Signals
Number 80 September–November 2007
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
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SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Signals
ABOVE: Our 17th ceremony to honour new names on the Welcome Wall – the museum’s tribute to Australia’s migrants – was held on Sunday 27 May when 294 names on the 44th panel were unveiled. Guests were entertained by musicians Anton Aktila (pictured) and Labib Aktila. Special guest speaker, the popular performer Kamahl (right), gave a moving account of his migration experience, as did new registrant speakers Suresh Gulati (left), Byron Baynham and Branko Tudjman. Photographer S Aththas/ANMM
COVER: Aerial view of the museum and its precinct in Darling Harbour includes the Wharf 7 Maritime Heritage Centre in front of which James Craig and the Bounty replica are moored. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
Australian National Maritime Museum’s quarterly magazine Number 80 September–November 2007
Contents 2
Jellyfish – nature inspires art A humble class of creatures that reveal surprising beauty and complexity
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Finishing touches Milestones in the restoration of Ben Lexcen’s radical 18-foot skiff Taipan
13 Ten years of maritime mayhem Imaginative characters who put the entertainment back into education
16 To save a lifeboat How our MMAPSS grants helped preserve Victorian maritime heritage
21 Members message, events and activities Talks, tours, previews, music, a seminar … Members’ spring calendar
26 What’s on at the museum Spring exhibitions, events and activities for visitors, schools programs
30 The 20th-century Endeavour Discover a whole new ship deep within the replica 18th-century bark
36 Young voices A moving encounter between former ‘boat people’ and school students
38 Pinchgut aka Fort Denison It’s 150 years since that well-known mid-harbour fort was commissioned
40 Tales from the Welcome Wall Join a 10-pound Pom on a migration voyage in the swinging sixties
42 Collections Puppets that helped to prepare ship-borne migrants for life in Australia
44 Currents & Sponsors NAIDOC week; history mystery; German journeyman; bequests
48 From the Director Welcome to the museum’s new chairman Peter Sinclair SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
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nature inspires art
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SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
The museum’s latest exhibition is an excursion into the maritime world of natural history with this study of a seemingly humble class of creatures that reveal surprising beauty and complexity, and have been a source of artistic inspiration. Senior curator Lindsey Shaw introduces them.
DO YOU KNOW the collective noun for a group of jellyfish? It’s brood, smack or smuck. And did you know that a single box jellyfish has enough venom to kill 60 adult humans? Come along to our latest exhibition – Jellyfish – nature inspires art – where you can brood upon or be gobsmacked by a smuck of these fascinating creatures, and where you’ll find out even more about the art, science and natural history of jellyfish. Through photographs, video, scientific illustrations, specimens and artworks, the exhibition explores the world of jellyfish and the stories of their (sometimes deadly) interaction with humans. Jellyfish are members of the animal kingdom, belonging to the phylum Cnidaria and the class Scyphozoa. Cnidaria comes from the Greek word cnidos meaning stinging nettle, and Scyphozoa is from the Greek skyphos, a kind of drinking cup that alludes to the cup shape of the organism. There are more than 9,000 species of Cnidaria. The name SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
jellyfish is also used for the related classes of medusae (Hydrozoa) and box jellyfish (Cubozoa). Jellyfish are also called jellies or sea jellies since these invertebrates are quite evidently not true fish. Fossils of jellyfish have been dated to 650 million years old. Today jellyfish are found in each of the world’s oceans – some have been discovered living 1,000 metres below the surface – with a few species living in fresh water. Most jellyfish are passive drifters. They move easily up and down the water column but are no match for strong currents, wind, and waves. Jellyfish generally feed upon small fish and zooplankton that become caught in their tentacles, although some fish and small shrimps have a symbiotic relationship with jellies. A coating prevents them from being stung. The adult forms of jellyfish are composed of 95–99% water together with that little extra bit of protein, salt and fat. Jellyfish have no brain, no heart, no central nervous system, no skeletal system and hence no
OPPOSITE: Jelly blubber (Catostylus mosaicus) Photographer Gary Bell/oceanwideimages.com
THIS PAGE: Discomedusae by Timothy Horn, 2004. Synair, polyurethane rubber, lightbulbs. Samstag Collection, University of South Australia. Inspired by the etchings of 19th-century German zoologist Ernst Haëckel. Image courtesy of the artist. Photographer Grant Hancock
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OPPOSITE PAGE: This zoological artwork was the inspiration for Timothy Horn’s sculpture Discomedusae shown on page 3. It is plate number 88 from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904), depicting Discomedusae. LEFT: Woven sculptures of jellyfish in natural fibres including pandanus, by artist Jill Yirrindili from Maningrida, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. ANMM collection
Box jellies occur in Australian tropical waters from November to May; it’s not known where they go the rest of the time. These creatures can see using lightsensitive cells in their bells, and can actively swim to hunt their prey. The Irukandji is a small member of the Australian box jelly family, less than two centimetres across the body or bell. It was discovered relatively recently and is named after the Irukandji Aboriginal people of north Queensland. It has retractable tentacles that can be up to a metre in length and, unusually, has stingers on its bell as well as its tentacles. The sting is initially somewhat mild, but within 20 to 30 minutes cramping, back and abdominal pains, hypertension and raised blood pressure can occur. The pain can be excruciating and last for hours, although reports of death are rare.
bones, and no blood. And as though this weren’t enough for them to be deprived of, they have an incomplete digestive system, meaning that the same orifice is used for both food intake and waste expulsion. Jellyfish species frequently use venom to stun or kill their prey, and for defence from predators. Most are not dangerous to
rashes, itching and raised weals to chills, fevers, nausea and vomiting. The Australian box jelly is also known as the sea wasp or fire medusa, and can kill a human in three minutes. It takes its name from its cube-shaped bell, and it delivers its venom from four long retractable tentacles at each corner of the bell.
