Signals 146

James Craig

Celebrating 150 years

The search for MH370

What it revealed of the ocean floor

Floods and museums

Recovery and rebuilding

Bearings From the Director

WELCOME TO THE AUTUMN EDITION of Signals

What a summer we had – it may have been hot and humid, but at the museum it was cool and fun.

Our summer program Wonderwater was, well, simply wonderful. It was marvellous to see the museum filled with smiling faces of all ages, both inside and out. Our team brought the entire museum precinct to life with knowledge, storytelling and lots of play.

As I write this, the Endeavour replica has just returned a day early from sailing a five-day Follow the Wind voyage. It wasn’t without its challenges and far removed from ‘fair winds and following seas’, but the passengers and crew had a great time. The planned Lord Howe Island voyage has had to be postponed due to some issues with the vessel, but the teams here work so very hard keeping our fleet in incredible condition. Having our vessels sailing remains a priority.

Ocean Photographer of the Year has proven a great success. It was so rewarding to work with Oceanographic magazine to bring their competition to life for the first time, and audiences are loving it. It remains on until May, so if you haven’t had a chance to see the art of these amazing photographers, please come and visit.

Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life also continues to showcase our national living treasure and our collection. I love the care that our staff have taken laying out her chainmail suit so you can easily see where she was bitten. We have some of the very best curators and conservators in the business!

Brickwrecks: Sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks has begun its international tour at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, before moving on to Denmark then the United States. It is always rewarding to see the exceptional work of the museum team on the global stage, and it highlights what is possible when we collaborate with other institutions like the Western Australian Museum.

As always, I am always happy to hear from the museum family about what matters to you, so please, if you have any ideas, drop me a line to thedirector@sea.museum I may not be able to respond directly to every person, but please be assured, different voices are both welcome and encouraged.

Daryl Karp AM Director and CEO

Wonderwater activations enlivened the museum over summer. Image Tim Pascoe

Contents

Autumn 2024

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.

The museum is proud to fly the Australian flag alongside the flags of our Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Australian South Sea Islander communities.

Cover The Sydney Heritage Fleet’s barque James Craig leads a parade of sail on Sydney Harbour in February to celebrate the ship’s 150th anniversary. See story on page 36. Image Michelle Bowen Photographer

Number 146

March to May

sea.museum

$9.95

2 The search for MH370 Remarkable images of the sea floor

8 What remains after the water recedes?

Floods and regional museums: the aftermath

14 Conflict and control Colonial relations in the Pacific islands

18 John Oxley Odyssey

From Scotland to Sydney via Queensland: the life of a 1927 steamer

24 Biography of a box

What a doctor’s medical kit tells us of colonial Tasmania

30 The daring ship

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Voyager disaster

36 From tramp to grand lady

Barque James Craig celebrates 150 years

44 Museum speakers

Book a free talk for your club or society

46 A disastrous journey

The 1866 wreck of the SS London

52 Sea time aboard RV Investigator

The Marine National Facility offers research opportunities

54 Beneath the Surface Online talks for autumn

55 Perspectives on Endeavour

A new book on Cook’s ship and its legacies

56 Members events

Our program of talks for autumn

58 Exhibitions

What’s on show this autumn

62 National Monument to Migration Register now for new names to be unveiled in 2024

64 Settlement Services International

The 2024 New Beginnings Festival, helping to build cultural bridges

66 Collections

Memorabilia from the first cruise to Papua in 1933

70 Readings

Walter Reeks; a natural history of sharks; BP tankers and their times

76 Currents

Vale Robert Albert AO, businessman and philanthropist

It was discovered that MH370 continued to fly for approximately six hours after it went beyond the range of radar

The 7th arc is an arc of possible aircraft positions, equidistant from the Indian Ocean Region satellite, where MH370 made its final series of satellite communication transmissions at 0019 UTC on 8 March 2014.

The arc shown as a reference is positioned 40,000 feet above sea level.

All images from The Operational Search for MH370 (atsb.gov.au).

Reproduced with permission

The search for MH370

What the data revealed

March 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The extensive search that followed involved the collection and analysis of large volumes of marine data from a remote area. While the search did not locate the missing aircraft, the data that it generated will help current and future areas of scientific research.

MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370

disappeared from air traffic control radar on 8 March 2014. It was on its way from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China, carrying 239 passengers and crew.

After the aircraft had transmitted its final automated position report to the Indian Ocean Region satellite at 1707 UTC on 8 March 2014, it made an unscheduled change in direction. Radar tracked it across the Malaysian peninsula until it reached the Malacca Strait and flew outside the range of radar coverage. Data indicates that it then flew for some six hours until fuel exhaustion at 0019 UTC, entering the sea in the southern Indian Ocean, close to the 7th Arc.

An initial surface and air search took place on either side of the Malaysian peninsula. After data from satellite communications was analysed, the search was moved to the southern Indian Ocean. From 18 March to 29 April 2014, a search co-ordinated by the Australian Maritime

Safety Authority (AMSA) scanned 4.7 million square kilometres of ocean. Nineteen ships from eight nations participated, along with 21 aircraft that undertook 345 individual flights. An autonomous underwater vehicle was deployed to survey more than 850 square kilometres of sea floor in search of the aircraft’s flight recorders.

The search area was determined from analysis of probable flight paths and their intersection with the 7th Arc. This is an arc of possible aircraft positions, equidistant from the Indian Ocean Region satellite that received the final transmission from MH370.

Australia took the lead in the Indian Ocean search operation, as agreed by the Malaysian and Australian governments. A Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) was established to coordinate the Australian government’s support in searching for the missing aircraft.

The search for MH370 is one of the largest marine surveys ever conducted

The search in the southern Indian Ocean, from 18 March to 29 April 2014, scanned 4.7 million square kilometres of ocean. It involved 21 aircraft that conducted 345 individual flights over 3,177 hours, as well as 19 ships from eight nations.

The search area is now among the most thoroughly mapped regions of the deep ocean

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The second phase of the search was able to capture close-up images of objects of interest (shown as coloured dots) as identified by the sidescan sonar survey. This image of an oil drum was taken by ROV Remora III at 1 metre altitude and 3,740 metres depth.

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Phoenix International

Autonomous Underwater

Vehicle (AUV) Artemis being craned over the side of Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield, 17 April 2014. The AUV collected sidescan sonar data using a 400-metre range scale at an altitude of 45 metres. It detected no aircraft debris on the seafloor.

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In May 2014, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) assumed responsibility for conducting underwater search operations for MH370. Geoscience Australia provided advice and expertise to the ATSB throughout the first bathymetric survey and the subsequent underwater search.

The underwater search for MH370 took place some 2,000 kilometres from Perth, in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean that took search vessels up to six days to reach.

The first phase, the bathymetric survey, provided a detailed map of the sea floor topography across 278,000 square kilometres of the search area. This map guided the second phase, the underwater search, during which sidescan and multibeam sonar equipment, mounted on towed and autonomous underwater vehicles, collected high-resolution sonar images of the sea floor.

The search for MH370 collected 710,000 square kilometres of bathymetry data in total, making it one of the largest-ever marine surveys. The bathymetric survey is also unique in providing maps that are at least 15 times higher resolution than the previously available satellite imagery. The survey revealed a variety of sea floor features, such as vast underwater landslides of sediment, deep canyons and huge seamounts. The data collected will help various fields of scientific research, including oceanographic, tsunami, climate and habitat modelling.

More than 20 items of debris have been analysed by the Malaysian investigators as being definitely or very likely from MH370. They washed ashore along the south and east coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues and La Réunion. Based on the locations of confirmed debris, drift modelling analysis has determined that possible locations of the MH370 crash site were consistent with the search area.

The search scoured 120,000 square kilometres of the sea floor without locating the missing aircraft, and in January 2017, the search for MH370 was suspended. The Joint Tripartite Committee noted:

We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located.

The information in this article was compiled from geoscience-au.maps. arcgis.com, which includes videos and interactive maps of the search area.

Geoscience Australia acknowledges the very significant contribution of Fugro Survey Pty Ltd, who acquired additional bathymetry data while the search vessels transited to and from the search area, at no cost to the search. This data, along with the bathymetry data gathered in the search area, was released to the public in 2017.

Phase One and Two data is freely available to download on the Geoscience Australia website. To visualise and download datasets, visit portal.ga.gov.au/persona/marine

Further information on the search for MH370 can be accessed from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau: atsb.gov.au

What remains after the water recedes?

The legacies of flooding for regional museums

Catastrophes like flooding and bushfires most affect those who lack the resources to rebuild. Small, volunteer-run organisations can lose the work of decades in hours, and even slight damage can remain for years when staff and money are lacking. After visiting museums in Queensland that were hard hit by flooding, Dr Roland Leikauf explains how their work was affected and how they are trying to recover.

ENTERING LISMORE IN 2022 means beholding a city made of construction fences. Several roads are still damaged or impassable. A large sign saying ‘What’s open?’ offers a QR code system to help visitors find out which businesses and historical locations are still operating or standing.

This region of northern New South Wales is no stranger to flooding, and nor are the local institutions. Evacuating low-lying built-up areas is a regular necessity, like watching the news attentively for the usual warning signs. It is a game of probabilities in which extraordinary disasters are unlikely, but possible.

In 2022, probability struck. The city smashed the ‘100-year design flood level’, which lay far beyond what the usual protections could handle. The waters rose to an unprecedented 14.4 metres. Even the devastating floods of 1954 and 1974, which topped 12 metres, or those after Cyclone Debbie in 2017, paled in comparison. Defences that would have struggled at 10 metres were completely overwhelmed. Other cities in the area were also hit, but in Lismore, Leycester Creek and the Wilsons River created an especially devastating situation. Over 6,000 properties were destroyed or damaged.

In any catastrophe, rescuing people has priority, but museums and art galleries are responsible for fragile, often irreplaceable objects. The Lismore Museum is typical of a regional museum: a volunteer-run institution managed by the local Richmond River Historical Society and focusing on preserving the rich, complex history of the community. It is an award-winning institution that depends on engaged, interested volunteers creating much with few resources. The historical building housing it is an important meeting place for the community –and it is in the middle of the Lismore CBD. Together with the Lismore Regional Gallery, it was badly affected when the flood reached the inner city.

When I visit the museum in early 2023, the building is still closed – a well-restored outer shell with a hollow interior that was still drying out, waiting for more conservation and restoration work. What was once inside the building, accessible to the community and visitors, is a short drive away, in the eastern suburb of Goonellabah. There, at the corner of Lancaster Drive and Oliver Avenue, a few shipping containers huddle on a hill in an otherwise unremarkable area. This is the new, reduced Lismore Museum.

Lightship Carpentaria and HMAS Diamantina in the flooded dry dock of the Queensland Maritime Museum, 2 March 2022. Image Alexander Cimbal/Alamy Stock Photo

In 2022, Lismore smashed the ‘100-year design flood level’, which lay far beyond what the usual protections could handle

‘Museum in exile is a very apt description,’ Geoff Kerr, the museum’s director, tells me when I ask what I should call this arrangement. Together with three volunteers, we hide from the relentless sun under a temporary marquee. ‘The site occupied by the containers is earmarked for a future flood-free storage for the art gallery and museum,’ Geoff tells me, while the volunteers meticulously clean objects by hand from the remnants of the flood. They use brushes and small hand-held vacuums that hiss while they remove dust and grime. If a permanent offsite storage solution comes to pass, Geoff muses, it would improve flood safety immensely for Lismore’s cultural institutions. However, it won’t solve any of his current problems.

Geoff shows me some objects from the collection. A plate from the 1901 wreck of the SS Protector, the only part of the ship ever recovered. A simple yet effective bush refrigerator, which cools food through constant evaporation of water. A porthole from the steamship Cahors, which was wrecked at Evans Head in 1885. An elaborate child’s tricycle. Part of the collection is already well ordered, while the other shipping containers still hold objects as they were rescued: in heaps, quickly removed from the floodwaters and brought here.

While we browse the collection, volunteers Vivienne Sigley, Felicity Holmes and Silvie Vánèque continue to clean the flood-affected objects. We stop for a cup of tea, which is brewed on a small side table. The team hopes to have sorted the collection soon, but they need more help. We wash our teacups in a small bucket, their improvised sink. I say goodbye to the team and move on, to the next museum. Behind me, the volunteers return to rescuing a priceless collection of artefacts with what they have available.

Further north, the Queensland Maritime Museum hugs the Brisbane River close to the city’s South Bank. Having a world-renowned tourist destination as a neighbour can be advantageous, and many tourists pass by the buildings of the museum, some of which are remnants of pavilions from World Expo 1988. Like the Lismore Museum, the Queensland Maritime Museum is located close to the river – a necessity, as some of their ships are active vessels and the heart of the museum grounds holds a rare sight: a working historical dry dock. In it rests HMAS Diamantina, a River-class frigate built in the mid-1940s and named after a river in Queensland.

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Manager Geoff Kerr and his ‘museum in exile’. Together with volunteers, he works tirelessly on organising the collection and conserving the objects.

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Geoff Kerr and volunteers Vivienne Sigley, Felicity Holmes and Silvie Vánèque gather under a marquee for some extended conservation work. Images Roland Leikauf/ANMM

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In any catastrophe, rescuing people has priority, but museums and art galleries are responsible for fragile, often irreplaceable objects

Three days of relentless rain filled the historic dry dock and put the museum grounds under water

Its riverside location means that this all-volunteer museum is another institution familiar with flooding. In the 2011 floods, the lightship Carpentaria was submerged and much of the museum grounds were affected. But as in Lismore, the 2022 flood was a singular event. The museum’s annual report calls it a ‘rain bomb’, and it caught staff by surprise. The museum’s Disaster Management Plan was triggered after three days of relentless rain filled the historic dry dock and put the museum grounds under water. However, much more devastating was that the historic pumphouse and engine room also quickly filled with water. The machines that operated the dry dock were irreplaceable artefacts that had been meticulously repaired and maintained by the volunteers. Now, the historical machinery and the rest of the museum were back to square one.

Even if volunteer-run organisations can execute their Disaster Management Plans perfectly, the aftermath is challenging. Long after the last catastrophe leaves the news, small organisations continue to struggle against odds that are heavily stacked against them. Few can afford conservators in permanent positions. Conservation is outsourced to contractors when high-priority objects require specific work. And when floods and other disasters hit, everyone needs help, money, support and expert advice. Volunteer-managed institutions are just a few victims among many and compete for resources when they are least able to.

Grants are the lifeline for many cultural institutions in this situation, but writing grant applications can be a timeconsuming process, without guaranteed results. Lismore Museum risked it and was successful: ‘We have been lucky to receive a grant from Create NSW,’ writes Geoff Kerr when I contact him six months after my visit. While protecting the objects is still foremost on his mind, a museum must have a presence in the public sphere. Geoff organised a temporary lease for a store in Lismore city. This ‘pop-up’ museum will then be their temporary face to the public, as well as their office, until the historic building can be fully restored. Geoff hopes it will be open for four weekdays and on Saturday mornings.

