Signals 136

Valerie Taylor

From shark hunter to protector

The Barangaroo Boat

An early colonial vessel

Brickwrecks

Sunken ships in LEGO® bricks

Number

Bearings

From the Director

THE ISSUES WITH COVID-19 continue to affect us all and the museum has now faced two lockdowns over the past 18 months. I am writing this at a time when it is unclear when the lockdown in Sydney will be lifted so I wish all of you, wherever you may be, to be safe and take care.

I also wanted to let you know that after nine incredible years as CEO of the Australian National Maritime Museum I have made the difficult decision to leave, in early 2022, when I will take up a new role as CEO of the Sydney Jewish Museum based in Darlinghurst.

I will have the chance to speak to you again in the next edition of Signals – but for now I wanted to let you, our regular readers, know.

The Australian National Maritime Museum is a superb cultural institution with an enviable track record of cultural excellence with purpose. We achieve this aim by telling stories of our island nation’s relationship with our seas, rivers and lakes in a purposeful way that increases understanding of history and at the same time shines a light on Australia’s future.

As you may know, I have a deep commitment to the positive role that museums can play in our society. My driving passion has always been to advance social justice and human rights, both of which are to be found in the stories we have regularly told, particularly with our First Nations and migrant programs. And this is why the opportunity to work with the Sydney Jewish Museum and its Holocaust survivors is a wonderful opportunity for me. I also have a very personal connection. When working as an assistant curator here at the new Australian National Maritime Museum in 1992, the very first exhibition I curated was the story of Jewish refugees: The Dunera Boys. Developing this exhibition brought me into close contact with the Sydney Jewish Museum, which was also just about to open.

During this time of lockdown and closure I again urge you to visit the museum’s website and take advantage of the many wonderful articles, games and other offerings on our site.

We have just launched our third online game, Wreck Seeker. It follows our success at the annual MAGNA (Museum and Art Galleries National Awards) presentation where the museum’s game Cook’s Voyages earned first place in its category for Interpretation, Learning & Audience Engagement. We were also acknowledged for the Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns) exhibition and for some of our publications. So in a year of depressing news there has been some light!

I want to thank all of the hard-working staff at the museum for their continued diligence in trying times and for your continued support.

Once again take care, and I hope you enjoy this Spring edition of Signals

Kevin

Director and CEO

Sumption psm

Taken at the opening of The Dunera Boys exhibition in 1993, this photograph captures a reunion of the German and Austrian Jewish refugee boys who were sent to Australia during World War II. Image ANMM Jenni Carter

Contents

Spring 2021

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

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 Islander people now deceased.

The museum advises there may be historical language and images that are considered inappropriate today and confronting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Number 136

September to November sea.museum $9.95

2 The Barangaroo Boat

Archaeology and conservation of an early colonial vessel

10 Focus on our collection

Foundation ends the financial year on a high note

14 Valerie Taylor

From shark hunter to protector

22 Fighting an inhuman trade

HM Schooner Sandfly and anti-blackbirding in the Pacific

30 Maritime kastoms

A vivid maritime life of the Torres Strait region

36 Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO® bricks

A long-distance collaboration

40 One Ocean – Our Future

How can we protect it?

44 The Boxing Kangaroo Flag

Uniting Australians behind an unusual symbol

46 Launching the medical chest

Saving lives on the 17th-century seas

54 Sanyo Maru: shipwrecked off Arnhem Land

Preparing an exhibition on a Japanese shipwreck

56 Museum events

Your calendar of term-time and school holiday activities

58 Exhibitions

One Ocean – Our Future and more

62 Collections

Nemo – A novel prototype joins the museum’s collection

64 Australian Register of Historic Vessels

Suburban speedboats – Collingwood mobs and a dredge metamorphosis

68 National Monument to Migration

Swimming south – Canadian migration wins medals for Australia

71 A sense of belonging

Welcoming newly arrived refugees in our neighbourhoods

72 Readings

Smuggled: an Illegal History of Journeys to Australia

74 Readings

Joseph Conrad’s Eastern Voyages – Tales of Singapore and an East Borneo River

76 Currents

Vale John Bach OAM

Cover Valerie Taylor with grey reef sharks, Fakarava, French Polynesia, 2004. Photographer Ron Taylor. ANMM Collection, gift from Valerie Taylor in memory of Ron Taylor.

Nationally, only four Australianbuilt vessels that predate 1850 have been found and archaeologically documented

The Barangaroo Boat was found in the exact location as the proposed new Metro station and had to be removed before further work could be done.

All images Kieran Hosty/ Australian National Maritime Museum for Sydney Metro. Used with permission

The Barangaroo Boat

Archaeology and conservation of an early colonial vessel

In September 2018, archaeologists from the Silentworld Foundation and the Australian National Maritime Museum were invited to participate in the excavation and recovery of an early 19th-century timber boat from the former shoreline of Cockle Bay at Barangaroo, Sydney. Silentworld Foundation and the York Archaeological Trust, assisted by the Australian National Maritime Museum and Ubi3D, are leading the conservation effort to preserve the boat for future generations. Irini Malliaros, Heather Berry, Kieran Hosty, Dr James Hunter and Ian Panter share the story of this project, financed by Sydney Metro and the NSW Government.

THE NEW SOUTH WALES

GOVERNMENT’S long-term strategic rail plan for Sydney incorporates the development of a European-style metro system operating independently of the existing rail network. Sydney Metro was formed in 2015 with four proposed lines. During construction of the Barangaroo Metro Station (part of the City and Southwest Line), archaeologists from Casey & Lowe – working under contract to John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) –discovered the archaeological remains of an early 19th-century wooden clinker-built vessel within the approved the Metro station’s ‘station box’. Cosmos Coroneos from Cosmos Archaeology, a specialist maritime archaeological consultant, was contracted to advise and manage the site during in situ recording, excavation and subsequent removal of the boat.

Initial in situ analysis of the Barangaroo Boat carried out by Casey & Lowe and Cosmos Archaeology indicated that its 12-metre-long, 3-metre-wide surviving hull comprises overlapping, or ‘clinker’, planking with floors and futtocks added secondarily for reinforcement. The hull was coated in pitch, double-planked, and ironfastened. The bottom (bilge) of the boat’s port side is preserved up to the end of the floor timbers.

At midships, the starboard hull appears to be intact to the gunwale while the bow is badly degraded.1 Timber sampling revealed the boat’s hull planks were milled from hardwoods such as Sydney blue gum (Eucalyptus saligna), while some of the roughly hewn futtocks (upper frames, or ‘ribs’) were identified as Banksia species. 2 The vessel’s floors (lower ribs that crossed the keel) are generally either stringybark (Eucalyptus species) or spotted gum (Corymbia maculata). It is very likely that the vessel was locally built – an assertion supported by the species identification of the timber samples. The boat was covered by marine sediments, as well as erosional runoff that had washed into the site. It was also located beneath a stone wall constructed between 1855 and the 1860s, which suggests a much older vintage for the boat, perhaps as early as the 1820s or 1830s. 3

At a national level, only four Australian-built vessels that predate 1850 have been found and archaeologically documented. The Barangaroo Boat is unique because it is the earliest colonial-built vessel in Australia that has been archaeologically recorded, fully excavated, and recovered in its entirety.4

Recovery and Packing

Given the Barangaroo Boat’s archaeological and historical significance, several possible recovery and management options were developed by Casey & Lowe in conjunction with Cosmos Archaeology, International Conservation Services, Sydney Metro and Heritage NSW. They were assisted by interstate and international conservation experts including Vicki Richards from the Western Australian Museum, Dr James Delgardo from SEARCH, Fred Hocker from the Vasa Museum and Ian Panter from the York Archaeological Trust. 5

Recovery options included excavation, documentation and destruction, or a ‘whole structure block lift’, in which the boat would be kept intact, recovered in a block complete with its surrounding soil and sediment, and then excavated off-site in a controlled environment. Alternatively, a controlled, fragmented or disassembled lift could be employed, in which the boat would be carefully recorded, then excavated in situ before being completely disassembled and moved to a controlled environment for conservation and reconstruction.6

The first option was dismissed due to the significance of the vessel. The second approach was investigated initially but then abandoned, based on engineering difficulties and the higher potential to damage the item. The boat’s surviving hull lay directly over Sydney sandstone substrate, and tunnelling underneath was not possible without putting it at considerable risk. The small size of the boat and the corrosion of the fastenings also meant that there was little holding the timber together.

Consequently, based on advice from the international conservation experts, the decision was made in early October 2018 to completely excavate, disassemble and recover the boat’s surviving components.

Assisting the team recovering and recording the boat were archaeologists Irini Malliaros and Paul Hundley (Silentworld Foundation), and Dr James Hunter and Kieran Hosty (Australian National Maritime Museum). Once exposed, the various layers of hull structure were assigned context numbers and each timber carefully tagged with a unique identifying number, which was placed at its forward end. All timbers were then accurately documented in situ with 3D recording techniques such as photogrammetry, as well as standard digital photography and videography. A variety of implements and tools, including plastic plates, trowels, icing spatulas and cake slicers, were used to separate each hull element from its neighbour before it was carefully removed. This process could take several hours or a whole day, depending on the condition of the timbers. In the case of the boat’s ceiling (inner) planks, the surviving wood had the consistency and structural integrity of soggy Weet-Bix.

Under the supervision of Cos Coroneos from Cosmos Archaeology and Karina Acton from International Conservation Services, during the recovery each timber was placed in a supporting cradle and transported to an artefact processing area, where it was photographed and archaeologically recorded in greater detail. Its physical condition and state of preservation was noted, after which the item was wrapped in geofabric soaked with fresh water. To prevent the timbers from drying out and becoming damaged while in storage prior to conservation, all were sealed within black plastic sheeting secured with cable ties.

The Barangaroo Boat is unique because it is the earliest colonial-built vessel in Australia that has been archaeologically recorded, fully excavated and recovered in its entirety

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01 Dr James Hunter excavating the lower bilge area of the starboard side of the Barangaroo Boat. Because of the fragile nature of the timbers, the archaeologists worked from planks placed over the hull.

02 Irini Malliaros from the Silentworld Foundation and two conservators from International Conservation Services splinting a ceiling plank prior to lifting. The planks were so soft they required additional support to recover them.

01

Irini Malliaros, Heather Berry and Paul Hundley from the Silentworld Foundation placing timbers into conservation tanks. The timbers are held by racks which have been modified to preserve the shape of the timbers during the lengthy conservation treatment.

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While the work was being carried out, the fragile timbers had to be kept wet to prevent further degradation.

Structural elements that exhibited a pronounced curve or shape were mounted on a flat wooden support or secured within boxes fitted with shaped metal brackets to preserve each timber’s shape as it was worse right after separation from the rest of the hull. This step proved critical, as it preserved the original shape of each timber – a detail necessary to ensure the boat’s successful reassembly and reconstruction. Once securely packed and numbered, the timbers were placed in two 13-metre-long refrigerated shipping containers. They were cooled to an internal temperature of 4° Celsius to minimise water loss, biological activity and structural degradation. This container remained their home until the conservation process commenced.

Conservation and 3D Recording

Sydney Metro, the Barangaroo Boat’s owner, now faced a significant dilemma. Conservation of a large, waterlogged wooden vessel of such immense historical and archaeological significance had not been undertaken in Australia since recovery and conservation of the stern port quarter of the 1629 Batavia shipwreck in the mid-1970s.

While in storage, the boat’s timbers were carefully monitored by Dr Ian MacLeod (Heritage Conservation Solutions) and Dave McBeath (OHM Consultants). At the same time, Sydney Metro engaged the York Archaeological Trust and Silentworld Foundation to develop and implement a conservation and facilities plan. Their expertise and involvement allowed for implementation of best-practice techniques developed in England and Wales during recent archaeological conservation projects such as the Newport Medieval Ship, the Swash Channel Wreck and HMS Invincible Ian Panter was later contracted to be the supervising conservator for the Barangaroo Boat’s conservation, while Silentworld Foundation assumed overall project management. Sydney Metro established a waterlogged wood conservation facility and heritage store to accommodate this work.

The Barangaroo Boat conservation and reconstruction approach includes initial cleaning, detailed recording, chemical treatment, freeze-drying, and eventual reconstruction and interpretation. Significantly, it also allowed for conservators and archaeologists from New South Wales to be invited to participate in the project at each stage in order to build future capacity in the treatment of waterlogged archaeological wood.

Inspection and cleaning of hull timbers was relatively straightforward and carried out immediately upon their removal from the refrigerated containers. Each timber was unpacked, photographed and inspected for damage (including mould and/or sulphur deposits). A core group of archaeologists and conservators, assisted by volunteers, cleaned the timbers with fresh water, plastic scrapers, toothbrushes, dental picks and wooden skewers. Each timber was completely cleaned of sediment to inhibit microbial activity, as well as to reveal fine surface details and allow for effective penetration of conservation treatment chemicals. The individual timbers were then recorded with a state-of-the-art Artec Structured Light Scanner. The scanner produced thousands of electronic images that were combined digitally to generate incredibly accurate and detailed 3D models. This approach, known as the Annotated Scans Method (ASM), was initially developed in 2017 by 3D recording company Ubi3D in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Agency of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Ubi3D’s Thomas Van Damme was contracted by Sydney Metro to scan the Barangaroo Boat and instruct project archaeologists in ASM.

This method is time and cost efficient, generating far more detailed images and information than traditional recording methods such as full-scale 2D tracing by hand. It is also superior to the combination of FaroArm laser scanner and Rhinoceros Computer-Assisted Drawing software, which was the existing professional standard in digital shipwreck timber recording. Structured light scanning results in high-resolution 3D colour models that are digitally annotated with Rhinoceros software. The annotated scans reveal patterns and details in the timbers and produce a data set that is invaluable to the interpretation and eventual reconstruction of the vessel. Unannotated scans can also be used to produce exact 3D printed replicas of individual timbers, or even the entire boat.

Digital 3D replicas can be compared with the boat’s actual timbers after conservation, and during subsequent reconstruction and display to test their shrinkage and dimensional stability. Models can also be utilised prior to completion of the conservation process, to assist development of computer-based and physical models to determine the Barangaroo Boat’s original hull form. The same models will also facilitate reassembly of the original timbers when the boat is ultimately reconstructed and displayed.

3D replicas can be compared with the boat’s actual timbers after conservation and during subsequent reconstruction and display

01

Paul Hundley from the Silentworld Foundation places polyethylene glycol (PEG) into a conservation tank. Depending on the size of the tank, 225–450 kilograms of PEG were added at a time to slowly increase the concentration of PEG up to 40 per cent.

02

Irini Malliaros from the Silentworld Foundation using a structured light scanner to record the Barangaroo Boat. The scanner takes thousands of individual images which are then processed to reproduce a 3D model of the timber.

Following the 3D recording regimen, the boat’s approximately 300 individual timber elements were placed into four water-filled tanks for desalination and additional cleaning. This too was an essential stage as it reduced the concentration within each timber of harmful contaminants such as chlorides from the saline marine environment. These contaminants could detrimentally impact long-term preservation of the timbers, and potentially limit the success of proposed conservation treatments.

Following a soak in fresh tap water, each timber entered the first official stage of active conservation: treatment with the chelating agent ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disodium salt. EDTA is used to reduce iron in cultural materials and is therefore particularly relevant to the field of maritime archaeological conservation. In the case of the Barangaroo Boat, it was used to mitigate iron staining on timbers that resulted from corrosion of iron fasteners. The removal of iron is an important phase in waterlogged wood conservation as it can negatively interact with the next stage of treatment: consolidation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) wax. The reaction between iron and PEG can contribute to long term degradation of timbers after the conservation process is complete.