You want my jellyfish? I’m not sellyfish! ’The Jellyfish’ by Ogden Nash 1902–1971 USA humans but a few are highly toxic. A jellyfish sting might be so mild you don’t even notice it. Or it might give you sharp, burning sensations and red, swollen welts. It might feel like a needle from a doctor, or the stinging cells might stick like Velcro. Sometimes tiny lassos wrap around parts of your body. The range of symptoms from a jellyfish sting vary from stinging sensations, swelling, redness, numbness, SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Although not all of these tropical species are venomous, one contains the most potent venom in the animal kingdom (although it doesn’t affect sea turtles which dine on box jellyfish). Since records of box jelly fatalities in Australia began in 1883, about 60 deaths have been attributed to it. The total may actually be higher as the venom can cause heart failure which, in a swimmer, may be followed by drowning.
Scientists are still trying to find effective antivenins to treat Irukandji victims, and to improve on the existing antidotes for box jellyfish which are not entirely effective. However, sea jellies are not just the source of irritating or deadly stings. Scientists are also busy examining the use of the various chemical compounds occurring in sea jellies for the treatment of a range of human diseases – hypertension, heart problems, arthritis, high blood pressure and bronchitis, to name a few. And some jellyfish species are an ideal diet food because they are low in fat, cholesterol and calories. Salted jellyfish appears as a packaged, imported food item in Asian supermarkets. A major feature of our exhibition Jellyfish – nature inspires art lies in the spectacular sculptures and other creative expressions that these soft-bodied creatures have inspired artists to portray, using a variety of media and technical skills. Sculptures and artworks capture the life and movement of the jellyfish, delighting the viewer with their exploration of these creatures’ myriad forms and colours. The most spectacular piece of the exhibition Page 5
is, without a doubt, the bigger than life Discomedusae by Australian-born Tim Horn. Hanging centrally in the exhibition and lit from within to show its complex form, this is one of Horn’s most recent works, made with silicone rubber and fibre optics. It is a largescale jellyfish ‘chandelier’ based on the illustrations of the eminent 19th-century German zoologist, philosopher, physician and artist, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (1834–1919). Haeckel named and illustrated thousands of new species,
exploration led by Nicolas Baudin. In the voyage from France to Australia via the Indian Ocean and during the examination of the southern coast of Australia, more than 18,000 zoological specimens were recorded. The published account of Baudin’s extraordinary scientific voyage, Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes (Voyage of discovery to southern lands), included 40 colour plates by Lesueur and Francois Péron.
Jellyfish have no brain, no heart, no central nervous system, no skeletal system and hence no bones, and no blood made many contributions to the natural sciences and promoted the work of Charles Darwin in Germany. From the museum’s own collection come some wonderful 19th-century engravings from scientific expeditions across the globe. Mollusques et zoophytes (1807) is by Charles Alexandre Lesueur, an artist with the 1801–1803 French voyage of Page 6
An 1822 lithograph by Ukranian-born Louis Choris (1795–1828) details a species of jellyfish encountered on the 1815–1818 Russian voyage of the Ruric to the Pacific and west coast of America searching for the elusive north-west passage through the Arctic. Choris published his log and art in Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde (Picturesque Voyage around the World) in 1822.
Mollusques et zoophytes by Charles Alexandre Lesueur, 1807, lithographs from the account of Baudin’s 1801–1803 voyage of discovery, Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes. ANMM collection
Closer to home we have the works of current artists Suz Gavran and Jan King, using the same inspiration but totally different media. Suz Gavran takes the soft, rhythmic movement of jellyfish and their lifting and settling in the water and communicates this through fabrics, driftwood and string. The fabric billows and settles giving a visual sense of jellyfish gracefully drifting and dancing. Jan King uses steel. ‘To make a jellyfish in steel seems a contradiction – like casting smoke in concrete,’ she notes. ‘The hardness of the material is such a contrast to the soft formlessness of the subject – a frozen fluidity.’ Her work Aurelia alludes to the fact that, as she says, ‘Jellyfish are forms seemingly without structure – loose – weightless. They drift with currents, transparent, floating with ribbons of tentacles trailing – like cloud wisps, almost ethereal.’ SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
From the Northern Territory we have six woven jellyfish by Jill Yirrindili. Jellyfish represent a food source in northern Australia as well as appearing in ancestral stories. Their shape makes them readily represented using dried pandanus leaves and local ochres. Jill Yirrindili’s works represent the many diverse and dynamic weaving techniques used by the women of Maningrida. Artists use traditional knowledge to produce both traditional-style and contemporary works such as these jellyfish.
