, which tells the story of the inspirational 15-year-old Gadigal woman of the same name, who in 1790 and 1791 shared with Lieutenant William Dawes some of her traditional language during visits to his hut at Tar-ra (Dawes Point Park).

Dawes, the colony’s astronomer, created two slim notebooks of these conversations, which in 1972 were rediscovered at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Two years before Dawes and Patyegarang’s linguistic collaboration, in February 1788, two boats commanded

by Captain John Hunter – later second governor of the colony of New South Wales – systematically surveyed, charted and renamed the major features of Sydney Harbour.

Warrane became Sydney Cove, Wogganmagule became Farm Cove, Pannerong was renamed Rose Bay and Booragy became Bradleys Head. Burramatta was first renamed Rose Hill, then later Parramatta.1 Today Patyegarang’s words are some of the few precious remnants we have of the languages spoken by Sydney’s Indigenous peoples. In 1993 Dawes’ notebooks, along with a small number of surviving accounts, were bought together

by Aboriginal linguist Professor Jakelin Troy in her publication The Sydney Language. Prof Troy’s comprehensive account has been a critical resource in the revival of interest in and use

01 Waangenga Blanco and Jasmin Sheppard

in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s production of Patyegarang. Image Jess Bialek, courtesy Bangarra Dance Theatre

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of the Aboriginal languages of the Sydney district. And only last year Aboriginal languages were taught for the first time as part of the New South Wales high school curriculum.

The importance, resilience and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages were the focus of national celebrations marking NAIDOC Week this year. In 2017 the NAIDOC theme was ‘Our Language Matters’, emphasising the critical and unique role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to both their land and, of course, their waters. In the late 18th century it was estimated that about 250 distinct Indigenous language groups, and many more dialects, covered Australia. Today some 120 of these languages are still spoken – down from 145 in 2005.

Tragically, most are at risk as elders pass; indeed, fewer than 20 of these languages are today spoken across all generations.

In recognition of this perilous situation, the first national funding for Australian languages was started in 1992.

This national program is administered by our own Ministry for the Arts and has now grown to $10 million annually for the funding of Indigenous language activities, particularly at the community level.

Gradually Indigenous languages are making their presence felt in museums and galleries all across Australia. Here at the Australian National Maritime Museum they are prominent in both our Eora and Tasman Light galleries, as well as our Wildlife Photography of the Year exhibition. However, the museum’s most important contribution to the understanding of Indigenous languages comes with the opening of our exhibition GapuMon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country. Curated by Beau James and Helen Anu, this exhibition opens on 10 November (see page 58). It displays some of the museum’s collection of Saltwater Barks, which were used as evidence in the 2008 Blue Mud Bay High Court decision.

Gapu (water) and mon _ uk (salt) are words from the Yolŋu matha language, of north-east Arnhem Land; together they describe saltwater. Today there are more than 5,000 speakers of the Yolŋu matha language and within this exhibition many of its dialects will be there for us not only to read, but also to hear. Throughout Gapu-Mon _ uk, Yolŋu music and the voices of contemporary storytellers will be heard for the very first time soaring through the museum’s galleries.

Kevin Sumption psm 1 Keith Vincent Smith, Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770–1850, exhibition catalogue, 2006, State Library of NSW, p 1.

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > RISING THROUGH ADVERSITY

Rising through adversity BAUDIN’S ARTISTS AND THEIR NEW VIEWS OF AUSTRALIA

The museum’s new exhibition, The Art of Science – Nicolas Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804, is rich in original drawings and watercolours, some never before seen in Australia. During their three and a half years exploring the Australian coast, Baudin’s artists created a wealth of images depicting animals, birds and fish, and the very first portraits of Aboriginal people. By Head of Research Dr Nigel Erskine.

01 Portrait of Aboriginal man Badgi.

Artist Nicolas-Martin Petit.

Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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NICOLAS BAUDIN’S lavishly funded scientific expedition had as its agenda the discovery and study of natural sciences, and its great legacy was a wealth of illustrations created on the shores and off the coasts of Australia. Many of their subjects, such as the wombat and possum, will be familiar to Australians, but were completely new to the French artists who drew them.

But neither of the men who produced these remarkable works was listed among the official expedition artists or ranked among the numerous scientists and officers assigned to Baudin’s ships Géographe and Naturaliste when they left France in October 1800. Instead, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit were rated as assistant gunners and could not possibly have anticipated that their illustrating skills would ultimately provide the major legacy of the Baudin expedition. To look at their work is to see the world afresh through their eyes and to encounter a country new to Europeans, which would shortly become known as Australia. So how did these two young men come to take on the role of voyage artists?

The expedition produced detailed charts, enormous natural history collections and the first in-depth European descriptions of Aboriginal society and culture

Based on the resources provided to Baudin’s expedition, it appeared to have every likelihood of succeeding when it departed the port of Le Havre. Supported by France’s peak scientific body, the Institut National, and sanctioned by the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, it included no fewer than 20 scientists, three artists and 23 officers, as well as prime seamen and marines. The ships were well equipped with the latest charts and scientific instruments, including chronometers, and the expedition was poised to build on the work of previous French explorers Louis Antoine de Bougainville; Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse; and Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni d’Entrecasteaux.

02 Petit’s drawing of an Aboriginal man and

woman in their nawi. Image Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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Despite these advantages, by the time the ships arrived at Isle de France (now Mauritius), serious divisions between Baudin and the scientists, officers and crew threatened to completely derail the expedition. Part of the problem lay in the fact that although Baudin led the expedition, he had had little say in the selection of its scientists and officers and had little respect for many of them – a feeling that they fully reciprocated.

The voyage from France to Isle de France had been slow and provided ample time for attitudes to harden against the commander. When the ships finally arrived at Isle de France, nine scientists, ten officers and all three official voyage artists – Jacques-Gérard Milbert, Pierre Louis Lebrun and Michel Garnier – found ways to leave the expedition.

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To look at the work of Lesueur and Petit is to see the world afresh through their eyes

As a result of this exodus, Lesueur and Petit found themselves working closely with François Péron who, due to the departure or death of other scientists, soon became the expedition’s main zoologist. Péron and Lesueur developed a close working relationship, with Lesueur largely focusing on animal drawings.

This arrangement left Petit to focus on landscapes and pictures of the people whom the French expedition encountered in Australia and Timor. Fine examples of each artist’s work, on display in the exhibition, are Petit’s drawing of an Aboriginal man and woman in their nawi and Lesueur’s watercolour of a bare-nosed wombat. In all, the exhibition features more than 50 original works by these two artists – many showing for the first time in Australia.

The departure of so many key personnel at Isle de France was an inauspicious start to the expedition, which continued to be dogged by ill fortune throughout the following three years. The Naturaliste and Géographe were poorly matched

03 Wombat Vombatus ursinus. Artist Charles-

Alexandre Lesueur 04 Portrait of of Mororé, Eora man from New

South Wales. Artists Nicolas-Martin Petit and Jacques-Gérard Milbert

Images Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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Péron and Lesueur developed a close working relationship, with Lesueur largely focusing on animal drawings

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and often became separated. The men were badly affected by dysentery and scurvy and Baudin’s leadership was constantly undermined. Despite these many difficulties, the expedition did achieve a great deal, producing detailed charts, enormous natural history collections and the first in-depth European descriptions of Aboriginal society and culture. Unfortunately these achievements exacted a heavy toll, notably on Baudin, who died at Isle de France during the return voyage to France.

The Art of Science – Nicolas Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804 is on show at the museum until 26 November. It will then travel to other states throughout 2018; please see our website for details.

By the time the Géographe finally arrived back in France (the Naturaliste having returned earlier), the nation was preoccupied with war and plans to cross the English Channel and invade Britain. With Baudin dead and no-one actively supporting his legacy, his name soon disappeared in official references to the expedition’s achievements.

05 Cape petrel Daption capense. Artist Nicolas-

And what of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit? Lesueur continued to work with François Péron after the voyage – successfully publishing Volume 1 of the official voyage account, along with its accompanying atlas, in 1807.

However, when Péron died in 1810 and the task of completing the voyage account was given to Louis de Freycinet, Lesueur gradually disengaged from the project. In 1815 he joined a scientific expedition to the United States of America and remained there for the next 22 years, producing an enormous folio of work, much of which is now held at Le Havre, where he was born. He died in France in 1846.

In stark contrast to Lesueur’s long and productive career, Nicolas-Martin Petit died in 1804 soon after the Géographe’s return to France, when he was knocked down by a carriage in a Paris street. Petit’s drawings on show in The Art of Science – Nicolas Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804 are a fitting testimony to his abilities and a small legacy to an artist who, at 27, sadly died before realising his full potential.

The museum would like to advise visitors that this exhibition may contain the names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Martin Petit. Image Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > FRIEND OR FOE?

Friend or foe?

FRENCH INCURSIONS IN EARLY COLONIAL SYDNEY Nicolas Baudin’s expedition of 1800 to 1804 into the Pacific – officially undertaken for scientific research – also gave the French a chance to further their political interests in the prosperous British colony of Sydney. By Head of Research Dr Nigel Erskine.

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IN APRIL 1802, when the lookout station on the southern headland of the entrance to Port Jackson reported sighting a French naval vessel approaching, the news spread quickly through the streets of Sydney. In the colony, isolated on the far side of the world from England, it was normal for news of a ship’s arrival to cause excitement at the prospect of news from Europe and the hope of fresh supplies. The armed French corvette Naturaliste, however, was an unusual arrival and unlikely to bring much comfort to the town.

Throughout the latter half of the 18th century, successive British and French expeditions had explored the islands and adjacent coasts of the vast Pacific Ocean, gathering information on the people, products, geography and resources of the enormous region – and in the case of Captain James Cook, laying claim to large parts in the name of his king.

01 Lesueur made detailed sketches of Sydney.

This view was made looking across Sydney Cove from where the Sydney Opera House now stands. Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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Placed in this context, the expedition of Nicolas Baudin (1754–1803) continued an unbroken tradition of the great French scientific expeditions of Bougainville, La Pérouse and d’Entrecasteaux, but this period had also been one of enormous political upheaval in France, with the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 leading to the first coalition of European governments opposed to the ideals of the French Revolution.

Although protected from the wars sweeping the Continent by its powerful navy and the English Channel, Britain had thus been at war with France for eight years by the time Baudin’s ships Géographe and Naturaliste sailed from Le Havre in October 1800. The last years of the century had also seen the meteoric rise to power of General Napoléon Bonaparte and the expansion of French ambitions beyond Europe with his invasion of Egypt in 1798. The British destruction of France’s naval support for the Egyptian campaign at the Battle of the Nile effectively stranded Napoléon’s army in Egypt, resulting in the general hastily abandoning his troops and returning to Paris.

Despite this failure, by the end of 1799 Napoléon had taken the title of First Consul and was busy consolidating France’s military into an ever-more-powerful force.

Naturaliste was not entirely unexpected. Sir Joseph Banks had written from England to Governor Philip King in Sydney about the Baudin expedition after the French authorities applied for a passport from Britain in support of scientific advancement.

The passport was granted, but privately Banks suspected that the French ships were being sent to ensure allegiance to the Republic among the populations of the French Indian Ocean islands of Isle de France (Mauritius) and Isle Bourbon (Reunion).1 Banks stated that while the focus of Baudin’s cartographic work was not the east coast of New South Wales, it was possible that the French would pay a visit to the new colony sometime during their voyage.

02 View towards the military barracks, Sydney.

Artist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur.

Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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In the latter half of the 18th century, successive British and French expeditions had explored the islands and adjacent coasts of the vast Pacific Ocean

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As it happened, Géographe and Naturaliste had become separated during a fierce storm off the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), and after searching unsuccessfully, the captain of Naturaliste, Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, had headed to Port Jackson looking for Baudin and Géographe.

Géographe was not in Sydney, but Hamelin received a warm welcome from the colonial authorities. Governor King hosted a ball for Naturaliste’s officers and provided supplies and assistance to the ship. It was during this time that Matthew Flinders arrived in Investigator with news of his encounter with Baudin off the south coast.

Despite this welcome news and the knowledge that Géographe was heading for Port Jackson, Hamelin prepared to leave Sydney intending to return to Isle de France via Bass Strait.

Hamelin’s encounter with the colonial authorities lasted just three weeks and while his short report detailed the defences and size of the garrison protecting Sydney and its satellite towns, it was largely descriptive and entirely apolitical – in sharp contrast to the report later written by Baudin’s zoologist, François Péron, during Géographe’s five-month stay in Sydney.2

François Péron’s report on New South Wales The Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802, ostensibly bringing to a close almost a decade of war between Britain and France. News of the cessation of hostilities reached Sydney in May. Few believed the peace was likely to last very long – and indeed it endured only until 18 May 1803 – but it proved to be

03 Caricature, Hop, Step and Jump (1804),

hand-coloured etching by Piercy Roberts.

A diminutive Napoleon traverses the seas from Corsica to Dover in three stages via a series of rocks marked Corsica, France, Ambition, Power, Calais and Dover. At the last, John Bull, symbolising England, holds a sword upon which Napoleon is impaled as he falls. ANMM Collection 00054712

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the only period of peace between the two between 1793 and 1815. Regardless of the peace, for François Péron, the Géographe’s stay in Sydney provided a unique opportunity to assess the British colony and its broader impact and potential to affect the colonies of France and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Péron would later publish the official account of the voyage but his report, given in 1803 to General Decaen, the French commander at Isle de France, undoubtedly influenced Decaen’s attitude to Matthew Flinders when he arrived at the island a day after the departure of the Géographe.3 Péron’s report ends with the strong recommendation that the British colony of New South Wales ‘should be destroyed as soon as possible’, noting, ‘We could do it easily now; we will not be able to do it in 25 years’ time.’ 4 In its structure the report lists the advantages Britain gains from having a rapidly expanding colony located strategically on the edge of the Pacific Ocean with ample territory to further expand and with many commercial resources. Péron describes the town of Sydney and its satellite towns and gives detailed population figures to show how quickly the colony has expanded since its foundation some 14 years earlier, extending its reach in every direction and effectively making good the vast territorial claim made by Britain at the time of settlement.

04 View by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur,

looking across Sydney Cove to the north shore, with the houses of The Rocks on the left. The French camp is on the east side of the cove, now the site of the Sydney Opera House. Museum d’histoire naturalle, Le Havre

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He paints a picture of a thriving colony with successful whaling and sealing industries, productive farms producing large quantities of wool, hemp and wine, and a burgeoning trade with China and the Pacific islands – all well supported by the British government through its system of convict transportation and its investment in its military administration and infrastructure. Indeed, the colony is so successful that if it continues to expand unchecked, France’s ambitions in the region will be lost altogether.

Péron paints a picture of a thriving colony with successful whaling and sealing industries, productive farms and burgeoning trade

But for Péron (who claimed to have gathered a large amount of valuable information without raising suspicion) 5 this threat to France could still be overthrown by sending a French force to attack Sydney from a landing in Botany Bay, to the south.

The arrival of a strong force would easily overcome the poorly trained and widely dispersed British garrison and would be supported by a spontaneous uprising of the Irish convicts.

Together this force would overcome the inadequate military and naval defences protecting the colony.

In this context Lesueur’s detailed map of Sydney (see image opposite) and its environs and his several views of the town’s principal buildings take on a more sinister and strategic

05 Lesueur’s map of Sydney and surrounds,

with prominent government and military positions marked. Museum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre

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importance as they indicate the location of the government commissariat stores (three buildings each marked ‘B’ on the map), military barracks (‘F’), gun batteries (one on either side of the entrance to Sydney Cove, each marked ‘M’), prison (‘H’), Governor’s house (‘D’) and house of the military commander (‘E’).

While it was completely normal for foreign officers visiting the ports of rival nations to record details of what they saw,6 Péron’s report went far beyond mere description to become a vehicle for expressing his own highly subjective views.

Regardless of the warm welcome Baudin’s men received in Sydney from Governor King in 1802, a reading of Péron’s report clearly reveals that for him the friendship was a short-term convenience – a lull in the battle between France and Britain that had raged for centuries and within months would threaten the invasion of England.

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1 Mitchell Library, King family – Correspondence and memoranda, 1775–1806 A 1980/2 CY 906, p 37. Cited in J Fornasiero and J West-Sooby, 2014, French Designs on Colonial New South Wales, published by The Friends of the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide, p 60.

2 Géographe entered Port Jackson on 20 June 1802 and departed on 18 November.

3 Flinders arrived at Isle de France on the schooner Cumberland on 17 December 1803.

4 François Péron’s report to General Decaen, 1803, in Fornasiero and West-Sooby (note 1), Appendix 1, p 317.

5 Ibid, p 293.

6 See for example James Cook’s description of the Portuguese forts defending Rio de Janeiro, in The Journals of Captain James Cook – The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771 (ed J C Beaglehole), Cambridge University Press, 1955, p 31.

06 The Governor of Europe, Stoped [sic] in

his Career (1803), hand-coloured etching by and after Charles Williams. Napoleon, standing on a map across Europe, recoils in shock and drops his sword, while John Bull (who stands astride the British Isles) brandishes the sword with which he has just cut off half of Napoleon’s left foot.

ANMM Collection 00054711

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > CONTAINER - THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Container - the box that changed the world A FREE OUTDOOR EXHIBITION

In October the museum opens its first-ever outdoor exhibition. Dedicated entirely to the history and impact of the humble shipping container, the exhibition will be dotted around the museum in a set of specially modified containers. Curator and Project Manager Dr Mary-Elizabeth Andrews explains.

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01 DP World Australia container terminal,

Port Botany, photo Glenn Duffus, 2015.

Reproduced courtesy DP World Australia.

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > CONTAINER - THE BOX THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

IT’S NO SMALL CLAIM to say that something as ordinary as a rectangular steel box could have fundamentally transformed the world and the way we live in it. The box in question is, of course, the standard ISO shipping container, pioneered by US trucking magnate Malcom McLean in 1956.

Containers, which come in a variety of sizes, drive the global economy. Understanding the role of the container and its rapid and ongoing rise not only brings the importance of shipping and related maritime industries into view, but is also, according to maritime historian Frank Broeze, ‘one of the essential aspects of understanding globalisation’.1

The exhibition reveals the extraordinary distances travelled by even the simplest of items

Container – The box that changed the world goes beyond the corrugated steel to reveal the history and diverse impacts of this revolutionary maritime invention. Housed entirely within specially modified 20-foot containers, the exhibition quite literally takes our visitors ‘inside the box’ to explore the economic, geographic, technical, environmental, social and cultural history and impact of containerisation.

Six containers, each of which takes one aspect of the container revolution as its theme, will be placed around the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Pyrmont and Darling Harbour site, creating a series of inviting new spaces as walk-in exhibition modules and giant showcases. By utilising these outdoor spaces, the exhibition connects with the history of the precinct and its transformation during the era of containerisation and beyond.

We also take a peek behind the scenes at Port Botany, one of Australia’s busiest ports and the gateway for 99 per cent of New South Wales’ container demand.

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02 Artist’s impression of Container outside the

museum’s Wharf 7 building at Darling Harbour Sydney. Image courtesy Thylacine Design 03 Cadet officer Franziska Buß takes a selfie

for Instagram, 2017. Reproduced courtesy Franziska Buß

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The exhibition can be visited in any order, but the story begins near the main museum entrance, where a bright red container titled ‘Ship’ explores the invention and uptake of the container, the lives and work of the world’s 1.5 million seafarers and the shape of the shipping industry and ship technology today.

Located on the Wharf 7 forecourt adjacent to Pyrmont Park, the remaining four walk-in containers look at our ports, trade, customs and quarantine, ocean health, and innovative container uses including art, architecture, emergency housing and urban farming.

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Containers drive the global economy

The final container is customised to house a typical lounge/ dining room. With a large window facing the street, this giant showcase details the transport history of an average home, revealing the extraordinary distances travelled by even the simplest of items and the complex global logistics that bring us our everyday goods. When just the dining table – made from white oak grown and milled in Ohio, USA, and MDF (fibreboard) produced in Gia Lai province, Vietnam – has travelled at least 15,228 nautical miles (28,202 kilometres) to reach Australia, the scope of our globally entwined lives – and with it the role of the shipping container – comes into view.

1 Broeze, Frank, The globalisation of the oceans: containerisation from the 1950s to the present. International Maritime Economic History Association, 2002, St John’s, Newfoundland, p 257.

Container is open daily from 26 October and is free. It has been made possible by the generous support of our major sponsor NSW Ports, sponsors ACFS Port Logistics, DP World Australia, Maritime Container Services and Smit Lamnalco, supporters Shipping Australia and Transport for NSW, precinct partner Property NSW and container suppliers Royal Wolf. Supported by the United States Bicentennial Gift Fund

04 View from the bridge of a container ship in the

North Atlantic, photo Adrian Catalin, 2014.

Reproduced courtesy Adrian Catalin 05 Architect’s rendering of the proposed

Hechingen Studio, James Whitaker, 2010.

Reproduced courtesy Whitaker Studio Limited

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > NAWI 2017 ‘TRAVELLING OUR WATERS’

NAWI 2017

‘Travelling our Waters’

AUSTRALIA’S INDIGENOUS WATERCRAFT KNOWLEDGE CONFERENCE For several years, the museum has been working with Indigenous communities and educators to research Indigenous watercraft. In November the museum will hold its second conference on this topic, building on existing scholarship and practical knowledge to create a national picture of this significant area of Australia’s maritime history. By Indigenous Programs Manager Beau James.

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01 Worimi man Steve Brereton using palm-leaf

paddles to propel his mid-north-coast gathang tied-bark canoe on the waters of Tumbalong (Cockle Bay, Sydney) at the opening of the first NAWI conference, 2012. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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IN 2010, THE MUSEUM initiated a research program on Indigenous watercraft as part of the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV). This involved working with Indigenous curators and managers of Indigenous collections to identify and research Indigenous craft in museum collections in Australia and overseas. Its aim was to review the diversity of craft, their provenance and their connections to their communities and the local environment with a view to developing significance criteria and testing the nuanced status of museum replicas.