EDTA was added to the treatment tanks to assist removal of iron staining. Subsequently, each timber was manually cleaned by conservators, archaeologists and volunteers. Upon completion of the EDTA phase, there was no need for further manual handling of the timbers. Each tank was once again filled with fresh water, and a broad-spectrum biocide was added to control microbial activity within the timbers and surrounding water column.

The consolidation phase of the conservation process then commenced. Use of PEG wax is a well-researched method that has been applied with a high degree of success over the last 50 years, both in Australia and internationally. The internal cellular structure of waterlogged timber is often heavily degraded, and water present within the wood fills the empty spaces in cells. This allows the timber to retain its original shape. However, if the timber is allowed to dry out, the water within the cells evaporates and resulting surface tension causes them to collapse. This can cause catastrophic damage, including severe shrinking and warping of the original timber surface and structure. PEG wax is added to the treatment tanks in incrementally larger concentrations and mitigates the damage to the timbers by gradually replacing the water in their cellular structure.

Under the supervision of Ian Panter and Silentworld Foundation’s conservator Heather Berry, the concentration of PEG wax is slowly being increased in a process that will take several months to complete. The final percentage is dependent upon each timber’s uptake of PEG, as well as its level of preservation. Conservation of the Barangaroo Boat’s hull represents the first instance in which EDTA treatment and PEG wax consolidation have been used on waterlogged Australian native timbers. Consequently, near-constant monitoring is required to ensure the timbers are reacting positively to treatment, in a manner that is expected.

A work in progress

Currently, the Barangaroo Boat’s hull timbers are resting in their treatment tanks, supported on wooden frames to ensure maximum chemical penetration during the consolidation phase of the conservation process. Once the final concentration of PEG has been attained, the next conservation phase will commence. All timbers will be vacuum freeze-dried, when residual water in the wood is slowly converted to ice and then vapour under low temperature and pressurized conditions. Once completely dried, the timbers will be cleaned of residual PEG wax before they are reassembled to reconstruct what could be Australia’s earliest known colonial-built vessel.

Ultimately, it is planned that the reconstructed hull will be exhibited alongside associated archaeological artefacts and features, such as sandstone blocks from the 1850s wharf. This tableau will allow us to tell the story of this significant and unique Australian watercraft.

The Barangaroo Boat project is financed by Sydney Metro and the New South Wales Government.

Archaeologists Irini Malliaros and Paul Huntley, and conservator Heather Berry, are with the Silentworld Foundation. Ian Panter is Head of Conservation, the York Archaeological Trust. Kieran Hosty is Manager, Maritime Archaeology, and Dr James Hunter is a maritime archaeologist with the Australian National Maritime Museum.

1 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, Version 4, Casey & Lowe, Cosmos Archaeology, International Conservation Services, 2018, p. 13.

2 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, p. 14.

3 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, pp. 9–13.

4 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, p. 23.

5 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, p. 3.

6 Barangaroo Station, Sydney Metro, Archaeological Relics Management Plan, pp. 39–48.

Focus on our collection

Foundation ends the financial year on a high note

Despite facing the same challenges as all cultural institutions in these COVID-19 times, the Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation has been able to expand on the museum’s collection, and has gone from strength to strength. The museum Foundation’s Head of Acquisitions Development, Daina Fletcher, reports.

Exhibition view of Mariw Minaral featuring works of art by Alick Tipoti donated by Christine Sadler (an Honorary Ambassador to the museum), Alick Tipoti and the Foundation. Exhibition dates extended to 2022. ANMM image

THE PAST 18 MONTHS has seen some of the most challenging times for the museum in its 30-year history. In the midst of the dislocation caused by the global pandemic we have made great efforts to build even stronger connections with our audiences, members and supporters, across the country and around the globe.

Readers might think that the Foundation’s sole purpose is to raise funds, but our scope is much wider.

Throughout 2020–21 – certainly years to remember – the Foundation has involved itself in sourcing and acquiring historic objects and significant works of art; supporting the conservation, interpretation and operation of vessels at the museum’s wharves; working with migrant communities to record and present their stories; and partnering with big-hearted benefactors who wish to make a significant contribution via donation, bequest or gifts-in-kind. Thank you!

The Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation was reshaped this past year with the appointment of VIP Manager, Matt Lee, and Head of Acquisitions Development, Daina Fletcher. Our role is to work with our supporter communities to develop and showcase the National Maritime Collection and promote how our curators, collection managers, designers and interpreters tell Australia’s stories.

Significantly, this past year has seen many major initiatives by donors to support the acquisition and exhibition of important historic material, special objects and works of art. They cover the cultural practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as the kaleidoscope of settler cultures around Australia.

This support is incredibly important to the museum for it is both a catalyst and an enabler. The wonderful support of our donors, big and small, makes these exhibitions possible.

Our role is to work with our supporter communities to develop and showcase the National Maritime Collection

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns) is a major exhibition launched last year with the support of the Foundation and key benefactors such as Christine Sadler of the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler Program. It features the work of Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islander) artist, Alick Tipoti, whose art is centred on the seas, cosmologies and stories of his community. This impressive exhibition featured a number of works donated by supporters and also by Alick Tipoti himself through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.

In addition, the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler Program has further strengthened its commitment by funding the development of an immersive multimedia experience by an innovative team of creatives and Elders from the Yolŋu community of north-east Arnhem Land, known as The Mulka Project. The gift is a high note marking the year’s end, and the work will be at the centre of a new visitor experience to be launched next year. The gallery will explore the deep histories of land, sea and sky. A highlight of the year has been in the area of Australia’s defence history in the gift of funds to support the purchase of a collection of historic material relating to the life of Lieutenant Hubert Edward ‘Ted’ Carse and his involvement in Operation Jaywick in 1943. Carse was the navigator who motored MV Krait to Singapore to disembark its commando team for a clandestine and bold raid on enemy shipping. This collection was made possible with the support of the Australian Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account and the generosity of the families of Ted Carse’s brothers. It has recently been put on display in the museum’s Navy Gallery as a keynote of Australian maritime operations during World War II.

A milestone gift is the photographic collection of ocean conservation pioneers Ron and Valerie Taylor, gifted to the museum by Valerie Taylor AM

Other gifts in the realm of ocean science include the contemporary data collection vessel, the Australiandesigned and built uncrewed surface vehicle, Ocius Nemo, currently being prepared for exhibition in One Ocean –Our Future

This year one of our major initiatives has focused on the stories and lives of the settler cultures: migrants and their descendants

01 The luxury steam yacht Ena boasts exquisite Edwardian details. ANMM image

02 Members of the Chairman’s Circle and volunteers work the ropes on Duyfken, a donation to museum from The Duyfken 1606 Foundation supported by the ANMM Foundation. Image Matt

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01

In addition to donations of money or significant objects, we deeply appreciate all bequests made in support of our mission and understand the sensitivity surrounding gifts of this nature. This year we have received several bequest pledges, including:

• The remarkable replica Harrison chronometers made by Mr Norman Banham, of which replicas H1 and H4 are currently exhibited on loan in our Under Southern Skies gallery, which explores navigation and voyaging by European and First Nations peoples.

• A bequest from Maryland USA in support of the HMB Endeavour replica.

Support for our waterborne exhibits through the Foundation is critical. Our wharves are special places, with huge potential to excite audiences through vessel displays and events connected with them. Visitors can go on board or, at special times, sail. The vessels’ themes cover leisure sailing, world voyaging, immigration and defence history, especially on Krait (jointly managed with the Australian War Memorial), the destroyer HMAS Vampire and submarine HMAS Onslow. The vessels have high conservation and operational demands, and private support is a key factor in their success.

Other greatly valued gifts were:

• A customised air-conditioning system for HMAS Onslow designed and installed by Mr Ashak Nathwani, with funds from the Nathwani family in honour of the late Mrs Samin Nathwani. The system will enable the vessel to be opened to visitors on very hot days.

• This year the replica Endeavour has been joined at the wharves by the Dutch replica vessel Duyfken, a gift from The Duyfken 1606 Foundation, with funds for its transfer to the museum supported by the Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation. Together, the vessels flesh out the story of early European voyaging to Australia.

• The graceful SY Ena, an elegant 1899 steam yacht. Gifted to the museum by John and Jacqui Mullen, Ena adds a touch of style and elegance to our maritime profile and offers opportunities for supporter engagement sailing. The museum has developed a supporter group to conserve and fund SY Ena. A community is now congregating around this elegant Edwardian vessel, along with significant gifts to the conservation fund from regular supporters David and Jennie Sutherland. Funds were directed to the first phase of deck replacement, with the vessel soon due for slipway maintenance.

In recognition of their support, the museum council endorsed Dr David Sutherland, Mrs Jennie Sutherland and Mr Norman Banham as honorary museum Ambassadors and Ms Valerie Taylor AM as an Honorary Fellow. Once again, we thank them for their tremendous support!

The museum always looks to recognise its audiences, supporters, visitors and viewers more broadly in our exhibitions and programs and this year one of our major initiatives has focused on the stories and lives of the settler cultures among us: migrants and their descendants.

Another big exhibition initiative this year was a powerful interactive experience entitled A Mile in My Shoes, which presented visitors with the stories of 35 migrants to Australia, while walking or wearing their shoes. Developed with the Empathy Museum in the United Kingdom, this program created new ground for the museum as an outdoor performative audience experience.

On Harmony Day, 21 March, Australia’s National Monument to Migration – formerly named the Welcome Wall – was christened by the Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSD (Retd) at a ceremony honouring close to 850 migrants, more than 400 of whom donated to the Foundation’s Migration Heritage Fund. This fund supports acquisitions and programs related to migrant histories including the National Monument to Migration.

While the year has certainly been challenging, it has been extremely rewarding as we reach out to our audiences with tailored programming amid the uncertainty of the current pandemic.

We have so much planned for the coming year, so why not get involved?

To find out more please visit our website sea.museum/ support/donate

Your support is our strength!

If reading this article has inspired you to want to do more to support the museum and to become involved in the Foundation and its activities, we would love to hear from you. Why not consider joining the Chairman’s Circle or the Ena Sanctum? Donating historic objects, funds or making a bequest makes you eligible to take part in the Foundation’s activities, including special talks, behind-the-scenes tours, vessel cruises and exclusive launch opportunities.

If you would like to support the museum or hear more about our Foundation programs, please contact Daina Fletcher, the Foundation’s Head of Acquisitions Development at daina.fletcher@sea.museum or Matt Lee, VIP manager at matt.lee@sea.museum or by phone on 02 9298 3777. All gifts are tax deductible.

The Taylors quickly gained a reputation for fearless, cutting-edge underwater photography

Valerie Taylor diving in freshwater in the Piccaninnie Ponds Conservation Park, South Australia, 1960s. Photographer Ron Taylor ANMM Collection Gift from Valerie Taylor through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Ron Taylor. Reproduced courtesy Valerie Taylor

Valerie Taylor

From shark hunter to protector

Valerie Taylor AM (born 1935) has long been one of Australia’s leading figures in ocean conservation. Less well known, however, is that Ms Taylor started her underwater life as a spear-fishing champion and shark hunter in the 1950s. With her late husband Ron (1934–2012) she pioneered underwater photography and cinematography in Australia, and put down her spear to become a passionate advocate for ocean conservation. Daina Fletcher and Cay-Leigh Bartnicke plumb the depths of more than half a century to recount the achievements of this amazing woman.

Shark Hunter, the couple’s first underwater documentary, made with Ben Cropp, was sold internationally in 1963. Slaughter at Saumarez and Revenge of a Shark Victim followed in 1964 and 1965. The Taylors quickly gained a reputation for fearless, cutting-edge underwater photography and for their deep practical understanding of shark behaviours. They made the Barrier Reef TV series and Taylors’ Inner Space, featuring their encounters with the marine life of the east coast of Australia and the western Pacific.

In 1967, the Taylors travelled the Great Barrier Reef with a Belgian scientific exhibition on a full-length survey of the reef, led by expedition sponsor the University of Liege. Some of the footage was used in director Pierre Levie’s 1969 film La grande Barriere de Corail. That seven-month voyage changed their attitude to the underwater world, and Ron and Valerie shifted focus from spear-fishing to shark conservation.

VALERIE AND RON TAYLOR became household names when they introduced the underwater world to Australians through the cinema newsreel, Movietone News, and then in the new medium of television. They became two of the world’s top shark specialists – Ron, the can-do action-man cinematographer who designed early underwater housings for camera equipment, and Valerie his bold, beautiful photographer partner. Together, they swam among sharks, filming them at breathtakingly close quarters.

As the couple’s expertise grew, international film contracts followed. They filmed Blue Water, White Death in 1971 and then Steven Spielberg’s Hollywood blockbuster Jaws in 1975. They filmed the shark scenes with the great white sharks of South Australia’s Spencer Gulf and advised on the double-scale mechanical-shark scenes. While the Taylors saw the film and its super-sized shark as a mythological story, equivalent to King Kong and its huge gorilla, the viewing public was largely terrorised.

To dispel fear and to prevent the indiscriminate slaughter of sharks that followed the film, the Spielberg studio sent Ron and Valerie on an American media tour, when they worked tirelessly to increase awareness, protect swimmers and divers, and save threatened species. They developed a stainless steel chain-mail diving suit and partnered with research organisations to experiment with shark repellent and various shark-protection devices, including banded sea snake patterned suits and electronic pods.

Over the years the Taylors’ research into shark behaviour and their vocal defence of sharks and the marine environment resulted in the protection of grey nurse and great white sharks in Australian waters. Valerie’s expertise across marine species was soon valued beyond her popular audience. In the 1990s she was appointed to the New Wales Government Fisheries Scientific Committee, which provided advice on the listing and management of threatened species, habitats and communities.

In 2012, a marine park off South Australia’s west coast was renamed the Neptune Islands Group (Ron and Valerie Taylor) Marine Park in the Taylor’s honour. The area is now a protected habitat for great white sharks, Australian sea lions, long-nosed fur seals and migratory birds.

Many environmental and photography awards followed.

Valerie received the prestigious American Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences NOGI award in 1981. In 1986 she was appointed Ridder (Knight) of the Order of the Golden Ark by his Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and, in 1997 won the prestigious American Nature Photographer of the Year award for her picture of a boy swimming with a whale shark in Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia.

In 1998 the couple’s book Blue Wilderness won the Gold Palm Award at the World Festival of Underwater Pictures and, in 2000, Ron and Valerie were inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in the Cayman Islands.

In Australia, Ron and Valerie Taylor received the Serventy Conservation Medal from the Australian Wildlife Preservation Society and the Lifetime of Conservation Medal from the Australian Geographic Society. In 2010, both Ron and Valerie were appointed Members of the Order of Australia for their work in conserving marine animals and habitats, and in 2011 they were inducted into the Australian Cinematographers Society Hall of Fame.

Ron died in 2012, and Valerie continues to play an active role in marine conservation in Australia and overseas. She still dives: most recently in early 2020 in Papua New Guinea, and in Fiji where Ron and Valerie had worked with the local community to recreate a shark habitat as a marine reserve.

Earlier this year Valerie, aged 85, found her life and legacy featured through a different lens in director Sally Aitken’s biopic entitled Playing with Sharks: the Valerie Taylor Story, produced by WildBear Entertainment. The award-winning film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and also headlined the Gold Coast Film Festival. As award-winning natural history producer Bettina Dalton says, ‘What Jane Goodall is to chimps, or Steve Irwin is to crocs, Valerie is to sharks’.