air float (called a pneumatophore) looks like a Portuguese man-of-war (caravel) under sail, and was first given this name in the 1750s. The float functions as a sail, enabling the wind to propel the bluebottle across the ocean’s surface to increase its hunting range. It can be briefly deflated to avoid attack by seabirds. They are the most frequently seen jellies on our beaches. Other species of jellyfish can be found in the ‘specimen tower’ on display in the
Some fish and small shrimps have a symbiotic relationship with jellyfish; a coating prevents them from being stung Of course an exhibition about jellyfish wouldn’t be complete without the jellyfish that most Australian beach-goers will recognise – the bluebottle or Portuguese man-of-war. But they are not true jellyfish, rather a colony of four types of polyps and medusae working together. They belong to the Hydrozoa class of Cnidaria. Some have been found to have tentacles 30 metres long although one metre is the average. The man-of-war is so named because its SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
exhibition, an interactive that has formalin-preserved species of jellies typically found in our waters. In addition to the temporary exhibition in our gallery, the museum is using Jellyfish to create two activity hyperlinks on the museum’s website. This will be a smallscale experiment to explore and monitor how visitors are using the museum’s new website. Stinging Stories is a page where
LEFT: Aurelia, steel sculpture by Jan King. RIGHT: Argoonie Doowie, linocut by Arone Raymond Meeks, 1987, depicting a fisherman, snake and jellyfish.
web audiences are encouraged to submit a jellyfish story for publication online. The monthly winner will have their story published and receive jellyfish merchandise from The Store. Respondents will have their details put into a simple database and will receive monthly notification of the winning results. Sting a friend is a page featuring a postcard image gallery with six key images. From this gallery users can forward a picture postcard to a friend via email. Images may also be downloaded as desktop wallpaper. During September, viewers will be encouraged to print this image to receive a small prize from The Store. So, we’d love to hear your stories! Visit the exhibition – in person or on-line. You can find it at http://www.anmm.gov.au/ jellyfish, or go to the museum home page www.anmm.gov.au and navigate from the top menu item EXHIBITIONS to the drop-list item ‘Special’ and, once you’re on the page, click on Jellyfish – nature inspires art. Page 7
Finishing touches
Brisbane signwriter Howard Lambourne travelled to Sydney recently to put the finishing touches on Ben Lexcen’s Taipan. The museum’s media and communications manager, Bill Richards, tells the story.
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SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
CENTRE AND RIGHT: Signwriter Howard Lambourne painting Taipan’s name again, 48 years after painting it the first time.
Taipan competing in the 18-foot skiff World Championship that was held in Auckland in 1960.
Simon Sadubin, specialist heritage shipwright who is responsible for the work of returning Taipan to as-launched specifications. He’s demonstrating how Bob Miller selected a grown timber for the skiff’s stem. Photographers Simon Sadubin,
Photographer unknown; Robert Elliot collection
J London/ANMM, B Richards/ANMM
year hold on the coveted ‘Aulde Mug.’ But back in the late 1950s he was still a relatively unknown young Sydney sailmaker known by his original name of Bob Miller. In 1958, just 22 and still some years from the name change that he would eventually make for business reasons, he moved to Brisbane to work at Norman Wright’s Bulimba boatyard.
point still bore the hallmarks of its work boat heritage. The 18s were big, roomy wooden boats carrying vast areas of sail and a crew of five to keep everything under control in strong winds. Miller’s new skiff was startlingly lightweight by comparison, a hard-chined, half-decked plywood hull with scaled down spars and sails that were more easily managed by a crew of just three.
OPPOSITE LEFT:
THE PAST WINTER has seen several important milestones in the Australian National Maritime Museum’s painstaking restoration of the late Ben Lexcen’s Taipan, the boat that changed forever the shape and performance of Australia’s famous 18-foot racing skiffs. The restoration, supported by a public appeal for funds as reported in previous issues of Signals, will return this
He said it had to be sloping lettering … the boat had to look as though it was going fast even before it had left the beach important collection item to sailing condition and to the original specifications of its talented designer and builder. And it will stand as a memorial to one of Australia’s most acclaimed yacht designers. Ben Lexcen (1936-1988) would later become famous around the world as the designer of Australia II, the great wing-keeled 12-Metre yacht that snatched the America’s Cup from the USA in 1983, ending America’s 132SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Later that year, in Brisbane, he fell from a mast and it was while he was recovering in hospital, the legend goes, that he started to think seriously about and sketch a revolutionary new 18-foot skiff. Back on deck the following year he built the new craft in quick time at Norman Wright’s. It probably took less than three months of hurried work – Miller was known for his impatience – and he launched Taipan in November 1959, just in time for the sailing season.The 18-foot skiff class up to that
Miller had conjured up a new-style champion, and he’d done it largely alone although there’s no doubt he received active encouragement and support from Norman Wright Jnr, a principal in the family boatyard business and a renowned 18-foot skiff sailor himself. And in building the boat Miller received considerable assistance from a crew member and friend of long standing, boat builder Brian ‘Bunt’ Hamilton, who had travelled up from Sydney at about the same time and was also working at the Norman Wright yard. Before he put Taipan into the water Bob Miller called on another sailing mate, Howard Lambourne the signwriter, to apply the final flourish. Page 9
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‘I helped him paint the hull (white) and then I painted the name Taipan on the sides,’ says Howard. ‘He said it had to be sloping lettering … the boat had to look as though it was going fast even before it had left the beach. That was Bob. Everything had to go fast … aeroplanes, motor cars … even the signwriting!’ Miller also wanted big lettering, he wanted it coloured orange and he wanted
Miller had first thought of a winged keel as early as 1955, and first tried the concept on this boat. Lambourne’s recollections are confirmed by crew member Norman Wright III, Norman Wright Jnr’s son, who also helped with the construction of Taipan. Norman recalls the centreboard with the first set of wings which were in the form of a plywood endplate, but the endplate
Miller’s new skiff was startlingly lightweight, with a hard-chined, half-decked plywood hull the name located on the hull where he and the crew could see it when they stretched out on trapeze. Why orange? ‘He just thought it was pretty. And it’s a bit like the bellies of snakes …’ So Howard painted the name in big, orange sloping lettering halfway along the hull on both sides of the boat, and his later-tobe famous mate was happy. He recalls that Miller experimented with a winged centreboard on Taipan, some 24 years before the world applauded the ‘secret weapon’ winged-keel on Australia II. According to Lambourne, the inventive SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