The archives and artefacts, however, still rest at the top of the hill in Goonellabah, where they are safe from the next flood but also out of reach to the public. Still, the volunteers are hopeful. Restoration work on the original museum building started after Christmas 2023, and maybe 12 months after that, Geoff muses, they can return to their original building. If there isn’t another flood in the meantime.

Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator, Post-war Immigration. He travelled to Queensland as part of the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS), the Australian National Maritime Museum’s grant program for regional museums. For more information on MMAPSS, or to apply for a grant, please see our website.

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The bow of HMAS Diamantina in the flooded dry dock of the Queensland Maritime Museum, March 2022. Image Roland Leikauf/ANMM

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The flooded front of the Queensland Maritime Museum, March 2022. Image Queensland Maritime Museum

‘New Hebrides – Native recruits on board Malakula ’ [1890].

By this time, South Sea Islanders were employed on vessels that transported ‘blackbirded’ Pacific labourers. Note the number of guns among the crew. Image State Library of Queensland

Conflict and control

Issues of order in Britain’s most distant colonies

Recognising the rights of islanders while giving ‘an impression of power’ was a judicial balancing act

Writer and historian Dr Ian Hoskins was recently awarded the 2023 Frank Broeze Memorial Maritime History Book Prize, jointly sponsored by the museum and the Australian Association for Maritime History, for his book Australia and the Pacific: a history. The following extract, from Chapter 8, discusses some of Britain’s efforts to control its far-flung interests and colonies.

HMS ROSARIO WAS A ‘SCREW SLOOP’, an example of the transition from the age of wood and wind in which Europe discovered the Pacific to that of iron, steam and coal when it started to possess it. Built on the Thames in 1860, the Rosario was an all-timber vessel – one of the last of its kind in this regard – and was powered both by the breeze that filled its many sails and steam which drove its single propeller. It took its name by descent from a Spanish galleon captured by the English in 1588, a small lesson in the history of Britain’s imperial ascent. When it commenced its eventful Pacific cruise in October 1871, HMS Rosario was one of seven vessels of the Australia Station located at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour. From 1859 the Station shared the Pacific with the Royal Navy base at Valparaiso. Governor King had recommended, unsuccessfully, the permanent posting of two sloops as early as 1805. Then the disruptive activities of Europeans around Tahiti, Americans particularly, were the concern. By the middle of the century colonists were most worried about the threat of Russian attack from the north Pacific port of Kamchatka.

The Admiralty’s instructions given to Captain Fremantle stationed in Sydney in 1854 outline the role of security, power projection and maintenance of order in a region inhabited by many and varied British subjects:

You are to protect British interests in the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand and the Islands adjacent and also to visit or detach a ship to visit the Feejee, Navigators and Friendly Islands, and it will be your object to give to the natives an impression of the power and of the friendly disposition of the British nation and whilst giving due weight to the representatives of the British consuls and missionaries and to strengthen their hands for good, you will repress any tendency to undue interference or encroachments on the rights of the chiefs and natives.1

Recognising the rights of islanders while giving ‘an impression of power’ was the judicial balancing act that would confront the likes of Commander Markham and Commodore Goodenough [who, in the 1870s, commanded the permanent Royal Navy flotilla at the Australia Station established in 1859]. The

By the 1870s British subjects, colonials included, were to be found throughout the Pacific islands living as traders, planters or ‘beach combers’

A wedding party within the South Sea Island community near Mackay, QLD, around 1895. They are wearing European attire for what was almost certainly a Christian ceremony. Despite adapting to their changed circumstances, thousands of those brought to Australia to work on sugar plantations were deported to their respective islands with the emphasis on protecting ‘White Australia’ after Federation in 1901. Image State Library of Queensland

Sydney-based squadron was substantially strengthened for patrol work after the 1872 Act [Pacific Islander Protection Act] with the construction of five schooners in 1873. They were slipped just three coves away from Garden Island in John Cuthbert’s Darling Harbour shipyard, and so were ready for immediate service without the delay of sailing time from Britain. By the end of the year the Australia Station was ten vessels strong, half of them new. HMS Sandfly was one of the Harbourbuilt schooners. The Station flagship was the 21-gun screw corvette HMS Pearl

The labour trade, and the problems it generated for the officers of the Australia Station, involved much more than Queensland’s sugar industry. By the 1870s British subjects, colonials included, were to be found throughout the Pacific islands living as traders, planters or ‘beach combers’ – those runaways and deserters who, in the words of one observer, had taken ‘leave for ever of their own race, and cast their lot in with the natives’. 2 Well over 1,000 British subjects were living in Fiji alone by 1870. Despite being represented by a consul who dealt with Cakobau, declared King of Fiji in 1867, their security was precarious not least because of exploitative labour practices.

Britain’s empire was expanding. The extension of Crown rule over India in 1858 alone added more than 300 million people and a land mass half the size of the Australian continent to that global balance. However, that spread was not always sought or welcomed by politicians and administrators at the imperial centre. The reluctance of the Colonial Office to assume control over the Pacific Islands after the annexation of New Zealand in 1840 remains a powerful corrective to simplistic characterisations of ever-eager imperialists. The British who had settled in the Fijian islands were a particular problem. When, in 1859, the ascendant Fijian chief Cakobau had offered to cede his territory to the British Government if they would pay his debt to an American trader, the British declined. They were cautiously cognisant of Cakobau’s questionable authority. Instead, the Melbourne-based Polynesia Company took on the outstanding amount in exchange for 200,000 acres of land in 1868. The combined request from the Australian colonies that Britain declare a protectorate in Fiji to quell the disorder there in 1870 was refused and countered with the suggestion from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, that New South Wales assume responsibility for the islands.

The colony declined that offer, much as it would the pass on the opportunity of controlling Norfolk Island in 1888. Cost and bother were ever-present entries in the tallysheet of imperial expansion.

But so too were security, order, national honour and morality. All these motivations moved the British MP William McArthur, Wesleyan and member of the Aborigines Protection Society, to form the Fiji Committee and press for annexation. His pressure resulted in the newly-appointed Commodore Goodenough being sent to Fiji from Sydney to report first hand on the situation in 1873. With the British consul there he recommended taking possession as the only solution to balancing the need for order with the interests of the white community, Fijians and indentured workers. Britain had a responsibility as an imperial power and the original home, direct and indirect, of most of those who had caused the problems:

‘I cannot but look upon annexation as a positive duty’, he wrote in April 1874. 3 Back in London there was popular agreement. The Spectator was typically droll: Some two thousand or so of our countrymen, blundering after their manner about the world in search of some profitable work to do, have settled upon a group of islands in the South Pacific … We may not be bound, as Lord Kimberley says, to follow British subjects everywhere, and compel them to behave decently, but we certainly have the right to do it when the general interests of mankind require each action; and when the Britons demand protection, and especially armed protection, the right becomes a duty.4

Fiji became a British colony on 10th October 1874, after Commodore Goodenough had conveyed the New South Wales Governor, Hercules Robinson, on HMS Pearl to finally accept the offer of cessation from King Cakobau on behalf of the British Government. Robinson thereby became the first Governor of Fiji, a position he held concurrently with his gubernatorial duties in New South Wales. Such were the ties that linked the Pacific colonies of a reluctant imperialist.

1 Quoted in John Bach, ‘The Royal Navy in the Pacific Islands’, Journal of Pacific History, Vol 3, 1969, p 8.

2 Hugh Hastings Romilly, The Western Pacific and New Guinea, John Murray, London, 1887, p 192.

3 Journal of Commodore Goodenough, RN, CB, CMG, During his Last Command as Senior Officer on the Australian Station, 1873–1875, Edited with a Memoir by his Widow, Henry S King and Co, London, 1876, p 117.

4 Spectator, 25 July 1874, p 7.

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John Oxley in the South Brisbane Dry Dock in 1970. Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

John Oxley, a most glorious example of man’s marine engineering endeavours’

John Oxley odyssey

A 50-year restoration

John Oxley is a rare survivor from the time the Clyde region of Scotland was a world leader in shipbuilding. Launched in Paisley in 1927, for 40 years John Oxley relieved two other pilot vessels in Moreton Bay, Queensland.

In 1943, at the height of World War II, it was commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy as an examination vessel, while continuing to maintain navigational aids in Moreton Bay and at other Queensland ports. With the advent of small, fast pilot launches, it became redundant in 1968. Since 1970 its preservation and return to operational condition have been a project of the Sydney Heritage Fleet. The aim is to have John Oxley steaming on Sydney Harbour in 2027, the 100th anniversary of its building.

HOW THIS RELIC of Australian maritime history came to Sydney is told in the following extract from John Oxley Odyssey: The Life and Times of a 1927 Steamer. Written by Ian Ferrier, this book was the winner of the 2023 Australian Community Maritime History Prize.

Delivery voyage

How the Sydney-based Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum acquired John Oxley was explained by the individual largely responsible, Warwick Turner. Upon seeing the invitation to tender for the pilot steamer in a newspaper, Turner recalled in the 1985 Spring edition of Australian Sea Heritage:

I immediately wrote away and obtained a general arrangement of the vessel. On receiving the plans we realised the importance of the ship. The Museum was financially moribund and it was difficult to imagine how we could compete with the scrap merchants. Inquiries soon revealed that she had been laid up approximately eighteen months, but that the machinery had been turned over regularly and as a general comment the 1927 hull was in reasonable order.

Warwick Turner with fellow steam enthusiast, Ted Hall, flew to Brisbane to make an inspection. Turner’s immediate reaction upon seeing the steamer in dry dock was wholeheartedly positive:

I will never forget the first sight of this vessel sitting in the dry dock looking very much like a coastal steamer in the bows and a steam yacht in the stern. She was a real little ship and she provided everything that a museum could ever want in terms of a sea-going vessel. Ted and I had absolutely no doubt at all that she should be acquired, somehow or other.

Turner thought $3,000 might secure the steamer for the museum. The tender lodged with Queensland Marine Board included a lengthy statement on the intentions of the museum regarding her preservation. Turner suspected there were those in the Marine Department in Brisbane who were keen to save her. However, he first learnt the steamer had been donated to the museum through the Sydney Morning Herald How to get the steamer to Sydney was next.

At first it was assumed the steamer would be towed to Sydney, but after discussions Turner had with Aub Binnie, who had been for many years Chief Engineer on the pilot steamer, Binnie supported Turner’s idea of steaming to Sydney. In preparation for the 500 nautical mile voyage Turner took a number of volunteers to Brisbane 10 days prior to the proposed departure.

Most of the preparation required for the delivery voyage, according to Turner, was in the engine and the boiler room. He wrote:

Every detail was checked, cleaned and adjusted under the watchful eye of Aub Binny [sic] who had hundreds of interesting stories to tell about the John Oxley

The supply of a full tank of fuel oil from the Shell company without charge, and obtaining a ship’s radio from AWA at half price, were not the only windfalls prior to departure. Warwick Turner recalled:

Dr Rod McLeod, a specialist surgeon in Brisbane, whose spare time life revolved around historical ships, came aboard during the preparation period. It wasn’t long before we invited him and his wife to come to Sydney with us. We were short of a ship’s doctor anyway and Mrs McLeod was a trained nurse … The preparation had paid off and the ship ran like clockwork. We had even been able to get the ships’ boats which were not going to be given to us.

Regarding the voyage to Sydney, Turner remarked:

Everybody having their specific tasks to carry out and the professionals aboard were perfectly suited to us. While they kept an eye on the activity they never intruded.

Captain Bruce Whiteman, of the Queensland Harbours and Marine Department, was Master for the delivery voyage. The two other ‘professionals’ Warwick Turner referred to and who ‘kept an eye on the activity but never intruded’ were Aub Binnie and George Kerr, the steamer’s Master in the 1950s and 60s. Both Binnie and Kerr were in their 80s when John Oxley departed Brisbane on 13 August 1970 with a complement of 45 souls. With two exceptions as mentioned above, the crew comprised members, some with wives and children, of the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum, now trading as the Sydney Heritage Fleet.

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Boat deck still with World War II accommodation on board. Image T Binns/Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

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John Oxley in the dry dock at Garden Island Naval Base, Sydney, 2022. Image T Binns/ Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

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‘She was a real little ship and she provided everything that a museum could ever want in terms of a sea-going vessel’

‘we made a triumphant entrance into Sydney Harbour having been met by Submarine John Oxley which miraculously “just appeared” out of the mist’

John Oxley (lying alongside James Craig ) at the Sydney Heritage Fleet dockyard in Rozelle Bay, Sydney. Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

Arrival in Sydney

John Oxley arrived for the first time in Sydney Harbour on a sunny August morning. Warwick Turner’s elation in bringing John Oxley safely to Sydney was clearly evident: We steamed so successfully, averaging just under 12 knots, that we arrived off Pittwater nearly a day early. We therefore steamed into the Hawkesbury and anchored near Cottage Point where we spent the night. The next day we made a triumphant entrance into Sydney Harbour having been met by Submarine John Oxley which miraculously ‘just appeared’ out of the mist. Our own Steam Tug Waratah and lots of friends were also there to greet us. Our patron, the Honourable Milton Morris, was taken aboard for the last few miles down the harbour.

The steam tug Waratah came out to welcome the pilot steamer, as did the 1942 steam tug Himma and numerous motor launches. Warwick Turner commented on one welcoming vessel in particular: ‘Submarine John Oxley [sic] which miraculously “‘just appeared” out of the mist’. But was this happening a coincidence? The Oberon Class submarine launched by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, Greenock, Scotland, in 1968 was under the command of ID Roberts. In his report of September 1970 to the Flag Officer, RAN, Ian Roberts stated:

At 0900 on Sunday 16th August Oxley slipped and proceeded to meet the MV John Oxley off Sydney Heads. John Oxley, the old Moreton Bay Pilot Vessel, was on passage to join the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Maritime Steam Museum, and arrived at 1015. After escorting the John Oxley to Sydney Cove, the submarine berthed at Platypus at 1115.

Even though Ian Roberts mistakenly referred to the ex-pilot steamer as ‘MV John Oxley ’, Roberts must have had an interest beyond the similarity of the name of the submarine under his command and the former pilot steamer. The fact that Ian Roberts was born in Brisbane and that his grandfather was a senior Brisbane pilot must have added greater personal significance to the meeting of the two vessels named after the explorer, John Oxley. Last words on the delivery voyage go to the instigator of the venture, Warwick Turner:

We berthed at Circular Quay for a ceremony accepting the vessel for Sydney. We were all sad that the voyage was over and I believe the crew, even in those few short days, had grown quite close together, the common bond being the John Oxley, a most glorious example of man’s marine engineering endeavours. The 17th August* 1970 was the happiest day for me. [*Turner probably meant 16th August.]