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A pair of harlequin shrimp tucking a starfish leg into their home, a bowl-shaped sponge, Tulamben Bali 2012. Photographer Valerie Taylor

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In 1997 Valerie won the American Nature Photographer of the Year for this photograph of A whale shark swimming with a boy in Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia. Photographer Valerie Taylor

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Together, they swam amongst sharks, filming them at breathtakingly close quarters

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Ron and Valerie Taylor with the tools of their trade at Seal Rocks, New South Wales, 1950s. The couple gave up spearfishing in the 1960s but carried a spear gun in case they encountered sharks.

Photographer Mark Heighes

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Close-up of the central mouth of a holothurian with one of its arms inserted into the mouth being sucked clean of plankton, Komodo, Indonesia, 1974.

Photographer Valerie Taylor

Ron, the can-do action-man cinematographer … and Valerie his bold, beautiful photographer partner

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In 2000 Ron and Valerie were inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame

Valerie Taylor’s life has been lived literally immersed in the world’s oceans. Her personal journey and career arc from shark hunter to protector is an inspiration, and a call to action for many. The museum has enjoyed a long association with Valerie Taylor AM and sees her as a national icon of ocean conservation, personifying the museum’s vision to advocate the importance and sustainability of the world’s oceans by communicating ocean literacy.

In 2007, Valerie and Ron generously donated a selection of their diving, photography and shark research collection to the museum. This gift included the legendary chain-mail protective suit, underwater cine and still cameras, waterproof housings, spears, shark-calling artefacts from Papua New Guinea, shark repellent devices such as the Shark Pod, as well as artefacts from their dives on the Yongala and Dunbar wrecks, deep-water rebreathing equipment, depth gauges, and awe-inspiring shark jaws.

This material has tremendous interpretive potential across themes as broad as ocean sciences, art and shipwreck, and in collection areas inspired by the sea. It will elicit emotions that oscillate between wonderment, awe, fear, danger and the sublime. The artefacts have featured in many museum exhibitions, and the chainmail suit remains on display in the Lower Gallery.

Most recently, Valerie Taylor donated her photographic collection of about 10,000 images. This acquisition of colour transparencies represents her life’s work, complementing the artefacts already in the National Maritime Collection. Together, they offer visitors and viewers in Australia and around the world access to, and understanding of, the ocean environment via one of Australia’s best and most enduring ocean communicators. It is especially important in this period of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

As an award-winning photographer, Valerie’s imagery is outstanding in its quality and range. She has captured a diversity of species from seaweeds and corals to sharks in habitats as diverse as the Great Barrier Reef, the Indo-Pacific and freshwater lake systems. The subjects cover natural history habitats over many decades, records of coastal communities, and craft in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Pacific. The images also cover popular culture keynotes such as the film Jaws , with its macro-mechanical great white shark paired with actual shark footage.

Again, the interpretive potential is tremendous, both for the subject range generally and for the baseline data sets of imagery it offers science in charting ocean habitat change.

Museum curator Cay-Leigh Bartnicke notes the scientific value of the collection:

Valerie’s photographic collection is an amazing time capsule of life in Australian and international waters. It was unusual for the average person to be able to travel as far and as widely as the Taylors did by the 1960s. Their underwater film-making career granted them access to remote islands, uncharted dive sites and spots known only to locals. Often, if they served as reliable filming locations, this meant revisiting the areas on multiple occasions. They visited places like Papua New Guinea up to five times. Valerie and her husband were also able to dive the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef during the six-month Belgian scientific expedition, seeing all the nooks and crannies of the world’s largest coral reef.

‘The photos allow us to quantify our past and help inform management plans for our oceans’ future’

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Valerie testing the chain-mail suit with blue sharks off the coast of California, 1980s. Photographer Ron Taylor

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Valerie Taylor (left) met artist Marina DeBris (right) with the Foundation’s Daina Fletcher at Marina’s exhibition Beach Couture: a haute mess at the museum in March 2021. Photograph ANMM Megan Baehnisch

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While Ron built custom camera housings and was the self-taught underwater cameraman, Valerie was behind their narratives and was often the human subject. Valerie also had her own film camera, which she used to take behind-the-scenes shots of all their work. These photos capture her legacy and are what predominantly make up the museum’s collection. Valerie’s photographs record places and ecosystems that span decades, giving conservation scientists a peek into our planet’s marine history. The ramping up of climate change has had many unforeseen effects on marine populations and their habitats. Changing ecosystem compositions, population numbers and species distributions are some of the ways our marine life are being affected, and Valerie’s collection has captured a moment in time before some of these began.

For locations that the Taylors visited more than once, their images give a unique insight into localised changes over time. Some shots show healthier reef beds, larger schooling populations and unusual fish that are hard to find today. These types of records are rare and conservation scientists are employing a new enthusiasm towards multidisciplinary research in finding these time capsules of our planet. The photos allow us to quantify our past and help inform management plans for our oceans’ future.

Useful information has been found in museum collections, old photo albums, fishery logbooks and more. Museums hold a wealth of knowledge in their collections that is still to be tapped, including a large amount of biological data from donated samples. Valerie and Ron Taylor had a long working relationship with the Australian Museum and donated rare samples from their expeditions to extraordinary locations, including shells and fish.

The museum plans to work with the University of New South Wales to publish Valerie Taylor’s imagery from specific locales as part of the citizen science project iNaturalist and to work with other researchers to assist with identification. We are also developing a web-learning program with WildBear Entertainment to create a legacy project from footage and stills to fit within the museum’s science and sustainability program.

In recognition of the tremendous support Valerie Taylor AM has given the museum, and her internationally significant and enduring protection and promotion of the marine environment, our governing Council recently awarded her our well-deserved highest honour – that of Honorary Fellow.

Daina Fletcher is the museum’s ANMM Foundation Head of Acquisitions Development and Cay-Leigh Bartnicke is the Assistant Curator – Special Projects.

Fighting an inhuman trade

HM Schooner Sandfly and anti-blackbirding in the Pacific

The Australian National Maritime Museum was recently gifted two private journals by Royal Navy Chief Gunner William Henry Bound, written during his period of service on the Australia Station in the 1870s. The journals were donated by siblings Shirley Dentith and Adrian Bound, who are William Bound’s great-grandchildren, and were passed down to them by way of their father and grandfather. Dr James Hunter discusses Bound’s service, Australia’s illegal trade in Pacific Islander labourers during the latter half of the 19th century, and the significant role played by a small flotilla of Australian-built naval vessels to suppress it.

William Twizell Wawn, Recruiting Labourers in the So. [South] Sea Islands , 1892.

Image courtesy State Library of New South Wales

WILLIAM BOUND SERVED as chief gunner aboard HM Schooner Sandfly, one of five vessels specially designed and constructed for the Royal Navy to interdict the illegal labour trade known as ‘blackbirding’. This illicit activity occurred in ships that operated in the waters of northern Australia and the South Pacific islands during the 1870s and 1880s. ‘Blackbirding’ was a colloquial term used to describe the coercion of Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Islands (and Australia) – through deception and/or kidnapping – to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in distant countries. In colonial Australia, plantation owners in New South Wales and Queensland were notorious for sending blackbirding vessels to the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Easter Island, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, and the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago (Papua New Guinea) to lure islanders away with the promise of well-paid work. Instead, most were exposed to poor living conditions and minimal – or no –pay for hard labour on sugarcane and other plantations. The practice was in operation between 1863 and 1908. The British government declared blackbirding illegal in 1868 and commissioned construction of the schooners in Sydney to aid its suppression by intercepting blackbirding vessels and incarcerating their crews.

All five anti-blackbirding schooners were built at the Millers Point (Sydney) shipyard of John Cuthbert according to the same design, with a length between perpendiculars of 80 feet (24.4 metres), beam of 18 feet, 6 inches (5.6 metres), and a depth of hold measuring 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 metres). Native Australian timber was used exclusively in their construction and included grey ironbark (Eucalyptus siderophloia) for the keel, frames of blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) and blue gum (Eucalyptus saligna), with kauri ( Agathis australis) for the external (hull) and internal (ceiling) planking. All architectural elements were assembled entirely with copper fasteners and hardware, and the hull beneath the waterline was clad in Muntz metal ‘of 18, 20 [and] 22 oz., over chunam’ (a water-resistant plaster or putty made from quicklime and sand, which had its origins in Asian and Indian shipbuilding).1 Sandfly was launched on 5 December 1872 and commenced naval service the following year. Bound joined the vessel on 22 May 1873 and served aboard it until April 1876.

The model was manufactured by J.W. Owlett during his period of service as Renard ’s Quartermaster between 1875 and 1877. Image courtesy Royal Museums Greenwich

‘As the ship rolls so the water rushes in and out of the cabins (if I may call them such, for they are more like horse boxes)’

The schooners were assigned to the Australia Station, an independent command of the Royal Navy established in 1859 that was responsible for the waters around the Australian continent. By the 1870s, its boundaries of influence had expanded to include Papua New Guinea, Melanesia and Polynesia, all of which contained islands or island groups that were sovereign realms, colonies, or protectorates under the control and/or protection of the British Government and Royal Navy.

William Bound was born at Portsea (Hampshire) on 20 January 1841 and joined the Royal Navy on 22 December 1855 at the age of 14. He served as a seaman for four years before being promoted to Petty Officer in 1859. Bound was assigned the rank of Gunner 2nd Class on 15 September 1870 and was detached to the 104-gun First Rate ship of the line, HMS Royal Adelaide. He travelled to Australia aboard the merchant ship Clara and briefly joined the crew of the 22-gun corvette HMS Clio in Sydney (where it was serving as the flagship of the Australia Station) before being transferred to Sandfly. The voyage to Sydney did not start off well: Clara was prevented from departing Plymouth for nearly two weeks due to inclement weather, and it was while still stuck in port that Bound learned his wife had given birth to a son, on 5 January 1873. As Clara ’s departure was imminent, he was unable to visit his

Working 1:24 scale model of HM Schooner Sandfly ’s sister-vessel Renard

family and instead ‘sent [a] Telegram on shore at once to Mrs. [Bound]’. 2 He would not meet his son until the boy was three years old.

Clara finally departed for Sydney on 11 January, but the vessel was in very poor condition and uncomfortable for its passengers, as Bound noted in a journal entry during the voyage:

As the ship rolls so the water rushes in and out of the cabins (if I may call them such, for they are more like horse boxes). As for our mess berth it is a rough place the same as the cabins and just as wet, for instance if you go in to tea, then if you are not quick in drinking it, besides getting wet yourself, your tea is half salt water from the leaks overhead. Such is our personal comforts taking passage to Australia in Ship Clara. 3

The cold and wet conditions may have contributed to the sudden death of one of Bound’s shipmates, Navigating Sub-Lieutenant Purchase, who reportedly ‘was taken ill [on the afternoon of 12 January] and at 7 o’clock in the evening … expired’.4 Clara ’s overall condition was so poor that, following an inspection of the lower deck and aft accommodation areas on 21 January, the senior Royal Navy officers on board ordered the vessel’s captain to enter the nearest port. The captain protested, but eventually turned his ship around and headed back to Plymouth two days later.

By now, the naval personnel had ‘taken charge of steering the Ship’ given Clara ’s ‘very poor … company [that were] few in number’. 5 The whole experience left an impression on Bound, who noted a new-found disdain for merchant ships and hoped ‘it will never fall to my lot [to take passage in one] any more’.6 Clara finally arrived back in Plymouth on 28 January.

Following approximately two weeks of repairs at the British naval dockyard at Devonport, Clara embarked for Australia for the second time, on 15 February. The ship was now in much better condition and Bound noted in his journal the following day, ‘We are making a much better start this time than we did the last and we are far more comfortable on board in every respect’.7 The remainder of the voyage was largely uneventful. Clara arrived at Sydney on 20 May and Bound embarked aboard Sandfly soon after.

Shortly after Bound joined Sandfly ’s crew, the schooner was involved in the seizure of the brig Aurora, in October 1873. Aurora was engaged in blackbirding and taken into custody for violating Queensland’s Polynesian Labour Act 1868, which banned the practice. Early the following year, Sandfly participated in hydrographic surveys in the waters of Papua New Guinea, but suffered damage to its rudder during a severe storm and had to be assisted back to Sydney by the crew of the paddle sloop HMS Basilisk

Most of the labourers were exposed to poor living conditions and minimal –or no – pay

Late 19th-century license granted to Thomas Robson to carry Pacific Islander labourers from Malden Island and Nui (Atoll) to Melbourne aboard his vessel, the barquentine Delmira. ANMM Collection 00051919

Although engaged in the suppression of blackbirding, Sandfly ’s interactions with Pacific Islanders were not always positive or beneficial. During the schooner’s third operational voyage in the latter half of 1874, it was attacked on 20 September by a large group of islanders in canoes while at anchor in Carlisle Bay at Santa Cruz (Nendö Island) in the Solomon Islands. Bound notes in his journal that Sandfly ’s crew dreaded poison-tipped arrows, a mere scratch from which was ‘sure to cause your death and you also die in agonies’. 8 Although the Santa Cruz islanders fired several volleys of arrows at the schooner and its crew and threatened to ‘shoot [the captain] and set fire to the ship’, no injuries or deaths were reported. 9 The response from Sandfly was arguably disproportionate. ‘Defensive’ cannonading with both round shot and explosive shells totally destroyed all the attacking canoes and resulted in the deaths of ‘about 30’ islanders.10 A shore party then burned ‘two large villages’ and their ‘well fitted up’ war canoes.11 Sandfly departed Santa Cruz three days later, leaving in its wake death and destruction among the very people it was charged with protecting from the scourge of the illegal labour trade. Sadly, the islanders’ aggression was almost certainly the result of fears that Sandfly was a blackbirding vessel, as those involved in the trade often disguised their craft as missionary and merchant vessels – and even ships of war – to deceive those they intended to kidnap.

In part because of Sandfly ’s violent exchange with the inhabitants of Santa Cruz, the Australia Station’s Commander-in-Chief, Commodore James Goodenough, visited Carlisle Bay in his flagship, the 21-gun screw corvette HMS Pearl, in August 1875. Goodenough wished to encourage better relations with the islanders, and to that end went ashore on 20 August with gifts and trade goods. While the initial response from the islanders was positive (yams and matting were traded for some knives), the situation quickly deteriorated and Goodenough and two of Pearl ’s ratings were struck with poisoned arrows. The shore party were able to escape, and Goodenough ordered retaliatory fire, but insisted it be aimed over the islanders’ heads. The three wounded men developed tetanus and ultimately died of their wounds, but Goodenough in his final hours declared he would not ‘allow a single life to be taken in retaliation’.12

However, violent encounters between British warships and Pacific Islanders occasionally still took place, and Sandfly is perhaps best known for another, in October 1880, after Bound left the vessel. Known as the ‘Sandfly Incident’, it occurred while the schooner was again in the Solomon Islands, this time conducting hydrographic survey work near Guadalcanal. The schooner’s commander, Lieutenant James Bower, went ashore at nearby Mandoliana Island with five of Sandfly ’s crewmen to survey the eastern shoreline of the adjacent island of Nggela Pile. While encamped, the survey crew came under attack by a group of islanders from nearby Gaeta. Four of the sailors were killed in the initial assault. Bower escaped but was later captured and killed, while the one remaining crewman eluded the attackers and swam 16 kilometres to the community of Honggo on Nggela Pile, where he was rescued and taken to safety by other islanders.

On 22 October, the surviving sailor reached Sandfly and reported news of the attack to the schooner’s officers who, in turn, undertook a punitive raid at Rita Bay, opposite Mandoliana Island. They found no inhabitants but burned several canoes on the beach in retaliation. As the shore party returned to Sandfly, they were fired upon by a group of islanders, resulting in the death of one sailor and wounding of another. Sandfly subsequently returned to Sydney to report the incident, and reprisal raids carried out by the crews of HM Ships Emerald, Cormorant, Alert and Renard (the latter of which was one of Sandfly ’s anti-blackbirding sister schooners) resulted in destruction of several houses, canoes and crops belonging to the islanders, as well as the execution of four of the perpetrators who had attacked Bower and his men. The massacre’s leader, Vuria, the son of Gaeta’s chieftain, managed to escape. He remained in hiding for over two decades.