was only trialled for a short period before it was removed. There was a design problem, Howard recalls. Miller was unable to insert the centreboard into the centreboard case from above. It had to be fed into the case from below, while Taipan was still on the ground before launching. And after the board was inserted, the hull had to remain suspended somehow so as not to damage the wings when they hit the ground. Crew members also recall that the wings often got caught up with the jellyfish found throughout the river. This all proved too
OPPOSITE: The 18-foot skiff ready to be redecked. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM LEFT: Fitting the new deck to Taipan are David Payne, the museum’s curator for the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, and shipwright Bob Macleod of Sydney Harbour Wooden Boats. Photographer B Richards/ANMM
ABOVE: ANMM senior curator Daina Fletcher with Carl Ryves, sailing champion, Olympic yachtsman and former Taipan sailor. Photographer B Richards/ANMM
much for Miller. He used the winged centreboard only three or four times. Taipan sailed well enough without the centreboard end plate. On the rudder, though, he did retain an endplate similar to the wings and two fences (a bit like ribs), to control the flow of water across the rudder blade. With Miller at the helm and crew members Bunt Hamilton and Norman Wright III in the boat with him, Taipan was Queensland’s champion 18-footer in its first year on the water. This overwhelming success, Howard says, raised a lot of hackles in the 18footer fleet. Down south, Miller had Page 11
sailed in Flying Dutchmen, Stars, VSs, VJs, Gwens … but never really in 18foot skiffs. He had come to Brisbane with a clear intention to ‘beat the tripe’ out of the 18s which were, at the time, Brisbane’s crème de la crème, the big boys … and he succeeded. Many resented the ‘Sydney upstart’s’ success. Bob Miller and Taipan did not stay together long. Miller developed his revolutionary ideas further in a new 18footer called Venom, which he built the following year. Venom brought him even more success than Taipan did. Taipan passed through several owners and in 1986 Canberra sailor Jim Reeder, knowing its provenance, passed the ageing boat to the new Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. By this time the revolutionary, lightweight racing craft had been severely compromised. Its champion qualities had all but disappeared, and it had undergone many changes to its rig, deck and cockpit layout. The hull, however, was still intact; the racing lines were still clearly evident. Bob Miller, or Ben Lexcen as he became universally known, having received world acclaim as a yacht designer, died following a heart attack in 1988. Last Page 12
year his close friend and sailing companion Carl Ryves, who had himself sailed Taipan to victory in Sydney in 1960, rallied support for an Australian National Maritime Museum fundraising appeal. Its aim was to restore Taipan so as to conform with Lexcen’s vision and confirm his place in the history of Australian and world yachting. The museum assembled a project team which included the director Mary-Louise Williams, head of conservation Jonathan London, senior curator Daina Fletcher, and curator of the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, David Payne. Careful research was undertaken over several months to confirm Taipan’s structure and appearance. Newspaper and magazine photographs and articles were scanned, contemporary sailors were interviewed, and other aspects of Miller’s work were studied. David Payne has prepared a full set of plans, recreating the vessel in its configuration for the World Championships in Auckland, March 1960. These plans have been used to guide the rebuilding and restoration process, and have helped the team make a number of decisions on the project. The team has worked closely with the builders and other advisors including Carl Ryves,
Hull prior to redecking. Bob Miller used a variety of techniques to produce stiff but lightweight structures. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Brian Hamilton and Norman Wright III to ensure the accuracy of the reconstruction. Specialist heritage shipwright Simon Sadubin was commissioned to carry out the restoration the at his Chowder Bay boatshed at Mosman on Sydney Harbour’s northern shore. Sadubin and his team had been working for months, stripping out the unwanted additions, carefully tending the original components, meticulously replicating damaged decking, spars and fittings. After the varnish and paint had been applied, to make the boat look and perform just as Miller had it, the time had arrived for the finishing touch. Miller’s old mate Howard Lambourne was called all the way from Brisbane. He came down happily and painted the name Taipan on both sides, just as he did 48 years earlier – bringing the revolutionary little skiff one step closer to its relaunch in Sydney this spring. Stand by for coverage of this important event in 18-foot skiff heritage in the next issue of Signals, No 81 December 2007. SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Ten years of maritime mayhem The life & times of a master of disguise
Who is that enigmatic character so often seen leading a small troupe of spellbound children around our maritime museum premises? It’s the mercurial John Lamzies, profiled here by the museum’s senior education officer, Jeffrey Fletcher. SITTING AT our office computers, absorbed in the minutiae of an approaching exhibition deadline, a familiar melody begins to filter almost imperceptibly through our web of concentration. Back to work. The tune approaches, floating softly in everincreasing waves … ta-rara-boom-de-ay, ta-rara-boom-de-ay. Then it’s right outside the office window, an exchange between many voices … Ta-rara-boomde-ay, Tetraodontidae! Tetraodontidae? Outside the window there’s a funny little man with a ruddy complexion, electric-shock hair and huge spectacles, dressed in a beige lab coat, conducting a choir of attentive eight-year SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
olds. Tetraodontidae! A wry smile precedes the thought, ‘It’s just John.’ It is also, of course, the mercurial Professor Pufferfish, transposing the lyrics of the familiar tune to teach the children the scientific term for his namesake – the pufferfish. Reassured, we return to our own world and confidently leave Professor Pufferfish, aka John Lamzies, to his. It’s been almost 10 years since John Lamzies first walked through our door – a long time for someone who is not a permanent member of staff. John is a contract teacher guide – one of those stalwarts who deliver our education programs to visiting school groups – who came to us on the strength of his teaching
qualifications and experience. A visual arts teacher by trade, John deployed those skills across the wide range of our school programs and delivered them in an appealing and professional way. However, upon delving further, we discovered in John a performance background that included acting and music, most notably as a percussionist. His theatrical bent soon surfaced and gave rise to a stable of characters as varied as imagination could make them. The catalyst for this was a summertime family exhibition-cum-activities program called Pirates! that we ran in 1998. John volunteered to dress as a pirate to help muster children along to the gallery, and Page 13
he was an instant hit. They responded beautifully to his deliciously scary incarnation, and it was an obvious move to incorporate this extra dimension into our school programs. Next came Professor Pufferfish, growing out of the 1999 Ocean Planet exhibition – imported from the Smithsonian Institution in the USA – when we created an environmental workshop called Don’t Mess with the Junksons. The program and the professor still exist, even though the exhibition has long since travelled on.