John Oxley on show

The arrival of John Oxley in Sydney made the ATN7 National News on 16 August 1970. Six weeks later the pilot steamer was put on public display at Garden Island Naval Base, Sydney. After listing the various naval vessels on display for Navy Week, the Sydney Morning Herald whet the appetite of the maritime heritage and steam fanatics, stating:

Two historic vessels will be on show, Lady Hopetoun, former VIP launch of the Maritime Services Board, and the John Oxley, the old Brisbane pilot ship which was briefly commissioned during World War II.

Ian Ferrier was born and lives in Sydney, Australia. As an architect working in the public realm, he was involved in numerous building projects that included the preservation of heritage. Upon retirement in 2005, he became a volunteer at the Sydney Heritage Fleet and much of his time has gone into the restoration of the pilot steamer John Oxley. He has also written four novels under the pen name Tom Ferry. More recently, with his interest in the explorer John Oxley, Ian Ferrier has written On Board with Oxley: Discovering the Brisbane River in 1823. That title, and John Oxley Odyssey, can be purchased at the Sydney Heritage Fleet Shop: www.sydneyheritagefleetshop.com.

Since the refloat in 2022 (see Signals 139), restoration work on John Oxley has continued. This project runs primarily with volunteer teams and a couple of staff tradespeople.

Funding and workforce for this restoration are critical at this time, and fundraising and recruitment of volunteers are essential and ongoing tasks. For more information, or to donate or volunteer, please contact Sydney Heritage Fleet: shf.org.au

A poster boy for the educated and intrepid, Dr Coverdale was exactly what the penal colony was trying to attract

The biography of a box

Tales of colonial Tasmania

The museum’s collection contains a medical kit that belonged to Dr John Coverdale and represents the best British medical technology then available. Like all museum objects, it embodies hidden narratives that accumulate across time and place to become part of the item’s history. Registrar Myffanwy Bryant looks at the stories this kit tells of colonial Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania).

DR JOHN COVERDALE was born in 1814 in India, where his father was head of the Bengal Postal Department. After studying medicine in Glasgow, Coverdale cut his teeth as a military ship’s surgeon and after two voyages, decided to pursue a land-based life. Arriving in Hobart in 1837, aged 23, he probably thought he had the fortitude and experience to practise medicine in one of Britain’s most remote and violent colonies. He immediately set up a single-room practice in Elizabeth Street and advertised himself in the local papers as a provider of ‘medicine, surgery, and midwifery, with gratuitous advice to the poor from 9–10 in the morning’.

Coverdale wasted no time in inserting himself into what passed as Hobart’s ‘polite’ society; no doubt looking for business, he even gave lectures at the Mechanics’ Institute. Newly married, skilled and free, a poster boy for the educated and intrepid, he was exactly what the penal colony was trying to attract.

However, private letters reveal that, like many immigrants, he often felt regret and indecision. After a move to nearby Richmond, Coverdale’s private medical practice was struggling to support his growing family and in 1842 he wrote that he felt ‘deceived and almost ruined. Would not England have afforded better prospects?’.1 In the few years since his arrival, the economy of Van Diemen’s Land had experienced a significant setback and residents had little spare money to engage a private doctor. Although he was not a farmer, his livelihood, like that of many immigrants, was affected by fluctuating agricultural markets and exports. To keep afloat, he accepted the government appointments of District Assistant Surgeon, Justice of the Peace, and Magistrate for Richmond. His medical box, the tools of his trade and the foundation on which his family’s future depended, was now in the service of the government, primarily caring for convicts. These government appointments at least provided a regular income for the family, but his dreams of affluence and gentility were hard to realise in this isolated colony.

Doctor John Coverdale’s surgeon’s case. It contains 96 separate pieces, including 15 knives of various sizes, dental instruments, needles, thread, fabric bandages, trephines, tongs, tweezers, saws and other unidentified metal instruments. ANMM Collection 00028793

01 The hopes and dreams of many migrants, be they tradespeople or doctors like John Coverdale, have been embodied in an expensive wooden box. Dr Coverdale’s box accompanied him throughout almost 50 years as a doctor and medical administrator in Tasmania. ANMM Collection 00028793

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Receipt for surgeon’s instruments bought by John Coverdale from David Stodart in London, dated 2 June 1835. It lists a case each of capital instruments, cupping instruments and midwifery instruments, one dozen lancets, a catheter, a probang (sponge-tipped flexible rod used to remove tracheal obstructions) and elastic gum bougies (tracheal intubation aids). ANMM Collection 00028795

A political match

Dr Coverdale’s medical kit also tells the story of early British administration in Van Diemen’s Land. Parallel to the violence and terror that characterised its early decades, there had been an effort to create a version of British society and government that was utterly at odds with the penal environment. In 1837, Sir John Franklin had replaced George Arthur as governor, indicating a shift in colonial policy and the pressing need to answer questions about the island’s future as it transformed from a penal colony to one determined by free settlers. While many rejoiced at Arthur’s departure, he left behind several influential loyalists such as John Montagu, who was his nephew and the Colonial Secretary. Although a very experienced and adept administrator, Montagu was known to have an ‘imperious manner and dictatorial tone’. 2 He clashed with Franklin and his wife Jane, and disagreed on the future the Franklins were advocating. Agitations about colonial administration between Franklin and Montagu created ongoing tension and, by 1841, their personal and professional relationships were strained. To this tinderbox of a political situation, the unsuspecting Coverdale provided the match by failing to assist an injured convict who subsequently died. An inquest into the death found Coverdale guilty of ‘culpable negligence’ and recommended that he be ‘severely reprimanded’. 3 On reading the recommendation, Montagu advised Franklin that Coverdale be dismissed from his role as District Assistant Surgeon. Initially Franklin agreed and Coverdale found himself out of his prized government job with his professional reputation damaged. What then unfolded became known as the ‘Coverdale Affair’.

Coverdale wasted no time in inserting himself into what passed as Hobart’s ‘polite’ society

Supported by testimonials from Richmond residents, a pleading Coverdale wrote to the press explaining that he had been misled on the seriousness of the accident. As a result, Franklin reversed his decision and requested that Montagu inform the doctor personally that he would be reinstated. Montagu was enraged. He felt Franklin’s about-face had degraded his position as colonial secretary, and from that day on Franklin no longer received the same level of assistance from him. As a parting shot, Montagu also warned that ‘evil consequences’ would ensue from Franklin’s decision to support Coverdale over him.4 Government administration ground to a halt, with newspapers picking sides and digging in. In January 1842, Franklin felt he had no choice but to suspend Montagu from office. Montagu returned to London chagrined and, with time on his side, turned the London Colonial Office in his favour. Just one year later Franklin himself was recalled to London, heavily criticised over his dealings with Montagu. In May 1845, Franklin, determined to make the most of his early recall to Britain, embarked on a search for the famed and elusive Northwest Passage, the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America. The expedition, in the ships Erebus and Terror, became a national disaster with the eventual loss of both ships and all crew.

The ‘Coverdale Affair’ had exposed the fragility of colonial administrations, where clashing personalities and disputed decisions could prove disastrous for isolated governments under unique local pressures. A visitor at the time compared life in Van Diemen’s Land to living ‘under a bell-jar, cut off from the outside world’. 5 Under these conditions, small agitations, even decisions by local doctors, could be enough to destabilise administrations and upset the fragile society.

Dr Coverdale retained his job in Richmond, the last character remaining from the fallout of the ‘political frenzy’ that he had inadvertently set in motion.6

The inadequacies of the 19th-century public health system were amplified in the environment of early colonial Tasmania

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When Dr Coverdale started at the Queens Orphan Asylum in 1865, it housed well over 550 children. He oversaw not just their health but also their education, potential apprenticeships and the administration of this large organisation. It was a far cry from his duties in regional Richmond. Image Libraries Tasmania, image 151829

02 Hobart-Town, vue prise d’un ravin au nord, Van Diemen, 1833 by Edouard Jean Marie Hostein. Hobart is shown a few years before Dr Coverdale’s arrival. Despite this picturesque and orderly scene, Hobart was still very much a young town with teething problems, and Coverdale would soon locate himself and his growing family to nearby Richmond. Image National Library of Australia

A history of service

Over the years, Coverdale’s family grew, and while he privately ruminated about the wisdom of his decision to stay in Tasmania, as it was known from 1856, there never seems to have been a sincere effort to leave. He had worked his way up the medical administrative ladder to become First Warden of Richmond, the local coroner and a member of the Board of Medical Examiners. In 1865, Coverdale became further immersed in the public health system when he was appointed Superintendent of the Queen’s Asylum for Orphans in New Town, responsible for 583 children.

The inadequacies of the 19th-century public health system were amplified in the environment of early colonial Tasmania. Focus was primarily on convicts, military and free settlers; but of course, an unseen population existed alongside these (mainly) men –orphaned or neglected children, the mentally ill, ‘fallen’ and abandoned women, the aged and disabled. Their care was seen as a necessary duty for a ‘civil society’, yet these marginalised groups of people were unproductive, a drain on stretched resources and a point of agitation between the local government and the London office. Over the next 49 years, Coverdale would be involved with caring for them all through public health institutions, asylums and prisons in Tasmania. He was the final commandant at the Port Arthur penal institute, was responsible for overseeing its closure after 47 years of operation, and later became Medical Superintendent for the Insane at Cascades, the Hospital for Contagious Diseases, and the women’s Lying-In Hospital.

Coverdale’s approach to his responsibilities reflects European medical attitudes at the time. Increasingly humane ideas towards care and cure were beginning to be adopted in Britain. Focus was not just on housing patients or wards of the state, but preparing them to become productive and moral members of society. Coverdale appears to have endorsed this approach as much as he was able, but the government consistently encouraged him to economise and justify expenditure.

Reports on Coverdale’s performance are conflicting, but he seems to have some awareness for the trauma those in his care had experienced being vulnerable in this unique and harsh society. He recognised the positive effects of kindness shown towards the children in his care, made efforts to address the health of the colony’s sex workers and attempted to provide some comfort to elderly convicts. However, Coverdale’s career in Tasmania’s early public health administration is a reflection of government administration and most public departments of the time. He was not a trailblazer, but rather ‘a man who did his best in often extremely difficult circumstances, with tightly restricted budgets, unsuitable and outdated buildings, untrained and sometimes poor staff’.7

A surgical kit like his can, therefore, have many voices. Uncertain voices of immigrants travelling to the other side of the world. Bickering voices of rival politicians looking for a reason to usurp one another. And the quiet voices of vulnerable people in a fledging society. All can be heard in the biography of Dr John Coverdale’s box.

1 Susan Johnson, ‘Dr John Coverdale: The life of a colonial doctor’. THRA Papers and Proceedings , December 2001, p 326.

2 James Fenton, History of Tasmania, J Walch & Sons, Hobart, 1884, p 158.

3 Sir John Franklin, Some Passages in the History of Van Diemen’s Land During the last Three Years of Sir John Franklin’s Administration of its government, R and JE Taylor, 1884, p 14.

4 Ibid, p 5.

5 Ros Haynes, 2006, The Companion to Tasmanian History, University of Tasmania, utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_ history/V/VDL.htm, accessed 27 April 2023.

6 Craig Joel, A Tale of Ambition and Unrealised Hope, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2011, p 15.

7 Johnson, op cit, p 345.

For more on the search for and fate of Sir John Franklin’s Northwest Passage expedition, see Signals 112 (September 2015).

The museum has conducted interviews with some of those aboard Voyager at the time

HMAS Voyager (II) at sea, 1960s. ANMM Collection ANMS 1464[106]

The daring ship

Remembering HMAS Voyager (II)

This February marked 60 years since the tragic sinking of HMAS Voyager (II) after a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (III) off Jervis Bay, New South Wales. Some of the museum’s ex-navy volunteers were serving aboard the ship at the time, and they share their recollections.

THE COLLISION between HMAS Voyager (II) and HMAS Melbourne (III) on 10 February 1964 remains Australia’s worst peacetime naval disaster. The controversial incident saw Voyager cut in two, with the loss of 82 lives, and 232 survivors needing to be rescued from the sea. The museum has conducted interviews with some of those on board Voyager at the time, including Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ex-servicemen John Withers OAM and Len Price, to preserve the stories of the sailors who lived, worked and died on this Daring-class destroyer.

The accident

‘They didn’t issue us with life jackets in those days’

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Telegram to John Withers’ aunt informing her of his safety following the incident.

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A group of survivors, including John Withers at top right.

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HMAS Voyager survivors filling out leave applications after their rescue and transfer to HMAS Creswell

All images Australian National Maritime Museum Collection

Gift from John Withers OAM

‘At about 9:50 they made the pipe “hands to collision stations”’, recalls John Withers, who was a radio operator aboard HMAS Voyager from 1962 to 1964:

We had never heard that pipe before. Almost immediately there was a huge big bang and the ship heeled violently over to starboard, but then righted up. The lights went out. We did have the emergency lighting but you could barely see to walk around … The 13 people who were in the mess deck all crowded to the ladder to go up into the cafeteria, but a refrigerator had fallen over the hatchway. We knew there was another way out. But [we were] in the dark, bunks and everything falling down. We were able to get our way through to the escape hatch.

‘I was sitting down drying my feet when the Melbourne hit us’, recalls Len Price, Leading Seaman HMAS Voyager 1962–64:

Talk about luck. The forward crew’s bathroom was where I was about a minute before the accident. That’s where the Melbourne hit us.

I had a responsibility. Everyone in my mess had to get out. I didn’t count. I was on the starboard side and had to climb up over all the bunks and lockers to where the escape hatch was. On the way I was telling fellas to get up to the escape hatch.

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John Withers was in the water for about two and a half hours, without a lifejacket and wearing only the bottom part of shorty pyjamas:

That was all. They didn’t issue us with lifejackets in those days. If you needed a lifejacket you had to go down to number two naval stores, request a lifejacket, sign for it, and then you might proceed to go over the side.

We got to a life raft, it was full of people, some injured, and lots hanging around the sides to the ropes … With the helicopter hovering just above you, the noise, the dark, the oil in the water, people were in shock. About two to three hours after it happened, one of the sea–air rescue vessels took us the 40-odd kilometres into HMAS Creswell , covered in oil that took about half an hour of scrubbing in the shower to get off. We had swallowed a bit of furnace oil and it tasted terrible.

David Simpson was a Systems Artificer Apprentice aboard Voyager ’s sister ship HMAS Vampire from 1963 to 1974. He had been in the navy for just six months when the Voyager collision occurred:

It came over the radio news. We knew that it had happened, but we didn’t know anything about it, and we were never told anything.

Searching for Voyager

Voyager (II) remains one of the most significant shipwrecks not to have been officially discovered or recorded off Australian shores. Heritage NSW, in collaboration with the Marine National Facility, has been actively searching for the wreck. Once located, the site will be nominated as a Historic Shipwreck for its social values under the NSW Heritage Act 1977. More significantly, the wreckage site will form a focal point for relatives and friends to grieve and acknowledge the service and sacrifice of those on board.