Indigenous watercraft display wide variations in construction, material and type

It was astounding to find that there was very little published in this area. This, coupled with the research program, presented an important opportunity to promote scholarship in this subject, while forging links with Indigenous curators and collection managers. It was also a chance to probe the diversity of watercraft and to research the differences and connections between them to increase the body of knowledge about these craft. In addition, it highlighted the role watercraft played in their local community and environment, and the value of promoting them as important cultural artefacts for cultural tourism initiatives.

02 Tasmanian reed canoe made by Sheldon

Thomas at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, in February 2017. Image Beau James/ANMM

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The conference will bring together freshwater and saltwater communities and those with a common interest in Indigenous craft, voyages and stories 03

In 2012, the first Nawi Indigenous Watercraft Conference was held over two days at the ANMM and brought together researchers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community groups and museums. It also featured demonstrations, performances and presentations.

For further information on sessions, presenters and times, please see the ANMM website.

The conference was open to conversations from academic, cultural and historical perspectives to highlight the importance of this topic to our national narrative. It presented a platform to discuss Indigenous watercraft and their wide variations in construction, material and type, which uniquely suit them to different conditions, environments and waterways across the country.

On 8 and 9 November this year the ANMM will again host this important conference, with the theme ‘Travelling our Waters’.

It will look at Indigenous watercraft as a fundamental aspect of our national narrative, extending the foundations laid five years ago. This second national gathering of Indigenous watercraft custodians and cultural practitioners will continue to build community collaborations and research to create a national picture of this significant part of Australia’s maritime story. It will bring together freshwater and saltwater communities, and those with a common interest in Indigenous craft, voyages and stories, to share and discuss their practising knowledges of the rivers, oceans and watercraft of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

Sessions will cover a range of subjects: diversity and design, stories and traditions, imagery, trade and navigation, materials and techniques, and modern-day Indigenous practices and waterway management. There will also be a practical session on the construction of the New South Wales nawi (tied-bark canoe), and other sessions focused on history, art, Indigenous knowledge, archaeology and science.

03 Students from Lawrence Hargrave High

School, NSW, at the 2015 launch of a nawi that they helped to make through one of the museum’s outreach programs. It is now on display in the museum’s Eora Gallery.

Image Janine Flew/ANMM

© Billy Missi/Licensed by Viscopy, 2017

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > NAWI 2017 ‘TRAVELLING OUR WATERS’

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Among the speakers and presenters will be: • Bardi Jawi, Gallwa raft project members and speakers from the Bardi Ranger program in Western Australia will talk about their management of more than 250 kilometres of coastline and 340,700 hectares of land. The Bardi Jawi Rangers carry out dugong and turtle management activities, record traditional ecological knowledge, undertake collaborative research and perform other cultural and natural resource management activities.

• Artists from the Torres Strait Islands’ Erub Erwer Meta (Darnley Island Arts Centre) will talk about and display the ANMM’s newly acquired ghostnet outrigger. Erub (Darnley Island), 160 kilometres northeast of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, is one of the most remote communities in Australia and home to some 400 Erubam people.

• Tasmanian canoe builder Sheldon Thomas will speak about a traditional Aboriginal canoe from Tasmania that took three months to build, using a technique 42,000 years old.

• Shane Phillips, Chairman & CEO of Tribal Warrior Association NSW and a respected spokesperson for Aboriginal Australians, will speak about the importance of empowering Aboriginal people.

• Dr Fred Cahir, Associate Professor of Aboriginal History and a member of AIATSIS, will present a paper titled ‘Heroes on the water: Rethinking the Australian legend’. Fred will highlight how Aboriginal people, using their stringybark canoes, repeatedly carried out heroic deeds to the point where it was often remarked that ‘many a white man, and child, owed his life to the charity of the dark people’. This presentation, and the documentary film ‘Seeing the land from an Aboriginal canoe’, argue that Aboriginal cultural traditions and Aboriginal expertise had a formative influence on the skills, culture and outlook of the Australian nomadic bush worker.

• Participants in the Mornington Island High School outrigger canoe project will speak about this initiative, which began in 2016 as part of outdoor education sessions for boys of the island’s high school. It aimed to create a vessel that could be used by students and community members alike. A muscle-powered vessel that didn’t rely on fuel seemed fitting to the environmentally conscious ways of the traditional Lardil people, and the timber outrigger canoe that resulted made its successful maiden sea voyage on 22 June this year. Contributors to the project included students, teachers, RISE Ventures (Indigenous training and employment solutions) and dulmaader (traditional custodians).

04 Jamal Daniel of the Tribal Warrior

Association paddling a tied-bark canoe on the waters of Tumbalong (Cockle Bay, Sydney) at the opening of the first NAWI conference, in 2012. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS

Six inexorable months A HELLISH TIME ON GUADALCANAL

A young American Marine forged lifelong links with Australia as a result of his service in the Guadalcanal Campaign in World War II. His son, John Berry, continued these links by becoming the United States Ambassador to Australia.

Ambassador Berry tells the story of Guadalcanal from the point of view of the son of a proud and humble American who was there.

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01 Morrell Joseph Berry on Guadalcanal (back row,

fourth from left). Reproduced with permission of Ambassador John Berry

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS

IN JULY 2016 I WAS INVITED to open the Treasures of the American Collection exhibition in the ANMM’s USA Gallery.

I was struck by the meaning and power of the words contained in an original signal message received by USS Helm on the eve of the Battle of Savo Island on 7 August 1942, which had recently been donated to the museum by Mr Russell Dority.

This battle, in which HMAS Canberra, USS Vincennes and USS Quincy were lost with more than 1,000 men, opened the Guadalcanal Campaign, a bloody, six-month-long land, air and sea struggle against Japan in which my father, Morrell Joseph Berry, had fought as a member of the US Marine Corps First Division.

My father described the moral dilemmas those young men had to manoeuvre as well

We tend to think of history as unfolding slowly and are surprised when we stop and think of actual dates. There are three battles in World War II that are so close in time that they can and should be thought of as one, although they happened thousands of miles apart. First is 4–8 May 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea – the first defeat suffered by the Empire of Japan and the first naval battle fought ‘in the air’, and in which enemy ships were entirely out of visual range. Aided by intelligence from a secret message decoded in Melbourne that made mention of ‘attacks upon the north coast of Australia,’ joint American and Australian naval forces moved to intercept the Japanese offensive. The Allies lost 656 servicemen, 69 aircraft, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, the destroyer USS Sims and the oiler USS Neosho. The carrier USS Yorktown was severely damaged, but – think of the timing – was repaired in time to join the Battle of Midway, only four weeks later!

The Empire of Japan lost 966 men, 92 aircraft, the carrier IJN Shoˉhoˉ, a destroyer and three auxiliary warships. Five other vessels were severely damaged, including their carrier IJN Shoˉkaku, which as a result was unable to join the critical fray of the Battle of Midway in June.

Most importantly, the invasion landing force was turned back from Port Moresby, and Australia was safe.

02 Signal message received by USS Helm from

Rear Admiral R K Turner, commander of Task Force 62 preparing for the Allied invasion of Guadalcanal. ANMM Collection 00054859 Gift from Russell Dority

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS

As I was growing up my father only told funny stories of his time there

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Only one month later, the naval turning point of the war in the Pacific occurred at the Battle of Midway. And only one month after these two important naval victories, the US began its land invasion in the Pacific on a small atoll in the Solomon Island chain called Guadalcanal.

Japan hoped that if they could defeat the American forces and invade Guadalcanal, it would slow the speed of Allied efforts throughout the Pacific, lend support to a ‘win in Europe first’ approach by the Allies, and allow the Empire of Japan to solidify its gains in the Pacific. The US military also knew the importance of holding Guadalcanal – made clear in the following signal message in the ANMM collection, from USN Rear Admiral R K Turner to all ships in the combined US and Australian naval task force on the eve of the Battle of Savo Island, the opening naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign: On August 7th this force will recapture Tulagi and Guadalcanal islands which are now in the hands of the enemy. In this first forward step toward clearing the Japanese out of conquered territory we have strong support from the Pacific fleet and from the air, surface and submarine forces in the South Pacific and Australia. It is significant of victory that we see here shoulder to shoulder the US Navy, Marines and Army and the Australian and New Zealand air, naval and army services. I have confidence that all elements of this armada will in skill and courage show themselves fit comrades of those brave men who have already dealt the enemy mighty blows for our great cause.

God bless you all.

I was honoured to meet brave Australian sailors who actually dropped my father, Morrell Joseph Berry, and the rest of the US Marine Corps First Division on Guadalcanal, which they described as ‘the gates of hell’.

03 Berry snapped his friends posing with the

guard at the gates to Government House, Melbourne, in December 1942. Reproduced with permission of Ambassador John Berry

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS

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These sailors told me that no sooner had they landed the Marines and established a beachhead, than the Japanese navy arrived with a superior force. This forced them to retreat without having time to land critical supplies and heavy equipment.

They said that quite a lot was simply dumped in the shallowest water possible in the hope that the Marines might be able to salvage at least some of it.

Up to this time the pace of the Pacific war had been hectic, but things now slowed down to a much harder slog.

Over six inexorable months, the First Division managed to secure Henderson Airfield and hold that rocky atoll against constant waves of Japanese naval, air and ground attack, without substantial resupply (three Allied efforts to resupply the American Marines were defeated or turned back).

My father said the three darkest mornings of his time on Guadalcanal were after major overnight naval battles, as all they could see from the island were ships flying the ‘rising sun’; ‘You knew no help was coming any time soon’.

As I was growing up my father only told funny stories of his time there. Once, sick and tired of sleeping in wet foxholes, my father told his mates he was going to take his chances and sleep on the ground. His mistake was to use as a cover a Japanese flag he had captured that was mostly bright white.

His mates told me that they never saw my father move so fast – and back into the foxholes – as when mortars started falling all around his ‘blanket’!

But as my father aged, and he realised his grandchildren knew little of the horror of war, he would share snippets of just how tough a time that division had in accomplishing their mission.

For example, my 18-year-old father was already skinny, but he somehow lost more than 40 pounds (18 kilograms) while he fought and survived every day on Guadalcanal.

04 Berry (left), with Davy O’Keefe, later saw

action in the reformed First Division at Cape Gloucester, Papua New Guinea. Reproduced with permission of Ambassador John Berry

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As I mentioned before, supplies were short, and the usual 90-day There are three battles kit of supplies had been reduced to 60 days to save space during in World War II that are the landing, and ammunition was only enough for ten days. so close in time that they can and should be My father described the moral dilemmas those young men had thought of as one to manoeuvre as well. He described that at first, they would accept surrendering Japanese soldiers – only to have them detonate suicide vests made up of grenades once they were surrounded by Marines. As you can imagine, few surrenders were accepted after that hard lesson was learned.

But fortune favoured the brave, and finally, after six months, the First Marine Division was relieved by the US Army. They had suffered horrible losses, with 1,600 killed and 4,200 injured, but they inflicted far worse on the enemy, who counted 24,000 dead.

The First Division was finally sent to Melbourne for rest and recuperation leave. Dad told me that after six months on Guadalcanal, as they sailed towards Australia, ‘they all wondered if there was any good left in the world’.

When they arrived in Port Melbourne, a small band on the dock struck up a feisty rendition of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ to welcome them. I am crying as I write this, just as my father did, along with every other Marine on that boat, when they heard that music.

05 A semi-permanent tent city built on the

Melbourne Cricket Ground from 1942–45 was home to the Marines during their stay in Melbourne, the city described as ‘the best liberty port in the world’. Reproduced with permission of Ambassador John Berry

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SIX INEXORABLE MONTHS

My dad said, ‘Nobody would admit it – and they joked about how it must have been the cold Melbourne air, because there wasn’t a dry eye on board.’ And lest you think this is just a sentimental recollection, I offer this proof to the cynics of today: so emotional a moment was this, and so important to the morale of the USMC First Division, that to this day – 75 years later – whenever and wherever the First Division ships out, or every time they parade march at the famed Marine Barracks in Washington DC, or every time their ‘fight song’ is played – it is to the tune of ‘Waltzing Matilda’!

My father told stories about the tent city that was set up to accommodate them on the sacred pitch of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, of visiting the zoo, the Shrine of Remembrance, and even the gates of Government House. Little did he imagine that his son would one day become the ambassador and be invited to spend the night inside as a guest!

He described to me how the ticket taker [conductor] on the streetcar [Melbourne tram] told him, ‘You look a bit thin – why don’t you come home and join my family for a good homecooked meal?’. ‘It was the BEST meal of the whole damn war!’, my dad would exclaim.

Until the day he died in 2007, if my father ever heard an Australian accent when our family was at a restaurant, he would jump up and offer to buy them a beer. I remember one startled Aussie gentleman (hard as it is to believe) saying, ‘I am sorry – but I don’t drink.’ ‘That’s ok,’ my dad said, ‘how about a half pint?’

When all is said and done, this is just the story of one brave Marine. But it is his conclusion that matters. It is the bedrock that underlies our alliance still today: those short weeks in Australia and meeting the warmest, kindest, most generous people he ever had met, reminded him and the rest of the division that not only was there good left in the world, but even more importantly, that it was still damn well worth fighting for.

A year later, on Boxing Day 1943, the re-formed First Division joined Australian forces at Cape Gloucester in New Britain in another bloody offensive against the Japanese. Just as has happened in every major military engagement since World War I until today – Aussies and Yanks side by side for freedom.

As the second generation of my family to have the honour of serving our nation’s flag within Australia, I can tell you this with certainty: the Australians of the 21st century are every bit as warm hearted, true and good as those my father met 75 years ago. And like my father, I will always thank God for Australia.

Long may it be so. And may God always bless these United States of America and the lucky ancient shores of Australia.

In honour of Australia’s special links to the USA, Ambassador Berry generously donated his father’s cherished Marine Service Album – photos from which appear in this article – to the museum’s American collection. Filled with candid and graphic photographs of Guadalcanal and of a life-changing Christmas leave in Melbourne in 1942, the album will be displayed in the USA Gallery later this year as part of the ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75’ program.

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > THE ‘WATER RATS’ OF NORFOLK ISLAND

The ‘water rats’ of Norfolk Island AUSTRALIA’S FIRST SURF LIFESAVERS?

Surf lifesavers are an iconic image of modern Australia, but an earlier version of them can be found in the unlikely form of convicts in lonely exile on Norfolk Island. ANMM volunteers Don and Sue Brian resurrect a lesser-known episode from our colonial past.

01 01 Perilous situation of the boat Maeander at

the bar, Norfolk Island, by Oswald Brierly, published in the Illustrated London News, 13 December 1856. Brierly accompanied Sir Henry Keppel on the voyage to Norfolk Island during which a ‘water rat’ rescued Keppel from drowning. National Library of Australia nla.obj-136043170

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > THE ‘WATER RATS’ OF NORFOLK ISLAND

ACCESS TO NORFOLK ISLAND has been difficult since its first days of settlement. In the colonial convict era, as today, ships could not berth at the shore, so goods and people had to be brought ashore in small boats. In the days when Norfolk Island was a penal colony, these boats were rowed by convict crews.

In high seas access to the pier was dangerous and many people were drowned crossing the ‘bar’.

The fame of these lifesaving convicts spread to England

In 1842 Joshua Hamlet Gregory, a soldier newly arrived on Norfolk Island with the 96th Regiment, recorded in his diary a vivid description of a boat being rowed in from a Yankee whaler with a man and woman on board. The surf was high and dangerous and the small boat did not attempt to turn back until it was too late: When they had got within fifty yards of the bar they could see their danger, but it was too late to retreat, for she was then in the midst of heavy swells … The crew showed both strength and skill, but it was all to no purpose for the swells were too much for them.1 Standing by on the shore, he noted, were Norfolk Island’s ‘water rats’: These Water Rats as we called them, – were convicts that stood on the rock ready to plunge into the waves in case a boat upset … there they stood, six in number like statues with their arms folded across their chests, with nothing on but a pair of thin drawers, a smile of satisfaction sat upon the visage of each reckless and daring exile … I could see the lady was in great alarm. She looked towards the shore in a most pitiful manner, but when her eyes fell upon the Water Rats, she seemed to eye them with something like satisfaction for she doubtlessly understood their business.

02 Kingston Pier, Norfolk Island, 2016.

Image Don Brian

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > THE ‘WATER RATS’ OF NORFOLK ISLAND

‘a smile of satisfaction sat upon the visage of each reckless and daring exile’

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He watched as the small boat was thrown into the air and its passengers cast into the water: In a moment these reckless fellows were nobly breasting the surf and in less than five minutes they were all safe and sound on shore … Never could men have struggled harder than did these fellows that risked their life and limb to help their fellow creatures.

It was common for the ‘water rats’ to be granted a mitigation of their sentence in return for saving people from drowning.

Four convicts are known to have received reductions of sentence for saving lives in the surf at Norfolk Island: • George Davenport: Charles Sturt’s convict cook, a soldier transported for supposed cowardice, saved the life of Captain Rennoldson of the Queen Charlotte.2 • William Archer: a recidivist transported to Norfolk Island for cattle duffing, Archersaved a man when a boat from the Arthur Phillip was overturned at the bar in 1840. During that incident two men, Best and McLean, drowned. Archer was returned to the mainland and freed, later becoming a cattle baron and third Mayor of Grafton, New South Wales.3

03 The page from Joshua Gregory’s diary

recording the rescue that he witnessed.

Image Don Brian

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > THE ‘WATER RATS’ OF NORFOLK ISLAND

• Thomas Cook: in the same incident, the convict author of The Exiles Lamentations helped to save the coxswain, three soldiers and eight convicts.4 • James Porter: the convict who famously sailed the stolen Frederick to South America saved some officers returning from the Governor Phillip in May 1841.5 ‘Whatever mitigation of sentence they might get, they richly deserved it’, Gregory noted. ‘They were certainly the best swimmers I ever saw in my life’.

Sir Henry Keppel (later Admiral) was rescued in this way on his visit to Norfolk Island in 1850. He wrote in his published diary: On my asking the man who had rescued me from a watery grave, to whom I was indebted for the kind assistance, he informed me that his name was Emerson, and that he had been transported for doing a bit of highway robbery while in the service of my father! 6 The fame of these lifesaving convicts spread to England. Charles Dickens was a friend of Captain Alexander Maconochie, the prison-reforming commandant at Norfolk Island. He wrote in his weekly magazine Household Words of 10 April 1852: A boat having arrived, under favourable circumstances, within the reef; having been dashed over the bar very rudely by the wave that crosses it, and tossed down abreast of the jetty; the visitor, when he has fetched his breath, has leisure to observe a gang of convicts, stripped to the waist, with ropes in their hands, ready to plunge in to the rescue, if the boat should happen to capsize. Perhaps the visitor is not allowed to fetch his breath, or to observe this gang, until he has taken a saltwater bath, and has been dragged into society by a rope fastened around his middle.

These convicts form the Rescue Gang; and any one of them who saves a life enjoys a shortened period of punishment.

Sydney’s famous surf lifesaving clubs at Manly, Bronte and Bondi are justifiably proud of their claims to be the earliest clubs, but perhaps we need to look further back to our colonial convict past for the first instance of organised surf lifesaving in Australia.

‘They were certainly the best swimmers I ever saw in my life’

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1 Extracts from the handwritten diary of Joshua Hamlet Gregory, 1842, Norfolk Island Museum.

2 Sturt, N G, from charlessturtmuseum. com.au/resources/articles/george%20 davenport.pdf 3 Family history, personal communication with descendant and convict pardon records.

4 Cook, Thomas, The Exiles Lamentations, Library of Australian History, 1978.

5 Porter, James, The travails of Jimmy Porter: a memoir, 1802–1842, prepared for publication by Richard Innes Davey; Round Earth Co, Strahan, TAS, 2003.

6 Keppel, Henry; Brooke, James; and Brierly, Oswald W B, A visit to the Indian Archipelago, in HM ship Maeander, Richard Bentley, London, 1853.

The convict who rescued Keppel may have been another who received a remission of sentence.

The authors would be interested to hear from anyone who can add to this story, especially descendants of other reprieved ‘water rats’. They can be contacted at donandsuebrian@gmail.com.

04 The grave of one of the many people who

drowned at the island. Image Don Brian

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A TALE OF TWO TEMPERAMENTS

A tale of two temperaments OWEN STANLEY, THOMAS HUXLEY AND THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE

A British expedition in the 1840s set out to survey and chart the east coast of Australia and the island of New Guinea.

It should have been an ideal opportunity for two ambitious men to further their careers; instead, it tested all on board to breaking point.

By Curatorial Assistant Myf Bryant.

01 A pensive Owen Stanley, 1837. At this time

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Stanley had just returned from a harrowing expedition to the Arctic aboard the Terror.

Artist unknown. Image courtesy National Trust Images UK. ©National Trust/Robert Thrift

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A TALE OF TWO TEMPERAMENTS

IN 1846 THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY committed to surveying an inner route along the Great Barrier Reef, the east Australian coast and waters off New Guinea. It was not new territory, but increasing maritime traffic to and from Australia was exposing hazards that the Admiralty felt pressured to address. A safer passage through these reef-strewn waters was needed to save lives, and investigating the south coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago could reveal new trading opportunities.

The brilliant Huxley would later rise to become one of the greatest thinkers of the 19th century

The main aim of the expedition was surveying, but the Admiralty also made allowances for scientific studies, particularly in natural history. In this era of great exploration, new European discoveries were competitive and highly valued.

The Admiralty assigned naturalists to the journey, and as if to underscore their commitment to the cause, it appointed a captain who was himself a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society: Owen Stanley.

Stanley came from an illustrious family – his father was the Bishop of Norwich – and young Owen had joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13. In 1846 he was 35 and had travelled extensively in southern waters, proving himself an experienced seaman and exceptional hydrographer. In the eyes of the Admiralty, Captain Owen Stanley was the right man for the job.