After ten years of naval service, Sandfly was paid off in 1883 and sold for £1,000 to Messrs. Sahl and W H Moseley. In an ironic twist, it was soon bound for Tonga to participate in trade with the South Pacific Islands – a venture that during the 1880s often included blackbirding. However, there is no indication from historical records that it participated in the transfer of Pacific Islanders to Australia (either legally or illegally).

Sandfly ’s crew dreaded poisontipped arrows, a mere scratch from which was ‘sure to cause your death and you also die in agonies’

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Chief Gunner William Henry Bound, RN, c. 1890. Image courtesy Shirley Dentith and Adrian Bound

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HM Schooner Sandfly (right) and its sister-ship Beagle at anchor in Tasmania’s River Derwent, c. 1880. Image courtesy Maritime Museum of Tasmania 02 01

Tragically, the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 legislated for the mass deportation of approximately 10,000 indentured labourers

By August 1884, Sandfly was in service of the colonial government in Tonga and the following year it reported on the creation of a new volcanic island in the Tongan archipelago. In 1887, the ship relayed information of an insurrection and attempted assassination of the island’s Premier to authorities in New Zealand. In March 1890, it was purchased for £350 by Mr H Beattie on behalf of a Sydney-based syndicate.

On 3 December 1893, Sandfly was wrecked on the island of San Christobal in the Solomon Islands while undertaking a trading voyage. The schooner was caught in a tidal current and drifted onto rocks, while its final owner and master, William Thomas Kirkpatrick, was ashore bartering for copra. Attempts by the crew to tow Sandfly to safety before it grounded were unsuccessful, as was a last-ditch effort to anchor, due to the great depth of water near shore. All the crew survived, but upon reuniting with Kirkpatrick they quickly abandoned the vessel and departed in one of the boats with ‘only a tin of biscuits and a barrel of water’ due to perceived ‘unfriendly’ behaviour by the island’s inhabitants.13 News of Sandfly ’s loss was delivered to Sydney by its sister-schooner Renard, which, by then, was also in civilian service and trading in the Solomon Islands.

At the conclusion of his service on Sandfly, on 11 January 1876, Bound transferred to HMS Pearl (Goodenough’s former command, which replaced Clio as the flagship of the Australia Station). He returned to the United Kingdom in June 1876 and was assigned to HMS Excellent, a shore-based installation in Portsmouth, where he served as a ‘theoretical instructor’ of naval gunnery. Bound served as a Gunner 2nd Class on several other British warships between 1882 and 1892, including HM Ships Monarch (the first seagoing British warship with gun turrets), Hibernia (which transported convicts to New South Wales in 1818–19), Neptune (an ironclad turret ship originally built for Brazil, but acquired by the

Royal Navy in 1878), and Pembroke (a 74-gun Third-Rate ship of the line). On 1 August 1889, Bound was assigned to HMS President, a drill and training ship berthed at London’s West India Docks, and served there until January 1896. During his time aboard President, Bound was promoted to Chief Gunner. Bound’s final assignment with the Royal Navy was at the Admiralty, where he was promoted to Honorary Lieutenant, and served between 20 January 1896 and 31 March 1904. He was pensioned on 1 April 1904 and died at the age of 75 on 12 January 1919.

By the turn of the twentieth century, many Pacific Islanders – including victims of blackbirding and their descendants – had formed settled communities in Queensland and northern New South Wales. Tragically, the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 legislated for the mass deportation of approximately 10,000 indentured labourers still living in Australia. The Act was part of a suite of Commonwealth laws that became known as the ‘White Australia’ policy. Deportations commenced in 1906 and continued until mid-1908. By 1910, only about 2,500 Pacific Islanders remained in Australia. Despite these policies, their communities survived and thrived, and today their descendants constitute Australia’s South Sea Islander community.

1 ‘Launch of Two Schooners from Cuthbert’s Yards’, Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier, 21 December 1872, p. 7.

2 W H Bound, Private Journal of W.H. Bound, Gunner R.N. (December 13th, 1872 – September 19th, 1874 ), 7 January 1873. ANMM Collection.

3 Ibid, 24 January 1873.

4 Ibid, 12 January 1873.

5 Ibid, 22 January 1873.

6 Ibid, 21 January 1873.

7 Ibid, 16 February 1873.

8 W H Bound, Private Journal of W.H. Bound, Gunner R.N., HMS ‘Sandfly’, Australia (September 20th, 1874 – April 29th, 1876 ), 22 September 1874. ANMM Collection.

9 Ibid, 20 September 1874.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 J M Ward, ‘Goodenough, James Graham (1830–1875)’, in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4 (1851–1890), Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne, 1972.

13 ‘Loss of the Sandfly : Stranded on the Solomon Islands’, Australian Star, 7 March 1893, p. 6.

Dr James Hunter is the museum’s Curator of Naval Heritage and Archaeology.

Maritime kastoms

A vivid maritime life of the Torres Strait region

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Wood for Torres Strait canoes came from New Guinea’s inland forests. Seen here, canoes designed for the streams of the Fly River. Iasa, Kiwai Island, BNG 1898 MAA N.35122

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All images reproduced by permission from University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA)

Carved wooden canoe prow ornament with a projecting human face and pearl-shell eyes. Decorated with tufts of cassowary and bird-ofparadise feathers. Collected Saibai, Torres Strait, 1898. MAA Z.9697

A history and culture (kastom) of Australia’s northern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and their New Guinean neighbours was recorded in the journals and letters of an Englishman, Alfred C Haddon, at the end of the 19th century. In a new book edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp, Haddon’s writings are brought back to life.

HADDON WAS A MARINE BIOLOGIST and pioneer anthropologist who worked in 1888 and 1898 with Islanders and Aboriginal peoples of the Torres Strait. Far from his family during fieldwork, Haddon wrote a journal which he sent home to Cambridge (UK) as a series of letters to his wife, Fanny. Never previously published, these fragile documents are filled with vivid details of life and watercraft in this busy maritime region at the close of the 19th century.

At the time, the strait was inundated with foreigners keen to profit through harvesting natural resources of bêche-de-mer (trepang, sea cucumber) and pearl shell for local and international markets. The verdant reef systems on which these animals thrived had drawn Haddon to the region to conduct marine fieldwork. Through conversations with the local peoples that he worked with on his daily dredging excursions, he became invested in their lives, devoting his spare time to work with Islanders on recording their history.

Back in Britain, Haddon determined to raise funds to return with a team of researchers. His 1898 journal encompasses the Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait, accompanied by William Rivers, Charles Seligman, Sidney Ray, Charles Myers, William McDougall and Anthony Wilkin. Haddon’s original field sites were Mer in the eastern island group, British New Guinea, Cape York and Mabuiag in the western island group. His journals are rich with detail on the Islanders’ maritime world, told through the language of his times.

The following excerpts are drawn from our recent publication, Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journal from the Torres Strait and New Guinea 1888 and 1898

Each entry in Haddon’s journal provides a sense of the variety and detail of his observations. In the book, Haddon’s words are accompanied by his photographs and drawings, alongside objects made by Islanders and Papua New Guineans.

Please note that terminology used in these excerpts is drawn directly from the original 19th-century source, and includes language considered offensive by some readers and First Nations peoples. This phrasing is included in order to acknowledge its historical context.

Passage through the Suez Canal had Haddon arriving at Thursday Island on 8 August 1888:

We sighted the advance guard of Australia in the shape of the proud port light ship – as soon as we were near enough she signalled distress and asked us to come up close. We saw her ensign half-mast and so were prepared for the news of a death on board. Four men, the whole crew including the cook, rowed out to tell us that the Captain – Captain [Cairncross] – had died in the night. He had not been very well and sometime before he had ‘had a little to drink’. This Captain was an old and wellknown man. He had made plenty of money in his time and should have been well off and of good repute.

‘Here we are, scudding along over the dirty green sea which betokens shallow coral waters...’

But the curse of the colony – drink – ruined him.

All his off-duty time was spent – so I was told – in one continuous booze. At last he died a drunkard’s death 40 miles from land. Soon we sighted Prince of Wales’ Island and in due course we reached my promised land. The pilot came on board and as it was low water we crawled into the harbour of Thursday Island. The Islands are very prettily grouped and really formed a charming picture. The Thursday Island Doctor [Salter] – a little hunchbacked man boarded us and after he had inspected all hands on board and certified us we were fastened to one of the two hulks ...1

Towards the end of three months’ work at Mabuiag, Haddon was invited to accompany Mabuiag’s Goemulgal leader, Nomoa, on a gaff-rigged Torres Strait Islander lugger to observe their unique method of dugong fishing: One morning in October I accompanied the Mamoose [leader] of Mabuiag on a dugong hunt, the crew of the lugger (all the fishing boats here are ‘luggers’) numbered some dozen men, all natives of the island. On our way out the gear was put in order. This consisted of the wāp or dugong spear and the ām or rope which is attached to it.

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Nomoa, the Mamoose, holding a wāp (dugong spear) with his dugong catch. In the background is Brown’s former pearling station, where Haddon set up his laboratory. Panay, Mabuiag, Torres Strait, October 1888.

MAA N.22793

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Knife made of pearl shell with incised design showing the method of cutting up a dugong. Collected at Mabuiag, Torres Strait, 1898. MAA Z 9754

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The London Missionary Society (LMS) was an integral colonial force. In this image of feast preparations the water police can be seen to the right and the letters LMS can just be seen on the flag. Probably Badu, Torres Strait, 1888. MAA N.23288

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Cleaning pearl shells on the beach. In the background are luggers and Torres Strait canoes. Mabuiag, Torres Strait, 1898. MAA N.23011

02 Haddon requested this demonstration of pile driving to document the maritime villages of Hula township along the coast from Port Moresby, New Guinea, June, 1898.

MAA N.36121

‘It is a curious experience to be on an apparently slight bamboo platform and to see the water racing away beneath you’

The spear is a handsome weapon averaging fifteen feet in length, ornamented at one end with the sable plumes of the cassowary. The other extremity is swollen and into its end is loosely inserted a dart kwoiori which is lashed on to the rope ... All hands now look out for the dugong and Mamoose takes his place at the further end of the bowsprit. Here we are, scudding along over the dirty green sea which betokens shallow coral waters, the waves created by the ever-blowing southeast trade wind, the lavender coloured sky is studded with clouds which uniformly belie their pluvial appearance. All of a sudden [the] Mamoose springs into the water wāp in hand …2

September 1898:

Mabuiag is a centre of the pearl-shelling industry or rather of the kind that is known as swimming diving. The great pearl-shell banks have been worked out by the diving boats and soon after I left in 1889, till within the last year or two, the shelling industry has been very slack and much money has been lost, owing to a decrease in the market value of shell. Now prices are better and the natives either own their own boats or hire themselves out to white men and they swim down in shallow water and collect pearl-shell. A great deal of money has been made by natives in this way.3

30 December 1888:

I finished up the day by returning in a native canoe – the rapid gliding motion of which is very exhilarating. It is a curious experience to be on an apparently slight bamboo platform and to see the water racing away beneath you.4

One final excerpt was written in Kalo, 1898: Had afternoon tea and went to the village. First we saw the operation of canoe building and made photos. The trees for the canoes grow in the Kalo country. The Kalo men cut them down and sell the logs to the Keapara. The latter dig out the canoes by means of stone adzes, the stone of which can be shifted round at any angle by turning the holder on the haft. The canoe builders prefer stone implements to iron ones for hollowing out the canoes…5

Recording Kastom was edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp following consultation with people in the Torres Strait. The lavishly illustrated book is vibrant with drawings, objects and photographs produced in the Strait, New Guinea and Cape York. It is part of the international decolonisation projects of museums and institutions intent on making archival and collection material openly accessible to those peoples from whom the collections were drawn. Fieldwork and publication was assisted by Monash University Indigenous Studies Centre and the Haddon family, and free distribution to Tagai colleges and community centres across Zenadth Kes and mainland Australia was supported by the Torres Strait Regional Authority and AIATSIS.

1 Anita Herle and Jude Philp, Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journal from the Torres Strait and New Guinea 1888 and 1898 (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2020), p.49.

2 Herle and Philp, Recording Kastom, pp.100–1.

3 Herle and Philp, Recording Kastom, p.299.

4 Herle and Philp, Recording Kastom, p.127.

5 Herle and Philp, Recording Kastom, p.203.

Jude Philp is Senior Curator of the Macleay Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney. Anita Herle is Reader in Anthropology and Senior Curator, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Given the chance to work with ‘Brickman’ Ryan McNaught, the museum was quick to jump aboard

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Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO® bricks

A long-distance collaboration

The current pandemic has impacted our lives in countless ways. We have all had to adapt and find new ways of doing things. Em Blamey, the museum’s creative producer, reveals how to collaborate under COVID-19 restrictions.

I’m so glad I managed to get there, as I finally met face-to-face with people I’d been working with since mid-2019. It was great to share the crazy final week of fabrication and installation with them, and see the first visitors enjoy our creation.

MANY OF YOU will be experiencing this at the moment: the challenge of connecting with people you can’t meet with in person. Zoom helps but it’s not the same, especially when you’re trying to create and collaborate. I’ve just returned from Western Australia, managing to get in and out by the skin of my teeth as borders slammed shut behind me. While there we completed and opened a new exhibition: Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks , which we developed in partnership with the Western Australian Museum (WAM).

When WAM approached us in June 2019 to see if we’d be interested in partnering on an exhibition with the working title LEGO® Shipwrecks, in collaboration with ‘Brickman’ Ryan McNaught, we were pretty quick to jump aboard. The exhibition would tell the stories of a number of shipwrecks from around the world from a maritime archaeology viewpoint, using a unique combination of LEGO® models, hands-on interactives, audio-visual experiences and real shipwreck objects. In February 2020, Rachael Hughes from WAM and Brickman met with us in Sydney to agree on the stories and models to include.

Then … COVID-19 hit.

‘It was great to share the crazy final week of fabrication and installation with them’

Real artefacts, interactives and a stunning LEGO® model tell Batavia ’s story.

The project continued, but all face-to-face brainstorming, design and development sessions were cancelled. LEGO® factories shut down, so brick supplies were delayed. Did you know all brown LEGO®, which is crucial for ship models, is made in Mexico? We all became expert Zoomers. We shared ideas via file share websites, held sketches up to webcams and filmed home-made prototypes in loungerooms. We devised COVID-safe ‘hands-on’ interactives and researched cleaning LEGO®. Melbourne’s multiple lockdowns stopped Brickman’s builders building, and the COVID renovation boom swamped cabinet makers so they couldn’t build our plinths. Plus, there were all the usual challenges of any large-scale exhibition project, especially a collaborative one.

But in spite of everything, and unfortunately without the still-stuck-in-Melbourne Brickman, we launched the exhibition on 25 June. Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO® bricks is now open in Fremantle. It will tour regional Western Australia next year, before coming to Sydney for Christmas 2022. It features 11 stunning LEGO® models, telling the stories of eight shipwrecks, from the Bronze Age Uluburun, to Rena which wrecked in 2011. The Queensland Museum lent us some fabulous objects from the wreck of Pandora, which had been hunting the Bounty mutineers, and Parks Canada shared their stunning model of the Erebus wreck from Franklin’s doomed expedition. Visitors can try different archaeology techniques, sink Vasa, rebuild the portico from the Batavia wreck, pilot a remotely operated vehicle, see if they’d survive the Titanic, clean oil pollution from a penguin and, of course, build their own LEGO® models.