seaman Maurice Matelot, complete with Renée his imaginary rabbit. There is a great deal more to what John delivers us, however, than just dressing up. The characters are created as an adjunct to an exhibition or program, and they contextualise information and concepts for children. Consultation with the museum staff members who write the programs is essential to develop goals and parameters, and with this input John brings his imagination and interpretation to the role.
Reassured, we return to our own world and confidently leave Professor Pufferfish, aka John Lamzies, to his Since then, a troupe of maritime personalities has emerged, informing and delighting our young visitors, both school groups and weekend or holiday patrons. Sometimes John’s creations appear as whacky tour guides drawn from the themes of an exhibition. Sometimes they are characters in short skits or plays, and sometimes they are simply storytellers. Among John’s personae are the enticingly menacing pirate Grog-nose Johnny; Stormy Grey, the 175-year-old stowaway; Fear, the embodiment of traditional maritime superstitions; and French able Page 14
‘I think of information as being like cold honey. Often it’s difficult to get what’s on display into the minds of the students, and performance – particularly when it stimulates the imagination – warms up the honey so they can take it in more easily. Performance engages people. It brings their experience alive and can give them something beyond where they are. Once you have their imagination you have their focus – especially if you can keep them guessing as to what’s coming next.’
PREVIOUS PAGE: Professor Pufferfish. THESE PAGES, clockwise from above left: Fear; Professor Propulsion; Captain Maitland J Thompson; Jack Bluto Tar; Master’s mate Charles Clerke; Grog-nose Johnny. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
It’s not only young visitors who connect with John’s characters. Teachers and parents can share the children’s enjoyment, which in turn enhances their own experience (and secretly, most of them enjoy the interaction as much as the young ones). The startled yet engaged reaction of adult visitors, when they unexpectedly come across an amusingly threatening pirate, an endearingly eccentric professor or a strangely ethereal ghost of the deep, speaks volumes! Sometimes the line between reality and characterisation is a subtle one, for example on the occasion of a fashion parade that we held along with our exhibition Sailor Style – art fashion film, about sailors’ costume over the centuries. John’s character was that of a janitor who finds himself swept into the limelight as compere when the real host fails to show up. On several occasions the parade ran late because visitors had John engaged in conversation about the museum, believing his character to be a real employee! SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Those who do work at the museum are likewise accustomed to encountering John’s unusual characters as they go about their daily tasks. They might walk into the office to find John perched at a desk casually applying make up, blacking out his teeth or trying on a new wig. ‘Staff members have been enthusiastic as well. A lot of the time they don’t recognise me straight off (which could be
of our young visitors – the next generation of museum-goers. What the characters do provide is something different. They involve our audience in a way they can grasp and become part of, which affords us the privilege of blending learning and entertainment. These are terms that do not need to be mutually exclusive. One compliment that John must accept
Teachers and parents can share the children’s enjoyment, which in turn enhances their own a good thing!) but they always join in the spirit of things,’ John says. There’s a certain familiar comfort in that. Nevertheless, John’s string of alter-egos doesn’t completely rule his life as a museum teacher-guide. A few sessions of HSC Chemistry, or manoeuvring an inquiring group of adolescents around Pyrmont for two hours on a walking geography tour, can be very grounding. It is just as important in the wider scheme of things. Indeed, for John and all his fellow teacher-guides, it is their skills as educators that buoy our programs and fuel the ravenous minds SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
is that he is infectious. Many of our other teacher guides are also creating their own odd personalities, now! Pirates such as Dead-Eye Della, JewelThief Jan and Gnarly Norman have emerged. Professor Pufferfish’s scientist sister even makes a guest appearance when the good man himself is otherwise engaged – and there’s a certain familiar comfort in that too. Ten years of what may sometimes seem like maritime mayhem has provided many highlights, and we look forward to meeting the next figment of John’s imagination.