02 Thomas Huxley, c 1855. At this time Huxley

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was securely back home in London as Professor of Natural History at the Royal School of Mines and was beginning to find recognition as a naturalist. Image Royal Society

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A TALE OF TWO TEMPERAMENTS

And Stanley would have seemed the right man – on paper.

In the days before psychological testing and mental health reviews, practical achievements on paper were what career progression was based on. In reality, a simple cup of tea with Stanley’s mother, Kitty, would have ascertained his unsuitability for the demanding leadership role. Kitty had always been her son’s harshest and most open critic. Letters between her and Owen’s sisters, in addition to her detailed progress reports on him from infancy, paint a picture of an intelligent, timid yet determined child with a ferocious temper.

Kitty’s journal entries and letters regarding the young Owen are filled with words such as ‘ill natured’, ‘cowardly’, ‘selfish’, ‘tiresome’ and ‘disagreeable’. Not until Owen had been in the navy for five years would Kitty concede that he had improved – despite an ongoing tendency towards ‘pettiness’.

The Admiralty, however, saw in Stanley this same intelligence and determination, transformed into a dogged quest for accuracy when it came to hydrography. They provided Stanley with the 24-year-old Rattlesnake to convert into his survey ship.

The 28-gun frigate was a veteran of the southern waters, having already been through the Torres Strait in 1835. In its long history it had taken part in the Chinese Opium Wars and covered much of the globe.

03 Sketch by Thomas Huxley showing Brierly,

Huxley, Macgillivray and Simpson ashore at Redscar Bay, New Guinea. From John MacGillivray’s Narrative of the voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, ANMM Collection 00027900

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A TALE OF TWO TEMPERAMENTS

What Rattlesnake struggled with in age, the crew made up for in their enthusiasm at the prospect of new discoveries.

The most significant inclusion was the 21-year-old Thomas Henry Huxley as assistant surgeon. The brilliant Huxley would later rise to become one of the greatest thinkers of the 19th century; he and his friend Charles Darwin would challenge and change the way humans saw themselves. But in 1846 Huxley was still a tall, intense, moody and emotionally immature young man who saw the journey on the Rattlesnake not as an opportunity to forward his medical career, but as a chance to test his skills as a naturalist.

These two men, Stanley and Huxley, raise Rattlesnake’s 1846 journey from ordinary to extraordinary. Both were avid writers of diaries and letters home to their family, particularly to their sisters. Their candid thoughts on paper – unpublished in their lifetimes – express the real background drama of the voyage.

Much has been made about the animosity Huxley grew to feel towards Stanley, but the two men were actually very much alike. Both saw the Rattlesnake journey as a hugely significant step in their lives – albeit at different ends of their careers.

They saw their futures as dependent on the expedition’s success and felt the mental pressure that expectation bought with it.

Stanley hoped that the Rattlesnake assignment would end his days at sea and eventuate in a longed-for shore position, perhaps as the hydrographer of the navy. He also had tentative plans to marry on his return to London. For Huxley, at the very beginning of his career, it was time to decide whether he could make a living as a naturalist or remain in the medical field. Unlike Stanley, Huxley did not come from a celebrated or wealthy family. He alone would be responsible for his career and future prospects, with no family influences.

Both men felt enormous pressure to establish their reputations in order to make a life for themselves. Both were separated from families to whom they were close and from women whom they loved. They knew that their futures rode on their intelligence and what original work they could produce. Both men also battled with anxiety and depression, unacknowledged and not understood at the time. These shared pressures, academic interests and personal trials should have led to a greater understanding between the two men. But, engrossed in their own frustrations and disappointments, Huxley and Stanley would go on to alienate themselves from each other in their own private battles at either end of the ship.

When Rattlesnake left Plymouth, England, on 11 December 1846 in a gale, it became clear that despite all Stanley’s efforts, the ship leaked badly and had an extensive list of defects. The state of the ship would plague the voyage for the next four years.

Brierly was fearless, appealingly open and genuinely interested in different cultures

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04

Rattlesnake reached Sydney in July 1847, by which time Huxley in particular was despairing. He was an expressive writer, unbound by protocol or official reporting. His sporadic journal entries reflect a frustrated and bored young man whose sharp wit, intelligence and unsteady temperament were already distancing him from his peers. Prone to bouts of melancholy and crippling self-doubt, Huxley found life at sea unbearable.

Initially, Stanley tried to befriend the young Huxley. He sent Huxley’s first research work from the Rattlesnake to his father, the Bishop of Norwich, for the attention of the Royal Society, in the hope that it would be published. Huxley himself noted in his diary that Stanley ‘has never failed to offer me and give me the utmost assistance in his power, in all my undertakings, and that in the readiest manner’.1 Published years later by the Royal Society, this work by Huxley became a foundation stone for his career as a naturalist.

But in 1846 this was in the future, and Huxley sank further into despair, punctuated only by bouts of derision and a ‘temper that Satan need not have envied’.2 Two events occurred in the very first months spent in Sydney that affected all three journeys to come. First, Huxley fell in love with Henrietta Heathorn. Already on an emotional roller coaster, Huxley found that their enforced separation only added to his turmoil and the growing pressure he felt to accumulate a body of work on which to build a career.

Secondly, Oswald Brierly joined the Rattlesnake as the expedition’s artist. Brierly, by all accounts a well-liked man

04 HMS Rattlesnake emblem from Owen

Stanley’s journal. Image State Library of NSW

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05

who had lived an interesting life, dined nightly with Stanley and probably provided him with distracting conversation that did not revolve around surveying, the grievances of the crew or scientific disappointment.

From October 1847 to early May 1849 Rattlesnake made two voyages from Sydney along the north Australian coast.

Those on board soon became familiar with the difficult nature of survey work. The relentless grind and boredom of charting in the heat were exhausting, and provisions on the second journey ran so low that tensions boiled over. Huxley felt the excruciatingly slow pace of hydrography work to be yet another form of punishment. In a characteristic burst of complaint, he wrote: ‘If this is surveying, if this is the process of English Discovery, God defend me from any such elaborate waste of time and opportunity.’3 However, the worst aspect of all in those long months up north was Stanley. Although fulfilling the Admiralty’s brief, it was clear he was buckling under the strain of command. His temper was unpredictable and fierce. At times unreasonable and cowardly, he had managed to alienate himself from most on board.

Huxley had fared little better. Morose, disappointed and bored, he often lost the inclination even to leave his tiny, stifling cabin.

His sport seemed to be watching the ship’s cockroaches and recording angry witticisms against Stanley, when he could be bothered to write anything at all: ‘The skipper and his dog had this in common, that they liked one another and were disliked by everyone else.’4

05 A canoe from the Louisiade Archipelago from

Owen Stanley’s journal. Stanley, like Huxley, painted extensively throughout the journey.

Image State Library of NSW

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While Stanley’s deteriorating state of mind should have been addressed before the third voyage left, it wasn’t. The navy did not have the understanding or even the terminology for what Stanley was suffering, nor the capacity to deal with it.

He was producing charts as instructed, and the personal cost to himself or his crew was not a factor. So it was under this cloud that the Rattlesnake left Sydney again for its third and final survey in late May 1849. The trepidation felt by the crew and scientists at having to spend further months at sea must have been tempered, however, by their excitement at the prospect of exploring New Guinea.

At the time, New Guinea was the ultimate goal for naturalists, a place filled with challenge and promise. Both Stanley and Huxley had written effusively to their respective sisters about what visiting New Guinea meant to them – both personally and professionally.

But when the Rattlesnake reached the waters of New Guinea, the situation on board the ship had altered significantly.

Stanley was showing the strain of his mission more than ever.

He had become over-anxious and snappish, lashing out at the crew and cultivating a fear of the unknown. He severely limited shore excursions by the naturalists, believing attacks by the local people outweighed any potential for scientific research.

06 Life aboard the Rattlesnake by Owen Stanley.

Image State Library of NSW

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He wrote to his family: ‘I do not conceive that the chance of risking human life is at all equal to the result obtained by landing to obtain a few yams and coconuts’.5 It seems the traits that had concerned Stanley’s mother all his life – the timidity, unreasonable behaviour and volatile temper – had resurfaced, exacerbated by the strains of his responsibilities.

Huxley, Dr Thompson and other crew members recorded their frustrations at Stanley’s excessive caution. Huxley was bought to his knees in exasperation and anger. As each opportunity presented itself, it was foiled by Stanley’s reluctance to embrace the experience. But at every accusation by the scientists, Stanley would defend himself with the object of keeping them safe and alive. He saw danger where none was likely and went to great lengths to write his own narrative and defend his decisions. He must have known the scientists’ disappointments but steadfastly walked the naval line that both concealed and played along with his own fears.

All was not lost, however. On the occasions when the scientists, including Huxley, did venture ashore, they recorded new information about the region and its people. It is this aspect of the voyage on which Brierly had the most impact. He was fearless, appealingly open and genuinely interested in different cultures. He expressly encouraged the young and naive Huxley to stop thinking like a European and make up his own mind on those he met: The difficulty in communication with them is to divest the mind of the ideas and opinions gathered from Books – to look at them for yourself and not thru the eyes of those that may have preceded you – to record what actually passes under your own observation … – in doing this you will constantly be surprised to find - [them]something so utterly different from what your preconceived ideas would make [them] …6 This was Huxley’s first introduction into the new field of anthropology. He constantly accompanied Brierly and the naturalist Thomas McGillivray, interacting as much as possible with inhabitants of the places they landed. Here the seed was planted for Huxley’s lifelong interest in the diversity of humanity and the confidence to make up his own mind rather than walk and expand on the path of others.

But back on board the Rattlesnake, all were captives to Stanley’s moods and directions. Much of Huxley’s rages and name-calling against Stanley can be put down to his youth and inexperience.

Being told what to do by a man he did not respect rankled with him, and is an early example of Huxley’s challenging of authority and institutions that would continue throughout his life.

At the time, New Guinea was the ultimate goal for naturalists, a place filled with challenge and promise

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Stanley and Huxley raise Rattlesnake’s 1846 journey from ordinary to extraordinary

07

But his exasperation was not without foundation and was shared by all others on the ship who recorded their feelings on Stanley’s floundering state of mind. Even Dr Thompson, by all accounts the wise and steady hand on board, wrote: The prudence – did it not amount to fear and cowardice?

– of the Captain would not allow us to enjoy the advantages that were held out to us. And now we have left this great terra incognita without knowing anything more or being able to communicate to the world anything more than was known before our visits … I cannot conceal my chagrin and disappointment …7 Of course there is another side to this situation: Stanley’s side. He had been warned explicitly by the Admiralty not to be distracted or enticed by exploring unknown shores.

If the opportunity arose for the scientists to investigate, well and good, but he was not to risk the lives of his men. At the terrifying prospect of losing mental control of himself, can Stanley be blamed if he clung tightly to the solid directives of the Admiralty? What the scientists saw as cowardice and humbug, Stanley saw as caution and a captain’s responsibility.

There was no right or wrong in what did or didn’t happen during the Rattlesnake’s journey to New Guinea.

Opportunities to increase European knowledge of the country were wasted by Stanley’s fears and misconceptions about the ‘treacherous natives’. His increasingly hostile personality earnt him few supporters on board and set a mood of discontent and frustration that persisted throughout the whole journey.

But Stanley got every man back to Sydney alive and produced charts that were excellent, accurate and still in use more than a century later. From his perspective he utterly fulfilled his duty, but those outside the captain’s cabin clearly thought differently.

07 HMS Rattlesnake and HMS Bramble by

Oswald Brierly. After returning to England Brierly went on to become one of the world’s first war artists and maritime painter to Queen Victoria. Image State Library of NSW

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When the Rattlesnake limped back into Sydney on 5 February 1850, Stanley was immediately ordered off by Dr Thompson.

He had finally succumbed to the stresses of the New Guinea journey and en route back to Sydney had experienced what Thompson referred to as a ‘health break down’. Those who saw him on his return were shocked and commented that he was ‘was very pale, thin and haggard’.

On his return to London Huxley reached out to Stanley’s family

Stanley assured his family in letters home that he was recovering and recuperating at a friend’s house in Sydney.

He seemed to be well enough to decide to return to his ship on 11 March 1850. The next night Huxley looked in on him and left him comfortable, but the next morning Stanley died in his cabin with both Dr Thompson and Huxley by his side. He was buried on Sydney’s north shore with one of the largest funeral processions Sydney had seen. Stanley would not return to London a hero, he would not marry, and after 22 years at sea he would not end his career as the navy’s hydrographer.

The rest of those on board the Rattlesnake returned to London.

Huxley’s life changed on his return; his brilliant intellect began to be recognised and his work would make him well known in his own lifetime.

The animosity towards Stanley that the youthful Huxley had expressed in his letters and journals seems to have been softened by solid ground and maturity. On his return to England Huxley reached out to Stanley’s family. He became close friends with Stanley’s brother Arthur, the Dean of Westminster, and publicly acknowledged that Stanley had been assigned an enormous task to complete and that his role as captain was an isolating one. Huxley wrote in 1854 that: Care and anxiety … joined to the physical debility produced by the enervating climate of New Guinea, fairly wore him out, making him prematurely old … But he died in harness, the end attained, the work that lay before him honourably done.

Which of us may dare ask for more? He has raised an enduring monument in his works, and his epitaph shall be the grateful thanks of many a mariner threading his way among the mazes of the Coral Sea.8 Huxley’s diary was not published until long after his death.

He never intended for it to be published at all. He clearly saw his youthful thoughts, fluctuating moods and derisive commentary as not reflective of the adult he grew to be.

But his impetuous writings provide an invaluable perspective into the challenges of a mid-19th-century journey and the mental and emotional battles fought in the harshest of conditions – whether one was captain or assistant surgeon.

1 J Huxley (ed), Thomas Henry Huxley’s Diary of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, Doubleday, London, 1935, p 109.

2 Ibid, p 81.

3 Ibid, p 130.

4 Ibid, p 141.

5 Jordan Goodman, The Rattlesnake, Faber & Faber, London, 2005, p 242.

6 Ibid, p 252.

7 Ibid, p 251.

8 T Huxley, ‘Science at Sea’, Westminster Review, No 61, 1854, Leonard & Scott Co, New York, p 53.

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A DESPERATE ORDEAL

A desperate ordeal THE FATE OF THE ADMELLA

A new acquisition to the National Maritime Collection commemorates a week-long drama that captured the public imagination and remains South Australia’s worst shipwreck. By Senior Curator Daina Fletcher.

01

IN THE FOGGY EARLY HOURS OF Saturday 6 August 1859, the modern passenger steamer Admella foundered off Cape Northumberland, on the border of South Australia and Victoria, carrying 82 passengers and 31 crew. The well-appointed vessel, built less than two years earlier in Glasgow, was named for the first syllables of the southern colonial ports of Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston. It commenced service between Adelaide and Melbourne in August 1858.

Most of those on board that voyage were local citizens, along with four racehorses and a cargo of copper and flour for the Victorian goldfields.

As the ship broke up, two of Admella’s crew paddled to shore on a makeshift raft and ran the 20 miles to the lighthouse at Cape Northumberland. A desperate, gruelling, week-long ordeal ensued. In full view of the shore, the marooned survivors clung to the wreck in wild seas, watching one rescue attempt after another fail. As the days passed, suvivors – without water and with little food – were washed or slipped off their disintegrating ship to their deaths.

Their daily terrors, and the progress and bravery of the rescuers, were telegraphed across the colonies, captivating the populace.

Parliament was suspended and business stalled. Not until Saturday 13 August were the 22 remaining survivors rescued.

01 Silver medallion, The wreck of the steamship

Admella, 1859. The obverse (right) shows a scene of the wreck; the reverse (far right) is inscribed with the name of William King.

ANMM Collection

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In full view of the shore, the marooned survivors clung to the wreck in wild seas

02

In all, 11 passengers and 13 crew survived. Many of the 89 people who drowned were women and children.

Only one woman survived, and none of the 14 or 15 children.

Only one body was returned to Adelaide.

The wreck’s tragic aftermath caught the imagination of artists, poets and community leaders, all consumed with the emotional toil of the passengers at the mercy of the savagery of nature.

The wreck was the subject of narrative accounts, including ‘Loss of the Admella’ by Admella’s master, Captain H McEwen, the week following the rescue, and of paintings and poems by leading artists and writers such as James Shaw, Charles Hill, George French Angus and Adam Lindsay Gordon.

On 25 June 1860, at a special ceremony in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, the government of Victoria presented three gold and 37 silver medals and cash awards to those volunteers who materially assisted in the rescue – among them crews from Portland’s lifeboat and whaleboat, Admella’s own lifeboat, the Lady Bird, the steamers Corio and Ant and local fishermen. One of those silver medals, a recent addition to the National Maritime Collection, was awarded to William King of the Portland whaleboat crew, along with a cash award of £12 10s.

At the ceremony the governor of Victoria declared: Other shipwrecks, involving equal or even greater loss of life and property, have occurred both before and since …. but, whether from their remoteness from our shores, or from the absence of that protracted suspense in which we were kept as to the fate of those on board the Admella, they have undoubtedly failed to produce the same harrowing excitement, the same heartfelt sympathy, as did that calamity which befell the last-named vessel.

It would, indeed, be impossible to conceive a more frightful position than that in which the unfortunates on the shattered hull

02 Charles Hill, Australia, 1824–1915. Wreck

of the Admella, 1859. 1860, Adelaide, oil on canvas, 55.9 × 99.1 cm. Gift of Howard L Hill, 1944. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

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of that vessel were placed during the week which elapsed before the survivors were rescued. Who can paint their feelings at the first fearful crash, when they found their vessel breaking to pieces on the rocks, and the sea yawning around them like a grave, ready to entomb its victims? 1 He also noted that in 1859, the loss of British ships alone had led to the loss of more than 1,600 lives and nearly £2 million worth of property.

The loss of the Admella remains South Australia’s worst shipwreck. Its site, off Cape Northumberland, is marked on the Southern Oceans Shipwreck Trail where Admella’s remains – the engines, boilers, iron plating, copper ingots and fittings – lie scattered on the reef.

1 Argus, Melbourne, VIC, Tuesday 26 June 1860, page 6.

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SPRING EVENTS

A spring feeling MESSAGE TO MEMBERS

As spring brings milder weather, we’ve another selection of activities and exhibitions to draw you out. And don’t forget to book for our 26th annual Members anniversary lunch, at which conservationist and pioneering underwater cinematographer Valerie Taylor will share highlights of her career.

02

01

OUR MUSEUM has some interesting exhibitions and events to warm up to this season. I would firstly like to thank you all for your support through your renewal of memberships, donations and attendance at member events. All money raised goes back into the museum to assist with research, restoration and maintenance of vessels and educating our visitors. This helps to support our vision to be a world leader in maritime heritage.

03

01 Vivid Sydney rooftop projection at the

museum. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM 02 Cape Bowling Green Lighthouse lit up during

Vivid Sydney. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM 03 Glow-in-the-dark face painting at Vivid

Sydney. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

We have some new and exciting things organised for our Members this spring. Our popular Members Maritime Series continues with Guardians of Sunda Strait – the WWII loss of HMAS Perth and USS Houston. It will be led by one of the museum’s former curators, Honorary Research Associate Lindsey Shaw.

New members, or those who want to get to know the museum better, should not miss out on our welcome tour, which highlights areas of interest including the galleries, kiosk and Yots café. You will also have the opportunity to ask any burning questions about your membership.

Two exciting exhibitions open this season, each with a Members preview. Container, the museum’s first outdoor exhibition, uses colourful shipping containers scattered around our precinct to reveal the secrets of how shipping has shaped the modern world.

Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country highlights the Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country. These paintings have tremendous cultural significance, and were instrumental in the legal recognition of Indigenous land and sea rights.

04

Each November we hold our Members anniversary lunch.

For this year’s event, the 26th, our very special guest speaker will be shark expert and conservationist Valerie Taylor. Join us for a three-course lunch and some extraordinary stories, from Valerie’s work on Jaws and Orca to filming the wreck of the Yongala.

Finally, we would like your feedback so that we can plan more events, cruises and talks that interest you. We send an email out once a month with details of upcoming member events and exhibitions. Please do not hesitate to contact Renae, Alana or me directly in the Members office on 9298 3646 if you are not receiving them or if there is anything about your membership that you would like to discuss.

05

I look forward to seeing you at the museum over the coming months.

Oliver Isaacs Manager, Members 04 Bul'manydji at Gurala by Bun ­ ­­­batjiwuy

¯ Dhamarrandji, 1998. One of the Saltwater Barks that will soon be on display as part of Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country. ANMM Collection 00033806 Purchased with the assistance of Stephen Grant of the GrantPirrie Gallery. Reproduced courtesy of Bun­ ­­­batjiwuy Dhamarrandji ¯ 05 Valerie Taylor is the special guest speaker at the 26th annual Members anniversary lunch.