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Memorial plaque to victims and survivors of the Voyager disaster, opposite the museum’s Action Stations pavilion. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

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On 10 February 2024, the 60th anniversary of the Voyager disaster, the Royal Australian Navy honoured the fallen, the survivors and their families at a public memorial at Voyager Park in Huskisson, New South Wales. In attendance was Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond. Image Royal Australian Navy S20240217 POIS Peter Thompson

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Stained glass window dedicated to HMAS Melbourne (III) in the naval chapel at Garden Island Naval Base, Sydney. Image Jeffrey Mellefont/ANMM

‘There were a lot of young blokes ... on their first ship ... First couple of days at sea – got sunk –and lost their mates and all their kit and everything’

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The aftermath

‘Straight after [the collision] we were given seven days’ leave’, John Withers recalls:

We went to sea a couple of weeks later [on HMAS Quiberon] … We found out later that all the Voyager survivors on the ship were being watched by senior people …

I’ve been through a lot. I have a nervous rash that came out about 12 months later, psoriasis, and the doctors agreed that it is caused by a nervous upheaval. I’ve had it for 50 years now. I did suffer also with what we now know as PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] I never was provided counselling or anything like that.

John Withers is now a volunteer at the museum, and guides visitors on Voyager ’s sister ship Vampire:

One of the things I look at on the Vampire now is a design fault in those ships ... On the night of the accident the doors between the galley and the cafeteria were left open, and that allowed the seawater to flow straight through to the cafeteria. And you could imagine with the open area that it is, with a hundred people, tables, chairs, fridges, all sorts of things there, tipped on its side, in the dark, trying to find your way to the escape hatches above.

In their own words

In February 2024 the Australian National Maritime Museum commissioned a series of interviews to mark the 60th anniversary of the collision between HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne. Journalist and naval historian Mike Carlton made five recordings with ex-naval personnel from both ships, who recalled experiences of survival and rescue, and spoke of the long-lasting impact of the accident. The interviews will be accessible online via the museum’s website later this year.

‘There were a lot of young blokes ... on their first ship’, says Len Price:

First couple of days at sea – got sunk – and lost their mates and all their kit and everything. They’re the ones that suffered the most, I think.

The legacy

After two Royal Commissions into the collision, the RAN made changes to prevent a similar accident. Procedures were created for challenging another ship that was seen to be manoeuvring dangerously, or which had transmitted an unclear manoeuvring signal.

In addition, rules for vessels escorting HMAS Melbourne were compiled. These applied to all ships sailing in concert with the aircraft carrier, including those of foreign navies. But the new rules did not prevent another serious collision involving Melbourne; in the early hours of 3 June 1969, during an exercise in the South China Sea, USS Frank E Evans sailed under Melbourne ’s bow and was cut in two, with the loss of 74 of Evans ’ crew.

Edited from materials compiled by curatorial consultant Stirling Smith and project officer David O’Sullivan.

From tramp to grand lady

Tall ship James Craig

Australia’s oldest working tall ship, the Sydney Heritage Fleet’s three-masted iron barque James Craig , is celebrating its 150th year. Jane Dargaville traces its ups and downs, from its varied career to an epic restoration after decades as a forgotten hulk in Tasmania.

James Craig leads a parade of sail up Sydney Harbour on 18 February 2024 to celebrate its 150th year. Also pictured are (from left) Sydney Heritage Fleet vessel Lady Hopetoun and tugs Engage Rascal and Currawong. Image Michelle Bowen Photographer

James Craig was found by those who sailed on it to be a ship of grace and agility

In the ‘golden age of sail’, the going was as tough for the vessels as it was the men and boys who sailed them

BUILT IN SUNDERLAND,

ENGLAND, and launched on 18 February 1874, James Craig is one of only four surviving 19th-century barques worldwide still sailing and the only one that regularly goes to sea. Maritime historians rank James Craig of high importance, but the ship’s rich and colourful story is as much about the remarkable adventure of its 30-year restoration as it is about its place in global commercial shipping in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Today, James Craig is a vessel of relative leisure, employed by the Heritage Fleet to take members of the public sailing and as a static museum at its berth alongside the Australian National Maritime’s Wharf 7 at Pyrmont, providing an insight into life at sea on a square-rigger. But the ship’s early history was not so sedate, with high-seas tales of wild weather, birth, death and runaways. It suffered damage from gales on several occasions and endured the ignominy of being used as a hulk, the first time for copra in Port Moresby before World War I, and in the late 1920s for coal in remote Recherche Bay in Tasmania.

Originally named Clan Macleod, James Craig was first owned by Glasgow merchant and ship owner Thomas Dunlop, who paid £11,375 (equivalent to $3.12 million today) for its construction. In 1883, Dunlop sold the vessel to Canadian shipping baron Sir Roderick Cameron. In 1900, it was bought by New Zealand merchant and ship owner Joseph James Craig, who renamed it after one of his sons.

Barque-rigged ships differ from full-rigged sailing ships by having a mizzen mast with fore-and-aft sails. They were popular among ship owners in the mid-tolatter half of the 19th century because they needed fewer crew and were therefore cheaper. Sailing ships of the time ranged from tea clippers and passenger ships built for speed, to slower, full-bodied cargo carriers. James Craig lay between the two, with graceful lines and good cargo capacity. It was found by those who sailed on it to be a ship of grace and agility. Celebrated mariner and author Alan Villiers, who crewed on James Craig in 1920, wrote that it ‘looked a thoroughbred ... tacked like a yacht and ran like a greyhound’.

On its first voyage, James Craig carried a crew of 17, plus Captain William Alexander and his wife, although by the time it reached its destination of Callao, Peru, the manifest had increased by one after Mrs Alexander gave birth at sea. Towards the end of its days as a cargo ship, James Craig was sailing with crew numbers as low as 10. Life on board was hard in the ‘golden age of sail’, and the going was as tough for the vessels as it was the men and boys who sailed them.

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James Craig ’s master, centre front, and crew in 1907. The terrier dogs pictured with them were more than just pets; they played an important role in killing rats on board the ship.

The end of a journey: James Craig in Auckland, 1894.

Images Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

By 1899, the ship had rounded Cape Horn 23 times

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Imported from the United States, ‘Light of the Age’ kerosene was a regular cargo aboard James Craig. Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

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Men aloft, probably towards the end of the ship’s trading life. Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

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James Craig after spending 40 years abandoned in Recherche Bay, Tasmania. Image Lindsay Rex

Captain Leslie T Palmer, who in 1921 was an able seaman on James Craig , wrote:1

In her early days under the ‘Clan’ flag she was engaged in what must have been one of the toughest trades possible for a comparatively small ship, deep laden with coal from the Bristol Channel out and copper ore from Chile home to the US – at least twice and sometimes three times a year off Cape Horn.

On its third voyage, sailing through Australian waters en route to Otago, New Zealand, 24-year-old mate William Morris of Glasgow was washed overboard and lost.

In the early Clan Macleod years, James Craig was a typical tramp ship of the day, voyaging the globe and loading whatever cargo was on offer at ports from which it had discharged. By 1899, the ship had rounded Cape Horn 23 times.

Under Cameron’s ownership, it became a regular trader between the US east coast and New Zealand or Australia, bringing 17,000 cases of ‘Light of the Age’ kerosene as well as general cargo, and returning with wool, flax and/or kauri gum.

By 1900, James Craig was no longer competitive over long distances, but the ship found a new niche in the fleet run by Auckland shipowner JJ Craig transporting timber from New Zealand to Australia and returning with Newcastle coal. In 1911, Craig sold the vessel to the British New Guinea Development Company, and it spent the next seven years as a hulk. With a shortage of ships after World War I, James Craig was reprieved when it was bought by Henry Jones & Co, and taken to Sydney for re-rigging. For several years it carried heavy cargo to and from south and east coast ports, and across the Tasman to New Zealand. Soon, though, there was a glut of shipping, and James Craig’s commercial days were coming to an end.

On its final trade voyage, James Craig left Port Adelaide, South Australia, on 21 December 1921, laden with calcine bound for the Risdon zinc works in Hobart, Tasmania. On board was teenage runaway Maurice Mulcahy, who became the ship’s last crew member to live long enough to see its restoration, and Murray Geeves, 15-year-old cabin boy, who later wrote about the final passage up the Derwent River:2

The volunteer labour of hundreds of individuals went into the ship’s salvage and decades-long restoration

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James Craig is now a familiar and beloved sight in and around Sydney. Image Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

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Drone view of wellwishers aboard James Craig during the 150th anniversary parade of sail.

Image Karen Tan

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Forty years on, a man named Alan Edenborough journeyed to Recherche Bay, the final stretch legged through rugged bush, sent by a small community maritime museum (now the Sydney Heritage Fleet) to assess what they had heard was a ‘recoverable wreck’ of a tall ship. Edenborough’s mission was urgent because the Sydney group knew the prestigious San Francisco Maritime Museum was also interested in the vessel.

Every sail set … James Craig stormed past the Domain under a cloud of snowy canvas tossing her head, not knowing this was her Swan Song.

As we neared Risdon, sail was being taken in until we reached the mooring point. With Capt Purdon at the wheel, topsails were backed and slowly and gracefully, the James Craig turned in the river and settled alongside the pier, not knowing her work days were over.

… There were rumours we were set for a voyage to South Africa. Nothing came of it. Our cargo unloaded, we dropped down the river to Hobart, cleaned ship and then we were told she was to be taken to Recherche Bay ‘to go into moth balls’. We younger ones were very disappointed.

… One morning a tugboat took us in tow and it seemed to me the ship had lost heart and took no more interest as to her destination. Some time in late afternoon, we reached Recherche Bay, gathered our gear and left her. We were sad to leave her, deserted and forsaken. It was the end of an era.

Recherche Bay is a sheltered, wide, shallow, muddybottomed inlet near the southernmost tip of Tasmania. In the early 1900s, the area fostered an ultimately unsuccessful coal mining industry. James Craig had been bought by the local Catamaran Coal Mining Company and hulked down to store coal, but not long afterwards the mine closed and its equipment, including James Craig , was sold to Hobart scrap metal dealer John Hood. For several years, James Craig languished on a mooring until one day the mooring chains broke in a storm and the ship drifted ashore.

For decades, it sat bow high and stern low securely in a bed of mud, which helped to preserve its iron hull. Apart from occasional vandalism the ship’s hull was largely intact, and Edenborough returned to Sydney with a thumbs up. The salvage and decades-long restoration that followed make a tale of epic proportion, literally. Indeed, books have been written about an operation that cost $18 million in capital spending, raised mainly from donations, and an estimated $100 million in the volunteer labour of hundreds of individuals, whose passion, commitment and hard work have delivered Australia a very special maritime heritage legacy, the barque James Craig

1 Personal records of Leslie T Palmer, Sydney Heritage Fleet archives.

2 Personal records of Murray Geeves, Sydney Heritage Fleet archives.

Author Jane Dargaville is a volunteer with Sydney Heritage Fleet.

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Presentations are made in person for clubs in metropolitan Sydney. If your club is outside Sydney, presentations can be offered via Zoom. If your club or society would like to book a free talk, please see sea.museum/invite-a-speaker, email bookingsspeaker@gmail.com or call the museum on 02 9298 3777.

Museum speakers

Book a free talk for your club or society

Did you know that the museum runs a dynamic speakers program? You can book an experienced speaker to give a free presentation at your club meetings, either face to face or via Zoom.

THE MUSEUM’S SPEAKERS are trained museum volunteers who are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their chosen subjects. They present to a wide range of community groups, including Probus, Rotary, U3A, VIEW clubs, historical societies, social groups and maritime clubs. In 2023, our speakers delivered 245 presentations to an audience of more than 12,700 people.

To encourage attendance at each presentation, the museum provides a family pass worth $70 (offering free admittance for two adults and three children to all exhibits), which may be used in a raffle or as a lucky door prize. Information on discount group tours is also available. The topic is agreed upon by the available speaker and your organisation. Speakers are available for a question-and-answer session at the end of the talk.

Presentations are available in the following categories, with various topics of interest within each category: Navigators and explorers The maritime exploration of Australia and the world – the who, why, where and how of these incredible voyages.

Australians at war Heroic true accounts of our armed services at war – not just ships and battles, but the inspiring stories of the people involved.

Remarkable Australians Australian maritime men and women with vision and courage (such as Kathleen Muriel Butler, pictured).

Finding long-lost vessels Fascinating stories of the searches for ships that were tragically lost and sometimes all but forgotten.

Maritime disasters and mysteries In war or peace, conflicts, human error and plain bad luck cause disasters that cost lives and leave behind mysteries to be solved. History at sea Presentations about people and events and their life and times.

General interest topics with a maritime connection

A diverse range of presentations with an emphasis on how the sea is connected to life in Australia.

In 2023, our speakers delivered 245 presentations to an audience of more than 12,700 people

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Kathleen Muriel Butler (centre) was nicknamed the ‘Godmother of Sydney Harbour Bridge’ and the ‘Bridge Girl’. She was the first person appointed to the team of JJC Bradfield (seated left), chief engineer of the project, and managed the international tendering process and oversaw the development of the technical plans. Her role, unusual for a woman at that time, attracted much press coverage in Australia and the UK. Image Wikimedia Commons

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The Japanese midget submarine attacks on Sydney Harbour in 1942 are a popular subject for talks. This postcard shows the raising of a wrecked sub. ANMM Collection 00015325

A disastrous journey

The wreck of the SS London

A shipwreck in 1866 claimed the lives of 220 people, including an esteemed cleric and scholar from the University of Sydney, writes

Dr Kim Kemmis .

IN DECEMBER 1864, the Reverend Dr John Woolley went home to England. The cleric had been in Australia since 1852, as Principal and Professor of Classics at the newly founded University of Sydney. He was respected for his advocacy of education for all classes and his abilities as a scholar. But he had made enemies, too, by defending the secular nature of the university against strong church interests. He felt his time in Sydney was over, and hoped to find a new position through his ecclesiastical and Oxford connections.

Landing in England three months later, Woolley renewed his friendship with Sir Charles Nicholson, former Provost and Chancellor of the University of Sydney, who had returned to England in 1862. Woolley made contact with fellow scholars and followed up every opportunity, but no appointments were available, and he decided to return to Sydney.

When Woolley embarked on the steamer London in December 1866, he had been entrusted with a mission. Nicholson had left many possessions at the university –paintings, objets d’art and four huge oak bookcases – and was troubled by the imposition. He intended to ship all of these objects back to Britain, but Woolley informed him the university needed the bookcases.

So Nicholson made a proposition: in return for the bookcases and a set of Chancellor’s robes, the university would set aside £200 to fund a medal for the best composition in Latin verse at the university.