Ten years of aliases from John Lamzies Grog-nose Johnny – bold and fearsome pirate Stormy Gray the Stowaway – tells many maritime tales Jack Bluto Tar – crewman on HMAS Vampire Fear – a materialisation of sailor superstitions Maurice Matelot – French able seaman and maritime guide Stew Aroma – ship’s cook François-Pierre Charlatan – janitor and reluctant fashion show compere Father Time – caretaker of the timeline Captain Maitland J Thompson – captain of the James Craig (1870s) Bosun Mess – likeable but clumsy ship’s crew member Charles Clerke – master’s mate on HMB Endeavour Joseph Conrad – writer and traveller Professor Pufferfish – environmentalist and Tetraodontidae Professor Propulsion – Rastafarian jellyfish expert
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TO SAVE A LIFEBOAT Restoring the 150-year-old Port Fairy lifeboat to operating condition, and conserving its boatshed, slipway and rocket house, was a classic community heritage project aided by the Australian National Maritime Museum’s MMAPSS grants. Project leader Marten Syme describes how a small team rallied to save their town’s historic relics of Victoria’s stormy Shipwreck Coast.
BETWEEN 1835 and 1858, 170 ships were wrecked on the Victorian coast, a testimony to the hazards of Bass Strait and the weather systems that gave the exposed Victorian shore the title of ‘Shipwreck Coast’. The colonial government’s response was to build navigation aids and inaugurate a shorebased lifeboat rescue service. The model
lifeboats were manned by volunteer crews until the Second World War, by which time the craft were obsolete. Three of the lifeboats had saved over 200 lives.
The Port Fairy lifeboat on the Moyne River, 1888, in front of the old Customs gauging shed. State Library of New South Wales collection
The fi rst of the five lifeboats arrived in Port Fairy in 1857 – a century and a half ago this year. Its construction was of double-diagonal planking
of those five original lifeboats remains: Portland, preserved as a memorial to its rescue of 19 survivors of the SS Admella shipwreck in 1859.
The Port Fairy harbour master made the crucial decision that saved the world’s oldest surviving self-righting, self-draining lifeboat for this was Britain’s Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which had established stations around the UK coastline from which lifeboats were launched to rescue shipwreck victims. In 1856 Victoria’s chief harbour master, Captain Charles Ferguson, ordered the construction of five self-righting, selfdraining lifeboats to be stationed at Portland, Port Fairy, Warrnambool, Queenscliff and Port Albert. The Page 16
sandwiching water-resistant, oiled jute paper. It had large flotation chambers, a cast-iron keel shoe providing reinforcement and righting ballast, and five thwarts to seat 10 oarsmen. A dipping-lug sailing rig was added at a later date. Like the other four Victorian lifeboats it was named for its home port. Today Port Fairy is the oldest self-righting, self-draining lifeboat surviving in the world. Only one other
It was Fred Rodgers, harbour master in the 1950s, who made a crucial decision that would lead to Port Fairy’s survival. He coupled it with the old Warrnambool lifeboat to mount a suction dredge for removing drift sand from the Moyne River. The Port Fairy lifeboat continued this useful existence until 1975, when a purpose-built dredge arrived. It was then offered to the local Rotary Club which proposed a shelter for it in their ‘heritage park’. The local paper ominously called it a ‘FINAL RESTING PLACE’. The boat got a repaint but no shelter was built, and within a few years its back was broken and its planking opening up. Many suggested it should be burnt. SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
I first saw the old Port Fairy at this time, and was unimpressed. It sat directly on the ground and the hull was hogged from the weight of the concrete capping applied to the bow and stern when it was a dredge. Pieces of planking had been removed and the under-deck space contained bottles and rubbish. I knew nothing of shore-based lifeboats but was
put in a carrying frame, moved to a fenced-off area and protected under a tarpaulin. Fortunately its cast-iron shoe, in three pieces, had not been lost. As we learned more about the buildings, my interest in lifeboats and their history was awakened. Rocket houses were usually located near the
We obtained a MMAPSS grant for an expert vessel conservator to provide independent advice and to set up a documentary process interested in history and heritage, and so I joined others seeking to preserve the old lifeboat house still standing on the river’s edge, and its fascinating collection of shore-based rocket rescue apparatus. That, at the time, was the treasure for me. Subsequently, however, in 1989 the port authority transferred the lifeboat buildings and lifeboat to a committee of interested people under the direction of the municipal council. The lifeboat was SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
point of risk, but by chance at Port Fairy it was built adjacent to the lifeboat house on the river. The stone building housed the rocket rescue gear – ropes, rocket machines, breeches buoy, combustible materials, lights and such – and small items for the lifeboat. It was an almost-complete collection of rescue apparatus, retained in the 1970s on the orders of A J Wagglen, Victorian Ports & Harbours Commissioner.
Port Fairy with pennants declaring her age – 150 – on the Derwent River during the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, February 2007. Photographer Marten Syme
The lifeboat house’s survival was also fortuitous. While I could remember such curved-roof, timber-panelled structures from my childhood, most had now been demolished along with redundant timber piers and decayed sheds. Again by chance, the lifeboat house at Port Fairy, built in 1861, was the only 19th-century example surviving in Victoria although it had been altered for other uses. Originally standing on a pier, with falls for launching the lifeboat, the Port Fairy lifeboat house was dismantled in 1873 as the pier was ineffective. The relocation required a slipway for launching the lifeboat into the river, which now needed reconstruction. The Port Fairy committee set about organising funds to restore the lifeboat shed so that it was closer to its original form and function. The building had been included on the Government Page 17
Lines and plans taken by boatbuilder Garry Stewart were supported by MMAPSS grants. Hull lines taken to outside planking, July 1996; conservation and layout plan (below), July 1999.
