Big shoes to fill

David Payne, Curator of Historic Vessels, retires

David Payne has contributed to some of the museum’s most significant projects over more than 30 years. Dr Nigel Erskine profiles the career of this modest quiet achiever whose skills and dedication have made an indelible contribution to the nation’s maritime heritage.

DAVID PAYNE IS RETIRING from the museum after 16 years as Curator of Historic Vessels – and leaving some very big shoes to fill. In fact, David’s association stretches back much further, to 1988 and the frenetic years prior to the museum’s opening, when he was contracted to produce detailed technical drawings of the small-boat fleet and the Cape Bowling Green lighthouse. It was a task for which he was admirably qualified, having cut his teeth in earlier years working in his uncle Alan Payne’s naval architecture studio. Alan Payne is possibly best remembered for his America’s Cup 12 Metres Gretel I and Gretel II, but the studio was also highly regarded in cruising circles for sturdy yachts such as the Koonya class and the beautiful Tasman Seabird designs, and Sydney’s beloved First Fleet class of catamaran ferries. But even more importantly, David brought a passion for boats – a result of his experience racing Lasers and 12-foot skiffs and making several bluewater passages on cruising yachts. The plans provided a record of each boat as it existed when acquired by the museum and were also important for understanding what modifications might have been made during its lifetime. They became the basis for making decisions on their conservation or potential restoration. A particularly good example of David’s work in this regard is the 2018 restoration of MV Krait to its configuration in 1943, when it famously carried commandos on two separate raids on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour. ‘Only Mostyn [Moss] Berryman remained of the team that took part in Jaywick,’ David recalls: His personal story made us all the more aware of how important this project was, and how lucky we were to be working on this restoration. Moss did recall a number of details that we were unsure of, and helped us figure out some other things as best we could. Bringing together information from Moss Berryman, studying old photos and closely examining the boat for evidence of where changes had been made, David and the museum’s shipwrights were able to faithfully restore Krait to its wartime state. Completed on the 75th anniversary of the Operation Jaywick raid, the restoration was praised as a tangible legacy of one of the most audacious operations of the War in the Pacific. David recalls: I know the Australian War Memorial and the various associations who are connected to Krait were really pleased to see how much detail we had gone to, and felt we had achieved a very credible restoration in the face of many unknowns in terms of the exact detail. Moss was also very appreciative whenever we spoke on the phone. David’s work in documenting the museum’s fleet and small-boat collection established an important management tool for the museum, but what about vessels around Australia, many of which had historic significance, but were in private hands? As the national maritime museum, the museum recognised it had a responsibility to encourage private boat owners and organisations to research, document and preserve their vessels, and it was in this context that it established the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV) in association with the Sydney Heritage Fleet. David was the successful applicant for a new curatorial position established in 2004 to set up and manage the ARHV, and since that time the register has grown to include more than 700 vessels from every state and territory in Australia, with a dedicated and searchable website recording the significant details of each vessel and its history. Indeed, acceptance onto the register has become a badge of honour for owners of historic boats, and the ARHV website, boat shows and other events provide opportunities for proud boat owners to get together and display their boats.

David Payne cut his teeth in earlier years working in his uncle Alan Payne’s naval architecture studio

01 David Payne’s plans of the Cape Bowling Green lighthouse, drawn in 2003.

02 David Payne and Hayden Charles building a nawi (tied-bark canoe) at the 2016 Classic & Wooden Boat festival at the museum. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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David was part of the museum team that, in 2012, inaugurated the Nawi Indigenous Watercraft conference that brought together Indigenous people from across Australia

01 David at the tiller of It Happens, a wild-looking 12-metre-long racing yacht that he designed in 1988. Pictured in the Tamar River, Tasmania, in 25-knot winds, it is still racing and winning in 2020. Image David Payne 02 David on the museum’s SY Ena. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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The ARHV also includes a number of Indigenous canoes and David was part of the museum team that, in 2012, inaugurated the Nawi Indigenous Watercraft conference that brought together Indigenous people from across Australia to share their knowledge of the many and varied forms of these ancient craft. The conference proved a great success, reviving interest in traditional canoes and in canoe-building projects as a means of preserving and strengthening Indigenous culture. Nawi is the Gadigal word for canoe, and a spectacular highlight on the opening night of the conference was the launching of several torch-lit nawi on the waters of Darling Harbour – surely the first time that they had been seen on Sydney Harbour in 100 years. Since 2012, David, along with the museum’s Indigenous Programs Manager, has assisted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and community groups in several canoe-building projects. Such projects not only serve to revive traditional knowledge, through the process of gathering and preparing bark, shaping the canoe and finally paddling the finished product; they also go a long way to restoring pride among young Indigenous people and the broader communities they are part of. David says: We have provided positive support to communities engaging with their culture, helped many of the school kids involved develop greater self-esteem and confidence, and brought the story of Aboriginal canoes and watercraft to a much wider audience. In a further extension of his interest in traditional watercraft, in 2017, David joined British and Australian anthropologists working in southern Papua New Guinea researching cultural traditions along the south coast and offshore in the Louisiade Archipelago. His job was to document the wide variety of canoes, outriggers and associated equipment used in the area and to produce drawings of them for potential later publication. The resultant drawings are exquisite and a real testament to David’s technical and artistic skills. Importantly, David’s work in Papua New Guinea has broader significance; recently, he was able to assist staff at the British Museum in interpreting canoe parts and models held in that institution’s Oceania collection.

David has also helped our museum to acquire some important objects for the National Maritime Collection. In 2016, before the America’s Cup auction held in Fremantle, David went through hundreds of Ben Lexcen’s yacht plans to determine which were most important for the museum to bid on. As a result, the museum now holds not only the famous designer’s plans showing the evolution of the 12 Metre Australia II, but also a broader evolution of his work, starting with revolutionary 18-foot skiffs such as Venom and Taipan then moving on to famous ocean racers such as Apollo III, Ginkgo, Ballyhoo and Mercedes III. In the case of Taipan, David had already been instrumental in the restoration of the iconic skiff now displayed in the museum’s Wharf 7 Heritage Centre foyer, so acquiring the original plans was a great addition, extending our knowledge of Lexcen’s early design work and competition racing. In retirement, David and his wife Clare hope to spend more time at their eco-property north of Auckland, New Zealand, and to see more of their sons and their partners, who live away from Sydney. Those of us who have had the privilege of working with David will undoubtedly continue to think of him as a no-nonsense, practical and accomplished person, and continue to call on his body of work for many years to come. He has made an enormous contribution to the maritime heritage of Australia for which we should all be thankful, and we wish him and his family all the best for the future.

Dr Nigel Erskine was the museum’s Head of Research until his retirement last year.