Image courtesy Valerie Taylor

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SPRING EVENTS

Members events SPRING 2017

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

Seaside strollers tour

Youth photography workshop

The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers

Macro with mini beasts

10.30 am or 12.30 pm Monday 18 September

10 am–3.30 pm Wednesday 4 October

An educator-led tour through the exhibition, plus baby playtime in a sensory space

Young photographers can create their own ‘wild’ scenes with plants and insects to photograph in macro

Spring holiday programs

Exclusive tour

Kids’ and family activities

Welcome to new Members

24 September–9 October

10–11 am Tuesday 11 or Sunday 15 October

Exhibitions, vessels, hands-on workshops, themed creative activities, performances and more

Specially designed to help you make the most of your membership

Youth art workshop

Members Maritime Series

Print-making bandits

Guardians of Sunda Strait – the World War II loss of HMAS Perth and USS Houston

10 am–3.30 pm Wednesday 27 September

A hands-on workshop in which kids can create sun prints, screen prints, stencils, stamps and more Family torchlight tour

2–4 pm Thursday 12 October

Honorary Research Associate Lindsey Shaw unfolds the story of this historic battle

A night in the navy

Family fun Sundays

6.15–7.45 pm Thursday 28 September

Cockatoo Island Adventures

A dramatic after-dark tour through HMAS Vampire, plus creative activities

11 am–4 pm Sunday 15 October

Lively performances, character tours, face painting and more Seaside strollers tour

The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers 12.30 pm Tuesday 17 October

An educator-led tour through the exhibition, plus baby playtime in a sensory space

Members’ preview

Exhibition preview – Container 2–4 pm or 6–8 pm Thursday 26 October

An outdoor exhibition exploring the history and impact of one of the 20th century’s most important innovations: the humble shipping container

NOVEMBER Members Maritime Series

Gapu-Mon _uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country 2–4 pm Wednesday 8 November

The stories behind the historic and sacred Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country Seaside strollers tour

Gapu-Mon _uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country 10.30 am Monday 13 November

An educator-led tour through the exhibition, plus baby playtime in a sensory space Annual event

Members Anniversary Lunch 11.30 am–2.30 pm Saturday 25 November

With special guest Valerie Taylor, Australian shark expert and pioneering underwater photographer

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Members events SPRING 2017

For your diaries 26 December – Boxing Day cruise 31 December – New Year’s Eve at ANMM 26 January 2018 – Australia Day cruise 8 February 2018 – Members Maritime Series: 12 navy vessels 27 February 2018 – Cunard and the queens: Mary & Elizabeth Available free

ANMM Speakers The complete list of talks can be found on anmm.gov.au/Speakers.

If you would like to invite a speaker to your club, please contact Noel Phelan or Ron Ray: noelphelan@bigpond.com / 0402 158 590 / (02) 9437 3185 ron.ray@aapt.net.au / 0416 123 034 / (02) 9624 1917

Bookings and enquiries Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Please note that booking is essential unless otherwise stated. Book online at anmm.gov.au/ whats-on/calendar or phone (02) 8241 8378 (unless otherwise indicated) or email members@anmm.gov.au before sending form with payment.

Minimum numbers may be required for an event to go ahead. All details are correct at time of publication but subject to change. Members are requested to check our website for updated and new event information.

MEMBERS SPRING 2017

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > SPRING EVENTS

MEMBERS SPRING 2017

Members events SPRING 2017

Exclusive tour

Welcome to new Members 10–11 am Tuesday 11 October or Sunday 15 October

This tour is specially designed to welcome new Members (with a membership of six months or less, or upon request) to the museum. A representative of the membership team will guide you through the museum and point out areas of interest, including the galleries, kiosk and Yots cafe. At the end of the tour, enjoy morning tea in the Members Lounge and take the chance to ask any burning questions.

Free. Includes morning tea 06

Members Maritime series

Guardians of Sunda Strait – the World War II loss of HMAS Perth and USS Houston 2–4 pm Thursday 12 October

Late on 28 February 1942, the cruisers HMAS Perth and USS Houston fought for their lives in the Dutch East Indies.

Against overwhelming odds – outnumbered and outgunned by a large advancing Japanese force – they fought bravely and defiantly, but lost the battle. Both ships sank that dreadful night in the Battle of Sunda Strait. Join ANMM Honorary Research Associate Lindsey Shaw as she unfolds this historic account.

Members $20, non-Members $35. Includes afternoon tea

07

Members preview

Exhibition preview – Container 2–4 pm or 6–8 pm Thursday 26 October

This exciting outdoor exhibition explores the history and impact of one of the 20th century’s most important innovations: the humble shipping container. Colourful shipping containers will be scattered like giant Lego pieces around the wharves and outdoor spaces.

Each ‘box’ will reveal the secrets of how the shipping container has shaped our modern world, changing the way we produce, shop, eat, work and live.

First 20 Member bookings free; $20 for subsequent Member bookings.

Non-Members $35.Includes light refreshments and wine

06 Aerial view of the museum. Image Ground

Control Photography/Ken Butti 07 The nation’s lifeline (detail), acrylic on

board, James Thomson, 1991. Reproduced courtesy James Thomson. ANMM Collection 00033939 Gift from James Thomson

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

Members events SPRING 2017

Members Maritime series

Gapu-Mon _uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country 2–4 pm Wednesday 8 November

The Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country, also known as the Saltwater Barks, were created by 47 Yolŋu artists of north-east Arnhem Land and were used in a successful High Court case that recognised Indigenous sea rights.

Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country reveals sacred clan designs that demonstrate enduring connection to specific sea country. Come along and join our curators, who will enhance your experience of this new exhibition.

Members $20, non-Members $35. Includes afternoon tea

08

Annual event

Members Anniversary Lunch 11.30 am–2.30 pm Saturday 25 November

Our special guest for this annual event is Valerie Taylor, the Australian shark expert whose expertise has been called upon for such films as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates. Valerie and her late husband Ron Taylor were the first people to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage – or anything else. They were also the first to film sharks by night. Join your fellow Members to hear Valerie’s tales of life on and under the water.

Members $105, non-Members $125. Early-bird bookings (until 30 September) $95.Includes three-course lunch and matching wines

Kids and family events Term time events

Kids on Deck Sundays 11 am–3 pm every Sunday during school term

Play, discover and create in Kids on Deck – a fun-filled activity and art-making space for primary school-aged children and their families.

In Term 3, enjoy Togas to Triremes – creative activities inspired by the Ancient Roman empire and our exhibition Escape from Pompeii.

Child $8.50, adult $7; included in any paid admission. Members free

08 Film festival poster (detail) depicting Valerie

Taylor demonstrating her shark-proof mesh suit. ANMM Collection

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

Members events SPRING 2017

Family activities

Family fun Sundays Join us for special themed family fun Sundays with lively performances, character tours, face painting and more.

Full program online at anmm.gov.au/familyfun or subscribe to our family e-newsletter to keep up to date on all the details.

15 October – Cockatoo Island Adventures Under 5s program

Mini mariners 10–10.45 am or 11–11.45 am Every Tuesday during term time and one Saturday each month

09

Explore the galleries, sing and dance in interactive tours with costumed guides. Enjoy creative free play, craft, games, dress-ups and story time in our themed activity area. For ages 2–5 + carers.

September – Art Adventure October – Terrific Transport November – Pirates Ahoy!

Child $8.50. Members free. First adult $3.50, extra adults $7 (includes galleries). Booked playgroups welcome. Online bookings essential at anmm.gov.au/whats-on 10

Tours and play for carers and babies

Seaside strollers tours Join our new program for carers with children 0–18 months!

Take an educator-led tour through new exhibitions, then enjoy delicious catered treats in Yots Café and baby play time in a sensory space. Strollers, front packs, baby-slings and breastfeeding welcome.

10.30 am or 12.30 pm Monday 18 September or 12.30 pm Tuesday 17 October – The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers 10.30 am Monday 13 November – Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country Members $10, non-Members $18. Babies free. Includes morning or afternoon tea and exhibition admission

09 Family Fun Sundays at Cockatoo Island.

Image courtesy Sydney Harbour Trust.

10 Babies can enjoy playtime as part of our

stroller tours. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

Members events SPRING 2017

Spring holiday events

Holiday programs 24 September–9 October

Go wild at the museum these school holidays with exhibitions, vessels, hands-on workshops, themed creative activities, performances and more. It’s fun for the whole family!

There’s oodles to do every day, including art-making, games and dress-ups in Kids on Deck, exploring touchable objects and artefacts at the Cabinet of Curiosities, enjoying interactive musical performances, relaxing with a film screening and more. Or book in early for some of our popular holiday workshops and tours.

11

See anmm.gov.au/schoolholidays for full program details

Kids on deck

Marvellous menagerie 10 am–4 pm daily 24 September–9 October

Play, create and discover in Kids on Deck – a fun-filled activity space with art-making, interactive games and dress-ups for primary school-aged children and their carers. These holidays, delve into the natural history of Australian wildlife, inspired by our current exhibitions. Create your own watercolour collages and brush scripts, craft a creature hat or sculpt a cardboard camera.

Kids on Deck ticket: child $8.50, adult $7, or included in any paid admission. Members free

12

Cabinet of Curiosities

Creature feature 11 am–12pm and 2–3 pm daily 24 September–9 October

Touch and discover curious creature specimens and photographic technology artefacts from our education collection in this hands-on discovery device inside the galleries.

Performances

Jungle drums 11.30 am and 2 pm Sundays 24 September and 8 October; Tuesday to Friday 26 September–6 October

Tap, drum, beat and shake your tail feather with interactive musical workshops and performances inspired by wild creatures and wilderness environments.

Included in any paid admission. See anmm.gov.au/schoolholidays for full details.

11

Dress-ups are part of the fun at Kids on Deck. Image credit to come

12 Dancing to the beat of Jungle Drums.

Image Annalice Creighton/ANMM

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

Members events SPRING 2017

Under 5s tours

Art adventure – holiday sessions Tuesdays and Saturdays 26 September–7 October

Explore amazing artworks on display at the museum through movement, songs and storytime in a fun and interactive learning program especially designed for toddlers. Afterwards head to Kids on Deck for crafts and messy play. For ages 18 months–5 years.

Included in activities ticket or any other paid admission. Members free.

Bookings essential at anmm.gov.au/under5s

Family torchlight tour

A night in the navy

13

6.15–7.45 pm Thursday 28 September

Join your character guide for a dramatic after-dark tour through HMAS Vampire. Enjoy creative capers, light refreshments and exclusive after-hours access to the vessel and Action Stations.

For ages 4–12 and carers.

Members $18 child, $10 adult; non-Members $22 child, $18 adult.

Bookings essential at anmm.gov.au/schoolholidays

Youth art workshop

Print-making bandits 10 am–3.30 pm Wednesday 27 September

Get creative in a hands-on print-making workshop inspired by our temporary exhibitions. Experiment with creating your own designs in sun prints, screen prints, stencils, stamp-making and more in this fun-filled one-day workshop.

14

Members $55, non-Members $60. Bookings essential at anmm.gov.au/ schoolholidays

Youth photography workshop

Macro with mini beasts 10 am–3.30 pm Wednesday 4 October

Inspired by our Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, learn to create your own ‘wild’ scenes with plants and insects to photograph in macro. Build skills in using digital SLR cameras and learn photo editing techniques. Have your photos printed and displayed in a special exhibition at the museum. For ages 8–14.

Members $70, non-Members $80. Online bookings essential at anmm. gov.au/youth 13 Vampire torchlight tour. ANMM image 14 Kids can try their hand at macro photography.

Image Malyshev Alexander/Shutterstock

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Members events SPRING 2017

Special offer

Maritime history cruise in the Mediterranean 30 May–11 June 2018

Cruise from Rome to Lisbon across the Mediterranean, examining the region’s naval and maritime history. The itinerary includes talks on maritime history from expert speakers, plus specialist escorted shore visits in Livorno, Pisa, Elba, Corsica, Menorca, Majorca, Cadiz and Gibraltar. ANMM Members are eligible for a 5% discount – please mention you are a member when booking. More information at jonbainestours.com/maritime or phone 03 9343 6367 or email info@jonbainestour.com.au

MEMBERS SPRING 2017

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MEMBERS SPRING 2017

SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > MEMBER PROFILE

Sea days

MEMBER PROFILE DAVID AND JILL MUELLER

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When and why did you become Members?

David and I have belonged to the museum since 1999.

The company I then worked for asked me to arrange a cocktail party on Vampire, which I did, meeting a lot of the museum’s event staff and executives along the way. The event was a tremendous success and we were impressed with the Members’ program being offered. Before we retired, we attended mostly weekend events such as cruises on Australia Day and Boxing Day and to visit various islands in the harbour. On retirement we were able to also attend weektime functions like book launches and gallery openings – all very enjoyable.

Do you have a nautical background?

David has always had a boat. When he was young he and his family used to holiday at Sussex Inlet, New South Wales, where his uncle had a boat shed that hired out putt-putt boats on the river. David helped to run the shed and also repaired the boats’ engines, hence his love of all things mechanical and electrical.

15 Jill and David on an ANMM whale watching

excursion in Jervis Bay, NSW. Image courtesy Jill and David Mueller

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > MEMBER PROFILE

David is usually building, refurbishing or restoring a boat.

The boats he built were usually speed boats, including at one time a jet boat, which presented a quite different aspect to boating for us on the Georges River, Botany Bay and St Georges Basin on the New South Wales south coast.

We still own a runabout and do most of our boating now in Botany Bay (ideally on week days, when no one else is around).

Since our retirement in 2002 we have been addicted to cruising and have had the pleasure of sailing all over the world in ships of all sizes, from 130 passengers to 4,600 passengers. We love our sea days – the more the better.

What’s your favourite aspect of museum membership?

We met a lot of new friends when we first joined, and I’m happy to say we have remained in contact all these years.

What sort of museum events or programs do you tend to participate in?

We still prefer the Members’ functions on the water, but special occasions such as the Coral Sea lunch and the Members annual lunch will always find us in attendance. As far as exhibitions are concerned, any exhibition on the European discovery of Australia, such as Cook, Dampier, Flinders or Hartog, is of special interest.

What have been some of your favourite exhibitions or events here at the museum?

One of the best exhibitions, we thought, was Les Génies de la Mer, for which, for the first time, the French Maritime Museum allowed carved wooden figureheads from very old sailing ships to be exhibited outside the country. They were spectacular.

If you had to sum up the museum in three words, what would they be?

Educational, entertaining, camaraderie.

What else would you like to see the museum doing in the future?

We would like to see more cruise-type functions – not necessarily with all the bells and whistles, but perhaps with BYO lunch – to places like Shark Island, Mort’s Dock and Chowder Bay. We’d also like to see more functions on the weekend.

We would like the museum’s exhibitions to continue to tell Australians of the exploration of the coastline, the arrival of visitors to our shores and the history of the merchant navy off the Australian coast during both World Wars.

MEMBERS SPRING 2017

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Don’t miss out! Must close 9 October National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour Sydney

BOOK NOW anmm.gov.au/wildlife

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > EXHIBITIONS > GAPU-MON _ UK SALTWATER

EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

Gapu-Mon-­uk Saltwater JOURNEY TO SEA COUNTRY

Opening 9 November

The exhibition Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country acknowledges the significant story of the Yolŋu people of north-east Arnhem Land and their fight for recognition of Indigenous sea rights in the landmark Blue Mud Bay legal case.

On display will be a selection of the Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country – also known as the Saltwater Collection – by 47 Yolŋu artists, who petitioned for sea rights by painting their sea countries onto bark. These works reveal sacred patterns or designs known as miny’tji, which were created by ancestral beings.

Yolŋu artists from 15 clans and 18 homeland communities created the sacred paintings in a response initiated by Madarrpa clan leader Djambawa Marawili in 1997, following his indignation at discovering illegal fishing on a sacred site in his clan estate. The Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country are as historic as they are sacred, as they will never be reproduced again.

This stunning exhibition will also include mokuy (spirit) carvings, larrakitj (mortuary poles) and other traditional and contemporary works. Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater reveals sacred clan designs demonstrating enduring connection to specific sea country.

01 Bul’manydji at Gurala, Bun ­ ­­­batjiwuy

¯ Dhamarrandji (1948–2016) ANMM Collection 00033806 Purchased with the assistance of Stephen Grant of the GrantPirrie Gallery.

Reproduced courtesy of the artist and BukuLarrŋgay Mulka Art Centre

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EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyagers 1800 to 1804 Until 26 November

This exhibition showcases original sketches and paintings created

by Baudin’s artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit during the voyage of 1800–1804. Such sketches were the scientific snapshots of their age, and those on display capture some of the first European views of Aboriginal people and Australian animals and landscapes.

Treasures of the American Collection Currently showing

We celebrate the 25th year of the museum’s USA Gallery in an exhibition featuring more than 100 objects acquired with the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund.

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The exhibition features masterful ship paintings and seascapes, portraits of dour ships’ captains, intricate ship and engine models and other treasures of a collection that documents the American– Australian maritime relationship in trade, science, migration, defence, exploration, politics, popular culture, love and war.

The Batavia Tapestry Until 29 October

This epic embroidered work by Melbourne textile artist Melinda Piesse illustrates the tragic story of the wreck of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) flagship Batavia off the coast of Western Australia in 1629.

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Batavia was wrecked on its maiden voyage to the East Indies (now Indonesia), carrying more than 300 people along with a valuable cargo of trading goods. The ensuing tale of mutiny, mayhem and massacre remains one of the darkest chapters in Australia’s maritime history.

Hartog Plate Until 29 October

On 25 October 1616, Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog sailed into history when he made the first documented European landing on the west coast of Australia in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship Eendracht. Hartog and his crew left an inscribed pewter plate in Shark Bay, Western Australia, as a testimony of their visit.

Don’t miss this rare chance to see the original Hartog plate, on loan from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum to mark 400 years since Hartog’s historic landing.

02 Red-rumped parrot (Timor), watercolour by

Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. Image Museum d’histoire naturel, Le Havre 03 Detail from The Batavia Tapestry by Melinda

Piesse. Image Kristina Kingston, courtesy Melinda Piesse

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EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

‘Plucky little ship Aurora’ Until 22 October

20 June 2017 marked 100 years since the famous polar vessel Aurora left Newcastle, New South Wales, with a cargo of coal – never to be seen again. The museum recently accepted a gift of the ship’s lifebuoy, recovered from the sea six months later.

A powerful emblem with the ghost lettering of its famous Antarctic expeditions on its rim, it acts as a lifeline to all the sailors, whalers, scientists, workers, expeditioners and sealers whose lives, toils and achievements were entwined with it.

SY Aurora lifebuoy ANMM Collection Gift from Mr John Hooke cbe, in memory of Sir Lionel Hooke, wireless operator in SY Aurora 1914–16

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Our Language Matters: 2017 National NAIDOC Week theme Until 22 October

A small display that emphasises and celebrates the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and aiding the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song.

Guardians of Sunda Strait

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28 September to 19 November

Late on Saturday 28 February and into the early hours of Sunday 1 March 1942, the men of HMAS Perth and USS Houston fought for their lives in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra.

Against overwhelming odds – outnumbered and outgunned by a powerful advancing Japanese force – they fought bravely and defiantly, but lost. Both ships sank and many men died on that dreadful night in the Battle of Sunda Strait. For the survivors, this was only the beginning of their story.

ANMM travelling exhibition part of ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75’ supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund

04 Aurora’s lifebuoy. ANMM Collection

00054969. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM 05 Design by Virginia Buckingham. Image ©

ANMM

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EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

Clash of the Carriers: Battle of the Coral Sea, 4–8 December 1942 Currently showing

Three navies, four aircraft carriers, 255 aircraft and 76 ships in a four-day battle that changed naval warfare forever. Eight ships sunk, 161 aircraft destroyed and 1,622 men killed in a battle that should never be forgotten.

As part of our ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75’ program, the museum has launched a new documentary short film in the Action Stations cinema to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought by the US Navy and Royal Australian Navy against the Imperial Japanese Navy.

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Funded by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Until 9 October

This renowned exhibition is a global celebration of the world’s very best nature photography. Be captivated as we showcase the year’s top 100 photos, selected from more than 50,000 entries across 95 countries. On display, you’ll see the 52nd year’s winning entry up close. You’ll also be able to vote for our local ‘People’s Choice’ award. The photographs are complemented with natural history exhibits from the museum’s collection.

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A Natural History Museum, London exhibition

Container – the box that changed the world From 26 October

The museum’s first-ever outdoor exhibition is dedicated entirely to the history and impact of the humble shipping container.

The exhibition goes beyond the corrugated steel to reveal the fascinating story of this revolutionary maritime invention.

Housed entirely within specially modified 20-foot containers, the exhibition quite literally takes our visitors ‘inside the box’ to explore the economic, geographic, technical, environmental, social and cultural history and impact of containerisation.

Container – the box that changed the world is open daily and is free

Maritime moustaches Opens 16 November

The museum’s collection of photographs holds hundreds of maritime moustaches, from nice thick chevrons to the simple English style, the classic handlebar and even a few walruses and toothbrushes. Curator Dr Stephen Gapps, wielder of a reasonably large moustache himself, pulls out some of our more hirsute portraits from the collections.

06 Splitting the catch (detail), Audun Rikardsen,

Norway. © Audun Rikardsen/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 07 Unknown hirsute man. Samuel J Hood Studio

ANMM Collection

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EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

ANMM travelling exhibitions

War at Sea Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, NSW 1 July–15 October Queensland Maritime MuseumLate October 2017–March 2018

The histories and stories of the Royal Australian Navy and its sailors – less widely known than those of the soldiers at Gallipoli and the Western Front – are told through diaries and journals, objects, film and interactives from the National Maritime Collection, the National Film and Sound Archives and the Australian War Memorial.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

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Through a Different Lens – Cazneaux by the water South Australian Maritime Museum, Adelaide, SA Until 15 October

Photographer Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) is a giant in the history of Australian photography. In the early 1900s he became a passionate advocate for photography as art rather than a mechanical recording process. This exhibition of more than 50 original works presents a new dimension to Cazneaux’s work, reflecting how the water and Sydney Harbour offered him a space to explore mood, light, atmosphere and life in his signature pictorial photographic style.

Horrible Histories® Pirates – The Exhibition

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Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville, Qld 16 September 2017–4 February 2018

Get hands-on with pirate history at this exhibition based on the bestselling Horrible Histories® series. Take command of a pirate ship, design and project your own pirate flag, try out different weapons from cutlasses to cannons, find your fate on the wheel of misfortune, discover the best loot to steal and splat rats in the quayside tavern. Learn about the ships pirates sailed on, the punishments they suffered and the rules they lived by.

Author Terry Deary and illustrator Martin Brown’s unique approach to storytelling comes to life in this blockbuster family exhibition.