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SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Buildings Register by the Victorian Historic Buildings Council in 1974, so funds were granted by the Australian Heritage Commission and Heritage Victoria for the work to restore the rolling slipway door, underpinning, removal of an inserted floor and reconstruction of the slipways and the launching cradle. This raised for us a dilemma about the lifeboat. Should we put it into the shed as it was, costing us little but presenting a badly-damaged vessel? Should we raise funds for limited repairs to permit satisfactory presentation? Or should we consider a complete reconstruction, to a fully seaworthy condition? The committee unanimously supported the latter. The argument was simple enough: we had a shed, a launching ways and a story. We needed the boat to make it complete. But the committee had little idea of how to raise an uncertain sum for such work, and the timing did not seem good for public financial support, due to the 1991 recession. I had no boat-building knowledge although I was, by now, experienced in the preparation of funding applications. Our proposal succeeded in gaining Australian Heritage Commission funding but this was on an annual tranche basis, so that committing to the reconstruction would be several years away. Raising the funds had become a race against time, as the tarpaulin was leaking. But since the lifeboat had been classified by the National Trust in 1990, together with the station buildings and
maritime heritage grants for non-profit organisations. At that time the maximum MMAPSS grant was $5,000. Our project was a good example of the way that a series of smaller grants, which by themselves are insufficient to complete a project, can help build up the momentum needed for such heritage work. Our first MMAPSS grant covered the services of the experienced, Tasmanianbased heritage-vessel conservator, Michael Staples. He provided the committee with independent advice, set up documentation and identified materials and the need to have the lines of the boat drawn. We could only afford
Conclusive proof of White’s original design would be apparent with a plan of the ‘as built’ vessel, funded by another MMAPSS grant collection, it was now eligible to receive tax-deductible donations from individuals and businesses. In 1995, with $35,000 in hand, we decided to start the work. It was believed that at least $50,000 would be required, although the sum was likely to be higher. We asked local timber shipwright, Garry Stewart, to begin the reconstruction based on his roughly indicated costing, knowing that this could increase when the deck was removed and the scope of work was revealed. It was at this stage that we applied to the Australian National Maritime Museum for our first MMAPSS grant – the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme which provides SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
to have him visit Port Fairy twice but he was extremely helpful in resolving problems. His extensive notes and advice were invaluable and helped me to understand the relevance and process of documentation during the reconstruction. The goal was to reconstruct the vessel as it appeared in the earliest clear photographs in 1886, while retaining as much original material as possible. After six months of progress we were advised that the boatbuilder’s cost would be about $70,000, plus materials. We widened our funding net and used a visit by the Heritage Council of Victoria to show off our progress, and they approved our application for a $9,000 grant to complete the vessel. Recent legislative change permitted ‘moveable
Port Fairy on the rebuilt slipway and launching cradle in front of the lifeboat house. Photographer Marten Syme
heritage’ to be included on the State’s Heritage Register, and the committee was happy to have it proposed. The design of the lifeboat intrigued me. Although there was a report in the Melbourne Argus in February 1858 that plans had been sent to Colonial governments by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, I had been unable to find a copy. Sailmaker Rick Mitchell phoned me in 1996 to say he saw plans of a boat ‘just like yours’ at the Hobart Marine Board, but when they provided a copy, the design differed from the hull shape of the two surviving lifeboats at Port Fairy and Portland. The question was why? Self-righting, self-draining lifeboats had been developed in England following a design competition in 1850 to develop a boat offering enhanced safety for rescue volunteers. A truly innovative winning design was improved further by James Peake, assistant master shipwright at Her Majesty’s dockyard, Woolwich, and in late 1857 the RNLI was sufficiently confident in the boat to distribute plans to encourage the building of these lifesaving boats. The copy at Hobart was one of these RNLI-distributed plans. My research has indicated that the two Victorian boats were an original design of local construction. Their builder William White had migrated from England as a ships’ carpenter on a twoyear contract, and recommenced his trade at Williamstown, Victoria in 1854. He could not have seen the James Peake Page 19
LEFT: The Port Fairy lifeboat was among the first vessels listed online on the museum’s new Australian Register of Historic Vessels.
our capacity to disseminate that accumulated knowledge.
