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