The disaster

With the robes in his luggage, Woolley boarded the SS London. Under Captain John Martin, the ship left Plymouth at midnight on Saturday 6 January 1866, with 239 people on board, heading south-southwest at about eight knots, in a light northerly wind and a quiet sea.1

The next day the wind began to rise. By Monday night it had become a gale, and water began to come over the side and spill below deck. After dawn on Tuesday the ship began to pitch violently, taking water over its bows. The sea carried away the port lifeboat; two more boats would be lost the next day. At 9 am the ship pitched forward into a trough in the waves. The water tore off the jibboom so that it hung under the bow, held by its wire stays, and the foretop, foretopgallant, foreroyal and mainroyal masts collapsed and swung by their rigging until the sailors could secure them.

The late Dr Woolley (1816–1866), engraved by Arthur Levett Jackson, published 1866. Image La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, IAN24/04/66/12

The ship steamed ahead through the next day and night, the decks covered in water and loose lumps of coal.

At 3 am on Wednesday, Martin ordered the ship be turned about, north-northeast, to head back to Plymouth. The storm eased, then returned in the afternoon, and it became impossible to stand on deck.

About 2 pm another ship suddenly appeared, the brig Courier, and nearly ran into the London. But it swung around past London ’s stern, and within a few hours lay to about ten miles north of the steamer, unable to help.

At 10.30 pm a huge sea broke over the port side of the deck, smashing the engine room hatch. Water poured down into the engine room and extinguished the fires. The crew battled to cover the hatchway with tarpaulins, sails, blankets and timber, all the while being washed across the deck. The water in the engine room was at waist height. The engines turned over for another ten minutes, then puttered out. When the chief engineer reported to Martin that the engines were no longer working, Martin remarked quietly that he was not surprised; on the contrary, he had expected it.

A donkey engine on the deck, used for winching goods on board, now started to power the pumps, but it too was swamped. At Woolley’s urging, the passengers formed a line to pass buckets to the side of the ship. Woolley himself worked the pumps, and during breaks went below deck to comfort the passengers and to lead prayers with a fellow cleric, the Reverend Mr Draper.

At 4 am on Thursday 11 January the sea smashed in the ports of the poop cabin, and water poured into the lower saloon. The engine room was under 14 feet of water, and the ship was noticeably sinking. The captain went into the cuddy where the passengers had gathered,

The crew battled to cover the hatchway with tarpaulins, sails, blankets and timber, all the while being washed across the deck

and announced calmly, ‘Ladies, I fear there is no hope for us now; nothing short of a miracle can save us.’ His announcement was met by a silent resignation, broken only by the prayers and exhortations of Rev Draper.

John Munro, a passenger, worked at the pumps and buckets through the night, and at daylight went into the forecastle to get more crew to help. But 21 of them had reported hurt or sick, and refused to move. To Munro’s eyes, they were drunk and useless. Another passenger, David Main, was totally exhausted and went to his berth to rest, thinking he would rather go down asleep than awake.

At 10 am Martin ordered the boats to be got ready. The starboard pinnace was lowered, but went into the water bow first, and was swamped. Five men fell into the sea with it, but all were rescued. That appeared to be the end of all efforts. An apathy seemed to descend on most of the people on board.

By 1 pm the ship had lowered almost to its chains. The second engineer, John Greenhill, sounded the engine room again; the depth was now 19 feet. Everybody seemed to be waiting; one survivor thought ‘the praying paralysed them’. At 2 o’clock Martin ordered Greenhill to prepare the port cutter. Most of the passengers seemed unwilling to board the boat. Walter Edwards, a midshipman on his first voyage, heard Captain Martin dissuade Mrs Owen, a woman with a young child, from getting in, because the sailors might be drunk, adding in tears, ‘it was better to have a speedy death than a lingering one’. When Edwards got into the boat, he saw there were bottles of champagne and brandy, and hid them under his coat to forestall trouble.

Woolley was respected for his advocacy of education for all classes and his abilities as a scholar

01

The London at sea. Image State Library of Queensland, 99183506333502061

02

Demise of the steam ship London in the Bay of Biscay, 1866. Contemporary engraving. Interphoto/Alamy Stock Photo

For days newspapers ran reports with the terrible details supplied by the survivors, fleshed out with fancies and sensation

Munro woke Main, and they went on deck. The water level was just below the deck, and most of the people below were already dead. Main hesitated to board the cutter, thinking there was no chance, but the vessel shifted suddenly beneath him, and he reflexively jumped into the boat. John King, an Able Seaman, asked the captain, ‘Are you going away in the boat?’. Martin replied, ‘No.’ Martin gave them the course and position, east-northeast, about 90 miles from Brest, then shook hands with Greenhill and bade him godspeed. The boat pushed off through the waters that had already begin to swirl around the ship. At that moment a young woman called, ‘A thousand guineas if you’ll take me in!’ But it was too late. After a few minutes the London ’s stern suddenly slipped under the water. The bow hung high for a minute, then slid into the ocean and vanished.

For the three passengers and 16 crew in the boat, there was a bag of ship’s biscuits, some raw vegetables and some water that quickly became tainted. When night fell, they steered by the stars. The next day they were rescued by an Italian barque, the Madrianople, and landed at Falmouth on 16 January.

Aftermath

The news was immediately telegraphed across the country. For days newspapers ran reports with the terrible details supplied by the survivors, fleshed out with fancies and sensation. Regional newspapers carried stories of smaller, local griefs, tributes to respected and beloved citizens who had lost their lives. Grieving relatives placed death notices for their loved ones. The fascinated public purchased pamphlets with dramatic accounts of the sinking and the horrors suffered by the doomed voyagers. They read poems such as ‘The Wreck of the Steamer London ’ by the infamous William McGonagall – widely considered the worst British poet ever – and sang broadsheet ballads to popular tunes.

The most sober accounts of the disaster came out in the Board of Trade inquiry, and even these had their share of sentiment and horror. The inquiry heard from survivors, officials, engineers and shipbuilders, and published its report on 27 February 1866. It found that the ship was doomed from when the skylight was washed away, allowing the sea to get into the engine room and extinguish the fires. 2

Mail ships usually took 49 days from Southampton to South Australia. The news of the disaster arrived in Australia on 14 March and caused public grief and horror, as it had in England. Woolley’s loss was felt across Australia. Obituaries and public meetings eulogised his character and contributions to the colonies. The university immediately cancelled its annual commemoration ceremonies and voted to pay Woolley’s salary and allowances to his widow and six children for several months.

By coincidence, a letter from Nicholson detailing his proposal arrived on the same ship as the news of the disaster. The university’s senate accepted the plan, and allocated money for a Latin prize in return for the bookcases. The Nicholson Medal still exists, and the bookcases remain in the quadrangle of the university, their history unremarked, tacit memorials to 220 lives.

1 This account is compiled mainly from the reports of the Daily Telegraph (London) from 30 January to 15 February 1866, and survivor accounts published at the time.

2 ‘The loss of the steamer London ’, Empire (Sydney), 21 May 1866, page 6.

Dr Kim Kemmis is a Research Affiliate in History at the University of Sydney.

Title page of a pamphlet about the wreck, published by H Pearce, London, 1866. Geog 4677.82, Houghton Library, Yale University

Sea time on board

RV Investigator

Calling for applications

The Marine National Facility operates RV Investigator, an advanced scientific vessel offering a capable and flexible platform for multidisciplinary marine research. Applications for sea time are now invited from Australian researchers and their international collaborators for projects that demonstrate excellent research that will deliver national benefit.

ARE YOU A MARINE RESEARCHER who would love the opportunity to jump on board Australia’s only ocean class research vessel, RV Investigator?

From the tropics to the ice edge, RV Investigator takes researchers across the vast expanse of our large marine estate, equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories for undertaking detailed investigations. The ship enables atmospheric, oceanographic, biological and geoscience research, as well as important education, outreach and training opportunities.

RV Investigator is a central component of the Marine National Facility (MNF), which is funded by the Australian government and operated by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, on behalf of the nation.

RV Investigator ’s research capabilities

Since RV Investigator arrived in its home port of Hobart in 2014, it has been delivering excellence in marine and atmospheric research. With its advanced and technically impressive capabilities, it has conducted voyages to map the ocean floor, search for resources, better understand our fisheries, collect weather data, investigate the eastern Australian current and much more.

RV Investigator is the first Australian research vessel with laboratories dedicated to analysing the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere. The ship’s first voyage of 2024 is utilising this capability. The aim of the 60-day voyage – the longest undertaken in the ship’s 10-year history – is to improve our ability to anticipate the impacts of future climate change. To do this, scientists need to understand how the Southern Ocean works and how sensitive it is to change. Researchers on board are searching for climate clues between the deep ocean, up to six kilometres below the water surface to two kilometres above in the atmosphere.

CSIRO voyage co-chief scientist Benoit Legresy (left) and University of Tasmania co-chief scientist Helen Phillips preparing the EM-APEX float for deployment on RV Investigator ’s FOCUS voyage, which began in November 2023. It surveyed an area 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) west of Macquarie Island, and produced newly mapped seafloor features. FOCUS stands for Fine-scale Observations of the (Antarctic Circumpolar) Current Under SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite). Image Amelia Pearson

For more information on how to apply for sea time, visit csiro.au/en/ about/facilities-collections/MNF

RV Investigator offers excellent capability for marine biologists and ecologists to study life in our oceans. Among the vast array of equipment and laboratories on board, some of the capabilities specific to biological research include the latest fish assessment sonar to measure biomass to depths of 3,000 metres, and a towed camera system to capture high-resolution imagery of the sea floor to depths of 4,000 metres.

Along with the towed camera system, RV Investigator provides geoscience researchers with the capability to map, sample and investigate the sea floor anywhere in our ocean territory. This has led to the discovery and confirmation of shipwrecks such as MV Blythe Star and the resting place of MV Nella Dan.

Applying for sea time

Allocation of sea time on RV Investigator is managed through a competitive application process open to Australian researchers and their international collaborators. Project proposals are assessed for research excellence and national benefit by independent expert committees.

Applications are invited in an annual application cycle that begins with a call for primary applications to build the primary voyage schedule, usually two years in advance of the available period.

Researchers can access fully funded grants of sea time on RV Investigator via three pathways: primary, supplementary and piggyback applications. The annual primary application call is open until 22 May 2024, for the 2026–27 financial year.

To apply for sea time, you must first register for an account in our online application portal, Marine Facilities Planning (MFP). Applications can then be made through one of five access streams.

Fiona McFarlane, CSIRO.

Beneath the Surface

Online talks for autumn

Our Beneath the Surface program will see a shift this year from a monthly talk and tour series to a special talk and tour series that will continue to highlight behind-the-scenes work both at the museum and within our communities.

All our online talks are recorded and available on the museum’s website. Simply type ‘Beneath the Surface’ into the search bar.

TO KICK OFF OUR PROGRAM IN 2024, we have an exclusive interview with Sonny Tilders, Creative Director of Creature Technology Co. Go behind the scenes with the makers of the life-size groper puppet that is the title character of the 2022 film Blueback, and is now the star of our current exhibition Blueback: Sharing the Secrets. Explore the process of crafting a puppet that had to seamlessly engage with actors under water using traditional film puppetry techniques, and gain insights directly from industry professionals, including valuable advice on breaking into this exciting field of work.

Additionally, this year will feature a presentation by Dr Samuel Dix, delving into his research on the Djulirri art site in Arnhem Land. The site boasts an incredible collection of Indigenous rock art, featuring depictions of early Makassan and European vessels. Dr Dix will discuss his contributions to enhancing our comprehension of contact and its influence on people, as evidenced in the archaeological record, with an emphasis on rock art.

Our third talk lined up for this year is from the team at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) on their project Seabirds to Seascapes. Learn about their role in this important project that aims to restore our precious marine ecosystems in Sydney Harbour by installing Living Seawalls in the harbour and replanting crayweed forests along Sydney’s coast.

Keep an eye on the Beneath the Surface webpage for updates on the dates and times of these talks. The talks will also be recorded and posted on our website.

Sophie Arnott, Temporary and Touring Exhibitions Coordinator

The Sydney Institute of Marine Science aims to restore marine ecosystems in Sydney Harbour. Image SIMS

Perspectives on Endeavour

A commemorative publication

DECEMBER 2023 MARKED 30 YEARS since the Endeavour replica was launched in Fremantle, Western Australia. In commemoration, the museum has developed a new publication that covers the history of two vessels: one successively known as Earl of Pembroke, HMB Endeavour and finally Lord Sandwich, and then the extraordinary replica built more than 200 years later.

Endeavour: Encounters, stories and objects of the ship that changed the world is the story of a modest ship, whose scientific, cultural and political legacies span Europe, North and South America, Polynesia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, and which still shapes discussions today.

The construction of the museum’s replica is itself a remarkable story. In Fremantle, a determined, passionate and dedicated team of craftspeople, boatbuilders, philanthropists and historians re-created the vessel in such detail that it is recognised internationally for the incredible skill in its construction. The replica even played a significant role in the identification of the original Endeavour, found off Rhode Island, USA. The techniques used to construct the replica mirrored those of the original to such an exact extent that when it came to identifying the wreck off Rhode Island, the ‘new’ Endeavour proved an invaluable resource.

Through essays and artworks, the book also incorporates Indigenous voices and responses to Cook’s arrival, emphasising the ongoing consequences of first contact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Daryl Karp, Director and CEO of the museum, says:

So much has been written about this most storied of historical ships. But history is neither static nor one-dimensional, and is always open to re-interpretation. We hope our new book will add to that knowledge, telling the living story of an amazing vessel, both original and replica, here at the Australian National Maritime Museum, the home of the replica since 2005.

The book includes essays by Dr Nigel Erskine, Gemma Cronin, Bill Leonard, Professor John Maynard, Dr Peter Hobbins, Matt Poll, Anthony Longhurst, Kieran Hosty and Dr James Hunter – all experts in various aspects of the Endeavour story.

Endeavour: Encounters, stories and objects of the ship that changed the world is available at the museum shop for $19.95. Museum members receive a 10% discount.

Behind the scenes

White Gloves tours

10.30 am–12.45 pm alternate

Tuesday and Thursdays

Our new White Gloves Behind the Scenes VIP tours are an opportunity to study and hear about objects that are rarely seen by the public. The tours run for about two and a quarter hours, and finish with a cup of tea or coffee in our Members Lounge.

Members $30; non-members $40.

Check Eventbrite for dates and bookings

See areas and items normally off limits to the public on our White Gloves Tours. Image ANMM

Speakers talk

The unknown serviceman of HMAS Sydney

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 27 March

Australia’s worst naval tragedy of World War II was the loss of HMAS Sydney (II) and its entire complement of 645 men. Three months later, in February 1942, a body in a life raft was found floating off Christmas Island. He was hurriedly buried, and records of his grave later lost or destroyed. Who was this man, and was he from Sydney?

Presented by Gillian Lewis from the museum’s Speakers Group.

Free for Members; enter code MEMBER. Non-members $10

Author talk

The Lucky Ones – Stories of Australian refugee journeys

2–3.30 pm Saturday 13 April

The Lucky Ones is a moving and meticulously researched book of refugee stories from award-winning journalist and former foreign correspondent Melinda Ham.