As the final graphic panel says: We learn a lot from shipwrecks. About people and trade and technology. About tragedies and responses and long-lasting effects. Models help us explore and explain aspects of ships and shipwrecks. And LEGO®models of ships and shipwrecks are super-cool!

I’m glad that COVID didn’t sink us.

Em Blamey is the museum’s Creative Producer – Interactive Projects

Sea fan, Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Image Tracey Jennings/Ocean Image Bank

Each and every person is affected by the ocean and is therefore a stakeholder in its care and management

One Ocean – Our Future

How can we protect it?

Our planet’s last frontier is the ocean, and scientists are using rapidly developing technology to discover the secrets of what lies beneath. Cay-Leigh Bartnicke describes an urgent new exhibition that dives into the depth and breadth of our ocean.

One Ocean – Our Future is the museum’s first major exhibition as part of our involvement with and commitment to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development

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Single-use surgical masks are finding their way into the ocean where they are a hazard to marine life. In May 2021 Dr Sarper Sarp from Swansea University, Wales, warned that when submerged, masks break down into plastic microfibres and release traces of lead, antimony and cadmium into water. Created image courtesy Hawke Graphics

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Mangroves and coral, Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. Image Matt Curnock/Ocean Image Bank

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THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING of the ocean is an issue that involves everyone. Each and every person is affected by the ocean and is therefore a stakeholder in its care and management. Even people living inland, who have never personally seen the ocean with their own eyes, are inextricably shaped by it. For those who are landlocked, they can still thank the ocean for the rain that waters their garden, provides oxygen for their next breath and carries an online shopping order to their door. Some rely on the ocean as part of what informs their worldview and their way of life, which are built around the natural world and other people. Many are employed by it, play in it, and obtain nourishment from it. The ocean provides endless help to us but, in return, we do not reciprocate, or even meet it half-way.

One Ocean – Our Future is the museum’s first major exhibition as part of our involvement with and commitment to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–30). The ocean is suffering myriad issues that all sectors need to address. This exhibition covers a wide variety of ocean-related topics and global concerns centring around how people and technology are being used to better understand the world’s oceans – and how to help save them.

Stunning works of art from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific communities provide cultural commentary on how the changing climate and oceans are affecting their life and society. Here, they are sounding a warning about climate change from the most vulnerable places on earth. The sounds of people from around the world also populate the space, as they share their experience of climate and ocean change.

In an Australian museum first, an Antarctic ice core is displayed, revealing the bubbles of air trapped inside it. From it, scientists are able to measure past climatic conditions on earth. The core sits in a custom-built freezer, using a 24-hour power supply offset by the museum’s Wharf 7 rooftop photo-voltaic array.

Part of the ocean’s allure is that we still have not seen a fraction of the wonders it conceals. A cinema screen in the exhibition shows the rich, mesmerising beauty and diversity of Australia’s marine life. The deep-sea footage was filmed by Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle SuBastian with an ultra-high-definition camera, during the research vessel Falkor ’s 2020–21 circumnavigation of Australia. The film invites visitors to join in on the moments when excited scientists see extraordinary, rare and new species for the first time. More footage takes us aboard other advanced scientific research vessels from Australia, Japan and Denmark.

In what we’re calling our ‘virtual 3D aquarium’ –sponsored by the Schmidt Ocean Institute – visitors will use gesture-control to locate, interact with and (virtually) inspect five deep-sea specimens, learn about their habits and environment and how changes in the ocean threaten their survival.

The exhibition contains contemporary ocean stories and objects from two centuries of measuring, exploring, analysing, sampling and mapping the ocean. This ranges from sediment collected by HMS Challenger in 1872–76 to a robot that is designed to give a lethal injection to Crown of Thorns Starfish, and remote-sensing technologies that help us identify, quantify and plan a response to the changing ocean.

One Ocean – Our Future showcases a multitude of voices, fields and concerns for audiences. Visitors will feel informed and inspired as the caretakers of our ‘one ocean’.

One Ocean – Our Future is a USA Program supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund.

Cay-Leigh Bartnicke is the museum’s Assistant Curator – Special Projects

The Boxing Kangaroo Flag

Uniting Australians behind an unusual symbol

The image of the Boxing Kangaroo has a long history in Australian folklore, going well back into the 19th century. It was associated with travelling circus acts, while during World War II the emblem was donned by several Royal Australian Navy vessels and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft. But how did this quintessentially Australian image become universally accepted as Australia’s sporting flag? John Longley AM, who crewed on Australia II for its 1983 America’s Cup victory, shares its story.

THE BOXING KANGAROO captured the zeitgeist of the time when businessman Alan Bond set out to win the America’s Cup. His challenge was to wrest this trophy from the United States, the perennial winner since the competition’s inception in 1851. Bond headed up five Australian America’s Cup challenges. The first, in 1974, went to sea with no flag. However, for the second challenge, in 1977, the crew developed a battle flag for the yacht Australia. It was simply a yellow, leaping kangaroo – like that on the old Australian penny – set on a green background. A similar flag was flown in the 1980 Australian challenge.

In 1982, Bond had taken his offshore racing yacht Apollo V to Cowes in England to compete in the Admiral’s Cup series. During a lay-day, a match race was organised between Apollo V and Victory, the yacht owned by flamboyant British entrepreneur Peter de Savary.

The night before the match, Apollo V ’s crew learnt that the British had made a flag featuring a kangaroo being ‘mistreated’. The Apollo V crew decided to match the insult and drew up an image of a boxing kangaroo kicking a bulldog, the World War II symbol of British tenacity.

The kicking, boxing kangaroo appealed to team manager Warren Jones, and he instructed Stephen Castledine of Turner Design in Perth to do a professional version of it. Their first efforts were rejected because the head was like a cartoon image – Jones insisted on a real kangaroo.

Jones was finally happy with the design and sent the black and white drawing to Hughie Treharne of Sobstad Sails in Sydney, who produced a number of flags just like the drawing – a black image on a white background. But the lack of colour meant that from a distance they all looked like surrender flags! After arriving in Newport, Rhode Island, the team forgot all about it. Jones, nevertheless, nailed one version to the wall of his office as preparations for the season progressed.

The summer rolled on and the other teams all sported flashy logos and flags. Not Australia II, however: Jones had what was dubbed a ‘tin-shed mentality’. To his mind, all funds should go toward the boat and not unnecessary expenditures ashore. In fact, his office was genuinely located in a tin shed.

Australia II ’s sail-makers were operating from an old fishing net store that had been converted into a makedo sail loft. Behind it, on Thames Street, was a bar called O’Brien’s that the sail-makers used to frequent when taking a break from the many hours spent building and re-cutting Australia II ’s sails. One night the bar’s owner, Tom, asked if the team had a flag, as he was collecting flags from all the other teams. One of the sail-makers, Ken O’Brien, remembered the flag behind Jones’ desk. He borrowed it, made a small pennant using off-cut material from Australia II ’s green and gold spinnakers, and decided to spice it up by making the gloves and eyes a bright red. The colourful new creation was then presented to O’Briens, where it was duly displayed in the bar.

One evening Australia II ’s skipper, John Bertrand, went to the bar. He saw the flag and asked the sail-makers to sew a big battle flag of the same design. At the end of July –at the beginning of Round Robin C of the Challenger trials – Australia II broke out the new flag. At the same time the crew started playing the Men at Work song ‘Down Under’, belting out from speakers on the tender.

By the time Australia II won the cup on 26 September 1983, the Boxing Kangaroo flag had become famous. It was used during the unsuccessful defence of the cup off Fremantle in 1986–87, by which time it was widely being waved by Australian sports fans at sporting events worldwide. When the Bond America’s Cup company was wound up in the early 1990s, the copyright to the flag was sold to the Australian Olympic Committee. Its use by Australian international sporting teams is now so widespread that many would forget its modern origins were with the Australia II team in Newport, back in 1983.

In 2010, I visited Newport. I went to O’Briens and saw up in the rafters the original flag made by Australia II ’s sail-makers. I met up with Tom O’Brien, who was still running the bar, and persuaded him to swap it for a new flag, signed by all the crew. The original, which was now very frail, was packed up and bought back to Fremantle and donated to the Western Australian Maritime Museum.

John Longley AM competed in five America’s Cup matches between 1974 and 1987, then managed the build of the museum-standard replica HMB Endeavour, which is now held by the Australian National Maritime Museum. He was named West Australian Citizen of the Year (Sport) and has been inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. John is also a member of the museum’s Council.

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Damian Fewster, Australia II ’s bowman, hoisting the Boxing Kangaroo flag after crossing the line to win the America’s Cup in 1983. Image courtesy of Bruce Stannard

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The original black and white flag behind Warren Jones’ desk. Image courtesy of Lesleigh Green

Launching the medical chest

Saving lives on the 17th-century seas

In 1600, as England stood on the precipice of a new age, the nation readied itself to enter an era of dominance that would alter the world forever. Surgeon John Woodall played an integral role in raising the standards of health and safety of sailors. Myffanwy Bryant has researched Woodall’s story.

ENGLAND’S AMBITION to become a world power required no small amount of bravado, money and innovation. Impetus was provided by a disparate group of people who were anonymous cogs in the enormous machine that would become the British East India Company (EIC). One man who contributed much to the ‘machine’ was surgeon John Woodall, the first Surgeon General of the company who, in 1617, produced the first textbook for ships’ doctors and introduced a standardised list of medical supplies that should be kept on board. Woodall’s book, The Surgions Mate, became the standard reference for maritime medicine for the next 50 years, while his advice on what to stock in medical chests was followed by the Royal Navy.

In February 1601, ‘four of the best merchant shippes in the kingdome’ and their 480 crew sailed under the command of James Lancaster, headed to Bantam, in the island group now known as Indonesia.1 It was a costly gamble for the newly formed EIC, with no expense spared on high-quality provisions and some of the best seamen and merchants on board. When the company’s fleet returned in September 1603, it is estimated that subscribers had made a 95 per cent return on their investment, and the voyage proved that Britain could be worthy challengers to the stronghold of the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. However, even though Lancaster’s voyage was a financial success, it also highlighted logistical problems that were to plague the company for years.

In this period of great expansion and activity, the EIC knew it would take more than a financial commitment to keep the business expanding. Inexperience and nature are hard taskmasters. In addition to unsuitable ships, inadequate maps and adverse weather, there was a frustrating inability to keep the crew alive. On that first voyage in 1601, Lancaster had lost 60 per cent of the fleet’s crew to illness, with one ship, the Ascension, suffering a sick rate of seven out of every ten men. Before they had even reached the Cape of Good Hope, three of the vessels recorded crew being so weak that they required assistance in bringing the ships into port.

With an estimated 100 instruments in each chest, Woodall was thorough in his list of necessary medical equipment. Image The Surgions Mate, 1639, Vaughan Evans Library

There was some expectation within the EIC that this mortality was part of the cost of doing business in distant countries. However, the scale of the deaths made it morally and logistically problematic. As years went on, the voyage to the East Indies became known as the ‘widow-maker’. Sailors remained willing to gamble their lives for good pay. However, the ongoing threat of weakened complements – or even crewless ships full of cargo on an open ocean – was bad for both the EIC’s bottom line and its reputation.

In 1613, the company decided that a dedicated Surgeon General be appointed to address the health of crew. Based at the company’s shipyard at Deptford, the surgeon would be:

bound to be in attendance daily from morning till night to cure any person or persons who may be hurt in the Service of this Company, and the like in all their ships riding at an anchor at Deptford and Blackwall, and at Erith, where hee shall also keepe a Deputy with his Chest furnished, to remaine there continually, until all the said ships be sayled downe from thence to Gravesend.2

Under the influence of the Governor of the EIC, Sir Thomas Smith, Barber-Surgeon John Woodall was appointed to the Surgeon General role. As a military surgeon in France, Woodall had experienced the full gamut of injuries, ailments and difficulties that faced travelling doctors tending to masses of men. As a civilian based in London, Woodall claimed to have twice survived the plague epidemic of 1603, priding himself on his dedication in remaining with patients throughout their ordeals while many fellow surgeons fled the city. Although Woodall may have hawked a self-made plague ‘cure’, he was certainly no side-alley quack. Highly literate (not a given amongst 17th-century surgeons), Woodall spoke several languages and was well travelled.

For British mariners, the voyage to the East Indies became known as the ‘widow-maker’

John Woodall, shown at bottom centre of this image, remained a modest doctor and is believed to have worked in the field until his death in 1643. Image The Surgions Mate, 1639, Vaughan Evans Library

His extensive practical experience had enabled him to experiment with treatments, as he continually sought to improve both the theoretical and practical aspects of surgery. No ‘guild-hall theorist’, Woodall was happy to put his tools where his advice was and advocated for junior surgeons to do the same. He urged his apprentices to ignore the social stigma that surgeons encountered, applying their hands ‘even to those parts which they esteem basest; for the most lamentable diseases of poor men require the most care of the surgeon’. 3

This highly practical side of Woodall was a clear advantage in his new role with the EIC, although it seems to have had a come at a social cost. Life lived in hospitals, among soldiers and on the wharves, had left Woodall with an ‘unseemly carriage and ill language’ of which the Barber Surgeon Guild reprimanded him more than once.4 Woodall was fined and taken to court for his combativeness, but clearly his surgical expertise won the day and he went on to become a Master Warden of the guild.

Despite having an impressive resume, Woodall’s underrated strength was his awareness of the faults that lay within the world of 17th-century surgeons. As a member of the Barber Surgeons Guild, Woodall had been part of an ongoing effort to redeem the reputation of the profession. Guild members were trying to distance themselves from the ‘empiricall knaves, filthy bawds and bold queanes … who dabbled in “surgery”, only to bring the practice into ‘decaye and ruine’. 5 Licensed surgeons, already ranked below physicians and apothecaries in the professional hierarchy, fought hard to maintain standards and control. In an era where personal and professional honour were highly valued virtues, it was important to ensure that trained surgeons were viewed as trustworthy and learned.

‘A wry saying on the docks was: a man need only sleep under a medicine-chest for a single night to become perfectly qualified for the office of ships surgeon’

Despite Woodall’s preparedness, he constantly urged that doctors use restraint, out of a ‘desire to avoid performing more harm than good’. Image The Surgions Mate, 1639, Vaughan Evans Library

Woodall knew that if surgery on land was fraught with difficulty, it was infinitely worse at sea. While there is no documented evidence that Woodall served as a sea surgeon himself, he was no doubt aware that many ships’ surgeons were poorly trained, ill equipped or simply overwhelmed by the responsibility. A wry saying on the docks at the time was: a man need only sleep under a medicine-chest for a single night to become perfectly qualified for the office of ships surgeon 6 Ill-trained surgeons became a threat not just to the crew, but also to themselves. It was recorded that on Lancaster’s 1601 voyage, the surgeon appointed to Ascension was clearly overwhelmed. A year into the voyage he had tried to commit suicide and was subsequently dismissed.

As Surgeon General for the EIC, Woodall was responsible for selecting ships’ surgeons and their assistants for each voyage. Faced with isolation, unhygienic shipboard conditions and unfamiliar tropical diseases, this task was much more difficult than the fit-for-service guidelines the EIC suggested. In 1617, four years after his appointment and ‘wearied with writing for every Shippe the same

instructions a new’ Woodall published The Surgions Mate, the first English manual for ships’ doctors. Written in simple language, and with attempts at humour and rhyme, the book was easy to follow, yet covered difficult and varied terrain.