Escape from Pompeii – the untold Roman rescue Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, WA 22 September 2017–4 February 2018

This exhibition casts light on one of the ancient world’s most famous natural disasters – the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Pliny the Elder, commander of the Roman fleet at nearby Misenum, ordered the fleet’s ships out to rescue as many people as possible, in one of the first recorded rescue attempts of civilians by a military force.

Exhibition curated by Australian National Maritime Museum in consultation with Expona and Contemporanea Progetti

08 Old houseboat, Kerosene Bay, Harold

Cazneaux, c 1907. ANMM Collection 00054648 09 Fresco from Pompeii, 1st century AD.

© Ministero dei Beni Culturali e del Turismo – Museo Archeologico di Napoli

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EXHIBITIONS SPRING 2017

War at Sea panel display Community museums, RSL clubs and public libraries, TAS and VIC Currently showing

A graphic panel display based on the major touring exhibition War at Sea: The Navy in WWI. The panel display highlights the contribution the Royal Australian Navy made in the First World War. This modular display has been shown at more than 110 RSL clubs, museums, libraries and visitor centres since 2015. The panel display will continue to tour to diverse community organisations in 2017.

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Shackleton: Escape from Antarctica banner display Various venues in WA, QLD and NSW

Through dramatic photographs taken by Australian photographers Frank Hurley and Keith Jack, Shackleton: Escape from Antarctica walks in the footsteps of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1915–17. Discover what happened to these brave men and their ships.

This display is supported by the Australian Antarctic Division and sponsored by Antarctica Flights and APT Luxury Touring & Cruising

Battle of the Java Sea Museum Bahari, Jakarta, IndonesiaCurrently showing

This exhibition examines a large sea battle fought and lost against Japan by naval forces in the American, British, Dutch and Australian (ABDA) Command on 27 February 1942. It includes the story of the loss of HMAS Perth and USS Houston in the Battle of Sunda Strait two days later. The work of maritime archaeologists to investigate and conserve the wreck of HMAS Perth is highlighted.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration by the US Naval History and Heritage Command, Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Dutch Navy and the ANMM. Supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund

10 Shackleton banner display. ANMM image

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MARITIME HERITAGE AROUND AUSTRALIA TASMANIA

Boats for all seasons FOCUS ON TASMANIA

To delve more deeply into Tasmania’s rich maritime heritage, the museum recently contracted a Tasmanian-based research assistant for the Australian Register of Historic Vessels.

Peter Higgs sums up his appointment.

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01 Matilda in Hobart. Image courtesy Geoff Ritchie

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MY SIX-MONTH APPOINTMENT to the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV) has been an exceptional privilege.

It has allowed me to work with and explore the maritime regions and communities of Tasmania while informing their members of the work of the Australian National Maritime Museum, particularly about the ARHV. An important part of that work has been dispelling the myth that any nominated vessel, and its ownership, would be subject to criteria that would affect the vessel, its maintenance program and the owner’s freedom to do what they wanted with it – similar to owning a heritage building. This question was raised time and time again at information sessions and in discussions with boat owners.

All were very relieved to know that this was not the case.

Initially I was asked to write two sections of the ARHV’s ‘About boats’ chapter, on Tasmanian trading ketches and piners’ punts, which are now published on the ARHV site. The research into individual boats proved very interesting and rewarding. I spoke about my role at the Maritime Museums of Australia conference that preceded the 2017 Australian Wooden Boat Festival (AWBF) in Hobart, then at the AWBF I collaborated with David Payne, ANMM Curator of Historic Vessels, in following up vessels of interest and meeting with their owners.

One of our aims was to ensure that Tasmanian regions were included in the ARHV program, so we planned and implemented seven regional ARHV information sessions, to which we invited local individuals, museums, clubs, naval cadets and scout groups. These sessions proved very successful in both informing regional areas about the ARHV and raising interest in the nomination of potential ARHV vessels. We were also able to interview three boatbuilders of note to capture details of Tasmania’s maritime heritage before it is too late. These oral histories will be documented and published for ANMM records.

02 Hermione III on the Derwent, c 1940.

Image courtesy RAN.

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In partnership with the AWBF we also promoted a youth program in which young people in the various regions will identify a historically significant vessel, document its history, develop a restoration plan then restore the boat in preparation for a handicapped race at the 2019 AWBF. This has been well accepted by regional yacht clubs, naval cadets and scout troops and has the potential to encourage youth to value and record their local maritime heritage.

Another outcome of the regional information sessions was the chance to record knowledge of early Tasmanian yachting and boating activities before any formal yacht clubs existed.

This information is valuable to both the ARHV and the Maritime Museum of Tasmania.

Nominations to the ARHV More than 70 potential ARHV nominations resulted from this project. These include: Latura, built in 1924 by Bayes Bros at Battery Point, Hobart, is one of the oldest surviving club boats of the Motor Yacht Club of Tasmania, and was one of the first to be registered with it.

Latura is built entirely of Huon pine from a design inspired by a William Hand chined V-bottom power boat spotted in a 1922 issue of Rudder Magazine. It was one of the earliest V-bottom motor launches in Tasmania and possibly Australia, and came second out of 24 boats in the first Championship Pennant on the Derwent River.

03 Coralyn in Victoria Dock, Hobart. Craike

Collection, Maritime Museum of Tasmania

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Matilda was built of Huon pine in 1892 at Horses Cove, Hobart (now Victoria Dock). For more than 40 years it had the contract to deliver mail and supplies for Tasman Island Lighthouse. This could involved transporting people, too – on some occasions, women due to give birth. Matilda was originally configured as an open-decked, spritsail-rigged fishing boat with a mizzen mast. Later it became ketch rigged, before being changed to the current gaff arrangement. It was a typical Tasmanian south coast fishing boat, and many others of similar design and size (30–40 feet/9–12 metres) fished the waters off Tasman Peninsula.

Miowera is a Burnie Ports pilot boat, 48 feet (14.6 metres) in length. Designed by A C Barber and built in 1952 by Frank Hickman, this strong and capable vessel served as the Burnie pilot launch until 1998. It is planked and decked in two-inch (five-centimetre) Huon pine on bluegum frames. It is largely in original condition, with its original Gardner 5L3 engine swinging a 40-inch (100-centimetre) propeller through a Gardner 3UC gearbox, all in perfect order. After being decommissioned it was owned by Brian Mansell, who used it in the Bass Strait islands.

RAAF 02-15, also known as Safari, is a pilot rescue boat that has been in the Powell family in Tasmania for more than 30 years. This Halvorsen planing-hull powerboat, 50 feet 6 inches (15.4 metres) long, was built of marine plywood at Ryde, New South Wales, for fast recovery of pilots in the South Pacific theatre during World War II. It was commissioned in 1943 and has evidence of having been under gunfire. During its time in the Powell family Safari also featured in the Australian TV series Riptide.

Coralyn was a supply boat for the west coast of Tasmania.

The naval pinnace was built in the early 1900s by C W Ritchie, the father of the present owner. Records indicate that it may have been built at the Alfred Graving Yards at Williamstown, Victoria, and this appears to be confirmed in a Victorian Heritage Database Report. The Ritchie family history shows that six similar boats were built in the same yard for the same purpose around that time. The family holds other documents relating to Coralyn: a receipt of its sale to the Victoria Navy Office in 1916; C W Ritchie’s diary, which includes details of the building of Coralyn; and receipts of Huon pine purchased from a Melbourne-based merchant for Coralyn. Research so far indicates that Coralyn may be the second-oldest Australian naval boat still in existence.

Interviews with three boatbuilders of note have captured details of Tasmania’s maritime heritage before it is too late

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Hermione III, launched in December 1914, was one of the first racing motor launches in Tasmania and Australia. It raced within the first decade of the sport being formally established in Australia. It was one of the fastest boats on the Derwent, winning a number of races organised by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Its builder, Charles ‘Hardwood Joe’ Lucas, was said to be the first shipwright in Tasmania to build boats with hardwood frames for Huon pine carvel planking, and Hermione III is a rare example of his work. In 1943 it became one of five privately owned vessels to be purchased by the Royal Australian Navy, and was reassigned as Auxiliary Patrol Boat 774 HMAS Hermione. Fitted with a Vickers machine gun and with a crew of four navy personnel, it was in service in Southern Tasmania, around Hobart. According to surviving family members of the crew, it also spent time patrolling the waters around Devonport.

For more than 100 years Hermione III has safely allowed three generations of eight families and their friends to explore and indulge their love of the sea and traditional boats.

Piner’s punt Fee was built in the west coast town of Strahan in the late 1920s or early 1930s. It took rations, supplies and horse chaff up various rivers for piners and their horses.

Fee was used by Charlie Barnes Able, an expert bushman and the uncrowned king piner of Strahan, in the 1930s. It is of Huon pine batten seam construction, 14 feet 10 inches (4.57 metres) long, and was rescued from a burning in Devonport in about 1999. It was been confirmed by Don Grining as being built

by Harry Grining, based on several features. It had a round and not V-shaped tuck stern, a critical methodology of Harry’s punt building. Its bow tuck was also much the way Harry built his punts. It had a beautiful shear that Harry insisted on to allow the two centre thwarts little water line clearance, which aided

04 Latura at the 2017 Australian Wooden Boat

Festival in Hobart. Image Tom Jackson/ WoodenBoat

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long-distance rowing, a skill needed for successful piners. It also had six planks per side that were batten seamed with clenched nails. Although Harry built clinker piner’s punts, he also built batten-seamed carvel-planked punts.

Obviously, not all of the 70 nominated boats will eventually be included on the register, but it will be of value to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania to have a record of all of these vessels.

As there has been a great volume of work and interest generated by the ARHV’s regional information sessions I have volunteered to work with the ANMM, and in particular David Payne, beyond the term of my position to ensure there is ongoing ARHV support in Tasmania.

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Death by a thousand cuts THE SAD FATE OF HMAS PERTH (1)

The shipwreck of HMAS Perth (I) lies in waters between Java and Sumatra, a victim of the Battle of Sunda Strait in 1942. A joint survey project between the museum and Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (Indonesia) has recorded the devastation caused by extensive illegal salvage. By Kieran Hosty, Dr James Hunter and Shinatria Adhityatama.

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01 Shinatria Adhityatama inspects a modern chain block

located adjacent to the remains of Perth’s forward 4-inch shell magazine, May 2017. Image Kieran Hosty, ANMM/Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional

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[Perth] has been hammered and the once impressive six inch A1 and A2 turrets are gone, the bow is flat and ... the wreck is more hazardous than before – even for general swimming around, with lots of live ordnance, wire and overhanging metal.1 HMAS Perth (I) was one of three modified Leander class light cruisers commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the 1930s. It saw active service off South America and in the Mediterranean, before returning to Sydney for a major refit.

Following the capture of Singapore on 15 February 1942, Perth was ordered to join the American, British, Dutch and Australian (ABDA) military forces at Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on the northern coast of Java. ABDA was formed in an attempt to block an anticipated Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).

On 27 February 1942 the ABDA Fleet, commanded by Dutch Real-Admiral Karel Doorman, intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet consisting of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, 14 destroyers and 10 transports. The Allied force comprised Perth; HM Ships Exeter, Jupiter, Electra and Encounter of the British Royal Navy; the Dutch vessels HNLMS De Ruyter, HNLMS Java, HNLMS Kortenaer and HNMLS Witte de With; and American warships USS Houston, USS Alden, USS John D Edwards, USS John D Ford and USS Paul Jones.

Although both fleets were evenly matched in terms of firepower, the ABDA force was hampered by language differences, communication problems and a lack of air suppport. In addition, only six of Houston’s 8-inch guns were operable because its aft turret had been damaged during a Japanese air raid.

The engagement, now known as the Battle of the Java Sea, proved a disaster for the ABDA force. Within seven hours, De Ruyter, Java, Kortenaer and Jupiter were sunk and Exeter was badly damaged and attempting to make for Sri Lanka, accompanied by Encounter.

Perth and Houston were the only two large Allied ships to survive the battle and they retreated to Tanjong Priok. Both vessels took on limited supplies of fuel and ammunition then attempted to evade the Japanese fleet and escape to the southern Javanese coast via Sunda Strait, between Sumatra and Java.

At around 2300 on 28 February 1942, Perth and Houston encountered a second Japanese invasion fleet off St Nicholas Point on the northwest tip of Java.

Perth and Houston attempted to evade their antagonists but began to take substantial hits from the Japanese, who were aided by longer-range spotlights and aerial reconnaissance.

A torpedo damaged Perth’s forward boiler and engine rooms, destroyed the forward damage control position and disabled the

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ship’s forward gyrocompasses, which were vital to the guidance of its main armament. After three more torpedo strikes, the cruiser heeled over to port and sank around 0025 on 1 March 1942 with the loss of 353 crew. Houston briefly fought on alone, but it too was struck by a series of torpedoes and sank two miles (3.7 kilometres) south of Perth’s loss location.

In 1967, Perth’s wreck site was discovered by Australian diver David Godwin Burchell about three nautical miles (4.8 kilometres) north-east of St Nicholas Point. In his book The Bells of Sunda Strait, Burchell reported that Perth lay almost intact – except for shell and torpedo damage – on its port side on a relatively flat sandy bottom in about 35 metres of water.

The starboard side of the vessel – which is uppermost and closer to the surface – was in approximately 21 metres of water.

Working with members of the Indonesian Navy, and with the permission of both the Australian and Indonesian Governments, Burchell recovered a number of items from Perth. These were later presented to the Australian War Memorial, the Royal Australian Navy and branches of the Returned Services League.

Additional salvage work, including removal of all of Perth’s 4-inch guns, some of the bridge structure, and at least two of the cruiser’s four phosphor-bronze propellers, occurred in the early 1970s. The ship’s bell was also recovered around the same time and presented to the Australian War Memorial in 1974.

With the advent of scuba diving and cheaper international airfares, Perth and Houston became popular technical diving attractions. Several hundred divers visited both sites annually,

02 Side scan sonar image of Perth, December

2016. North is at top of image. Image ANMM/Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional.

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In late 2013 recreational divers notified the Australian government that Perth was being salvaged by commercial divers

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many of them publishing images of their visits in diving magazines such as Scuba Diver, Triton and Advanced Diver Magazine.

In late 2013 recreational divers notified the Australian government that Perth was being salvaged by commercial divers. Most of the cruiser’s superstructure had been removed, along with both forward 6-inch gun turrets, the amphibious aircraft catapult, portside crane and forward deck.

The story was immediately picked up by national and international media, and many people – including those whose family members died on the cruiser – were dismayed to learn that Perth was not protected under heritage legislation.

Further, because Perth was a shipwreck, it was not considered an official ‘war grave’.

Alarmed that illegal salvage was disturbing the wreck of a sovereign warship that could still contain remains of some of the hundreds of sailors lost during the Battle of Sunda Strait, Australia’s then-Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, immediately wrote to his counterpart, Admiral Dr Marsetio, the Chief of the Indonesian Navy. The RAN also asked the Australian National Maritime Museum to lead a maritime archaeological survey of Perth to assess the site and document damage to its surviving hull, artefacts and features.

03 Indonesian archaeologist Shinatria

Adhityatama inspecting the hull of Perth.

In the foreground can be seen a hammer and chisel left behind by unsanctioned salvors.

Image Kieran Hosty, ANMM/Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional

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Unfortunately, the project was delayed by a number of unforeseen issues, including domestic and international politics, complex visa and research permit requirements, security clearances, inclement weather and rough sea conditions.

Consequently, ANMM and its Indonesian research partner, Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional (ARKENAS), could not undertake a preliminary remote sensing survey of Perth and Houston until November 2016.

In May 2017, ANMM maritime archaeologists Dr James Hunter and Kieran Hosty travelled to Indonesia to conduct an in-water survey of Perth’s wreck site. They were joined by Indonesian archaeologist Shinatria Adhityatama (ARKENAS) and Yusuf Arief Afandy from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, as well as oceanographer Turmudi M Hum from the Preservation Office. Officer Busro from the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian National Armed Forces) and two local dive guides rounded out the survey team.

Upon arrival at the wreck site, the team found it marked by a makeshift buoy and intermittent slicks generated by bubbles of oil and/or aviation spirits leaking from breaches in Perth’s surviving hull.

Perth is not considered a particularly deep dive, but the site is subject to an oceanographic phenomenon known as the ‘Indonesian through-flow’. This strong current runs through the Sunda Strait, makes swimming difficult, if not impossible at times, and reduces underwater visibility to a few metres.

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Evidence of ongoing small-scale salvage was also noted

During our descent the remains of Perth loomed up out of the green water of the strait and we found that the buoy line had been tied off to an exposed steel bulkhead on the vessel’s uppermost (starboard) side. We found the bow largely collapsed onto the seabed, most likely due to the effects of a Japanese torpedo strike on this section of the ship during the Battle of Sunda Strait. The remains of the bow structure, consisting of deck and hull plating, steel hull frames and remnants of the starboard deck capstan, lay scattered on the seabed.

Other than the cable locker, no evidence existed of any intact internal compartments such as the lower mess, shipwright’s store, paint store, lamp room, aviation spirit compartment or the compressor room.

Moving aft, the starboard hull is relatively intact in places, and rises between six and eight metres off the seabed.

However, Perth’s two forward 6-inch turrets (‘A’ and ‘B’) – which weighed more than 90 tonnes apiece – have now completely disappeared. Their absence was undoubtedly the result of deliberate industrial-level salvage that occurred sometime after 2013 and before 2015, when the site was inspected by ARKENAS archaeologists and US Navy divers.

04 Even after 75 years, evidence of Japanese

shellfire can be seen piercing the hull of HMAS Perth. Image James Hunter, ANMM/ Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional 05 Kieran Hosty examines an artefact deposit

resting on the starboard side of the forward 4-inch magazine’s lateral bulkhead. Image James Hunter, ANMM/Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional

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As we surveyed the wreck we also observed that after the 2015 inspection, and before the 2016 ANMM/ARKENAS side scan and multi-beam sonar survey, some 60 percent of Perth’s starboard hull plating had been removed. This covers an area from just below the main deck to immediately above the turn of the bilge, and extends for a length and height of about 141 feet (43 metres) and 26 feet 3 inches (8 metres), respectively.

The zone of missing hull plating roughly corresponds with the portion of starboard hull that was originally protected by a belt of 3-inch (76-mm) thick armour plate overlaying 1-inch (25-mm) thick hull plates.

Perth’s armour belt was strategically placed to protect its magazines and shell rooms, lower steering positions, forward and aft steam turbine (engine) rooms, and boiler rooms from damage. Up until sometime in late 2015 or early 2016, the armour belt and associated hull plating had prevented direct diver access to any of the above compartments.

Deliberate removal of Perth’s armour belt, underlying hull plating and most of the vessel’s internal steel frames has radically altered the overall appearance of the site from a relatively intact and recognisable ship’s hull to a three-sided box. It is now possible to descend directly from the surviving outer starboard hull plating in 21 metres of water to the inner port hull plating in 37 metres of water. During this transit, one passes through the gutted remnants of the ship’s internal compartments and cellular double bottom.

While corrosion and battle damage could account for some missing armour belting and hull plating, most absent hull components have been deliberately removed by commercial salvage. Similarly, small areas of what appear to be stockpiled

06 HMAS Perth arriving in Sydney in 1940.

This was its first visit to Australia after its commissioning voyage and deployment in the Caribbean and off the South American coast.

ANMM Collection

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copper and copper-alloy cable and piping were noted atop the surviving starboard hull. These items appear to have been systematically removed and set aside for later recovery, and are probably being targeted for their metallic content. Because Perth’s internal architecture has been so detrimentally affected, its surviving deck plating is starting to peel away from existing bulkheads, and will very likely collapse to the seabed at some point in the future.

With the advent of scuba diving and cheaper international airfares, Perth and Houston became popular technical diving attractions

Since 2015, Perth’s internal compartments have been systematically salvaged, and its bulkheads, decks and internal fittings removed. Additionally, three of the vessel’s four Parsons geared steam turbine sets, as well as three condensers and four Admiralty-type three-drum boilers, have been illegally salvaged.

Individually, these are extremely large and heavy pieces of machinery that would have required considerable resources and effort to displace and recover. There is no possibility whatsoever that they could have been completely removed via natural processes; consequently, they must have been deliberately removed through salvage activities.

Approximately 70 metres of Perth’s articulated stern has also disappeared since October 2015 – a section of hull extending from the stern post through to the aftermost engine room bulkhead. Absent too are the vessel’s four propeller shafts, two aftermost 6-inch gun turrets (‘X’ and ‘Y’), 6-inch shell magazines, ammunition lobbies, officers’ wardroom and cabins, gyro room and steering gear compartment. Again, the removal of these elements of armament and ship’s architecture is clearly a deliberate act of salvage and must have been carried out using substantial equipment, such as crane-operated grab mounted on a barge.

Since 2013, both of the ship’s 4-inch and 6-inch shell magazines and associated cartridge magazines have also been breached, and some of their contents have been salvaged or dispersed elsewhere throughout the site. Nonetheless, the site still retains a significant quantity of exposed 4-inch and some 6-inch shells.

Their dispersal indicates human rather than natural intervention.

Some of the shells are also leaching picric acid – a chemical component of the fuse used to detonate them – which makes them not only toxic to handle but also highly unstable.

Evidence of ongoing small-scale salvage was also noted in the form of lifting slings (wrapped around various hull components), a chain block, water dredge hose, and a hammer and chisel.

However, these activities – while damaging – are relatively small scale when compared to the industrial-scale salvage that has also occurred, and would not have caused the vast majority of damage observed by the survey team.

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While all salvage is destructive in nature, the greatest impact to Perth has been caused by planned, large-scale commercial salvage of the site that was first observed in 2013.

Underwater salvage is a complex, risky and expensive commercial enterprise. Costs associated with such work would seem to outweigh any profit made from the sale of corroded steel, iron and copper-alloy metals. While the motives behind large-scale salvage of Perth’s remnants remain unclear, the possibility exists that the work is related to current demand for ‘low background’ metals.