More than 35 million refugees around the world are currently waiting to be resettled. In their own words, the people in this book are some of the lucky ones who survived terror, detention, beatings and torture to reach a country that offered them a new beginning.

Melinda will be joined by Minh Nguyen, one of the refugees interviewed in the book.

Author talk

Australian Code Breakers

2–3.30 pm Saturday 23 March

On 11 August 1914, Australian Captain JT Richardson boarded a German merchant vessel fleeing Melbourne’s Port Phillip and seized a top-secret naval codebook. The fledgling Royal Australian Navy had a chance to change the course of the war –but first they needed to break the code.

Author James Phelps reveals how a former Australian headmaster and his mostly female team cracked one of Germany’s most complex codes, paving the way for the greatest Allied naval victory of World War I. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author. Free for all attendees

Author talk

Deep Water

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 3 April

Earth’s oceans contain our past, from the deep history of evolutionary time to exploration and colonialism; our present, as the highway that underpins the global economy; and – as waters heat and sea levels rise ever higher – our future.

Join James Bradley as he talks about his new book Deep Water, in conversation with the museum’s Curator of Ocean Science and Technology, Emily Jateff. Copies of Deep Water will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author. Free for all attendees

Image courtesy Penguin Books Australia

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author. Free for all attendees

Melinda Ham with Iraqi refugee Sahira at Sahira’s Australian citizenship ceremony in January 2023 at Newcastle, NSW. Image courtesy Affirm Press

Author talk

At the Going Down of the Sun

2–3:30 pm Wednesday 24 April

Join Mary-Anne O’Connor as she talks about her new novel – an epic romantic adventure of love and war inspired by true ANZAC heroes.

1914: Brothers and best friends Thom and Archie Hogan love nothing more than tinkering with their father’s old biplane. They dream of one day flying it over the wheatfields of their farm, but when beautiful and headstrong Molly James arrives in town, matters of the heart come between them.

Then war is declared, and the brothers rush to enlist. Molly answers the call to nurse in London, and nothing is a game any more.

At the going down of the sun, heroes will rise, hearts will soar and the ANZAC legend will be made.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author.

Free for all attendees

Speakers talk

Force Z, Java Sea, Sunda Strait 1942

2–3.30 pm Tuesday 30 April

The attack on Pearl Harbor saw Allied naval forces in South-east Asia face the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy as it sought to capture Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Despite British Admiralty warnings, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had sent Force Z, comprising HM Ships Prince of Wales and Repulse, to Singapore in a forlorn attempt to deter Japanese aggression. Meanwhile existing British, Australian, American and Dutch ships in the area were hurriedly formed into a small fleet that would be hopelessly outclassed by its opponents.

This presentation discusses the ships and men, the reasons for failure and the lessons learned that would help the Allies to eventual victory.

Presented by Kez Hasanic from the Museum’s Speakers Group.

Free for Members; enter code MEMBER. Non-members $10

Speakers talk

From wives and sweethearts to comrades in arms

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 29 May

This is the story of how women came to be in the Royal Australian Navy, of some of the people who made that possible and some who tried to prevent it. But most interestingly, it is also the story of what preceded these events. What was the inspiration for having women in the Royal Australian Navy in the first place? It turns out that Australia was following imperial precedent and, by adopting it, was continuing an unofficial naval tradition that was already hundreds of years old.

Presented by Justin Holmwood from the museums Speakers Group.

Free for Members; enter code MEMBER. Non-members $10

Female cadets of the Royal Australian Navy, January 1956. Navy Images

Unless otherwise noted, talks are free for members and one guest. Book launches are free for all guests.

Bookings are essential. To book members events, email memberevents @sea.museum and tell us which event you wish to attend, and who is coming. Alternatively, book through Eventbrite, phone us on 02 9298 3777, or scan the QR code at left.

For all other events, please see sea.museum/whats-on/events for further details and how to book.

For children’s and family programs, please check sea.museum or sea.museum/kids .

Bridge to the Future

Now showing

In March 1924, the New South Wales government signed a contract with English firm Dorman Long & Co to build a steel arch bridge across Sydney Harbour. At the same time, a Special Service Squadron headed by the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, steamed into Sydney Harbour.

THIS EXHIBIT SHOWCASES a beautiful architectural painting commissioned by Dorman Long, capturing the winning design for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It considers some of the alternative designs and explores why HMS Hood appears in the right of the image. Was it intended to highlight the ties of Empire after the awful sacrifices of World War I?

The painting was acquired by the museum in 2022, with generous assistance from the Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation. Marking the painting’s centenary year, this is the first time that the work has been exhibited in Australia.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Cyril Farey and Graham Dawbarn, 1924. National Maritime Collection 00056191 Supported by the ANMM Foundation. Image Jasmine Poole/ ANMM

Exhibitions

Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life

Now showing

At a time when oceans are under more threat than ever, Valerie Taylor AM has been a key change-maker, breaking the mould, pushing boundaries, and capturing an underwater world that – in some places – no longer exists. She shows the impact one person can have and embodies the urgency to act now.

Over 60 years in the ocean, Valerie Taylor has captured the underwater world and shared her knowledge with the public, encouraging greater protection of species and their habitats. In 2018, she donated a vast archive of photographs, objects and stories to the National Maritime Collection.

Featuring objects and more than 1,400 images, Valerie Taylor: An Underwater Life is not just one woman’s incredible story, it is a call to action for all the potential ocean change-makers out there – to inspire all of us to advocate for the oceans in our own way.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ valerie-taylor

Valerie Taylor swimming with nautiluses, 1992. Image ANMM Collection donated by Valerie Taylor through the Australian Cultural Gifts Program in memory of Ron Taylor © Ron and Valerie Taylor

The Wharfies’ Mural

Now showing

For the first time since it was donated in 1997, the entire Wharfies’ Mural is on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum in the Tasman Light Gallery.

The mural, painted from 1953 to 1965, expresses the history and political philosophy of the Waterside Workers Federation and other maritime trade unions. Its subjects include the struggle for the eight-hour day, anti-conscription, a general strike and the fight against Fascism.

A small temporary exhibit of related artefacts contextualising the mural is on display nearby, including Waterside Workers safety posters designed by artists who worked on the mural.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ wharfies-mural

Octopus Garden

Until late April

Dive into the mesmerising world of one of the ocean’s most enigmatic creatures! Play, hunt and hide in the Octopus Garden. Developed in collaboration with Junior Major and featuring artwork by InkHunter, this new immersive space gives visitors of all ages the chance to experience the extraordinary behaviours of the elusive octopus. From their impressive camouflage skills to their incredible shapeshifting abilities, discover the ways in which they thrive in the depths of the ocean.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ octopus-garden

Image Tim Pascoe

Ocean Photographer of the Year Until 19 May

Ocean Photographer of the Year is an annual competition organised by Oceanographic magazine. The competition attracts amateur and professional entrants from across the world.

The photographs, across nine categories, reveal the full spectrum of ocean life both on and under the water, including imagery of wildlife encounters, seascapes and beautiful interpretations of the human–ocean connection. This exhibition is the first time that all the competition’s winners and finalists have been shown together. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ ocean-photographer

Exhibitions

Show us the Keel

Now showing

This display celebrates the success of Australia’s 1983 America’s Cup win. It presents the story of the masterminds behind the innovative engineering and avant-garde design of Australia II, the passion and dedication required by the Australian team, and the fallout after Australia won the cup from the Americans, for the first time in the race’s 132-year history.

On show in the foyer of the museum’s Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Building from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ show-us-the-keel

Australia II and crew, 1983. ANMM Collection Gift from Louis D’Alpuget

Mäna and Bäru: The Sea Country of Guykuda Munuŋgurr

Now showing

An installation of 19 sculptures of fish and other marine creatures by Guykuda Munuŋgurr, representing species found in his Garrthalala homeland in northern Australia. He crafts his shapes out of the bush timber that surrounds his remote homeland. Many of the species represented in these works are depicted in the museum’s internationally significant Saltwater Bark paintings. Protecting Sea Country is an important message aligned with the museum’s commitment to the United Nations Ocean Decade.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ mana-and-baru

Travelling exhibitions

Cats & Dogs all at Sea

Port of Echuca Discovery Centre, VIC

Until 28 April

Townsville Maritime Museum, QLD

Now showing

Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, NSW

Now showing

In a seafaring life from which families and children are usually missing, and are often very much missed, pets provide a focus for emotions and affection. Sydney photographer Sam Hood went aboard countless ships between 1900 and the 1950s. He took hundreds of photographs of crew members as souvenirs of their visit or to send home to families. This selection of images shows how much pets meant to many seafarers.

Blueback: sharing the secrets

Now showing

Blueback: sharing the secrets shows family audiences how Tim Winton’s powerful novella Blueback became a film of the same name, which employed puppetry to tell an inspirational story of how we live with our natural world.

Blueback: sharing the secrets combines key objects and props from the film, including the life-sized puppet of the huge groper Blueback, with behind-the-scenes footage to reveal how it was brought to life, and interactive experiences that allow visitors to put themselves in the picture.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ blueback

HMB Endeavour cannon

Now showing

A small display of artefacts associated with Lieutenant James Cook’s famous HM Bark Endeavour. In June 1770, 48 tonnes of material, including six iron cannons, were jettisoned from Endeavour in a successful attempt to save the ship after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. One of the cannons is on display, along with some of the ballast.

Cannon on loan to the museum courtesy of NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ endeavour-cannon

Endeavour cannon and associated objects on display. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ cats-and-dogs-all-at-sea

Sailing ship captain with pet dog. ANMM Collection Samuel J Hood Studio 00021983

Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks

Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden Now showing

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

Developed and designed by the Western Australian Museum in partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum and Ryan McNaught.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ brickwrecks

Brickwrecks at the Vasa Museum, Stockholm. Image Anneli Karlsson/Vasa Museum

Bidhiinja – Restoring our oyster reefs

Touring regional New South Wales

Oyster reefs were once abundant along our coastlines, but today only 1 per cent of reefs remain around Australia. This unique exhibition combines First Nations knowledge and Western science and is a collaboration between the NSW Department of Primary Industries –Fisheries (DPI) and the museum. It explains the forgotten history, benefits and First Nations relationships with oyster reefs in Australia – and why NSW DPI wants to bring them back.

Partner: NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries

Voyage to the Deep – Underwater adventures

Museum of Science & Discovery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Now showing

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 and his fantastical Nautilus submarine. Kids can venture through the world below the waves, including the octopus’s garden, a giant squid to slide down and a maze of seaweed to wander through in the kelp forest.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ voyage-to-the-deep

Sea Monsters – Prehistoric ocean predators

Yarrila Arts & Museum, Coffs Harbour, NSW

Now showing

Earth’s oceans were once home to some of the largest, fiercest and most successful predators ever. What can their fossilised bones tell us about how they lived, and how do these monsters of the deep compare to today’s top ocean predators?

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/seamonsters-travelling

James Cameron – Challenging the Deep

Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle Now showing

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.

sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ james-cameron-travelling

The sum of us all

‘Our diversity has led to our unity’

AS PART OF ITS REGULAR community program in 2024, the Australian National Maritime Museum will host two major unveiling ceremonies for the National Monument to Migration.

The first will be held on Saturday 11 May during the Mother’s Day weekend, providing the perfect opportunity to recognise the extraordinary contribution that mothers, grandmothers and female carers have made to their families and to the Australian community.

Registration is still open, with a donation of $500 securing an inscription in brass of the name of those family members who were born overseas and made the permanent journey to Australia. Currently, we expect some 900 names to be unveiled at the ceremony in May. Those who miss out have another opportunity ahead of the next unveiling ceremony in November.

Among the names being unveiled in May are those of Craig and Nicola Wilcox from Leeds in England. Asked whether they were pleased with their decision to migrate to Australia, Craig replied, ‘You bet! Not a day goes by I don’t count my lucky stars to have such an amazing family and live in this amazing country. The best decision ever!’

The first panels were unveiled on the Welcome Wall, as it was originally known, by the then Governor General Sir William Deane AC KBE KStJ KC on 24 January 1999. Since then, some 34,000 names have been added to the monument. As Sir William said at the time, ‘Our nation is the sum of us all, all those who came here, all those who were born here, all those who are or have been Australian. And that is the great lesson of this Welcome Wall … our diversity has led to our unity’.

‘by sharing our migration stories you have helped create an important national resource for generations to come’

Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation

Twenty-two years later, on 21 March 2021, the Governor General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC elevated the status of the Welcome Wall to the National Monument to Migration. In doing so, he emphasised the significance of Sir William Deane’s speech, adding ‘in sharing our migration stories [through registering on the monument] you have helped create an important national resource for generations to come … [contributing to] a more inclusive, respectful and stronger Australia – something we should all aspire to.’

Register now to include your loved one on the National Monument to Migration. Call 02 9298 3777 or visit www.sea.museum/nationalmonument

The museum is very grateful for the support given by our members to the 2023 end-ofcalendar-year campaign. Your generosity will enable four young people to sail on the Endeavour replica later this year to Lord Howe Island. The voyage was originally planned for February but has been postponed due to essential maintenance of the vessel. Our young people remain enthusiastic, however, and we look forward to introducing them to you in a future Signals article.

Meantime, in January we were honoured to have Ben Hawke speak to Foundation donors about his grandfather Jack Earl and Kathleen Gillett . This gaff-rigged ketch is one of the museum’s on-water vessels. Earl sailed it around the world, becoming only the second Australian to do so. He was also one of the founders of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. We hope that during 2024 our supporters will have a chance to join the volunteer crew as they sail Kathleen Gillett on Sydney Harbour.

Volunteers Maria Tzannes and Mark Salmon sailing Kathleen Gillett on Sydney Harbour. Image David O’Sullivan/ANMM

From left: Brigitte Ward, her mother Jane Vella, Martina Ripping and her mother Tineke in November 2023, at an unveiling of new names on the National Monument to Migration. Image Scott Cameron

The 2024 New Beginnings Festival

A celebration of multicultural creatives

DARLING HARBOUR CAME ALIVE in January with the sounds, art and flavours of creatives from numerous cultures across the globe at the 2024 New Beginnings Festival.

The New Beginnings Festival is the flagship event of non-profit organisation Settlement Services International (SSI). Almost 7,000 Sydneysiders attended this year’s festival, which was produced in partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum, Allianz Australia, Smartraveller, Sydney Festival and Mundo Institute.

Featured as one of Sydney Festival’s major events for the second consecutive year, the festival embodies the incredible diversity of Australia and recognises the powerful role arts and culture can play in building bridges between different communities. SSI Arts and Culture Producer Raphael Brasil said:

Music, art and food are integral elements in cultural expression and can play a unique role in igniting broader conversations about how we can foster a more inclusive society. New Beginnings Festival brings diverse communities together to celebrate our differences through an eclectic mix of music, dance, art, culture and food from Australia’s leading culturally and linguistically diverse artists and entrepreneurs.