As a sign of how inexperienced some of these surgeons and their assistants were, Woodall firstly covers what it is to be a surgeon’s mate on a voyage, his basic duties and what instruments and medicines should be in the surgeon’s chest. He then outlines surgical procedures that may need to be performed onboard, from hair cutting to amputation (which he helpfully recommends as a last resort!). The book covered how to recognise and treat diseases such as fevers or dysentery, while iterating the botanicals and tonics that could provide relief for these conditions.

The Surgions Mate is comprehensive and is acknowledged as having performed a public service of great importance at the time. While primarily focused for maritime medicine, much of its information could be applied onshore, particularly in the new EIC colonies, which also lacked experienced surgeons and apprentices.

One of the more revolutionary elements of Woodall’s first book is his easy merging of the three worlds of surgeons, physicians and alchemists. While very strict social and professional distinctions existed on land between these groups – and could prove acrimonious at times – a sea surgeon and his mate would need to be proficient in all three fields to keep men alive. Woodall, ever the agitator, argued that ‘it is uncharitable to forbid an expert surgeon at any time or in any place, the use of instruments and medicines which are necessary to his art for the curing of his patients’.7

This exhortation applied more than ever to the new tropical diseases that were beginning to make their deadly presence felt. One malady could not be more feared than the scourge of the sea: scurvy. This great killer of men was responsible for a multitude of deaths amongst EIC seamen, and Woodall was in the spotlight to address this threat. To his credit, he made a valiant, yet forgotten, effort. Well before the highly influential work that James Lind published in 1753, Woodall advocated in The Surgions Mate that:

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As Surgeon General of the East India Company, Woodall and his assistants were based in the shipyard at Deptford. Image courtesy UK National Maritime Museum BHC1873

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Knowledge of equipment and trust in his assistants enabled surgeons to save lives.

Unknown artist, A Barber Surgeon Attending to a Man’s Forehead, 17th century. Image courtesy Wellcome Collection

The Chirurgeon [surgeon] or his Mate must not fail to persuade the Governor nor Purser in all places where they touch in the Indies, and may have it, to provide themselves of the juice of Oranges, limes, or lemons and at Banthame of Tamarinds, for those good helps which you shall find in the Indies do far exceed any that can be carried thither from England, and yet there is a good quantity of Juice of Lemons sent in each ship out of England by the great care of the merchants, and intended only for the relief of every poor man in his need, which is an admirable effort to poor men in that disease.

Through either personal observations or Lancaster’s experiences, Woodall was adamant that citrus had a part to play in avoiding scurvy. In 1627 a special order was made for lemon juice, ‘the want of which might endanger the whole fleet’. 8 For whatever reason, however, like Woodall himself, his remedies were lost to history. It would take another 100 years and many thousands of lives until Lind would come to the same conclusion. Along with hand-picked surgeons, their assistants and the publication of The Surgions Mate, the last piece of Woodall’s plan for the EIC was the compiling of ships’ medical chests. Woodall became the first person to standardise these chests, insisting that each one was brought to the EIC’s house for a full inspection 14 days before the ships sailed. Chests contained a predetermined range of surgical instruments (thought to be more than 100), bottles of remedies, botanicals and other pharmaceutical items. Together with The Surgions Mate, Woodall ensured that inexperienced surgeons’ mates – or, at a push, even untrained crew – could make their way around the chest and stand a chance of providing aid.

Viewed through today’s lens, Woodall’s chest is rudimentary, and nudging towards barbaric, but on display was centuries of medical knowledge. Medical chests at the time were capsules of current medical understanding, including ancient natural remedies. Certainly, as Woodall’s book illustrates, they contained information and the tools of cutting-edge surgery. In 1626, Britain’s Privy Council was so impressed with Woodall’s organisation of chests for the EIC that it approached the Barber Surgeons Guild to provide chests for the Royal Navy and other military forces. Woodall was assigned the role of supervising the outfitting of these chests, a job he fulfilled for nearly 20 years. Within the world of 17th-century surgeons, John Woodall was both reflective of his time and yet advanced enough to recognise and address the failings of the system he was part of. He knew that the line between curing or killing was tenuous, more so at sea. Woodall made it his duty to ensure that maritime surgeons and their mates had as much chance as possible in saving the lives of crew in their care. His book, The Surgions Mate, became the foundational English text on sea surgery and his carefully curated medical chests, were the standard adopted by the Royal Navy.

Yet Woodall – pragmatic, foul-mouthed and coarse –was at heart a humanitarian and among his technical instructions and chemical compounds was his unwavering ethos to be gentle, kind in speech, and actions towards all: pitifull to them that are diseased, and diligent in ministering to them such fitting remedies as he shall receive

Myffanwy Bryant is a Curatorial Assistant at the Australian National Maritime Museum

1 Cheryl Fury, ‘The First East India Company Voyage, 1601–1603: the Human Dimension’, Journal of Maritime History 21, no. 2 (2012), p.72.

2 John Kirkup (ed.), The Surgions Mate, 1617 by John Woodall. Kingsmead Press (1978), p.XIV.

3 Celeste Chamberland, ‘Honor, Brotherhood, and the Corporate Ethos of London’s Barber-Surgeons’ Company, 1570–1640’, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 64, no.3 (2009), p.316.

4 J H Appleby, ‘New Light on John Woodall, Surgeon’, Medical History 25, no. 3 (1981), p.253.

5 Chamberland, ‘Honor, Brotherhood, and the Corporate Ethos of London’s Barber-Surgeons’ Company’, p.309.

6 G M Longfield-Jones, ‘John Woodall, Surgeon General of the East India Company. Part I: Events Leading to Woodall’s Appointment’, Journal of Medical Biography 3, no. 1 (1995), p.12.

7 Geoffrey Keynes, ‘John Woodall, Surgeon, His Place in Medical History’, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians 2, no. 1 (1967), p.27.

8 Keynes, ‘John Woodall’, p.23.

Sanyo Maru: shipwrecked off Arnhem Land

Preparing an exhibition on a Japanese shipwreck

Over the past decade, diving archaeologists have mapped and excavated a Japanese pearling ship off Arnhem Land. A new collaborative exhibition, created by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Northern Territory Government’s Heritage Branch, brings the raised artefacts, diving, film and stories together for the first time. David Steinberg shares the story of the sunken Sanyo Maru.

Here, historical film and archaeology work together to open a window into our maritime past

JOURNALIST TERRY SOUTHWELL-KEELY visited Arnhem Land in 1938 and saw what he described as a ‘floating foreign township whose existence is unsuspected by Australians’.

This was the huge Japanese pearl shell fleet, made up of hundreds of divers and crew, working and living just off the north Australian coast. They out-competed local pearlers, made contact with local Aboriginal peoples and others, and infuriated Australian authorities.

But despite dominating the pearl shell industry, they were not immune to tragedy, which included the loss of their largest ship, Sanyo Maru, in July 1937. Overloaded with pearl shell, it sank in a storm, forgotten for decades until rediscovered and explored by diving archaeologists.

The upcoming exhibition explores the artefacts raised from Sanyo Maru by the dive team, including the decorated porcelain dinner set that made up the captain’s table. What do we learn about the shared experience of meals at sea from the quality of the dinnerware and the meaning of the decorative motifs? Did these items signify a high status, or were they merely common utensils?

Other artefacts point to the dangers of working at sea far from a safe port, such as a surgical kit and medicines. Also making up the exhibition is rarely seen historical footage of the fleet in Arnhem Land waters, made by a Japanese cameraman. Here, historical film and archaeology work together to open a window into a neglected chapter of our maritime past.

The work has a strong focus on underwater archaeology, scientific diving and the decisions made by experts to understand this shipwreck. They contended with an environment renowned for its strong tides, murky water and tropical storms. Visitors can watch footage shot by the camera mounted on the diver’s helmet, and listen as divers discuss what they see with the support team on the surface.

Soon, we’ll invite you to the museum to learn about Sanyo Maru and the research undertaken to understand its story. It’s an important project with unexpected implications for maritime archaeology in northern Australia.

David Steinberg is a maritime archaeologist and Senior Heritage Officer with the Northern Territory Government. He joined the 2002 expedition, then led the 2012 and 2016 expeditions to the wreck site. David is completing a PhD in archaeology on Japanese pearling in the Northern Territory. This project has been aided by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program, with assistance from the Australian Underwater Cultural Heritage Program, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

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Sanyo Maru, port doorway into passageway and cabin. Image Northern Territory Heritage Branch

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Ship stores prior to excavation. Image Northern Territory Heritage Branch

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Kids and family activities

School holiday fun

29 December 2021–27 January 2022

Make a splash at the museum these school holidays with exhibitions, vessels, hands-on workshops, themed creative activities and more. It’s a whole day of fun for the entire family!

Our summer holiday program includes:

Kids On Deck – creative art making and science experiments, with family workshop sessions daily.

Ocean Lab – drop in discovery space, open daily.

Activity Trail – self guided activity, available every day.

Creative Workshops – full-day photography and animation workshops, on selected dates.

Mini Mariners Tour – for under 5s, on selected dates.

sea.museum/schoolholidays for full program information

Make and play from home

All ages

From recipes to science experiments to soft sculptures, printable papercrafts and activity sheets, we have a whole host of creative activities available online to keep families entertained and learning through making with hands-on activities.

sea.museum/kidscraft

Learn at home resources

All ages

Explore our newly developed series of online resources for students, teachers and parents, to help guide students’ learning while they’re away from the classroom. From educational games to blogs, videos and response activities, there’s something for all ages and stages to engage with.

sea.museum/learn-from-home

Sail on Duyfken

Saturdays and Sundays from 6 November

Experience one of the rarest ships in the world while soaking up the sunset and sails on Sydney Harbour.

Cruise past Barangaroo, Circular Quay, the Opera House, Garden Island and other famous sites on Sydney Harbour. Relax and enjoy a gourmet snack box and drinks, while enjoying the sea breeze, hearing stories of life on the ocean and watching the crew replicate 17th-century sailing.

sea.museum/whats-on/events/ sail-on-duyfken

Experience life under sail aboard Duyfken Image ANMM/Cassandra Hannagan

In light of the extended COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney, the museum remains closed at the time of publication. Please check our website sea.museum for updates to exhibition dates and museum opening hours.

One Ocean – Our Future

Opening date to be advised

Our only ocean is a mesmerising, mysterious and mainly unexplored place, critical to the existence of life on Earth.

Although the ocean is vast, it is finite and its resources are limited. As our modern way of life produces pollutants and greenhouse gases, average global temperatures rise and the ocean – along with our future – changes with it.

PLUNGE INTO AUSTRALIA’S deep ocean, captured by the lights and cameras of the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian. The footage of a sleeping Dumbo octopus is certain to make you smile!

In our virtual aquarium search for a rare short-tail catshark, an even rarer ram’s horn squid and a faceless cusk eel. Examine them up close via remote-sensing interactions.

We invite you to consider what’s happening to our ocean, including the effect on weather, marine life, our own existence and the future of our planet. Learn about these changes – and how to minimise their impact – through the eyes of artists and the voices of scientists and everyday people from across the globe.

A USA Program supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund. Exhibition sponsor Schmidt Ocean Institute

ROV SuBastian encounters a nautilus in our virtual aquarium. Using gesture control, visitors can guide the ROV to seek out and examine five deep-ocean species – without getting their hands wet. Image courtesy Schmidt Ocean Institute

Haenyeo: the sea women of Jeju Island

Now showing

The haenyeo are communities of Korean women who dive for hours at a time to harvest food from the sea floor. For generation after generation, they have performed this skilled, physical and dangerous work in all conditions and weathers.

Large-scale photographic portraits by Korean artist Hyungsun Kim explore the human face of this centuries-old, sustainable sea harvest.

sea.museum/haenyeo

Image Hyungsun Kim

Fire on Water’s Edge Now showing

Through the words and images of Royal Australian Navy personnel and surf lifesavers, this exhibition documents the bushfires that devastated vast tracts of coastal Victoria and New South Wales over the summer of 2019–20. It also examines the immediate response to the events through the artists of the Bushfire Brandalism Collective, their works making a strong plea for climate action in the wake of destruction.

A free outdoor exhibition in the museum’s Wharf 7 Forecourt.

sea.museum/fire-on-waters-edge

Image Andrew Worssam

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 56

Until 31 October

This world-renowned exhibition features 100 awe-inspiring images, from fascinating animal behaviour to breathtaking landscapes. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photographic event of its kind, providing a global platform that has showcased the natural world’s most astonishing and challenging sights for more than 55 years. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. sea.museum/wildlife

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns) Now showing

For the first time, we bring together works by artist Alick Tipoti, from Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands). Tipoti is respected for his work in regenerating cultural knowledge and language. His storytelling encompasses traditional cosmology, marine environments and ocean conservation – focusing on what it means to be a sea person.

Mariw Minaral showcases Tipoti’s linocuts, award-winning sculptural works, contemporary masks and film.

sea.museum/mariw-minaral

Sanyo Maru: shipwrecked off Arnhem Land

Opening date to be advised

In the 1930s, Japanese pearlers dived offshore and traded with Aboriginal peoples onshore in Arnhem Land. What can we learn from the wreck of one of their largest vessels, Sanyo Maru, off the Northern Territory coast? This project was assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

In light of the extended COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney, the museum remains closed at the time of publication. Please check our website sea.museum for updates to exhibition dates and museum opening hours.

Exhibitions

Travelling Exhibitions

Remarkable – stories of Australians and their boats (dates and venues subject to change)

Cervantes Historical Society, WA

9 August–12 September

City of Burnside, WA

13 October–18 September

Devonport Museum, TAS

2 August–27 September

Moruya District Historical Society, NSW

20 September–31 October

Port MacDonnell Community Complex, SA

6 August–30 September

Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, VIC 18 September–10 October

Tacoma Preservation Society, SA

4 September–18 September

With over 1,087 rivers and a coast that stretches more than 36,000 kilometres, it’s no surprise that Australia’s history abounds with stories of people who have lived and worked on the water. This banner exhibition presents 12 stories, canvassed from the breadth of Australia, that explore the remarkable connections between people and their boats. Remarkable has been produced by the Australian Maritime Museums Council, its members, and the Australian National Maritime Museum. This project was assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

Voyage to the Deep – underwater adventures

DoSeum, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Until 12 September

Based on French author Jules Verne’s 1870 classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas , the exhibition brings to life the adventures of Captain Nemo, his fantastical Nautilus submarine and his mythical world. Kids can slip on a deep-sea dive suit and venture through the world below the waves, including the octopus’ garden with its giant clamshell, a giant squid to slide down, and a maze of seaweed to wander through in the kelp forest. They can also explore the lost world of Atlantis.

Sea Monsters – prehistoric ocean predators

Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand

Until 25 October

An exhibition combining real fossils, gigantic replicas, multimedia and handson experiences to reveal ancient monsters of the deep. Find out how three main types of ancient reptiles – ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs – left the land to rule the seas. In the oceans, they developed into awesome, enormous predators that make today’s great white sharks seem almost friendly! sea.museum/sea-monsters-travelling

Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO® bricks

Dates listed for onsite and travelling exhibitions are subject to COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines, and may change at short notice. Please check our website at sea.museum for updates.

Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, WA

Until 30 January 2022

Featuring large-scale LEGO® models, Brickwrecks explores the history and archaeology of some of the world’s most famous shipwrecks including Batavia, Titanic, Vasa, Terror and Erebus

The exhibition is developed and designed by the Western Australian Maritime Museum in partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum and Ryan ‘The Brickman’ McNaught.

James Cameron – challenging the deep

Telus World of Science, Alberta, Canada

9 November 2021–3 April 2022

In an exhibition that integrates the power of the artefact and the thrill of experience, visitors will encounter the deep-ocean discoveries, technical innovations and scientific and creative achievements of underwater explorer James Cameron.