Historic shipwrecks – particularly those of large, steel-hulled warships sunk before July 1945 – are one of the world’s few reliable sources of ‘low background’ steel, lead and copper alloys. These sites contain thousands of tons of metal that has been isolated from increasing amounts of atmospheric radiation caused by above-ground atomic detonations that commenced with the Trinity atomic bomb test in July 1945.

Although atmospheric radiation levels have gradually decreased since the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, modern metal foundries – especially those that use blast furnace technology – are affected by remnant radioactive particles. Consequently, modern steel cannot be used to manufacture or house finely calibrated scientific and medical instruments such as Geiger counters, whole body counters, lung counters, photonics and aeronautical and space sensors.

While no human remains were observed during the 2017 survey, conditions noted by the survey team strongly suggest human remains exist within and around the remains of Perth’s hull.

07 Diagram recording the extent of the removal

of parts of Perth between 1967 and today.

An estimated 3,000 tonnes of metal has been removed from the wreck. Most of the illegal salvage has occurred since 2013.

ANMM image

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This is especially true of areas that retain significant sediment deposits. Areas of extensive sedimentation observed during the 2017 survey include the inner port hull plating of the aft engine room, aft boiler room, forward engine room and adjacent forward boiler room (between Frames 86 and 151), as well as the inner port hull plating between Frames 53 and 71. The latter area is adjacent to the forward 4-inch magazine and ‘B’ Turret shell room.

Although damage to Perth’s archaeological deposits has been tremendous, the 2017 survey team nonetheless observed significant, complex and deep deposits of artefact material.

Small finds within these deposits included uniform buttons, buckles, a pair of spectacles, leather shoes, rubber boots, cotton clothing fragments, a glass deck light, ceramic tiles, firebricks and small arms ammunition. The areas of highest artefact density included the inner port side hull plating of the forward engine room and forward boiler room, as well as the inner port side hull plating adjacent to the forward 4-inch magazine and B Turret shell room.

Upon its return to Serang, the team reported back to ARKENAS, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. All were informed of what the team observed and discussions commenced regarding what could be done to protect the remains of Perth for the future.

While Perth has been extensively damaged, there is some good news. Since the survey concluded, we have written a technical report of investigations that illustrates the threat posed to this significant historical and archaeological site. ARKENAS has proposed that the site be declared a Situs Cagar Budaya (Cultural Heritage Site) under Indonesian cultural heritage legislation, while the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries also intends to list the site as a Marine Conservation Zone.

Perth has great historical significance for many Australians, given its well-known last stand against almost insurmountable odds during the Battle of Sunda Strait. The site also holds emotional significance as the last resting place of at least 353 Royal Australian Navy, (British) Royal Navy and Royal Australian Air Force personnel who perished during the engagement.

Perth’s loss still resonates today, and is acknowledged through the activities of commemorative organisations such as the HMAS Perth Association and USS Houston (CA-30) Association, as well as museum exhibitions such as Guardians of Sunda Strait, which was curated by ANMM and is currently travelling to venues in the United States (including Houston, Texas), Australia (Perth and Sydney), and Indonesia (Jakarta).

1 Sam Collett, a technical diver based in Indonesia, in an interview with ABC News, 13 December 2013.

The 2017 HMAS Perth Project would not have been possible without the contribution of Captain Katja Bizilj, RAN, former Naval Attaché (Australian Embassy, Jakarta), Dr Andrew Fock, Drs I Made Geria, Head of National Research Centre of Archaeology (Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional), Captain Nick Hart, RAN, Naval Attaché (Australian Embassy, Jakarta) and Professor Ronny Rachman Noor, former Education and Cultural Attaché (Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Canberra).

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > TRAVELLING THE MARITIME SILK ROAD

OUT OF PORT SPRING 2017

Travelling the Maritime Silk Road A THOUSAND YEARS OF TRADE ROUTES

Ningbo, near Shanghai, was once one of the five ‘Treaty Ports’ during the 19th century, when colonial powers were forcing China into trading concessions. Before that, it had long been an important juncture of trade networks between China, Korea and Japan – and beyond. Dr Stephen Gapps attended a conference in July exploring the city’s maritime history.

01

NINGBO IS A SMALLISH CITY by Chinese standards – just 7 million people. Its city museum was the venue for the ninth annual China National Maritime Day ‘Sailing for More’ maritime culture forum in July. The conference explored what is now called the ‘Maritime Silk Road’ – the incredible trade routes that stretched from China to Africa over the past 1,000 years or so. The presence of Chinese junks and sampans in the Indian Ocean during these times is now reasonably well known, and forms the basis of a possible World Heritage listing for the Maritime Silk Road. However, there was little knowledge and some interest at the conference in my research paper on the history of Chinese junks and sampans that were built in Australia between 1870 and 1910 (see Signals 118, March–May 2017).

Ningbo was an important trading port and the point of departure from China for many ships during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

There, sailors could perform some final acts of worship before setting out into the Sea of China, praying for good winds and

01 Conference delegates; the author is in the

back row, seventh from right. Image Stephen Gapps/ANMM

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calm seas. In fact, Ningbo means ‘peaceful sea’; an older name was changed to this auspicious title during the Song Dynasty (960–1279).

The QingAn Guildhall in Ningbo is now a maritime museum and has an extensive collection of ship models. It is also currently hosting the exhibition Portraits of Chinese Junks – Images from the David Waters collection, a series of 1930s photographs of Chinese junks and the people who lived and worked on them. They were taken by British naval officer David Waters, who later became an assistant Director at the UK Maritime Museum in Greenwich, to which he donated his remarkable collection of images. This lively exhibition, curated

by Zefeng You, Director of the Institute of Ancient Chinese Ships, created a deal of media interest in Ningbo.

03

China is currently experiencing a burst of enthusiasm for historicising the Maritime Silk Road

Ningbo is now also well known for its wonderful city museum, designed by Wang Shu, the first Chinese architect to win the Pritzker Prize. The museum’s striking angled walls, which evoke mountains and massive ship prows, are overlain with bricks and tiles from some of the ruined older buildings in the area.

This powerful blend of old and new China is continued in the interior walls of concrete impressed with bamboo.

Topics covered by speakers at the conference ranged from traditional and contemporary maritime art, the famous Hanhai #1 shipwreck, cultural exchange in the China Sea and my paper on junks and sampans made in Australia. My research connected with that of several Chinese academics working on shipping and trade in South-east Asia. The conference was an excellent opportunity to connect with Chinese maritime researchers and museums. China is currently experiencing a burst of enthusiasm for historicising the Maritime Silk Road, so possible future collaborations in this area abound.

02 Opening of Portraits of Chinese Junks –

Images from the David Waters collection, QuingAn Guildhall, Ningbo, July 2017.

03 The striking façade of the Ningbo Museum.

All images Stephen Gapps/ANMM

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > GIVING BACK

FOUNDATION SPRING 2017

Giving back

DONATIONS SUPPORT AND PROMOTE INDIGENOUS MARITIME HERITAGE In 2016, the Australian National Maritime Museum introduced a new honour to recognise significant donors to its Foundation. The inaugural Ambassador is Ms Christine Sadler who, with her late husband Mr Sid Faithfull, has donated funds for the acquisition of significant objects from Indigenous artists in the Torres Strait Islands and far north Queensland. This focus on northern Australia and Indigenous cultures arose from their long association with the area.

01 Kisay Dhangal, bronze and pearl shell,

by Alick Tipoti. Reproduced courtesy Alick Tipoti. ANMM Collection 00054952

Purchased with funds from the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler program supporting contemporary Indigenous maritime heritage in far north Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands through the ANMM Foundation

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DONATING TO THE Australian National Maritime Foundation, reflects Christine Sadler, has provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the unique cultures of the remote regions of the Torres Strait Islands and far north Queensland. She and her husband, Sid, operated their shipping company, Sea Swift – formed in 1987, and sold in 2012 – across northern Queensland and the Torres Strait. Chris attributes much of their success to the relationships they built over many years with local Indigenous communities.

The couple’s interest in and respect for these local communities led them to purchase their first contemporary Indigenous art pieces from the region, and ultimately led them to the Australian National Maritime Museum. Chris says: We saw an opportunity to help retain some of the cultural ideas as well as the physical objects through supporting the acquisition of this material by the museum. It just sounded perfect from our point of view.

Their first donation to the Foundation, in 2013, was used by the museum to purchase 14 works by eight Indigenous artists and a collective from far north Queensland and the Torres Strait. Chris recalls that Sid was particularly attracted to the opportunity to contribute to the development of a national collection ‘that belongs to the people of Australia’.

A second donation, in 2016, has enabled the museum to acquire an important major work by Torres Strait Island artist Alick Tipoti, titled Kisay Dhangal. This work attracted international attention when featured in Taba Naba – Australia, Oceania, Arts by Peoples of the Sea, a ground-breaking exhibition at the Monaco Oceanographic Institute in 2016.

02 Constellation II, monoprint inks on paper,

by Gail Mabo. © Gail Mabo/Licensed by Viscopy, 2017. ANMM Collection 00054383

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Purchased with funds from the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler program supporting contemporary Indigenous maritime heritage in far north Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands through the ANMM Foundation

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The bronze and pearl-shell statue of the dhangal (dugong) is a reminder of the threats posed to these creatures through damage to the grass beds on which they feed. ‘It is a wonderful piece that belongs in the museum where it can attract people’s attention and raise their interest in this serious environmental problem,’ Chris says.

‘Giving back’ is a great source of satisfaction to donors

It is very comforting for Chris to know that Sid’s passion for the region and the people with whom he spent much of his working life is being shared with Australia. ‘One of Sid’s great desires was to give back. That this is being achieved through the museum would have been a source of great satisfaction to him.’

By supporting the museum’s Foundation, our generous donors are indeed ensuring that visitors will be able to gain some insight into the peoples and cultures of the far north.

Dr Kimberly Webber Ambassador status is given to those who donate more than $100,000 to the Foundation. The Australian National Maritime Foundation is the museum’s fundraising arm and supports the museum and its collection. Donations to the Foundation are tax deductible.

For more information about the Foundation please contact Dr Kimberley Webber on 02 8242 8324 or kimberley.webber@anmm.gov.au

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > GAINING INSIGHTS, SHARING KNOWLEDGE

EDUCATION SPRING 2017

Gaining insights, sharing knowledge

AN EDUCATION PROGRAM RESEARCHES THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC The museum has helped to develop an international learning program marking significant anniversaries of World War II battles in the Pacific.

Nine high schools from Australia, Japan and the USA joined the project to research ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75 Years’. By Education Officers Anne Doran and Jeffrey Fletcher.

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01 SBD Dauntless, The Hero of Midway,

Pacific Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Image courtesy Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor

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THREE YEARS AGO the museum’s education team and the New South Wales Department of Education began investigating how to run a student-centred research program to engage high school students with stories from World War II. The project-based learning task aimed to support students to connect historical events to their local communities and to the wider world. They were encouraged to find their own primary sources and witnesses, to visit places and then to use the information they collected to develop a video presentation from their own perspective. We found that students embraced the historical process and were surprised by some of their findings. One student, after discussing the project with his family, was shown his great-grandfather’s diary with his account from the Battle of Midway. A student from Central Union High School, El Centro, California, remarked, ‘I never realised we’re connected to history.’ The goal of the project was to find the common themes in relation to the war and students’ perspectives to war now.

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We believe a way to prevent more wars is to look at the global community. When we look at war we need to look at it not as a large event that a small town is part of, but as a large event that many small towns are part of and are all connected.

Student, Academy of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, California, USA, 2017 The collaborative project encompassed other important lessons and skills, as the students were encouraged as a team to make all of the decisions about the direction of the research, time management, communication, filming, sound, lighting and editing. Their role was to become the experts on their topic and to share their knowledge with the other classes and the wider audience.

A blog was created so all participating schools could post and share information. A unique part of the project was to collect local newspaper clippings about all of the battles covered and send them to the school researching it. Students gained a snapshot of the values of the time from adjacent articles unrelated to the war but dealing with, for example, a rodeo in another county.

Students embraced the historical process and were surprised by some of their findings 02 An artefact found by students from The

Franciscan School in Raleigh, North Carolina, while visiting the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial. Image Matt Arnold/ Franciscan School, Raleigh

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Schools and projects Due to the enthusiasm for the project, we eventually took more schools than the six – two each from Australia, Japan and the USA – originally allowed for. This year the schools involved and the projects they devised were: The Franciscan School middle school, Raleigh, NC, USA: ‘The USA and Australian alliance’

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The student-produced documentaries have been temporarily posted to the museum’s YouTube Channel and will eventually sit on the ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75’ website as the beginning of a collection of stories and resources for other teachers and students. The students’ video documentaries tell stories about events during World War II focusing on the Pacific theatre from the perspective of their home nation, city and culture. After most of the videos were completed the students had an opportunity to ask each other questions through a video conference.

The project is ongoing, and will take a different angle each year. Next year we will focus on stories of the home front, with following years looking at life after the war, and peace and friendship. The project has been both an educational and museum collaboration. We have been inspired by the work the students have produced and humbled by the assistance we have been given by other cultural organisations.

As part of the ‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75’ project we are offering three places to participating students in Japan, Australia and the USA to meet in December in Hawaii as youth ambassadors for the project. They will visit key World War II sites and work together to develop an international youth friendship agreement that will be signed at the end of the week in Hawaii. A report on these events and an article written by the student ambassadors will appear in a future issue of Signals.

‘War and Peace in the Pacific 75 Years’ has been developed by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the New South Wales Department of Education – Learning Systems Directorate, and is supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund.

03 Students from The Franciscan School in Raleigh,

North Carolina, visiting the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial. Image Matt Arnold/Franciscan School, Raleigh

Aliamanu Middle School, Honolulu, HI, USA: ‘The attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941’ Analy High School, Sebastopol, CA, USA: ‘The bombardment of Ellwood, 23 February 1942’ Ramona High School, California, USA: ‘The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942’, Powerpoint presentation Academy of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA, USA: ‘Battle of the Coral Sea 4–8 May 1942’ Central Union High School, El Centro, California, USA: ‘The Battle of Midway, 4–7 June 1942’ Amaroo School year 10 humanities, Canberra, ACT: ‘The Bombing of Darwin, 19 February 1942’ Lake Macquarie High School, Gifted and Talented projectbased learning history group, Lake Macquarie, NSW: ‘Attack on Sydney Harbour and the east coast of Australia 31 May–8 June 1942’ Sendai Shirayuri Gakuen High School, Japan: ‘Bombing of Sendai 10 July 1945’

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > AUSTRALIA’S KING OF THE SURF

COLLECTIONS SPRING 2017

Australia’s king of the surf BERNARD ‘MIDGET’ FARRELLY am (1944–2016)

In June Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly was posthumously awarded an am (Member of the general division of the Order of Australia) for significant service to surfing as a competitor and industry pioneer. Two of his early trophies were recently presented to the museum, writes Senior Curator Daina Fletcher.

01 01 Jack Eden, Presentation of the trophies in the first

world open surfboard championships Manly, 1964.

Gelatin silver photograph, printed 1990s. ANMM Collection Gift from Jack and Dawn Eden. Senior men’s championship winners on the podium: 1 Midget Farrelly, Australia (centre), 2 Mike Doyle, California (left), 3 Joey Cabell, Hawaii (right). The women’s championship winners are on the right: 1 Australian Phyllis O’Donnell (far right) and 2 Linda Benson, California (right), with Nat Young, the runner-up in the junior men’s final, on the far left

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YOUNG AUSTRALIAN SURFER Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly surprised the world in the early 1960s by winning the two keynote world surfing contests of the time – the Makaha contest in Hawaii in 1963 and the first world open surfboard championships in Manly, Australia, in 1964. He quickly became the youthful face of surfing in Australia.

Eighteen-year-old Farrelly’s victory in Hawaii forged a golden moment in Australia’s sporting folklore. As an outsider, a smallwave rider from the southern hemisphere, Farrelly bettered the champion big-wave surfers from Hawaii and North America to win the title in surfing’s spiritual home, becoming the first non-Hawaiian to do so.

Farrelly, from Sydney’s northern beaches, became an instant celebrity, and remains a huge name among surfers today.

The Makaha trophy was surfing’s holy grail, sponsored by the Waikiki Surf Club and widely regarded at the time as the unofficial world title. This trophy, and the first world championship title trophy – won by Farrelly in Manly, Sydney, in May 1964 – have recently been presented to the museum.

A gift to the National Maritime Collection from the Farrelly family in memory of the champion surfer, they are now on display together for the first time since they were awarded 60 years ago.

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Surfing captured the cultural zeitgeist in 1960s Australia and the two trophies evoke the sport’s heritage, aspirations and heroes.

In Australia in 1962 several surfing magazines hit the newsstands, among them photographer Jack Eden’s Surfabout and Bob Evans’s Surfing World. With these and Evans’s work as a filmmaker, the movement now had an effective and thrilling voice. The sights, sounds, styles, energies and politics of surfing culture exploded, especially in popular music – wipeout!

The carved timber Makaha trophy of a surfing warrior evokes the strength, dominance and heritage of surfing as a Hawaiian cultural practice, while the first world title trophy, comprising silver-plated surfers atop the world globe, testifies to the aspirations of its organisers, who saw surfing as an international sport. They are the two trophies that put Australia on the world surfing map.

In 1961 a group of 20 Australian surfers visited Hawaii for its huge waves and for the famed Makaha surfing contest on the west coast of Oahu. Led by Bob Evans, the oldest rider, the group included the 16-year-old Bernard Farrelly, known as ‘Midget’, then a junior champion and a surfboard builder by trade, and Bob Pike, who was chasing the big waves.

02 Makaha trophy, 1962, maker unknown,

timber. Regarded as the unofficial world title, it was won by Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly on 2 January 1963. ANMM Collection 00054957 Gift from Bev Farrelly and family in memory of Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly

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All three lost to the dominant locals. The next year Farrelly returned and won, beating the favoured surfers, Hawaiian Joey Cabell and Californian Mike Doyle, in the coveted tenth annual Makaha surfing contest. Aside from the large numbers of local surfers, the event drew competitors from North America, Great Britain, France, New Zealand and Peru. Later that year Cabell won the trophy back; Farrelly was unplaced.

In May 1964, all three surfers reunited on Sydney’s Manly Beach in the first world surfing championship, an event widely feted by the local press, local government officials and spectators.

Incredibly, a crowd of 60,000 packed Manly’s beachfront over the three-day event. A panel of international judges awarded the points to Californians Mike Doyle and ‘Little’ John Richards, Hawaiian Joey Cabell, and Australians Bobby Brown and Midget Farrelly, to make the finals. The Sydney Morning Herald of 18 May 1964 reported: Two almost perfect rides yesterday won Sydney surfer Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly the world surfboard riding championships at Manly in a hard fought final [with] Farrelly’s tight functional surfing hard-up against the curl.

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Farrelly won the trophy for the senior men’s title.

Fellow Australian Phyllis O’Donnell won the women’s title, ahead of Californian Linda Benson, who was also the surfing double for the movie Gidget. Out of this event the International Surfing Federation was formed, and the following year the first authorised, official international titles were held in Peru.

Bernard Farrelly was a surfing legend – a star of TV with his Midget Farrelly Surf Show, and of film, a surfing correspondent and author, and designer and shaper of surf and skateboards.

By 1964, with Farrelly’s victories in Hawaii and Manly, surfing in Australia had truly come of age. It was 50 years after Hawaiian surfer and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku had excited locals and the media when he surfed Sydney’s Freshwater Beach on a solid timber board that he made himself from sugar pine. Both surfers are legends in Australia. In recent years, visiting Hawaiian delegations met Farrelly, on one occasion paddling out from Sydney’s Freshwater Beach 100 years after Kahanamoku’s visit to pay homage to the friendship between Hawaii and Australia born of the waves. The Makaha trophy is draped with seed offerings presented to him.

The display features photographs from photographer Jack Eden and footage by Bob Evans from his 1964 television program King of the Surf, showing the competitors, crowds, energy and prestige of the first world surfing championships in Manly.

03 Ampol trophy for the first world open

surfboard championship, Manly, Australia, maker unknown, silver-plated base metal.

Men’s final won by Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly, 17 May 1964. ANMM Collection 00054955 Gift from Bev Farrelly and family in memory of Bernard ‘Midget’ Farrelly

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A POIGNANT REMNANT

COLLECTIONS SPRING 2017

A poignant remnant THE LIFEBUOY FROM THE ‘PLUCKY LITTLE SHIP AURORA’

The famed SY Aurora had a 40-year career in polar regions as a whaleship and an Antarctic exploration, supply and rescue vessel. It survived numerous hardships, only to disappear in the Pacific on a coal run. Its only relic is a lifebuoy that was recently given to the museum to mark the centenary of the ship’s loss. By Senior Curator Daina Fletcher.

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JUNE 2017 MARKED 100 YEARS since the famous polar vessel SY Aurora sailed out of Australian waters, never to be seen again.

On Wednesday 20 June 1917 it left Newcastle, New South Wales, with a cargo of coal, and disappeared. Only a lifebuoy from the ship was recovered from the seas, six months later.

The lifebuoy is a powerful emblem. With the ghost lettering of its famous Antarctic expeditions on its rim, it acts as a link to all the sailors, whalers, scientists, workers, expeditioners and sealers whose lives, toils and achievements were entwined with it. Importantly, the lifebuoy connects all of us to the tragic loss of Aurora’s captain and 20 officers and crew in 1917.

The museum recently accepted the gift of this significant artefact from John Hooke cbe, the son of Sir Lionel Hooke, the wireless operator on board the ship when it was the supply vessel for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party in 1914–16.

The story of the ‘plucky little ship Aurora’ will be on display in the museum’s Tasman Light Gallery until late October 2017.

It is an incredible story of a powerful wooden ship and its men.