On the museum’s Darling Harbour foreshore, crowds gathered to groove to performances from an eclectic line-up of artists and performers. The headline acts were Filipino–Murrawarri–Ngemba rapper Dobby, and Neo Soul/alternative R&B singer–songwriter and movement artist Glo.

As a special surprise, Aussie hip-hop legend L-Fresh the Lion and Palestinian–Australian creative Sereen Omran joined Dobby on stage for a one-of-a-kind performance to wrap up the festival.

‘It was great to have both Dobby and L-Fresh The Lion back on the New Beginnings stage,’ said Raphael.

‘Both artists have performed at New Beginnings Festivals earlier in their careers. It has been wonderful to see their careers flourish in the years since then, and to have them return bigger than ever.’

Beyond the main stage, attendees immersed themselves in an exhibition featuring the works of refugee artists, browsed artisanal goods crafted by migrant, refugee and First Nations entrepreneurs, and savoured cuisines from around the world.

The food stalls were an overwhelming hit, with almost all the vendors selling out. To ensure food packaging and waste were disposed of sustainably, Mundo Institute volunteers were busy offering attendees education and saving recyclable items from going to landfill.

Raphael said that in its eight-year history, the New Beginnings Festival has showcased more than 363 performers and artists from across more than 80 cultures –giving the public the opportunity to discover creatives who are outside of their circle of understanding. He concluded: We thank everyone who joined us on the day and the incredible artists, creatives, business owners and partners who helped make this year’s event bigger and better than ever.

Author Jordan Wood is Senior Communications Officer, SSI.

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Hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion.

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Ghana Road Show (drummer and dancer Yacou Mbaye, musician Nii Odai Nmai, DJ Angelica Osuji (aka Lady Chika), and dancer and choreographer Lucky Lartey.

Images courtesy Settlement Services International

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The festival recognises the powerful role arts and culture can play in building bridges between different communities

‘Relief from the daily round’

Emily Hope on the first cruise to Papua in 1933

The Australian National Maritime Museum was recently offered a rare group of objects: a personal collection that allows researchers to reconstruct an ocean voyage in full. Curator Post-war Immigration Dr Roland Leikauf reveals the rich tapestry of information that it contains about the beginning of the golden age of cruising and the impact these voyages had on the local population.

The legendary liners we still remember today offered myriad luxuries, for passengers who could afford them

BEFORE THE AGE of ubiquitous air travel, ocean liners dominated the seas. The liner companies tamed the oceans by establishing regular routes around the world. The legendary liners we still remember today offered myriad luxuries, for passengers who could afford them, but they also carried cargo and mail, commuting between ports.

Cruising, by contrast – where all stopovers are meant to be events, not just travel destinations – had been reserved for a specialist clientele. The opposite of liner travel, it was often ignored by the classic ocean liner companies. However, in the 1930s, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, many such companies had to explore new revenue streams.

In the 1930s, the P&O company threw their crown jewels into the fray: the ‘White Sisters’, Strathaird and Strathnaver. Their first cautious experiments would barely be called cruises today, such as when Strathaird visited Norfolk Island for a short five-day excursion. Soon, however, P&O was ready to offer something that was akin to a modern cruise: a visit to what is today Papua New Guinea. In 1933, the Territory of Papua was under authority of the Commonwealth of Australia, and comprised the south-eastern part of the island.

Emily Hope (née Smith) joined this voyage, meticulously keeping all the paraphernalia of her travels and developing a permanent record of her travels.

In 1933, she paid 13 guineas (13 pounds 13 shillings; equivalent to more than $1,500 today) and boarded SS Strathaird in Sydney on 25 August. She braved this maiden voyage alone, armed only with the address of a Mr Pratt, an ex-soldier living in Papua whom she had never met – a friend of a friend who had been gassed during the Great War and retired to Papua because of the climate.

Brisbane was the first stop on her voyage, and the Queensland city was, to her, almost as alien and beautiful as her final destination. The voyage offered a plethora of distractions and social events. Quoits, the ubiquitous deck game played by throwing a rope ring, was one way to keep the voyagers entertained. The ship also organised the traditional shipboard ‘horse racing’, in which toy horses connected to wires were pulled towards the finish lines by passengers furiously spinning cranks. Everyone role-played the experience, by both dressing up for the occasion and behaving as though participating in a real race. The officially printed race guide advised the participants to be on the lookout for ‘philanthropists’ at the bar, as it would be shame to have to pay for one’s own drinks! It also assured the crowd that biting the coins paid out by the ship’s booking office was not necessary, because these were ‘perfectly good shekels’. The rest of the evenings were spent on social functions, long bridge tournaments, extensive dancing and the inevitable fancy dress ball. To stay healthy and in shape, physical activities abounded, including the nowforgotten ‘gymkhana’, a mixed series of sporting and competitive activities presented as one event. The voyagers left their island of leisure on board Strathaird only for shore excursions and expeditions. The first opportunity presented itself in Brisbane, where expeditions by car, rail, steamer or a combination of all three could be booked, some lasting for a full day. Emily chose to travel far and wide, venturing even into the Blackall Range. After two days, the vessel continued to their primary destination: the Australian-administered capital of Papua, Port Moresby, and its environs.

Emily would have had many reasons to be wary of this destination. She and the other passengers had been warned in writing – by the secretary of the Governor of Papua, no less – that the locals often showed ‘mendicancy’ and tended to beg or demand payment for photographs. The population, suggests the letter, had turned into ‘professional beggars’, expecting payment from those visiting their home.

The Strathaird was a ubiquitous sight in and around Sydney. Here it can be seen leaving the city, photographed from North Head. ANMM Collection Samuel J Hood Studio 00024680

Collections

Evenings were spent on social functions, long bridge tournaments, extensive dancing and the inevitable fancy dress ball

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The ‘Electric Ship Strathaird ’ is the star of this postcard from circa 1937. It is depicted as either transiting the Suez Canal or passing by Aden, surrounded by smaller vessels. ANMM Collection ANMS0410[164] Gift from the Estate of John Watt

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Experiences on and off the ship: organised shore excursions were a part of cruising from day one. The range of choices for the travellers was impressive and included day trips to the mountains by train and bus as well as sightseeing by steamer and extended picnics.

ANMM Collection

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The Queensland North Coast brochure was a glossy, high-quality advertisement, presenting this region as a desirable tourism location for cruise passengers.

ANMM Collection

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Cruising – where all stopovers are meant to be events, not just travel destinations – had been reserved for a specialist clientele

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Despite these warnings, Emily did not avoid contact with the locals. She gladly paid them for their services (after haggling, of course) and hitched a ride on a truck through the countryside, only armed with a passing knowledge of the local language, Tok Pisin (which she calls ‘pidgeon talk’ in her letters). Even though she felt squeamish in some situations, she successfully found the house of Mr Pratt, where she spent most of her time with either her host or the local children.

Emily Hope’s letters, photographs and other materials provide some rare insight into the interactions between the first cruise ship travellers and the locals. Her memories present her as someone who is unbiased, but nevertheless unable to understand the negative impact the arriving tourists have already had on the population. The passing ocean liners have already established systems that the cruise passengers find when they embark. The ‘natives’ are described in a negative light, yet an ‘Inspection of Native Village’ and ‘Native Dance at Konedobu’ are an integral part of their excursions. Emily does not reflect on the power imbalances created by these visits. She writes that ‘in the towns occupied by white people the natives are partly educated, (pidgeon) and taught cleanliness. They do all the housework whilst watched, otherwise they fall asleep any old time’. She sees the locals as interesting with a tendency to being lazy, and completely dependent for their survival on the white population. That they should work as servants when living in the city is accepted as a given. The only other possible role is for them to stay in their villages and act for the ‘enjoyment of the visitors’ by organising spectacles like ‘native canoe races’. Their society has been affected and transformed by the people constantly arriving from across the sea, and the cruise liner business will only accelerate this transformation.

Emily leaves the island richer in experiences, and with a haul of locally acquired items: shells and figurines, ‘poisonous tipped spears’ and ‘genuine hunting spears that have been used’, as well as combs with coloured feathers, a stool carved from a block of wood, coral, an ebony walking stick, and much more. She also left with impressions of a country of ‘brilliant colouring’ and ‘tropical heat’. In time, the country with its ‘primitive jungle and tracks’ and ‘bright flowers with wonderful perfume’ would draw many more early cruise passengers to it, until air travel finally sealed the fate of the grand ships like Strathaird

The enigmatic Walter Reeks

Australia’s first full-time naval architect

IN A STRAW POLL of my boatie friends, I found that while most knew the name of boat designer Walter Reeks, very few know much more about the man who designed the magnificent 35-metre Edwardian steam yacht Ena, built in 1900, which is now part of the Australian National Maritime Museum’s floating collection.

Unlike the American Francis Herreshoff, who was born 30 years after Reeks and is still a household name around the world, the life of Australia’s first full-time naval architect, Englishman Walter Reeks (1861–1925), has mostly been hidden. Now, with the publication of Walter Reeks – naval architect, yachtsman and entrepreneur, Nicole Mays and David Payne have recorded Reeks’ story, and in fascinating detail. Mays is an experienced and talented maritime writer and publisher, and her work is complemented by extensive technical research by Payne, who is well known for his many years as the ANMM’s Curator of the Register of Historic Vessels. David Payne had trained with his uncle Alan Payne, designer of Australia’s first America’s Cup challenger Gretel, experience that stood him in good stead when translating Reeks’ many and varied designs. Payne was able to use his drafting skills to develop the plans for many of Reeks’ vessels.

So, who was Reeks? This is a question I asked myself some years ago when I was researching the history of Sydney’s Berrys Bay, where Reeks worked for a couple of years and where many of his designs were built by iconic boatbuilders WM Ford and others. Apart from newspaper reports of launches, Reeks himself remained mostly an enigma.

Engineer Norman Selfe had already been designing boats in Sydney, but Reeks was Australia’s first dedicated naval architect, and his popularity spread very quickly with boat owners of the late 19th century, not least because he understood the new complex rules of yacht racing.

Recreational boating was then coming of age and became a serious pastime for the wealthy. Reeks’ body of work wasn’t restricted to wealthy men’s racing yachts or Edwardian ‘gentlemen’s’ motor yachts, however; he improved and refined the design of the iconic doubleender ferries on Sydney Harbour to a concept that became symbolic of 20th-century ferries in Sydney.

Walter Reeks – naval architect, yachtsman and entrepreneur records the work of someone who holds a significant place in Australia’s maritime history, but also of the man, one whose life was punctuated by tragedy as well as triumph. In 1895, Reeks was left a single parent to a son, Kent, and a daughter, Thelma, after his wife of only six years died. In 1914, Reeks was devastated when Kent was murdered in the United Kingdom where, following his father’s footsteps, he had travelled to sit his marine engineering exams. The murder was particularly gruesome and was never solved.

Payne’s exquisite line drawings appear in the last chapter of the book, and a list of vessels, with detail, is in the penultimate chapter. The book is richly illustrated with photographs of Reeks vessels and includes both footnotes for further reading and a comprehensive index. Also a boon to researchers is that the images are credited where they appear.

Very few books are of such importance to the history of maritime Australia as Walter Reeks – naval architect, yachtsman and entrepreneur. It is a great read and will prove an invaluable resource for researchers and boaties alike.

Reviewer Randi Svensen is the author of numerous maritime titles, including A Changing Tide: the history of Berrys Bay, Sydney Harbour, 33.83S, 151.18E, Heroic, Forceful & Fearless: Australia’s tugboat heritage and Wooden Boats, Iron Men – the Halvorsen story

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Lines of 1903 schooner Bona (later named Boomerang ), drawn by David Payne, 2002. Image courtesy David Payne

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SY Ena in Darling Harbour. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

Walter Reeks – naval architect, yachtsman and entrepreneur

By Nicole Mays and David Payne, published by Navarine Publishing, Hobart, 2023. Hardcover, 378 pages, photographs, line drawings, index, footnotes.

ISBN 978-0-6457086-2-2 RRP $89.00. Vaughan Evans Library 623.82 MAY

Icons and oddities

A natural history of shark life

THE ENDURING HUMAN FASCINATION with sharks is well expressed and explained in this book, among the first in a series from Princeton University Press. The authors, shark biologists with more than 30 years’ experience each, present their considerable expertise in a colloquial and highly readable way, covering a broad cross-section of familiar and iconic species as well as those less well known.

The book examines the 450-million-year evolutionary history of sharks and the ways in which they have changed or stayed the same. It looks at the great diversity of shapes, sizes, lifestyles, behaviours, habitats and ecological roles of the 540-odd extant species. Along the way, it overturns stereotypes: whereas most people think of large, sleek, grey species such as great whites and tiger sharks as typical, these are in fact ‘oddballs’; a typical shark is actually a small, brown, uncharismatic deep-sea dweller.

Eight chapters cover evolution and diversity; adaptations; ecology; and sharks of the open ocean, deep sea, rivers and estuaries, and continental shelves. The final chapter, Sharks and Us, examines threats to sharks – such as overfishing, ocean warming, by-catch, pollution and ghost nets – and how these can be mitigated.

Within each chapter are two-page profiles of selected species, giving the scientific name, family, notable features, size and what the species predates upon, as well as selected details such as behaviour, habitat and reproduction. The IUCN status of the species is often noted, and a habitat distribution map is included. Throughout the book, breakout boxes offer digestible bites of wide-ranging information, such as shark attack statistics, biomedical applications of shark products and evidence that individual sharks have personalities.

The book is richly illustrated. The many striking photographs include two sharks feeding on a bait ball in breaking ocean waves off Western Australia; a possibly pregnant tiger shark undergoing a sonogram at sea;

the photophores of a bioluminescing pygmy shark; and a hammerhead giving the photographer the side-eye. Rarely seen behaviours and incidents are also captured, such as sharks mating and a newborn lemon shark still trailing its umbilical cord. In addition, clear diagrams explain diverse facets of shark biology, ecology and behaviour in an easy-to-grasp way.

The book’s structure and design encourage and reward browsing. Any reader is sure to find something of interest in a randomly selected page, including details of odd and surprising behaviours, such as the intrauterine cannibalism practised by some species, and that parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) has been observed in various species of captive aquarium sharks. This work is an excellent addition to the library of anyone interested in marine life and will certainly contribute to the authors’ stated aim of encouraging people to ‘appreciate, understand and protect’ these magnificent and often maligned creatures.

Reviewer Janine Flew is the museum’s Publications Officer and the editor of Signals

The Lives of Sharks

By

Daniel C Abel and R Dean Grubbs, published by Princeton University Press, 2023. Hardcover, 288 pages, illustrations, glossary, resources, index.

ISBN 9780691244310

RRP $60.00 Vaughan Evans

Library 597.31 ABE

Tankers and their times

A

pictorial guide to BP ships

THIS VERY INTERESTING BOOK primarily covers the background to tankers controlled by the BP Oil Group of the UK from 1945 to 1975. There is also a brief coverage of the tankers owned since the BP Group commenced in 1917.