Created by the Australian National Maritime Museum’s USA Programs and supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund. Produced in association with Avatar Alliance Foundation and toured internationally by Flying Fish. flyingfishexhibits.com/cameron

Through a Different Lens –Cazneaux by the water

Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, NSW

13 November 2021–6 February 2022

For more than 50 years, Harold Cazneaux’s camera captured the romance and life of the world as it changed around him. Water was the perfect medium for his experimentations with creating mood, atmosphere and impression on the picture plane. This exhibition features 42 original pieces of Cazneaux’s art.

Harold Cazneaux, A Study in Curves . ANMM Collection 00054649

Nemo

A novel prototype joins the museum’s collection

The acquisition of contemporary marine science technologies is a key collection area for the museum, and the state-of-the-art uncrewed surface vessel, Nemo, has joined our fleet. Emily Jateff explains the technology of this amazing vessel.

The future of marine surveillance and oceanic mapping is autonomous

THE AUSTRALIAN-DESIGNED and developed Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) use rigid opening sails and hybrid marine power – wind, wave and solar – to carry out operations in the areas of oceanography, defence and security, hydrography, and oil and gas surveillance. They are self-deployable and retrievable, self-propelled, low cost, adaptable to extreme weather, and have an ability to roam widely for days or months.

The museum recently acquired four scale test models and the Bluebottle prototype USV Nemo. A result of collaboration between Ocius Technology, the University of Wollongong and Steber International, Nemo is a three-metre ‘proof of concept’ vessel. It was intended to test the combination of solar, wave and wind power generation, gearing of sail, networking capabilities, and to ensure the propulsion system worked as projected.

Nemo is steered by a bow-mounted rudder flipper. The propeller is housed in a ‘wet’ compartment inside the keel, while three internal ‘dry’ compartments hold the 4G antenna, Iridium antenna and GPS antenna, as well as any payload (up to 600 kg). Mounted on the aft mast are a 360-degree above-water-view camera, Airmar unit and 900 mHz antenna. In the forward bow section are the gears for the front flipper and a motor control for the solar sail.

In 2018–19, Ocius Technology partnered with Thales Australia to demonstrate a ‘proof of concept’ autonomous anti-submarine warfare surveillance system. Ocius has now launched the next fleet of Bluebottles – Bonnie, Bluey, Birizo and Beacon – and these will join the current vessel Beth. On a 2021 Defence Innovation Hub contract, Beth was the first of 6.8 metre concept models deployed in an intelligent networked squad to three different ‘areas of operations’ in waters off Darwin.

The Bluebottles are capable of autonomous deployment for a number of oceanographic and naval applications. The primary role of the technology at this stage has been to field-test their use for autonomous marine surveillance. The use of autonomous technologies like the Bluebottle series increases defence capabilities for offshore marine operations, significantly cutting the cost of vessel and personnel deployment for offshore tasks. For example, the Bluebottles can be deployed to patrol or map areas of interest and report back on any concerns in real time.

The Ocius drone is representative of a shift in ocean technology, moving towards safer and more sustainable alternatives to explore, monitor and quantify ocean environments. The advantages for scientific research and maritime industries are that they allow greater safety for staff and higher output and coverage, which can now include environments unsuitable for humans or too costly to support traditional vessels for sustained at-sea work.

The future of marine surveillance and oceanic mapping is that it will be autonomous, and the Bluebottles are a vital step for Australia towards meeting our increasing needs to manage, surveil and protect our marine estate.

The Bluebottle prototype USV Nemo is now on display in the exhibition One Ocean – Our Future Emily Jateff is the museum’s Curator of Ocean Science and Technology.

Bob and Bruce Image courtesy Robert Dane, Ocius Technology

Suburban speedboats

Collingwood mobs and a dredge metamorphosis

The Australian Register for Historic Vessels (ARHV) continues to list interesting craft from around Australia and reveal their stories and significance to the country’s maritime heritage. David O’Sullivan profiles a diverse range of new vessels from waterways across the nation.

Australian Register of Historic Vessels

I NEVER THOUGHT that working on an ARHV nomination would lead to an investigation of my own backyard. In my mind, the greater Canterbury district in Sydney did not seem the obvious home for a rare 1960s clinker speedboat manufacturer. Yet, the recent nomination of Mystere most definitely proved me wrong.

The clinker speedboat design, with its classic round bilge, raked stem, and tumble-home transom was developed soon after World War II for use in both racing and recreation. Three families in Australia dominated the market in the production of this design: the Hammonds of Sydney’s northern beaches, the Everinghams on the Hawkesbury River, and the Lewis Brothers, south of Sydney, at Taren Point … but then I found another.

On a metal plate inside Mystere ’s cockpit the builder is identified as ‘Goldsbrough Hull 6 Wolli Ave Earlwood’, a short bike-ride from my home, and an area not close to any waterway. Further investigations with the vessel’s owner and local historical societies led to the discovery that Mystere was built to order by Henry Goldsbrough. It was constructed for Ian Haliday, the Commodore of the St George Motor Boat Club, the club an hour south of Goldsbrough’s home workshop. Completed in 1961, Mystere was the largest Goldsbrough clinker build vessel, at 17 feet (5.2 m) in length. With a powerful 8-cylinder 240 horsepower Chrysler engine and twin cockpit, the craft boasted a top speed of 100 km/hr.

Perhaps the most impressive elements of Mystere are its design finishes, immaculate to this day. The hardwood clinker topsides, wire-sprung seats, falcon tail-lights, and anodised aluminium trim are all original components, and would have certainly gleamed next to any Harry Hammond up-market competitor. The elusive Henry Goldsbrough definitely ensured that Alan Haliday raced and travelled in style on the Georges River in the 1960s.

Another recent vessel approved for the ARHV that shines in its aesthetic quality is Eva. A couta boat built in 1910 in Williamstown Victoria, Eva was employed in the Victorian coastal fishing industry for 60 years. It has a classic carvel-planked couta boat hull, half-decked, with an oval cockpit and carries a gaff sloop rig. Built of New Zealand kauri and Western Australian jarrah, its design acted as a stable platform to catch and land fish in the often-treacherous waters of southern Victoria, where a quick return to port could be made in order to sell the catch.

Mystere on Lake Macquarie driven by current owner Gavin Chin. Image courtesy Graham Lloyd

Eva has a very special inter-generational connection between its builder, Frederick Blunt, and his nephew, Paul Blunt, who began a six-year process of restoration on the vessel in 2000. The ribs, fasteners and caulking were the main focus of work, with the deck, inner floor panels, and engine panels also replaced with white beech. New sails and rigging were further installed for racing. Since restoration, Eva has held an impressive race record, claiming first place in the Beazley Working Boat Trophy from 2007 to 2009 and first in the Classic Yacht Association of Australia Cup Regatta couta boat division 2 category in 2008.

The sky-blue couta has strong significance in Williamstown and to the Blunt family, who maintain a presence in the local boat-building industry to this day. Greg Blunt, current owner of C Blunt Boatbuilders recalls some of Eva ’s early colourful connections:

Bill [Greg’s father-in-law] reputedly took the ‘Collingwood mob’ [a Melbourne underworld gang from the 1920s] out on fishing trips. On one trip I believe Squizzy Taylor went out with this mob. One [of them] always remained sober and packed heat. I have that from Nugget and Bill, Shackles can vouch for that also …

Further afield, on the Tamar River in Tasmania, SS West Arm today is a houseboat on the banks of the river, but it was constructed as a 60-foot steam-driven pontoon with an iron-riveted dredge by Priestman Brothers in Hull (UK) in 1885.

Australian Register of Historic Vessels

During the 1880s, northern Tasmanian ports received increasing numbers of large ships requiring extensive harbour works to accommodate them. The Marine Board of Launceston saw the Priestman Dredge as ideal to widen and deepen sections of the harbour. SS West Arm was transported to Tasmania aboard the barque Lanoma, entering service in April 1886.

SS West Arm served as a dredge for fifty years, until 1936, and parts of the vessel were eventually dismantled and sold, the hull left on the banks of the Tamar at Beauty Point. In 1948 the remains of SS West Arm were purchased by the McCullock family and the process of converting it to a houseboat began. During this period, the corroded topsides were cut away and replaced by new welded topsides. Since the 1960s, the hull has been lined internally with concrete in order to maintain the hull shape, with stabilising concrete piers on the port side.

In July 2021 the ARHV, in conjunction with the Australian Corrosion Association, initiated a joint preservation project for the vessel. This project will initially carry out cathodic protection on the hull to mitigate corrosion damage, with further measures to be taken to maintain the structural integrity of the vessel. The SS West Arm project is just one example of the many projects that have been carried out by the ARHV to preserve, and interpret, significant Australian watercraft.

David O’Sullivan is the museum’s Curator for Historic Vessels

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 and their designers and builders. Search the complete Australian Register of Historic Vessels at sea.museum/arhv

‘We’ve been very honoured by our adopted country and feel very privileged that we’ve had the opportunity to represent Australia. I’m also proud of our contribution to Australian society’

Swimming south

Canadian migration wins medals for Australia

Canadians have played a small but significant part in Australia’s migration story. While many young Australians now spend time living, working and partying in Canada, some Canadians have chosen to call Australia home. Casandra Taucki and Sandra Funnell tell the story of a family who found their niche in Australia’s competitive swimming scene.

THE FIRST CANADIAN TO ARRIVE IN AUSTRALIA is believed to have been Montreal-born Lieutenant Edward Abbott, who landed in Sydney in 1790 as part of the New South Wales Corps. Other Canadians followed, on whaling ships or as convicts, with some 137 transported for their participation in the 1837 Canadian rebellions against the British. The 1850s gold rushes brought men seeking their fortunes. Mainly from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, they included Charles Ross, who designed the 1854 Eureka Flag and who was killed during the police attack on the stockade.

Small numbers of Canadian migrants continued to arrive in the Australian colonies: by 1861 their number had reached 6,000. Twenty years later, the number had grown to almost 18,000. Today, however, not many Australian residents hail from Canada, but among those who do are the Fowlie family.

In 1992, the Fowlies moved from Canada at the invitation of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra. Swimming coach, Jim, and his wife Lynn would eventually settle here with their young family.

When aged 18, Jim won a bronze medal while representing Canada at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. That same year, he set the world short-course record for the 400 metres Individual Medley. He was introduced to Australian Don Talbot, who was a national team coach for Canada at the time. Don would have a huge impact on Jim’s life in years to come.

Lynn’s connection with competitive swimming was through her Swedish father Torsten (Tor) Bengtson who, as a young man in the 1950s, had travelled to San Francisco and then hitchhiked to Vancouver to join the University of British Columbia swim team. It was there that Tor met and married Canadian Sussie Kleparchuh, Lynn’s mother.

Jim and Lynn met in the early 1970s when both were competitive swimmers representing British Columbia. Jim came from Prince George, in the centre of the province, while Lynn’s home was the city of Vancouver. Jim had moved there to train with the Canadian Dolphins, which was also Lynn’s team. They soon started dating and married in 1976.

Eventually, they moved to Toronto, where they lived for five years. In 1990, they decided to return to Vancouver to be closer to family. Jim thought:

Oh, this is great! I’m the Head Coach of the Vancouver Pacific Swim Club, I’m back in Vancouver, I don’t want to go anywhere … and then Don Talbot phoned from Australia.

Since their first meeting in 1973, Jim and Don’s paths had often crossed, although they had never worked together. By the early 1990s, as National Head Coach of Swimming Australia, Don was on the look-out for coaches of highperformance swimming. Don offered Jim a position at the AIS, an offer that was too good to ignore.

To Australia and a new life

With three children, luggage, their sons’ ice hockey equipment and a surfboard picked up in Hawaii on the way, the family landed in Canberra in August 1992. That year there were 67,900 migrants arriving in Australia, the majority, like the Fowlies, under the Skilled Migration Program. However, migration from Canada was unusual and has remained small.

It didn’t take too long for Lynn to find work at a local pool. Within a year, when the head coach left, Lynn took up the full-time position and soon resumed her interest in elite sport. In Canada, she had been a member of the National Swim Team and in 2000 she was selected for the Australian Olympic Team staff, a lifelong dream come true. As she said, ‘It was an such an honour to be on the Australian Team for a hometown Games’.

In all, Lynn would be involved in five Olympic Games – one representing Canada and four representing her adopted country, Australia. Jim’s career continued to flourish, and in 1996 he was selected as a coach for the Atlanta Olympics, when he trained silver medalist Sarah Ryan and bronze medalist Scott Goodman. In 2000, Jim had three swimmers on the Australian team who all won gold medals at the Sydney Olympics: Adam Pine, Todd Pearson and Bill Kirby.

The Fowlies considered Australian swimmers to be hardworking and talented and, like Don Talbot, believed they could become No. 1 in the world. With Sydney hosting the 2000 Olympic Games, that goal seemed increasingly possible.

Jim Fowlie with Australian gold medallists at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, Todd Pearson (left) and Bill Kirby (right). Image Jim Fowlie

In all, Lynn would be involved in five Olympic Games –one representing Canada and four representing her adopted country, Australia

Although the Fowlies initially missed some things – notably ‘licorice and fancy chocolate bars’ – they regularly return to Canada to see family, who also visit them in Australia.

Just two years after they arrived in Australia, the Fowlie family became eligible for citizenship and they did not hesitate. As Lynn said:

We’ve been very honoured by our adopted country and feel very privileged that we’ve had the opportunity to represent Australia. I’m also proud of our contribution to Australian society.

Lynn and Jim’s eldest son, John, followed his parents into coaching and, in 2005, was selected for the Australian Swim Team for the World Championships, where he coached Jade Edmistone to gold, and a world record, in the 50-metre breaststroke. John was named Australian Coach of the Year in 2010 after Alicia Coutts won five gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and again in 2012 after the London Olympics, where she won gold, bronze and three silver medals. Lynn was there and describes it as an ‘awesome’ experience.

Jim and Lynn are now retired from high-performance coaching and administration, although Jim remains involved in swimming as Head Coach of the Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre. Lynn recently finished working for Swimming Australia, having been there for eight years.

It’s a hard sport this one, you know – it’s not just the athlete who has to be dedicated, it’s the whole family, getting up at 4.30 in the morning to go to the pool, six days a week. It’s a family commitment – I always marvel at our swim families ... Now I’m just looking at the community and seeing what the next project might be. In 2009, daughter Carrie arranged – as a gift to her parents and brothers – for the Fowlie family to be added to the Welcome Wall at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Carrie suggested they all attend the unveiling ceremony at the wall, which is now known as Australia’s National Monument to Migration. Their youngest son Jimmy was unable to be there, so they had a photo of him enlarged and mounted on a stick so he was present in the family group photo!

Casandra Traucki is a museum Volunteer. This article is based on an interview with the Fowlies conducted by fellow Volunteer, Sandra Funnell

Jim and Lynn Fowlie enjoy their welcome to Australia with Don Talbot (centre).

Image Jim Fowlie

A sense of belonging

Welcoming newly arrived refugees in our neighbourhoods

The Australian National Maritime Museum is helping to build social bridges to members of the refugee community, to enhance their feelings of belonging and welcome in Australia. Stephen Webb explains.

THROUGH A RANGE OF PLANNED ACTIVITIES, Settlement Services International (SSI) and the museum have been providing opportunities for newcomers to experience Australian art and culture and to support them as they form new connections and acquire knowledge, skills and confidence.

Research released by SSI in September provides strong evidence of the important role of institutions like the museum in providing support to refugees. Foundations for Belonging 2021 gathers the perspectives of refugees and their everyday sense of welcome, participation and belonging as they navigate a new chapter of their lives in Australia.