For forty-one years she had survived every trial in Arctic and Antarctic waters. Then to sink without trace in the Pacific! 1

01 Aurora’s name and the initials of both its

major Antarctic expeditions – Shackleton’s ITAE (Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition) and Mawson’s AAE (Australasian Antarctic Expedition) – can be seen in ghosted lettering on its rim. SY Aurora lifebuoy ANMM Collection Gift from Mr John Hooke CBE, in memory of Sir Lionel Hooke, wireless operator in SY Aurora 1914–16. ANMM Collection 00054969. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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The sturdy timber vessel started life as a whaler of 580 tons and more than 50 metres in length, with an auxiliary engine.

It worked the Arctic whaling industry until 1911, when an ambitious antipodean exploring expedition sent the ageing ship to the opposite end of the globe.

The lifebuoy connects all of us to the tragic loss of Aurora’s captain and 20 officers and crew in 1917

Purchased for South Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), the ship sailed first to London, where its future master, John King Davis, supervised its refit. On 2 December 1911 Aurora farewelled an excited crowd in Hobart, Tasmania, for the first of three Antarctic and two sub-Antarctic voyages on this first Australasian expedition.

The vessel carried Mawson and his expeditioners to their various bases, all the while taking soundings and charting the coast conducting oceanographic research. In February 1912 Aurora returned to Australia for the winter, then in December 1913 returned to Antarctica to evacuate Mawson and his men.

No sooner had Aurora returned to Australia in early 1914 than the ship was again called into service. Adventurer Sir Ernest Shackleton bought the vessel for the supply party for his expedition that aimed to be the first to cross Antarctica, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (ITAE). In December Aurora left Hobart, now under the command of Aeneas Mackintosh, to lay depots inland from the Ross Sea coast, ahead of Shackleton’s team that was to cross from the Weddell Sea. Shackleton’s team never arrived. His ship Endurance was trapped in ice in February 1915 and sank that November.

02 Lifebuoy donor John Hooke CBE (centre),

ANMM Chairman Peter Dexter AM (left) and Director Kevin Sumption PSM (second from right) with members of Aurora’s extended family at a morning tea at the museum, 19 June. Image Andrew Frolows/AMNN

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In an eerie parallel, Aurora also became beset by ice after it broke its moorings in a blizzard in May 1915, marooning the Ross Sea Party on the continent and the crew on the ship.

The land party faithfully sledged to lay the depots for Shackleton’s team – a team that would never come – with the loss of three men. The crew on the ship drifted north at the mercy of the ice for 11 months. The ‘stout’ Aurora, unlike its counterpart Endurance, survived and limped to New Zealand in April 1916. One of the 18 crew on board was wireless operator Lionel Hooke, whose technical brilliance was widely applauded when he re-rigged the ship’s aerial to increase broadcast range to signal its survival.

After an extensive overhaul, Aurora again sailed south to rescue the marooned Ross Sea Party. Under the command of Captain John King Davis, Aurora carried the seven survivors to Wellington, New Zealand, in February 1917. In March Shackleton sold the ship. Under new owners New York and Pacific Steam Ship Co, with Captain Jack Reeves at the helm, Aurora sailed to Newcastle, Australia, to load coal for Iquique, Chile, where it was to pick up nitrate for Europe. Tragically it disappeared, along with the Mario, also bound for Chile, which left Newcastle the same day.

On 5 December, one of Aurora’s lifebuoys was plucked from the seas off northern New South Wales by Captain David Petrie of SS Coombar on his run from the north coast to Sydney.

It was wartime. Several theories emerged, but no new evidence, and on 2 January 1918 Lloyds listed the ship as missing.

This lifebuoy is all that was recovered from the vessel’s last days in Australian waters. Captain Reeves, his 20 men and his ship were lost. Such was Aurora’s fame in its time that the lifebuoy was displayed in the windows of a prominent store in Sydney.

03 Autograph book of Frank Douglas Fletcher,

Aurora’s chief officer on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1912–13. ANMM Collection Gift from Alan Fletcher

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In the 1930s the lifebuoy was presented to Sir Lionel Hooke, general manager and later chairman of AWA (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia). Sir Lionel had served on Aurora as wireless operator on the Ross Sea Party after his employer, AWA, fitted the ship’s wireless.

This is the first time in 100 years that this poignant artefact has been displayed in public. Alongside it we feature photographs and artefacts of Aurora’s life from ANMM collections, including memorabilia from Frank Douglas Fletcher, Chief Officer on Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1912–1913, donated to the museum by his son Alan Fletcher, and the ship portrait of Aurora, given by Charlotte and Wendy Fairweather.

A special morning tea on 19 June marked the launch of the feature exhibit The plucky little ship Aurora. It was attended by many of Aurora’s extended family from various phases of its career, who the next day made their way to Newcastle’s Christ Church Cathedral for a commemorative service featuring the dedication of a bronze plaque and the blessing of the lifebuoy at the Mariners’ Chapel, to honour the loss of SY Aurora and its 21 crew.

1 John King Davis, Aurora’s captain on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition and the Ross Sea Party relief voyage for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, High Latitude, Melbourne University Press, 1962

COLLECTIONS SPRING 2017

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ARHV SPRING 2017

Thunder A FAMILY STORY

ANMM.GOV.AU/ARHV This online national heritage project, devised and coordinated by the Australian National Maritime Museum in association with Sydney Heritage Fleet, reaches across Australia to collect stories about the nation’s existing historic vessels, their designers and builders.

01

One of the newest listings on the ARHV has a very personal link for Curator of Historic Vessels David Payne – a little 12-foot skiff that featured large in the lives and careers of three people close to him.

OCCASIONALLY CURATORS come upon an object and a story with a close personal connection, and this can make it challenging to give it an objective appraisal; it is all too easy to get deeply involved with the story. Thunder presented that situation to me, and while the committee-based selection process ensured it was properly assessed and reviewed for nomination, writing up the little boat’s story – which goes back to the early sailing and schoolboy days of my father Bill, his older brother (and my late uncle) Alan, and one of their best friends, Bryce Mortlock – was a wonderful journey to undertake.

01 Thunder’s aged transom, with a patina

developed over more than 75 years.

Image David Payne

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The only survivor of that trio of schoolboys, who more or less began their lifelong interest in design and construction with Thunder and its cousins, was my 93-year-old father. But he had slid into dementia, saved only by that familiar pattern – an ability to sometimes recall aspects of his very early years while no longer having any recognition of the present. And then when it came to be considered for the ARHV, Thunder was under my guardianship in the family home’s garage, as the only immediate means to save it from being lost. To all intents and purposes its future was now in the hands of the adult children of that trio: myself, my cousins Sarah and Zetty and family friend Richard Mortlock.

Thunder had a key impact on all three men, who would all become very successful in their eventual creative design careers

So what is Thunder? It’s a 12-Foot Restricted Class sailing skiff that was built in the late 1930s by its teenage designer, schoolboy Bryce Mortlock from the Sydney suburb of Five Dock. It is recorded as first racing late in 1939, by which time war had been declared and the future was becoming bleaker by the month.

02 Thunder racing on the Parramatta River and

just off Lysaghts factory, probably 1939 or 1940. Image courtesy Martin Thearle 02

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Yet Bryce’s two friends from Sydney Grammar School, Alan and Bill Payne, set about building their own modified Thunder in 1940, and their little skiff Flying Fish was racing

by January 1941.

They had all finished school by then. Alan was already in a wartime reserved occupation, beginning his training as a naval architect and working from Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney Harbour. By 1943 Bryce and Bill were in the Royal Australian Air Force, Bryce as a flying instructor. And curiously, Bill’s logbook from early 1943 refers to an F/O Mortlock as one of his instructors; perhaps this was Bryce before he went to Canada and continued instructing over there. Bill then went on to pilot Halifax Mk III heavy bombers in a clandestine Royal Air Force unit that flew special operations, conducting radio countermeasures over Europe while on bombing raids.

According to his logbook, two operations took place over and around Bremen and Freiburg as Allied ground forces advanced into Germany. Sixty years later my sons, his grandsons, would attend music colleges for specialist overseas teaching in both these cities.

The two flying boys were then far removed from their teenage skiffs, although Alan is known to have skippered Thunder on a few occasions during the war. This skiff class, and probably Thunder as much as any of their first boats, had a key impact on all three men, who would all become very successful in their eventual creative design careers. H B ‘Bryce’ Mortlock oam became one of Australia’s leading architects as a partner with Ancher, Mortlock and Murray (and later Ken Woolley), winning the prized Sulman Medal, among many awards over many years. Bill Payne was an architect, too, pioneering big shopping centres with projects like Roselands, for many years the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere. Meanwhile Alan’s wartime start at Cockatoo Dockyard put him on the road to become one of Australia’s most famous yacht designers and naval architects.

Thunder’s influence primarily relates to Bryce’s career. He had lost his father quite early, and when he moved to Sydney his sailing mentor was his mother’s brother, ‘Uncle Doy’ – Gilbert Robinson. He was a tailor by trade and cut and stitched the sails for Thunder and provided the support for Bryce to get involved with sailing, design and building from an early age. A gifted artist, at 12 Bryce had designed and made his first boat.

Why is Thunder an important boat? Bryce had built an earlier 12 called Val, but according to his son Richard, Bryce had said it was ‘a dog’. So he designed and built Thunder, and it was a champion from the start, winning many races.

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The confidence he developed from that success must have been an influence on his start in the design field. As far as Bill could recall, inspired by Thunder he and Alan borrowed its moulds and built their own boat, but in typical Uncle Alan fashion, he made modifications. I imagine that this ‘redesign’ for Flying Fish probably whetted his appetite for boat design, and started a career that ended up nearly winning the America’s Cup with his design for the 12 Metre Gretel II in 1970. Bill was always the junior one, but just as interested, and he helped to build a few more craft over the years.

I remember Alan telling me that the three friends were inspired by the work of English boat designer Uffa Fox. They had access to his famous books via the city library and they copied his fine drawing style. All three were excellent draftsmen, and Bryce was known for his exceptional handwriting skills. Thunder may even have taken its name from Fox’s ground-breaking 1938 International 14 Thunder and Lightning. All three were interested in being naval architects, and after the war when Alan set up his own practice, Bryce did some early drafting for Alan in 1946.

Alan advised that the opportunities in vessel design looked very limited, however, so Bryce and Bill both took diplomas in building architecture as their wartime entitlement to a free education. Bryce, though, retained an interest in skiff design for some years; in the late 1940s and early 1950s he moved to the 16-foot skiff class, and designed a number of successful 16s, including another Thunder for himself, along with some more 12s. He also collaborated with Alan on the Payne Mortlock sailing canoe – of which Bill built the prototype – but this then showed that it needed a Mk II to get the details right!

The 12 Foot Restricted class was one for youth sailors, and raced with a handful of Sydney skiff and dinghy clubs from the 1930s until the 1950s. The Restricted 12s were an ideal boat for them, capturing all the qualities and construction of the bigger 16- and 18-foot skiffs, and without the larger and more expensive rigs of the unrestricted 12-foot skiffs that were very popular in New South Wales and Queensland. It was a young lads’ class and suited a crew of two or three. The class sailed with the River Club, North Shore Dinghy Club, Lane Cove 12 Foot Skiff Club, Greenwich Flying Squadron and the Drummoyne Skiff Club.

Thunder is probably one of only a couple that now still exist.

At Drummoyne they created a B class, with the skippers of the 12s having to be under 21 years of age. Racing started in 1938 with six boats in the first season, increasing to 20 by 1944.

During the war years, when 16-foot skiff racing was conducted on a reduced scale, there were more 12-footers racing in the club than 16s. As the B-class sailors reached the 21-year age limit, many became skippers and crews in the 16-foot class.

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The three schoolfriends were a tight group back then, and remained family friends for as long as I can recall. Although there were others, just about all have passed on, and it now comes back to this cedar-planked, snub-nosed little skiff Thunder. No wonder we kids of the trio can’t seem to leave it alone now it’s surfaced again.

What’s left of Thunder is plenty of original stuff. A huge amount of Bryce’s work is still there – the hull with its planking, frames, thwarts, fittings, rudder, bumpkin, a heavy, rusty fin and many of Uncle Doy’s sails. We are just missing a mast, boom and yard.

And you can see what they got up to. Although we understand that Bryce built Thunder separate from Alan and Bill, who went on to build Flying Fish, the attention to detail all were known for is there on Thunder. It’s built properly, with the right layout of structure, and shows such things as a slight hollowing out of the inboard surfaces of the keel and bilge stringers and a curved shape to the thwarts – finer points, but the seeds of their approach to many subsequent design problems in the years to come.

And for the last of the trio, what’s left with Dad is just a few original, faded memories as he now looks at photos of Thunder and Flying Fish on his wall. He remembered he was the crew and older brother Alan was skipper, as always in family hierarchy, and that the little skiffs were fast-planing boats under spinnaker. And I could say much the same for me, sailing in the over-rigged, unrestricted 12-foot skiffs as a crew back in the late 70s and early 80s, and, as history repeats itself, inspiring me to design a 12 that became a winner too, then going on to be a boat designer.

These 12s have had a lot to answer for over the years.

Search the complete Australian Register of Historic Vessels at anmm.gov.au/arhv NAME

DATE

BUILDER

TYPE

CODE

01

Ise Pearl

1956

C E Crowley

Pearling lugger

HV000720

02

Thunder

1939

B Mortlock

03

Lauriana

1938

J Hayes & Sons

Motor sailer

HV000722

04

Curlew

1911

C Lucas

Yacht

HV000723

05

Yarrawonga

1939

C Larson

Yacht

HV000724

06

Tathra canvas boat

Unknown Unknown

Canvas skiff

HV000725

07

Stella Maris

c 1922

Ike Innes

Fishing launch

HV000726

08

HDML 1321/Rushcutter

1943

Purdon & Featherstone

Patrol boat

HV000727

09

Triton

1952

Hansen and Collis

Pearling lugger

HV000728

10

Wyuna

1952

Ferguson Shipbuilding

Pilot ship

HV000734

12-Foot Restricted Class

HV000721

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01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > ANATOLIA TO AUSTRALIA

Anatolia to Australia FIFTY YEARS OF TURKISH MIGRATION

Turkish migrant Şükran Adasal was just 19 years old when she and her husband Halit embarked on a belated honeymoon to an island continent on the other side of the world. Travelling under the Australia–Turkey Migration Agreement, ratified 50 years ago this October, the young couple’s thoughts were filled with hope for a new future.

By Kim Tao. 01 Şükran and Halit Adasal signing their marriage

documents, with Şükran’s mother Sultan Salman at far right, Adana, Turkey, 1966.

All images reproduced courtesy Hale Adasal.

01

In one of history’s great migrations, more than six million people have crossed the seas to settle in Australia.

The museum’s tribute to all of them, The Welcome Wall, encourages people to recall and record their stories of coming to live in Australia

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GAZING AT THE black and white photograph from her parents’ wedding day in 1966, Hale Adasal says, ‘My mother Şükran looks very young and beautiful in her 1960s gown. My father Halit is sporting a handsome moustache and looks every bit like a Turkish gentleman. My grandmother Sultan looks so sad at the edge of the photo, as my mother leans forward to sign the papers. From that point on, her daughter would be looked after by another family.’

The Australia–Turkey Migration Agreement enabled the first major Muslim community to settle in the country

Dudus Şükran Salman was born in 1950 and grew up in Küçük Çamizağli Köy (meaning ‘small water buffalo village’), in the agricultural province of Adana in southern Anatolia.

She went by her middle name of Şükran, which means ‘gratitude’ in Arabic, as she regarded her first name as oldfashioned. Şükran’s father Hüseyin Salman was the Ağha (landlord) of Küçük Çamizağli Köy and was born in Salonica, the same city in which the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk, meaning ‘Father of the Turks’), was born. When Hüseyin died of complications from pneumonia in 1962, his widow Sultan Salman was left to raise 12-year-old Şükran and her four younger siblings on her own.

At the time, it was mandatory for Turkish children to attend primary school, but not high school. Şükran, however, was fortunate to receive a secondary education thanks to the support of her grandmother, Gülfiyet Yildirim. Gülfiyet had survived the devastation of the First World War, which would bring an end to 600 years of Ottoman rule. She appreciated the value of a woman’s education, not having been able to provide the opportunity to her own daughters. Consequently Şükran became the first girl from her village to attend high school, some 90 kilometres away in the rural town of Çeyhan, where she met Halit Adasal.

Halit was the younger of two sons, born in Adana in 1945 to Hüseyin Adasal and his wife, Emine. Halit’s grandfather Mehmet Atlas, a soldier in the Turkish Army during World War I, was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. When his father died of asthma in 1963, Halit took over the running of the family’s repair shop in Çeyhan, while his brother Nahit completed his compulsory military service.

Halit often noticed Şükran passing by his shop on her way to meet friends after school, and eventually he caught her eye.

Over the next few months, Halit and Şükran conducted their courtship through letter writing, using Halit’s shop assistant Ahmet as their middleman. In 1966, when Halit received his conscription notice, the young couple married at the Adana local government office with the consent of their mothers.

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02

In 1968 Halit came across an advertisement in the Çeyhan Weekly that read, ‘Australia would like to offer second citizenship to Young Turks’. In October 1967, the Australian and Turkish governments had signed a bilateral agreement to provide assisted passage to Turkish migrants, to help build Australia’s population and expand the workforce. Migrants were required to work in Australia for a minimum of two years in return for assistance with their travel and initial accommodation.

The Turkish government, meanwhile, encouraged emigration to resolve issues of overcrowding and unemployment.

The Australia–Turkey Migration Agreement – Australia’s inaugural agreement with a nation beyond Western Europe – enabled the first major Muslim community to settle in the country, and thus represented a significant step in the gradual dismantling of the White Australia policy.

Having now concluded his military service, Halit saw few opportunities remaining for him in Turkey. His older brother Nahit had taken over the family business and transformed it into a retail outlet selling Adasal logo sporting goods.

Migration to Australia would provide Halit with a chance to assume ownership of his destiny, while Şükran, who had never left Adana, considered it as the adventure of a lifetime.

Like many who travelled under the scheme, they intended to work hard in Australia and save enough money to return to Turkey in two years’ time to start a business and buy a house.

Halit and Şükran submitted their application and within three months they were on their way to Australia, with just one suitcase and US$20 between them. Their journey began in early 1969 with a winding bus ride through the mountainous Anatolian countryside to the Turkish capital, Ankara.

02 The Adasal family with staff at their

Bosphorus Function Centre in Auburn, 1990s. Şükran, Halit and Hale are at far left, with Funda in the centre.

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Şükran wore her favourite black and white striped dress, while Halit donned a stylish brown suit. In Ankara they boarded a Qantas plane bound for Melbourne, Şükran’s eyes still swollen from the tears she had shed on the bus from Adana.

The Qantas flight carried hundreds of hopeful young Turkish couples and families who were overwhelmed with both fear and excitement. Halit barely ate any food on board, his nerves filling his stomach with knots. Şükran, on the other hand, enjoyed the breakfast of sausage, poached eggs and a hash brown, and was amused by the small portions of food separated into compartments.

Halit and Şükran landed in Melbourne 24 hours later, welcomed by the scorching dry heat of an Australian summer, and were transported to the Broadmeadows immigration centre in the city’s north. After six weeks, the couple moved into a rental property in the inner suburb of Collingwood. Halit found employment in the nearby Carlton & United Breweries, while Şükran worked from home, caring for neighbourhood children as well as her own two daughters, Hale (born 1970) and Funda (born 1971). In the early 1970s, when Hale and Funda were toddlers, Halit and Şükran made a return visit to Turkey, but determined that they could no longer live in their homeland.

They decided to relocate the family from Melbourne to Sydney to make a fresh start.

03

In Sydney both Şükran and Halit worked at the Hoover factory in Meadowbank. Şükran took the day shift and Halit the night, so that one parent would always be at home with the children.

In the early 1990s the Adasal family opened the first Turkish function centre in Australia, the Bosphorus Function Centre, in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn. Named after the waterway and bridge that connect Europe and Asia, Bosphorus fittingly catered for all types of events and weddings, from Turkish to Asian and European. Following more than a decade managing Bosphorus, Halit and Şükran moved on to operate a number of smaller Turkish restaurants in Auburn and then the Central Coast region of New South Wales, where they are now enjoying their retirement.

Throughout their success with the Bosphorus Function Centre, Halit and Şükran provided generous support to local Turkish community groups and Australian charities. They taught their daughters to integrate into Australian culture, while also keeping in touch with their Turkish heritage through language, folk dancing and traditional music. Hale believes that she and her sister Funda experienced the best of both worlds, and credits the example set by her parents as her inspiration to

03 Teenaged sisters Hale (left) and Funda Adasal

visit Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, Turkey, 1989.

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04

volunteer with non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty International. Hale has completed studies in anthropology and sociology at Sydney’s Macquarie University, while Funda studied fine arts at the Australian National University in Canberra and now has one daughter, Yasemin.

Like many second-generation migrants, Hale and Funda grappled with questions of identity and their sense of belonging to two cultures. In 2012 Hale published her first book, Gavur: a journey to belong, which recorded the stories of her parents, great-grandparents and ancient Turkic ancestors’ journeys from the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia to modern-day Turkey.

In 1989 Hale and Funda made their first trip to their motherland with their parents, to meet their large extended family. Hale was 19 years old – the same age as her mother Şükran when she migrated to Australia in 1969. Hale remembers visiting Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula on a bitterly cold day, and the conflicting emotions she felt for the young lives lost on both the Australian and Turkish sides. She was deeply moved by the memorial dedicated to all the foreign soldiers who died at Gallipoli, inscribed with the famous words attributed to Atatürk in 1934: Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ...

You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

04 Şükran and Halit Adasal with their newborn

granddaughter Yasemin, 2000.

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Hale recalls how ‘the plaque meant more to me because I was an Australian Turk,’ and she reflects on the mutual spirit of friendship and peace that also allows her great-grandfather, Mehmet Atlas, to be remembered on Anzac Day in the so-called enemy’s country that she and her family now call home.