The title, BP Shipping Pictorial, reflects the main drawcard of this book, which is its wide range of photos. Easily the book’s best feature, they include both exterior and interior illustrations as well as images of vessels under construction. Merchant shipping publications seldom include images of such items as machinery, furnishings and partially built vessels. Some particularly well-chosen photos show the same ship in different guises, both wartime and peacetime.

The author, Dr Ray Solly, spent some years at sea and thus brings an expert perspective to the book. This is particularly evident in his discussion of the IGS (Inert Gas System) – a vital safety system minimising fires and explosions in flammable oil cargoes. IGS was first introduced in 1932, but it was not until the 1960s that BP adopted the system, being the first major oil company to do so.

Another important aspect dealt with in this title is oil pollution and the gradual imposition of shipping regulations to minimise this threat to marine life.

The BP Oil Group has strong Australian connections. Currently BP has an (inoperative) oil refinery at Kwinana, WA, now used as an oil storage facility. In 1967–68 the company had two tankers built at Newcastle, NSW, for the Australian coastal trade, as well as having other foreign-built vessels registered in Australia.

Overall, this is a book well worth acquiring because of its unusual perspective – both literary and visual –on these tankers and their history.

Reviewer Robert Fildes is a museum member and holds a degree in transport economics from the University of Hull, UK. He has written several books on shipping, including The Ships that Serve Australia and New Zealand (2 volumes; 2 editions) and was the editor of the quarterly magazine Australian Sea Heritage from 2001 to 2004. He is currently co-editor of the illustrated e-book Aus-Ships, which lists some 6,000 Australian merchant and military vessels, both past and present.

BP Shipping Pictorial – The golden years 1945–1975

By

Ray Solly, Published by Whittles Publishing, Dunbeath, Scotland, 2023. Softcover, 148 pages, illustrations, index. ISBN 978-184995-474-7 RRP approx $54.00. Vaughan Evans Library 623.8425 SOL

BP Avon, a River class tanker launched in March 1972 and scrapped in 2000.

Recent additions to the Vaughan Evans Library

EACH MONTH WE ADD NEW WORKS to our library across a wide range of topics, including naval history, immigration, diverse local cultures, ocean science, river stories, Australian history, school textbooks and titles for kids. We also offer a variety of maritime, genealogical and general research databases. Check our library catalogue, schedule a visit and enjoy our wonderful new books. Visit sea.museum/collections/library

Gerald R Allen & Roger Steene

Indo-Pacific coral reef guide 577.789 ALL

Munya Andrews

Journey into Dreamtime 398.20994 AND

Munya Andrews and Carla Rogers

Practical reconciliation: Strengthening relationships for all Australians in 7 easy steps

305.89915 PRA

Julia Armfield

Our wives under the sea 823 ARM

David Abulafia

The boundless sea: A human history of the oceans 910.45 ABU

Alan Atkinson

Elizabeth & John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm

994.402092 ATK

Rob Brander

Dr Rip’s essential beach book

797.32 BRA

Angus Britts

Ikara: Australia’s Cold War wonder weapon

359.98170994 BRI

Denis Byrne, Ien Ang and Phillip Mar (eds)

The China–Australia migration corridor 325.2510994 CHI

DJ Carr (ed)

Sydney Parkinson 743.7 CAR

Ron Clark

Harry Clark: the story of a master boatbuilder 623.82009945 CLA

Craig Collie

On our doorstep: When Australia faced the threat of invasion by the Japanese 940.540994 COL

Tea Cooper

The talented Mrs Greenway 823.4 COO

David Crotty

Qantas and the Empire flying boat 387.73347 CRO

Paul Dillon

Kanaka boats is a-comin’: Pacific Island labourers in Queensland 331.62960943 DIL

Miriam Estensen

The life of Matthew Flinders 994.020924 FLI

Melissa Fleming

A hope more powerful than the sea: the journey of Doaa al Zamel 305.906914 FLE

Catie Gilchrist

Murder, misadventure & miserable ends: tales from a colonial coroner’s court 364.1523 GIL

Kate Guy, Hajra Williams and Claire Wintle (eds)

Histories of exhibition design in the museum: Makers, process and practice 069.5 HIS

Lars Horn

Voice of the fish: a lyric essay 824.91 HOR

Sabrina Imbler

My life in sea creatures 578.77 IMB

Mavis Kerinaiua and Laura Rademaker

Tiwi story: turning history downside up 994.295 KER

Grantlee Kieza

Flinders 994.020924 FLI

Grantlee Kieza

The remarkable Mrs Reibey 994.402 KIE

Cathy Leahy et al (eds) Colony 709.94 COL

Doug Limbrick

Colonial artist ST Gill: Australia through colonial 759.994 LIM

Nancy MacKay

Curating oral histories: from interview to archive 025.2882 MAC

Jutta Malnic with John Kasaipwalova

Kula: myth and magic in the Trobriand Islands 306.099541 MAL

Brett Mason

Saving Lieutenant Kennedy 940.545973092 MAS

Meanjin Volume 81, no 4, Summer 2022 994 AUS

Meanjin Volume 82, no 3, Spring 2023 759.994 MEA

Tim Mooney

Sydney waterfronts east 994.41009941 MOO

Mae Ngai

The Chinese question: The gold rushes, Chinese migration, and global politics

331.6251009034 NGA

Michael O’Rourke

Passages to the northwest: the Europe they left and the Australia they discovered, 1788–1858 994.02 ORO

Hershel Parker

Herman Melville: A biography Vol 2, 1851–1891 813.3 PAR

Christopher L Pepin-Neff Flaws: Shark bites and emotional public policymaking 597.3 PEP

Jayne Persian

Fascists in exile: post-war displaced persons in Australia 940.53145 PER

Peter Scott

Running deep: An Australian submarine life 359.930994 SCO

Michelle Scott Tucker

Elizabeth Macarthur: a life at the edge of the world 994.402092 TUC

Brian Stace and William Othams

Coromandelians 910.4509423 STA

Chelsea Watego

Another day in the colony 305.89915 WAT

David Willers

In search of the Waratah: the Titanic of the South 910.4530968 WIL

David L Williams

Camouflage of warships: dazzle, disruption & concealment 355.41 WIL

Tyson Yunkaporta

Right story, wrong story 305.89915 YUN

Farewell to a maritime philanthropist

Vale Robert Albert AO RFD RD (14 December 1934–7 February 2024)

THE AUSTRALIAN MARITIME WORLD has lost one of its great contributors with the death of Robert ‘Otto’ Albert in February.

The scion of a wealthy established Sydney family, Otto, in addition to his strong connections with the sea and his business and investment acumen, was a leading but discreet philanthropist. He was a generous benefactor to the arts, education, sailing and maritime history, and a practical promoter of the betterment of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Even into his 90th year, this former commander in the RAN Reserve maintained a strong and active interest in the navy. For three decades, he was president of the New South Wales Branch of the Navy League of Australia (NLA) and an active member of the League’s Federal Executive. Most importantly, he was a very strong intellectual and financial supporter of The Navy, the authoritative magazine of the NLA. Indeed, without Otto’s very generous financial support, the magazine would not have survived.

Among his more prominent maritime projects was his substantial support of the Sydney Heritage Fleet and, in particular, the restoration of the historic 150-year-old iron barque James Craig from what was pretty much a wreck. He was also an active competitor and committee member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. His work with and contributions to the NLA were valuable and of very long standing. He was really one of its most important pillars. I met Otto many years ago through the NLA and joined his NSW Executive when we merged the NLA’s Federal Advisory Council with it to form what Otto called a naval ‘think tank’. That is what it effectively and quickly became. Led by Otto with his quick and cheeky wit, its meetings were interesting, inspiring and fun, and attracted a crew of very widely experienced thinkers and doers. They were a mixture of maritime businesspeople, a naval architect and former naval shipbuilder, a master mariner, a senior academic, and several former naval officers. Its thoughtful, innovative and practical intellectual output, much of it published in The Navy magazine, was highly regarded.

Given his wide spread of interests and the numerous beneficiaries of his generosity of spirit and wit, Otto will be sadly missed by many, well beyond his own immediate family.

Written by Dr Neil Baird of Baird Maritime. Reproduced with permission

Image courtesy Sydney Heritage Fleet Collection

Dive

Acknowledgments

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

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

Honorary Fellows

Peter Dexter AM

John Mullen AM

Valerie Taylor AM

Ambassadors

Norman Banham

Christine Sadler

Dr David and Jennie Sutherland

Major Donors

The Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler Acquisition Program

David & Jennie Sutherland Foundation

Honorary Research Associates

Rear Admiral Peter Briggs AO

John Dikkenberg

Dr Nigel Erskine

Dr Ian MacLeod

Jeffrey Mellefont

David Payne

Lindsey Shaw

Major Benefactors

Margaret Cusack

Basil Jenkins

Dr Keith Jones

RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RN

Geoff and Beryl Winter

Honorary Life Members

Yvonne Abadee

Dr Kathy Abbass

Bob Allan

Vivian Balmer

Vice Admiral Tim Barrett AO CSC

Lyndyl Beard

Maria Bentley

Mark Bethwaite AM

Paul Binsted

David Blackley

Marcus Blackmore AM

John Blanchfield

Alexander Books

Ian Bowie

Colin Boyd

Ron Brown OAM

Paul Bruce

Anthony Buckley AM

Richard Bunting

Capt Richard Burgess AM

Kevin Byrne

Sue Calwell

RADM David Campbell AM

Marion Carter

Victor Chiang

Robert Clifford AO

Helen Clift

Hon Peter Collins AM QC

Kay Cottee AO

Vice Admiral Russell Crane AO CSM

Stephen Crane

John Cunneen

Laurie Dilks

Dr Nigel Erskine

John Farrell

Dr Kevin Fewster CBE AM FRSA

Bernard Flack

Daina Fletcher

Sally Fletcher

Teresia Fors

CDR Geoff Geraghty AM

John Gibbins

Anthony Gibbs

RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN

Paul Gorrick

Lee Graham

VADM Mark Hammond AO

RADM Simon Harrington AM

Jane Harris

Christopher Harry

Gaye Hart AM

Janita Hercus

Robyn Holt

William Hopkins OAM

Julia Horne

Kieran Hosty

RADM Tony Hunt AO

Marilyn Jenner

John Jeremy AM

Vice Admiral Peter Jones AO DSC

Hon Dr Tricia Kavanagh

John Keelty

Richard Keyes

Kris Klugman OAM

Judy Lee

Matt Lee

David Leigh

Keith Leleu OAM

Andrew Lishmund

James Litten

Hugo Llorens

Tim Lloyd

Ian Mackinder

Stephen Martin

Will Mather

Stuart Mayer

Bruce McDonald AM

Lyn McHale

VADM Jonathan Mead AO

Rob Mundle OAM

Alwyn Murray

Martin Nakata

David O’Connor

Gary Paquet

David Payne

Prof John Penrose AM

Neville Perry

Hon Justice Anthe Philippides

Peter Pigott AM

Len Price

Eda Ritchie AM

John Rothwell AO

Peter Rout

Kay Saunders AM

Kevin Scarce AC CSC RAN

David Scott-Smith

Sergio Sergi

Ann Sherry AO

Ken Sherwell

Shane Simpson AM

Peter John Sinclair AM CSC

Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ (RADM)

John Singleton AM

Brian Skingsley

Eva Skira AM

Bruce Stannard AM

J J Stephens OAM

Michael Stevens

Neville Stevens AO

Frank Talbot AM

Mitchell Turner

Adam Watson

Ian Watt AC

Jeanette Wheildon

Hon Margaret White AO

Mary-Louise Williams AM

Nerolie Withnall

Cecilia Woolford (née Caffrey)

Volunteer with us

DEFENCE FORCE PROGRAM

We welcome veterans of all ages from any branch of Defence to join our growing volunteer community with a variety of roles to suit all interests and backgrounds.

sea.museum/defence-force-volunteers

Signals

ISSN 1033-4688

Editor Janine Flew

Staff photographer Jasmine Poole

Design & production Austen Kaupe

Printed in Australia by Pegasus Media & Logistics

Material from Signals may be reproduced, but only with the editor’s permission.

Editorial and advertising enquiries signals@sea.museum

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Signals is printed in Australia on Sovereign Silk 250 gsm (cover) and Sovereign Silk 113 gsm (text) using vegetablebased inks.

Signals back issues

Back issues $4 each or 10 for $30

Extra copies of current issue $4.95

Email theshop@sea.museum

Search all issues at sea.museum/signals

Australian National Maritime Museum

2 Murray Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia. Phone 02 9298 3777

Our opening hours are 10 am–4 pm.

The Australian National Maritime Museum is a statutory authority of the Australian Government

Explore Australia’s stories of the sea by becoming a museum member. Options for individuals, families and people who live interstate or overseas offer a great range of benefits, such as unlimited entry to our museum, vessels and exhibitions, as well as special discounts.

Visit sea.museum/members

@seamuseum_ /sea.museum

#seamuseum/ sea.museum/blog

ANMM Council

Chair Mr John Mullen AM

Ms Daryl Karp AM

Councillors

Mr Paddy Crumlin

Hon Justice SC Derrington AM

Mr John Longley AM

Mr Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO

Ms Alison Page

Ms Judy Potter

RADM Christopher Smith, AM, CSM, RAN

Ms Arlene Tansey

Mr Hieu Van Le AC

Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation Board

Mr Daniel Janes, Chair

Mr John Mullen AM, ex officio Chair

Ms Daryl Karp AM, ex officio

Mr Simon Chan

Mr David Mathlin

Dr Jeanne-Claude Strong

Ms Arlene Tansey

American Friends of the

Australian National Maritime Museum

Mr Robert Moore II

Mr John Mullen AM

Ms Daryl Karp AM

What’s in the shop?

This autumn, cosy up with an engrossing book or pamper yourself with natural skin treatments.

Books for all ages

Be inspired by stories about remarkable people, maritime adventures, scientific discoveries, the natural world, Australian history and Indigenous lore.

Various prices | Members receive 10% discount

Cannabella hemp oil skin treatments

Cannabella is on a mission to share the skin-saving benefits of their hero ingredient, unfiltered hemp seed oil. If you’re not exactly loving the skin you’re in –whether it’s due to acne, redness, dryness, irritation or dullness – the Cannabella range has a product designed to nourish, soothe and renew your complexion.

Various prices | Members receive 10% discount

Towels inspired by the ocean

Sand free, compact and lightweight, quick drying, and super absorbent – the ultimate towel for the beach, pool, travel, camping, gym, bath and beyond. Various designs with prints including marine animals, Sydney Harbour and beachscapes.

$64.95 | Members $58.00

Members receive 10% discount

Open 7 days a week

Email us at theshop@sea.museum

Shop online sea.museum/shop

Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/seamuseum_shop

Exhibition now on at the Maritime Museum

sea.museum/ocean-photographer

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MEDIA PARTNER

Peter Marshall