Overall, Foundations for Belonging ’s findings indicate that refugees, despite language barriers, are developing social bridges through friendship networks, and that they feel welcome in local neighbourhoods.

The research provides strong evidence of the value of community engagement initiatives, such as those organised by SSI and the museum, that facilitate meeting and exchange between receiving communities and newly arrived refugees.

The partnership has provided opportunities for refugees to be included in migration themed exhibitions and programs, as well as the much-loved National Monument to Migration.

The National Monument is a celebration of multicultural Australia, acknowledging and recognising the journeys of migrants who help shape the nation and whose stories speak to who we are.

Diana, an SSI client who nominated to have her name added to over 30,000 names already appearing on the National Monument, first visited the museum as part of SSI’s Welcome to Sydney program. She said she enjoyed seeing the interior of the museum as well as other buildings in the city, including New South Wales Parliament House. She found the visit very interesting and definitely contributed to her sense of belonging.

Recently, due to COVID-19 lockdowns, Diana has had to stay home with her family, keeping in touch with friends through social media. Nevertheless, she has been able to start the second semester of an interior design diploma with TAFE.

SSI CEO, Violet Roumeliotis, said successful settlement and integration were key objectives of Australia’s migration policy, in particular the ability to participate fully in economic, social, cultural and civic life.

While migration has slowed due to COVID-19, public discussion about the benefits and challenges of a multicultural Australia should look to the evidence, and the experiences of Australians who are migrants and refugees. Together we can help build community harmony and celebrate our nation’s diversity

Stephen Webb is the Corporate Affairs & External Relations Manager with Settlement Services International

Smuggled: an Illegal History of Journeys to Australia

By Ruth Balint and Julie Kalman, published by NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, 2021. Paperback,

204 pages, illustrations, index. ISBN

9781742236896 RRP $34.99

Vaughan Evans Library 364.1372 BAL

Human Traffic

Sharing stories of people smuggling

WHEN 16-YEAR-OLD CARINA HOANG was smuggled out of Vietnam in 1979, she steadfastly refused to say farewell to her mother. To do so would expose their relationship, and therefore their lie. Carina held fake documents to suggest that she was ethnically Chinese, and hence permitted to flee. But to enable this escape, her mother had to pointedly remain Vietnamese –and hence remain in Vietnam.

It was the only way in which she could organise an exit permit for VT075, a small vessel crammed with 370 refugees – including her daughter. Despite the repeated necessity for subterfuge, forgery and bribery, this entire process was in fact encouraged by the Communist regime which sought to purge the newly unified Vietnamese nation of its sizeable Chinese community. It took 15 years before mother and daughter were finally reunited.

Such are the complexities of people smuggling –and the tortuous paths that have brought thousands to Australia, legally or otherwise. Presenting a series of vignettes dating from the 1940s to the 2010s,

Smuggled confounds our stereotypes. Many of the chapters are written collaboratively with the individuals whose journeys to Australia circumvented formal pathways. Commencing with World War II, we learn of resistance fighters and Holocaust survivors who dodged execution by paying for illicit passages to safety. Many joined the ranks of Europe’s displaced persons, often caught up in early Cold War politics and seeking lifelines half a world away in Australia.

László Ürge, for instance, defected from Hungary with his parents after the Soviet invasion of 1956. Near the border with Austria, they met with another family whose son, Gyula, led them to freedom – for a price. But he also kissed them goodbye and remained a lifelong hero to László – who went on to become Australia’s beloved soccer commentator, Les Murray.

Four decades later, Nahar Sobbi escaped Iraqi captivity with her four children. They were among 15,000 members of the monotheistic Mendaean sect – pacifists who were persecuted by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Presenting a series of vignettes dating from the 1940s to the 2010s, Smuggled confounds our stereotypes

Received from the Australian Customs Service, this battered lifebuoy was taken from a Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel. Its poor condition reflects the basic and often decrepit state of the boats engaged in people smuggling to Australia. ANMM Collection 00026053

In Dubai her husband Besam paid US$10,000 for a fake passport which allowed him to reach Australia. Upon arrival he claimed political asylum – just after Australian laws were changed in 1999 to disbar the previous family reunion scheme.

Desperate to survive, and to reassemble their family, Nahar and her children made numerous attempts to join Besam. They paid several people-smuggling operations until, with 223 others, they boarded the tiny wooden boat Olong in Indonesia in October 2001. The Sobbi family sailed into Australian waters – and history – as asylum seekers aboard Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel (SIEV) IV. Intercepted by HMAS Adelaide, Nahar found herself in the midst of the infamous ‘children overboard’ incident.

Each of the tales in Smuggled is very human. Its stories share the escapees’ experiences while exploring their ambiguous relationships with the smugglers who aided their journeys. The authors leave no doubt where their sympathies lie, although at times it feels that they are

glossing over the system’s obvious potential for extortion and exploitation. None of the chapters, for instance, concludes with denied entry, deportation or death. The book, nevertheless, is laden with pathos and perseverance. Not one of the protagonists’ journeys is easy, often involving years of planning, financial and psychological hardship, and permanent separation from loved ones. Within this protracted process, the role played by people smugglers is essential, yet often fleeting and forgettable. Smugglers are sometimes friends, family or fellow believers; other times they are chancers, criminals or mere opportunists.

This work is unlikely to change black-and-white political viewpoints, but it humanises the grey spectrum in between. It certainly gives voice to those who arrived illicitly from over the seas, and fleetingly draws their accomplices out of the shadows.

Reviewer Dr Peter Hobbins is a historian who recently joined the museum as Head of Knowledge

An Outcast of the Islands

Conrad captured by the East

Suddenly a puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and laden with strange odours of blossoms, of aromatic wood, comes out of the still night – the first sigh of the East in my face … It was impalpable and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of mysterious delight.

THUS BEGINS IAN BURNET’S sixth book inspired by his former working life in the oceanic world of SouthEast Asia and its great archipelagos, and by his ongoing passion for those people and places. The books have ranged widely over subjects that include the ancient spice trades; colonial enterprises, voyages and mapmaking; geology, geography and anthropology; the great naturalists Banks, Darwin and Wallace; and now into the loftiest realms of English literature, all with a focus on the islands of South-East Asia.

The opening quote is from Joseph Conrad’s semiautobiographical novella Youth, which recalls his first encounter with the East and his first ‘command’ as a young officer on late 19th-century sailing ships, when he was given charge of one of the lifeboats of a sinking ship. It was the first thing I ever read by this revered giant of English letters, who had once been master of an iron-hulled barque that was quite like James Craig , now moored at the museum’s Wharf 7.

This literary genius, born in Poland as Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, mastered English as a fourth language (after Polish, Russian and French). When I read this new book, I realised that it provides a key

By Ian Burnet,

published by Alfred Street Press, Sydney, 2021. Softcover, colour illustrations, timeline, bibliography, 164 pages. ISBN 978-06451068-0—09, RRP $35.00

to understanding Conrad that would have greatly benefited me in my own youth, reading Conrad at high school and as an undergraduate. That’s because author Ian Burnet devotes himself to analysing the two most prominent influences in Conrad’s writing: seafaring and the tantalising East.

Burnet first interweaves an engaging biography of the writer with accounts of his formative voyages as a merchant seaman. While serving from time to time on steamships, Conrad dedicated himself to sail with a serious, thoughtful passion. Burnet devotes intervening chapters to setting the scene, historically but vividly, of key South-East Asian seaports and coasts that Conrad knew. These included the island of Borneo, British Singapore and Makassar in the Dutch Celebes –vibrant and fascinating sea hubs where Conrad spent time. Another colonial port featuring in this biographical section is Sydney, which Conrad knew quite well. He visited the harbour city first as an ordinary seaman on The Duke of Sutherland in 1879, later as master of his first and only command, the 400-tonne British barque Otago in the late 1880s. This chapter also tells of Conrad’s thwarted love for a charming and beautiful young Frenchwoman in Mauritius, where he sailed as master of Otago. Several years later he married a younger, attractive but unsophisticated Englishwoman, then left the sea to become a highly successful novelist exploring the trials of the human spirit.

Joseph Conrad’s Eastern Voyages – Tales of Singapore and an East Borneo River

On almost every page, Burnet brings his account to life with quotations from Conrad’s own writing, and with a fine selection of historical artworks, lithographs, photographs and maps that give the reader a real taste of that world of ships and exotic shores.

In the second half of Joseph Conrad’s Eastern Voyages , Burnet switches to focus on just four of Conrad’s 14 novels. They are, Almayer’s Folly (1895), An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Lord Jim (1900) and The Rescue (1920). All four works set characters and events in a remote trading station in an obscure sultanate, hidden up a mysterious river in an island of the Dutch East Indies. Conrad gives this river and its trading station different fictional names in different novels, but it’s perhaps most familiar as Patusan in Lord Jim. This is among the most widely-read of his works and reached even larger audiences as a film released in 1965.

In this final section, Burnet shows how some of the real, larger-than-life characters of the 19th-century East Indies inspired Conrad’s fictional figures. They include the charismatic trader Tom Lingard, Almayer and Lord Jim. Burnet demonstrates how the great novelist’s earlier life as a merchant seafarer in South-East Asia gave him the intimate knowledge of its people, customs, tropical lands and seascapes. From this background emerges his vivid cast of sultans, warriors, traders, beachcombers and lovers. But Conrad was also able to observe with critical distance the actions of British and Dutch colonialists.

Conrad never gives the real name of that hard-to-find jungle river. After I gained some personal knowledge of the Indonesian archipelago, I remember re-reading Lord Jim and figuring Patusan was in Sumatra. Not even close! So I’m much indebted to Burnet for showing me where it actually was. In 1887–88 Conrad made repeated voyages as first mate on a little Tyne-built, auxiliary-sail coasting steamer called Vidar. Owned by an Arab merchant, its run was from Singapore to Makassar and on to a trading post up the Berau River of East Borneo (now known as Kalimantan in Indonesia). Burnet demonstrates that this was the river of Lord Jim, Almayer’s Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. Detailed maps show every arm and reach of the river that feature in Conrad’s stories. And for the pleasure of ship-loving readers like this reviewer, he’s even located an image showing SS Vidar in Makassar.

As a final footnote, the riveted-iron remnant hulk of Conrad’s command Otago can be visited at low tide, on the eastern shore of the Derwent River in Tasmania. It rests opposite Hobart’s famous MONA art museum, while the ship’s handsome companionway is preserved in the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. That’s a modest maritime-literature pilgrimage I once made myself on a Hobart holiday … perhaps to atone for undervaluing this great writer when I was a younger reader.

Jeffrey Mellefont is the former editor of Signals and an Honorary Research Associate of the museum

Conrad’s berth SS Vidar depicted in The Port and Quay in Macassar, 1883, J C Rappard, sourced via Antique Maps of Indonesia

Vale John Bach OAM

8 July 1923–7 July 2021

THE PASSING of Professor John Percival Spence Bach OAM marks the end of an era which spanned almost a century. When John Bach was born, William Morris Hughes had not long surrendered the prime ministership to Stanley Melbourne Bruce. It was the era of spats and cloche hats, of war-weary young men and flappers, and when aviation and wireless were experimental innovations. It was a long time ago. John Bach was to play a role in many of the seminal events of the twentieth century, a man of and for his time, which proved to be remarkably long.

I first became aware of John Bach when I was a history honours student at Macquarie University. I had just turned 21 and I was in the old Mitchell Library reading room devouring the board minutes of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company. It was my first big research project working from primary sources, so they were exciting times. Cyril Pearl, Manning Clark and various other wild men of the historical profession were there, red nosed, and invariably dressed in bright ties but slightly shabby suits. A blond, long-haired product of the surf-rock generation, I felt a bit of an intruder, but they were unfailingly polite. Among them was a younger man who, to my astonishment, was engrossed in the board minutes of the same long-defunct company. He introduced himself as Jim Gallagher, and told me he was researching a doctoral dissertation on New South Wales coastal shipping, under the supervision of one John Bach, at the University of Newcastle.

01 Believed to be HMS Iris , the first flagship of the Royal Navy’s Australia Station, on Sydney Harbour in 1869. ANMM Collection 00018287

02 John Bach OAM , Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, in 2009. Image University of Newcastle Cultural Collections P2802

John Bach was born in Sydney in 1923 – the same year as my mother, which put him firmly in my parents’ generation. His experiences of World War II and postwar reconstruction were similar to theirs. The son of a British merchant marine officer, when war broke out he was drawn to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), in which he enlisted when just 19, attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant and flying on bombing missions over Europe before demobilisation in 1946. Qantas was expanding rapidly at this time and ex-RAAF bomber crew were prized flight-deck material. John began working as a navigator for Qantas just as it was nationalised in 1949, but stayed only a year before leaving to open his own business hiring boats on Sydney Harbour. John didn’t just write about transport history – he made it.

Meanwhile, he had completed his BA and MA at the University of Sydney and was drawn into the academic world almost accidentally. In the early 1950s, John started his doctorate at the University of New South Wales (then named the New South Wales University of Technology), where he also worked as a research assistant.

John’s wide experience as an officer, both with the RAAF and Qantas, gave him an acute and astute appreciation of world history and politics. His interest in researching and writing Australia’s maritime history joined his passion for the history of China and Japan, where he had flown with Qantas on new routes to Shanghai, Peip’ing (as Beijing was then) and Tokyo.

Thus, in 1954 he was appointed as a lecturer at his university’s filial institution, the then-new and very raw Newcastle University College. This institution later went on to become the University of Newcastle.

At Newcastle, John built the History Department and designed history courses, attracting scholars of note from around the world.

John published two major books that he wrote during his years at Newcastle. The first, appearing in 1976, was his seminal and influential A Maritime History of Australia, a huge work of almost 500 pages. It was followed in 1986 by The Australia Station: a history of the Royal Navy in the south west Pacific, 1821–1913, published by the University of New South Wales Press. John also edited an extraordinary facsimile edition of William Bligh’s ‘rough account’ of his 1789 voyage in the Bounty ’s longboat from the ship near Tahiti to Timor, a volume also published in 1986. I was delighted when my father gave me a copy as a Christmas present.

Feats of navigation were John’s forte, but he also held honorary positions such as Associate of the Powerhouse Museum, President of the Australian Association for Maritime History, and Chair of the Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks. This last role was especially significant: established in 1972, the committee still oversees the cataloguing and distribution of artefacts from Dutch shipwrecks in

Australian waters, including of course the celebrated and notorious 1629 wreck of Batavia on the Houtman Albrolhos. For such commitment John was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993.

In retirement, John lived with his partner, the linguist Dr Hilary Purves, at Coal Point on Lake Macquarie. For many years he enjoyed sailing his yacht on its placid waters. In dress and demeanour, John was rather conservative, reflecting the style of a generation accustomed to wearing a suit to work and a sports jacket and tie to social events. He retained the air of the son of a ship’s officer and of the young man who had been an air force flight officer in combat.

John had a long and wonderful life, actively spanning most of the twentieth century. We celebrate his life and look back in amazement at how rich it has been and at how much he has contributed to society in so many different ways.

Robert Lee is Emeritus Professor of History at Western Sydney University and the author of Transport: an Australian History, NewSouth Books, 2010. He lives in retirement in Yamba NSW. His honours thesis of 1973, which first brought the name of John Bach to his attention, was on shipping and railway construction in the Clarence Valley in the late 19th century. Robert’s late father, Stuart Lee, was author of Riverboats of the Clarence

Acknowledgments

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

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Apology

Unfortunately circumstances beyond the museum’s control led to a delay in posting Signals 135 to many of our Members. We apologise for this tardiness, which affected responses to the caption competition. The winner of the competition will be announced in Signals 137. Please note that the caption competition has now concluded, and we thank our many entrants over the years.

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Signals

ISSN 1033-4688

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