On behalf of her family, Hale registered Halit and Şükran Adasal on the Welcome Wall to honour ‘my parents who left all that they knew for a better life with hope and courage.

Their migration planted the seeds of their family roots in Australia for future generations of our family. Australia really has been the lucky country for us.’

The Welcome Wall It costs just $150, or $290 for a couple, to register a name and honour your family’s arrival in this great country. We’d love to add your family’s name to The Welcome Wall, cast in bronze, and place your story on the online database at anmm.gov.au/ ww. Please call our staff during business hours with any enquiries on 02 9298 3777.

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READINGS SPRING 2017

‘They did not vanish’

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN 19TH-CENTURY SYDNEY

AFTER GOVERNOR MACQUARIE’S series of military campaigns across west and south-western Sydney in 1816 that resulted in the Appin Massacre – in which at least 14 Aboriginal men, women and children were indiscriminately killed – conflict between Aboriginal people and the European colonists in the Sydney region dissipated. The warfare continued to the north in the Hunter River valley, to the south and in particular to the west, as the colony expanded across the Blue Mountains and into the Bathurst plains.

The usual histories of the Aboriginal people who had survived the onslaught of the smallpox catastrophe of 1789 and the conflict that occurred across the Cumberland Plain after this are of a decimated and defeated people, struggling to find new ways to cope with the inexorable push of European settlement.

From the 1820s, they generally disappear from the histories of Sydney.

Yet as Paul Irish’s new book Hidden in Plain View shows, Aboriginal people in fact remained in and around Sydney Harbour for many years throughout the 19th century, often actively involved with colonial society. Their actions, says Irish, were not those of a ‘defeated people’ at all, but the actions of people who engaged the Europeans on their own terms and developed ways to work and survive within an increasingly racialised colonial society.

One of the many elements of Aboriginal survival in Sydney that Irish clarifies is how Europeans failed (and still fail) to understand traditional clans, clan estates, and inter-clan rights and responsibilities that were continually changing in the past, as well as after 1788. Irish develops an understanding of ‘connection through movement’, and places this at the forefront of a response to colonisation that occurred alongside and after military resistance had become impossible. In brief, Aboriginal people always had both a strong connection to certain places and strong networks with, and responsibilities for, other places and neighbours.

Hidden in Plain View – The Aboriginal people of coastal Sydney

By Paul Irish, published by NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2017. Paperback, 240 pages, illustrations, maps, notes, index.

ISBN 9781742235110. RRP $34.99

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READINGS SPRING 2017

With a series of maps developed from his extensive research into the historical record, Irish shows how an ‘affiliated coastal zone’ operated from the early 19th century. A network of people and places along the coast from Port Stephens in the north to the Shoalhaven in the south became a way of remaining connected to traditional country and family, and of developing new relationships. This network was travelled by people firstly by foot and small boats, and then continued with travel on ferries and steamships by the 1860s.

Official policy changed in response to the continued presence of Aboriginal people in the growing city

Irish shows how official policy changed in response to this continued presence of Aboriginal people in the growing city. At first, among the coves and beaches of the eastern suburbs – an area which, until the 1880s, was very much bushland surrounding large estates – Aboriginal people found employment as hunting and fishing guides. They cultivated relationships with people such as the Wentworths, who were to become powerful sympathisers. Camps at Rose Bay, Watsons Bay and other areas of the harbour during the mid-19th century were at once hidden and in plain view.

Irish also brings to light many instances of Aboriginal people living right in the heart of Sydney, such as in an empty government boatshed at Circular Quay in the 1870s. Yet from the 1880s, after a period of indifference to Aboriginal people still camped in the city, the authorities increasingly intervened in their lives. The establishment of the Aborigines Protection Board was to push them into camps, missions and the fringes of society rather than its centre – places where they would no longer be in plain view.

01 Aboriginal people fishing in Woolloomooloo

Bay alongside the Domain in the 1830s.

Image State Library of NSW

01

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Irish, like most Sydneysiders, grew up with the belief that Aboriginal people died out or disappeared from Sydney quite early after colonisation. Hidden in Plain View rectifies this notion of ‘Aboriginal absence’.

This important work should be read by all Sydneysiders – you will not look at Sydney in the same way again. Readers will understand that the Aboriginal history of their city was not just the one they might be familiar with – rock engravings and other remnants of an Aboriginal past – but one of an ongoing Aboriginal presence.

Dr Stephen Gapps Reviewer Dr Stephen Gapps is a curator at the museum and is currently writing a history of the Sydney Wars 1788–1817.

02

VAUCLUSE BAY

a Richard Hill (1830s–1850s)

Sydney Harbour

h

Woollahra House (from 1860s)

d

f

ES Hill DOUBLE (1860s–1870s) BAY RUSHCUTTERS BAY

Rushcutters Bay (1850s–1890s)

Wentworth family

c, g (1820s–1870s)

ROSE BAY

WB Dalley (1880–1881)

Sophia's Spring (?)

b Seven Shillings Beach (1860s–1870s)

Daniel Cooper (1850s)

Rose Bay (1840s–1890s)

e, i Clarke’s dairy (1860s–1880s) Bondi (1870s)

KEY

Aboriginal settlement European resident

0

1

BONDI

km

a

Richard Hill rowed to Lane Cove by Aboriginal people (up to 1850s)

f

Aboriginal people supplying seafood to Woollahra House (1870s)

b

WC Wentworth and Daniel Cooper looking after William Warrell (1850s–1860s)

g

‘Johnny’ (Baswick?) visiting Vaucluse House (1870s)

c

Bobby working for Wentworth family (1860s)

h

Johnny Baswick visiting WB Dalley (1880)

d

Aboriginal people visiting Edward Smith Hill (1860s–1870s)

i

Johnny Baswick dies at EL Clarke’s house (1880)

e

Johnny Baswick visiting EL Clarke, befriends son Bonus (1870s)

02 Map by Paul Irish of cross-cultural

interactions in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, 1850s–1870s.

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > A SARTORIAL SOCIAL HISTORY

READINGS SPRING 2017

A sartorial social history AUSTRALIAN UNIFORMS SINCE 1788

IN BADGE, BOOT, BUTTON, historian Craig Wilcox offers a broad overview of the history, design and manufacture of uniforms in Australia since 1788, demonstrating how civic, corporate or national identities are intricately bound up in the uniforms we wear. From convict slops and full military dress, to glamorous flight attendants and not-so-glamorous Sydney 2000 Olympic Games volunteers, the book explores two centuries of Australian social history refracted through the lens of the uniform.

The book is divided into five chapters which emphasise that uniforms are not simply items of clothing, but also markers of social, cultural and political change. This is particularly evident in the discussion of maritime costumes worn by Olympic swimmers and surf lifesavers (including the burqini, a modesty swimsuit created by Lebanese–Australian designer Aheda Zanetti), which reflect evolving social mores and shifting ideas about the body, leisure and cultural diversity.

Badge, Boot, Button is richly illustrated with a range of archival and contemporary photographs, drawings, prints and posters that invite the reader to re-examine some of the defining moments in Australian history in all their sartorial splendour.

So, for instance, the iconic World War I recruitment poster Coo’ee – won’t you come? highlights how the slouch hat came to symbolise a distinctly Australian soldier. Works from the National Library of Australia collection show us military red coats worn in two different contexts – the first by members of the New South Wales Corps in the watercolour drawing The Arrest of Governor Bligh, 1808, with the cowering figure of the deposed governor dressed in full uniform and medals; and the second by Kuring-gai man Bungaree, the ‘Chief of the Broken Bay Tribe’, depicted by Augustus Earle in the general’s outfit presented by Governor Macquarie in 1822.

Badge, Boot, Button: the story of Australian uniforms

By Craig Wilcox, published by National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2017. Paperback, 166 pages, illustrations, notes, references, index. ISBN 9780642278937. RRP $44.99

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Photographs of football teams and cricket players in ensembles emblazoned with sponsors’ logos remind us of the increasing commercialisation of professional sport, while images of customs and immigration staff clad in combat-style attire reveal contemporary concerns around defence and border security.

Breakout boxes are interspersed throughout the book to create an informal timeline of Australian uniform. While they assist in drawing the reader’s attention to interesting anecdotes, I found them slightly distracting as they interrupted the flow of the narrative and required constant flipping back and forth between pages to continue a story or remember where it had left off.

A stronger graphic or typographic treatment might have helped to differentiate them from the main body, or perhaps they would have been better grouped together at the end of the book to build a structured timeline.

Overall, Badge, Boot, Button provides a very visually appealing introduction to the subject of uniform in Australia. For me it underlined the inherent contradictions in uniform, which simultaneously equalise and include, but also delineate a hierarchy, and thus exclude. I would have enjoyed more analysis about the gendering of uniform, and how the study of uniform intersects with discourses of fashion, textiles and design, and disciplines of museology and material culture studies.

Kim Tao Curator, post-Federation immigration

READINGS SPRING 2017

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01

Museum adds to its in-water historic fleet On 1 July the museum welcomed a stunning new addition to its in-water historic fleet – the elegant Edwardian steam yacht Ena. Designed by Sydney naval architect Walter Reeks, it was built in 1900 for banker and racing yacht enthusiast Thomas Dibbs. At the time it was described as one of the world’s finest examples of a steam yacht.

Ena was later requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy following the outbreak of World War I. Renamed HMAS Sleuth and armed with a three-pound cannon, it patrolled Australian coastal waters for armed German raiders.

At the end of the war, Ena went back into private ownership and had a varied career as a Tasmanian trading vessel and later a trawler, harvesting scallops and fishing for sharks. The yacht sank in 1981 but was salvaged and fully restored by 1987. SY Ena was generously donated to the museum by Mr John Mullen (pictured left with museum Director and CEO Kevin Sumption PSM).

It will be open to visitors for guided tours later this year.

Words Shirani Aththas, image James Brickwood/Fairfax Syndication

02

World Indigenous Peoples Conference 2017 The museum’s Manager of Indigenous Programs, Beau James, and Project Assistant Indigenous Programs, Helen Anu, attended the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Toronto, Canada, in July.

There they shared the museum’s experience in working in culturally appropriate ways with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the success of our recent projects.

The conference, held every three years, brings together experts, practitioners and scholars from around the world to discuss ways to ensure success in Indigenous education. Beau and Helen presented on the success of our Canoe Futures Lawrence Hargrave School project, in which high school students worked with the museum and local elders to build a traditional nawi canoe.

They also presented on the museum’s important collection of Saltwater bark paintings, which will go on display as part of the exhibition Gapu-Mon _ uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country later this year.

The image shows Helen Anu with Rick Hill from the Indigenous Knowledge Centre of Six Nations Polytechnic, holding a wampam belt. Words Helen Anu, image Beau James/ANMM

03

Australian Border Force visits the museum Bailey, the museum’s canine employee whose job it is to chase away seagulls, recently met one of his working dog colleagues. Detector dog Logan was in town with the Australian Border Force, who spent three days at the museum as part of the Sydney International Boat Show.

Their visit highlighted the work that the Australian Border Force does to protect Australia’s borders and featured tours of visiting vessel ABF cutter Cape Nelson, detector dog demonstrations, a display of prohibited seizure items and the opportunity to talk to Australian Border Force personnel. Bailey and ANMM staff member Sharon Babbage are shown with Logan and his handler.

Words Jude Timms, image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > THE STORE

SEE WHAT’S IN STORE IN WHOM WE TRUST: CRISIS AND LEADERSHIP AT SEA Written by a former naval captain and now master of ANMM’s Endeavour replica, In Whom We Trust deals with sea disasters from the perspective of the ships’ masters and captains.

ABORIGINAL MOTIF SILK TIE 100% silk tie with a design

by Aboriginal artist Helen Robertson. Royalties directly benefit the artist and her community.

$59.95 / $53.95 Members

$42.00 / $37.80 Members

MILIUS: LAST COMMANDER OF THE BAUDIN EXPEDITION The first English-language edition of Milius’s fascinating journal entries describing his 1802 stay in Port Jackson.

Illustrated and presented in an attractive slipcase with a French sister volume.

$125.00 / $112.50 Members

MONET DESIGN SILK SCARF Long, feather-light and beautifully soft silk chiffon scarf based on Water lilies and Japanese bridge, c 1897–99, by Claude Monet.

Approx 180 x 55 cm.

$89.95 / $80.95 Members

TITANIC BLOCKS MODEL Build your own Titanic model with Sluban’s 194-piece puzzle kit! Suitable for ages six and above. But beware of icebergs.

Approx 24 x 19 x 4.5 cm.

ARMY BEAR NANCY Nancy has orders to march left-right-left into your life.

Suitable for children a ges three and above, she measures 30 cm high.

$14.95 / $13.45 Members

$49.95 / $44.95 Members

OWL BOOKEND BY ZUNY The perfect size and weight to prop up a stack of heavy books, it’s cute as well as functional. Approx 15.5 x 16.5 x 15.5 cm.

2018 CALENDAR OF WOODEN BOATS Featuring the timeless images of photographer Benjamin Mendlowitz, this calendar will give daily pleasure to all wooden boat lovers.

$99.95 / $89.95 Members

Shop online at store.anmm.gov.au 9.30 am–5 pm 7 days a week | 02 9298 3698 store.anmm.gov.au | Members’ discounts

$35.00 / $31.50 Members

Books DVDs & CDs Brassware Models Gifts Prints Posters Toys Shirts Hats Scarves Souvenirs

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SIGNALS > NUMBER 120 > ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements

The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the support provided to the museum by all our volunteers, members, sponsors, donors and friends.

The museum particularly acknowledges the following people who have made a significant contribution to the museum in an enduring way or who have made or facilitated significant benefaction to it.

Honorary Fellow RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RAN (Rtd)

Honorary Life Members Robert Albert AO RFD RD Vivian Balmer Vice Admiral Tim Barrett AO AM CSC

Maria Bentley Mark Bethwaite AM Paul Binsted Marcus Blackmore AM John Blanchfield Alex Books Ian Bowie Ron Brown OAM Paul Bruce Anthony Buckley Richard Bunting Capt Richard Burgess AM Kevin Byrne Cecilia Caffrey Sue Calwell RADM David Campbell AM Marion Carter Victor Chiang Robert Clifford AO Hon Peter Collins AM QC John Coombs Kay Cottee AO Helen Coulson OAM CMDR Russell Crane AO AM CSM RAN

John Cunneen Laurie Dilks Anthony Duignan Leonard Ely Kevin Fewster AM Bernard Flack Daina Fletcher Sally Fletcher CDR Geoff Geraghty AM Tony Gibbs Hon Brian Gibson AM RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN

Paul Gorrick Lee Graham Macklan Gridley Sir James Hardy KBE OBE RADM Simon Harrington AM Gaye Hart AM Peter Harvie Janita Hercus Philip Hercus AM Anders Hillerstrom Robyn Holt William Hopkins Julia Horne RADM Tony Hunt AO

Marilyn Jenner John Jeremy AM Vice Admiral Peter Jones AO AM DSC

Hon Dr Tricia Kavanagh John Keelty Ian Kiernan AM AO Kris Klugman OAM Jean Lane Judy Lee Keith Leleu OAM Andrew Lishmund James Litten Tim Lloyd Ian Mackinder Casimiro Mattea Jack McBurney Bruce McDonald AM Arthur Moss Patrick Moss Rob Mundle OAM Martin Nakata David O’Connor Gary Paquet Prof John Penrose AM Neville Perry Hon Justice Anthe Philippides Peter Pigott AM RADM Neil Ralph Eda Ritchie AM RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RAN (Ret) John Rothwell AO Kay Saunders AM

His Excellency the Hon Kevin Scarce AC AO AM CSC RAN

David Scott-Smith Sergio Sergi Mervyn Sheehan Ann Sherry AO John Simpson Shane Simpson AM His Excellency the Hon Peter R Sinclair AC AO KStJ (RADM)

Peter John Sinclair AM CSC John Singleton AM Brian Skingsley Eva Skira Bruce Stannard AM J J Stephens OAM Michael Stevens Neville Stevens AO Dr Andrew Sutherland AM Hiroshi Tachibana Frank Talbot AM Mitchell Turner Adam Watson Jeanette Wheildon Mary-Louise Williams AM Nerolie Withnall Founding Members Chad Bull Janette Biber Bruce Webster Margaret Molloy Kaye Weaver David Leigh Yvonne Abadee Maria Tzannes George Fehrenbach Derek Freeman Alan Stennett Rob Hall Ivor MacDonald Nancy Somerville

Ross Wilson Marcia Bass Christopher Harry Malcolm Horsfall Virginia Noel Dennis Rose John Lynch Barry Pemberton John Butler Judy Bayles Allaster McDougall Sybil Jack-Unger Richard Newton James Downie Glenn and Sue Yates Neville Sully John Seymour Peter Magraith Judy Finlason Cliff Emerson David Toyne Kenneth Grundy Geoff Tonkin David Voce David Waghorn and Helen Nickson Vincent Favaloro Colin Randall Denise Taylor Joan and Robert Killingsworth Ian Peters Robert Heussler Dean Claflin Harry Wark John Hamilton Kenneth Swan Mark Latchford James Hawkins Ross and Valda Muller Joyce Groves Lyndyl Beard Walter Pywell John and Marlene Vaughan Peter Wilson Marion Carter and Donald A Finlayson Angela and Teresa Giannandrea Fairlie Clifton Richard and Margaret McMillan Timothy Lewis Maxwell Beever Paul Joyce Petra Blumkaitis and Paul Wahltuch David Robinson Paul Cavanagh Robert and Mary Dick Michael Stacey Peter and Jan Scutts Peter Rowse John Hoey Ronald McJannett John Swanson Herbert White John O’Toole Robert Newell Tim and Kathe Swales Peter Harvey Andrew Kerr Ronald and Toni White Michael Connor Len Watson Pamela Lowbridge John Carter Paul Richardson Peter O’Hare

Stephen Dowsett Simon Barker Bruce Watson Steven White John Bach Bill and Eugenie Forbes Geoffrey Winter Michael and Evelina O’Leary Colin Delaney Mitchell White and Suzanne Peel Adrian Lane Halcyon Evans Bill Fenwick Stephen Smith David Cunningham Peter Inchbold Jean Morgan John Egan Barry Allison Walter Bateman Peter Siebert Michael Turner Stuart Ridland David Nutley Anthony and Katy Palmer Mark Johnson and Lyn Ashby James Littlefield Hilda Farquhar-Smith Robert Holman Bruce Small Garry Kerr William Bixley Derrick Heywood Peter Anderson Neville Rothfield John Brock Graeme Broxam Fred Cory Michael Dowsett Maxwell Surman-Smith Campbell Edmondson Paul Lincoln Tempe Merewether Sydney Jones Stephanie Ross Robert Murphy Derek Moore Anne Liddy Nigel Stoke Alan Ward Philip and Jennifer Andrew Peter Cramer Jeffery Coleman and Lindsey Marwood Allan Bridekirk Bruce and Robyn Tolhurst Chris Clark John and Cecily Ristuccia Andrew Johnston Phillip Good Dawn Springett Greg Swinden Ron and Helen Scobie Edwina Gowans Murray Doyle Adrian and Glenda Hutchings Peter Gill Ian Robinson Trevor Thomas Jeffrey Mellefont Neville Marshall Bob Walton Peter Bailey Andrew St John-Brown Ann Parry

Gary Wilson Kevin Murphy Richard and Christine Diaz Robert and Lynette Schaverien Richard Gardner Rosemary Mahon Daniel and Rosemary Howard Lindsay Rex Valerie Packer Angus Caporn Tom Fawcett Patrick Cooney and Madeleine Degnam Craig Webb William Abbott Neil Brough Susan Tompkins Michael Wise Ann Campbell Ken Woolfe Sarah Marang Chris Mitchell Rob Landis Lloyd Seaforth Poulton and Joan Poulton Margaret White Maxwell Bryan Peter Campbell Peter Cumes Len & Marion Graff Alan Brown Gregory MacMahon Cheryl Manns and Robert Scott Vicky Bourne John Inglis OAM Kenneth Edwards Stephen Robinson Margaret Arthur John Clifton Johan Brinch John Duncan Garry and Janice Sherwood Julie Armour Dawn and Ron Bradner Alexander Bradner Owen Summers Warwick Birrell Jack McBurney Brian and Judith Skingsley Marcus Blackmore AM Anthony Duignan Helen Kenny Honorary Research Associates Lindsey Shaw Jeffrey Mellefont Paul Hundley Rear Admiral Peter Briggs Ian MacLeod

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SIGNALS Signals ISSN 1033-4688 Editor Janine Flew Staff photographer Andrew Frolows Design & production Austen Kaupe Printed in Australia by Pegasus Print Group Material from Signals may be reproduced, but only with the editor’s permission.

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ANMM Council Chairman Mr Peter Dexter am faicd Director and CEO Mr Kevin Sumption psm Councillors Mr David Blackley The Hon Ian Campbell The Hon Peter Collins am qc Prof Sarah Derrington Ms Maria Teresia Fors Rear Admiral Stuart Mayer csc and Bar Mr John Mullen Ms Alison Page The Hon Margaret White ao Foundation partner ANZ Major partners Austal Nine Entertainment NSW Ports Returned and Services League of Australia (Queensland Branch) Partners AccorHotels’ Darling Harbour Hotels ACFS Port Logistics AHEPA AMSA APN Outdoor City of Sydney CoAsIt Contemporanea Progetti Damen DP World Expona Foxtel History Channel Gordon Darling Foundation IAS Fine Art Logistics Institute of Italian Culture Italian Chamber of Commerce Italian Consul-General Kingdom of the Netherlands La Fiamma Laissez-Faire Maritime Container Services Panasonic Property NSW Royal Wolf Holdings Ltd Shipping Australia Limited Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines Cargo Sony Smit Lamnalco Sydney by Sail Pty Ltd Total E & P Transport for NSW

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