lifeboat, but had experience in the efficient (but demanding) doublediagonal planking used in British lifeboat construction and proposed that he could build the five lifeboats sought by the Victorian government. His design was for a boat to meet the conditions of the Southern Ocean, rather than the narrow seas surrounding England. His first lifeboat was delivered to Port Fairy on 27 September 1857, and the second arrived at Portland on 15 September 1858. Only these two examples were built to White’s original design. After he laid the keel of Portland, the RNLI plans reached Victoria, and the three remaining vessels were built to the RNLI design. It is likely that drawn plans would allow several boats to be
Another MMAPSS grant funded Garry Stewart to prepare a plan of the ‘as built’ vessel. White had almost certainly built his vessel from a half model, using his own calculations. The plans demonstrate White’s improvements over the RNLI James Peake design: rocker in the keel, reverse sheer and a massive structure midships to secure the self-draining valves. Our boat was fi nished with the appropriate paint scheme, revealed by forensic examination of paint traces during the course of its reconstruction. It was rigged with a hand-stitched, flaxcanvas dipping lugsail made by Rick Mitchell and his sailmaking team. In January 1997, hundreds lined the river banks to see the boat launched, pulled onto the slip cradle and winched into the
For information and application forms for the next round of MMAPSS grants, call 02 9298 3742 or go to www.anmm.gov.au constructed simultaneously, an outcome keenly desired by the government. As things turned out, not one of those RNLI-designed vessels survive. The link between Port Fairy and Portland (preserved and displayed at the Portland Maritime Discovery Centre) had tangible benefits for the heritage of both towns. Our materials research and lines were applicable to the Portland vessel, while the Portland management group kindly lent for copying some of the missing fittings on Port Fairy that had survived intact on Portland. Conclusive proof of White’s original design would be apparent with a hull plan that could be compared to the RLNI design. Page 20
lifeboat house. A month later, the Governor of Victoria ceremonially re-named the vessel Port Fairy. The lifeboat’s reconstruction had cost $84,700. Community cash and in-kind contributions raised 57% of the cost and 43% came from government heritage funding. I had progressively assembled material that would help us to understand, name and date the rescue artefacts held in the rocket house. An Inmagic museum catalogue program, fi nanced by a further MMAPSS grant and a voluntary labour component equivalent of $2,850, allowed the documentation of the nearcomplete collection of late 19th-century maritime rescue equipment, and ensured
Since reconstruction, a regular sailing program has taken the lifeboat to sea for 80 voyages with a volunteer crew, composed of regular enthusiasts and others who wish to experience pulling and sailing in the historic vessel. To celebrate Port Fairy’s 150th anniversary, the crew proposed taking the vessel to Hobart for the 2007 Australian Wooden Boat Festival. One further MMAPSS grant, together with local funding, helped meet the cost of road and sea transport. In-kind labour, particularly from Garry Stewart, went into a clever frame within the slip cradle to ensure the safe movement of the vessel. The lifeboat sailed on the Derwent throughout the festival; it was the first time it had left Port Fairy since its delivery. The Port Fairy lifeboat together with its preserved infrastructure is an outstanding, intact, heritage collection of major significance to Australia. The lifeboat demonstrates ingenuity and original design by a significant local shipwright in 1857. It is a fi ne example of the highly innovative self-righting design adopted for most lifeboats. It also represents the fi rst example of an organised, volunteer-based community rescue service in Australia, a tradition which continues through Surf Lifesaving Australia, the SES and volunteer fi re brigades. The MMAPSS program has cumulatively provided $14,500 for documentation, cataloguing, visual description and display of this vessel, which has benefited the Portland boat and other lifeboat collections as well. Cash and in-kind contributions valued at $18,000 have supported the MMAPSS grants, demonstrating the multiplier effect of the scheme. The concept of regional museum support via these grants has provided the Port Fairy committee with motive, resources and resolve to convert a collection of unloved maritime relics into an extraordinary specialist collection, with a heritage vessel that is entirely manageable for a regional community. The detailed story of the project, and the heritage it represents, is contained in my book Lifeboats for Victoria (Roebuck Press Canberra 2001). SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Message to Members From Members manager Adrian Adam
Speakers at our well-attended seminar ‘Cook and Endeavour – journeys through time’ held at the museum last June were (left to right) Professor Fred Watson, astronomer-in-charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Sidings Spring, NSW; Martin Terry, curator of exhibitions at the National Library of Australia; Emeritus Professor Greg Denning of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, ANU; and Dr Nigel Erskine, curator of discovery at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
SPRING IS a great time to get out and about and a visit or two to the museum should be on your schedule this season. There’s plenty for Members to enjoy including new exhibitions, school holiday activities and events (see next pages). On the exhibition front, recently opened shows include Jellyfish – nature inspires art, examining the natural history, science and art of these fascinating creatures. Escape! Fremantle to freedom, located in the USA Gallery, tells the story of the daring, dangerous escape by a group of Irish Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Prison in 1876, in a Yankee whaling bark. Saltwater – Yirrkala Bark Paintings of Sea Country continues in Gallery One, our newly-renamed, large temporary exhibition space. It’s
an Alpine glacier and found sensationally in 1991. Presenting facsimiles of his clothes and equipment too, it’s not to be missed. And here’s something special for Members. Our historic fleet vessels such as Jack Earl’s ketch Kathleen Gillett, the elegant, 119-year-old cutter Akarana and pearling lugger John Louis, go out on regular harbour sails as part of their maintenance program. Members are invited to register their interest in joining one of these short trips during the year by contacting the Members office. Those Members who have already provided us with an email address and who receive our monthly email newsletter will receive notice of these trips as a matter of course.
Members can join our historic vessels on their regular maintenance sails a spectacular collection of bark paintings documenting the spiritual and legal basis of the Yolngu people’s ownership of land in north-east Arnhem Land. Closing on 30 September is the wonderfully popular Currach Folk – Photographs by Bill Doyle. Its record of the vanished Aran Islands lifestyle is really worth checking out if you’ve not already seen it. Looking ahead, a new exhibition by the South Australian Maritime Museum of Port Adelaide called Wrecked! Tragedy and the Southern Seas opens in October with the help of Visions Australia, a national cultural touring program. November sees the arrival of Iceman – the story of Ötzi from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy. This contains a replica of the 5,300 year-old ‘wet’ mummy of a murdered hunter, preserved in SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
While on the subject of email, do let us know if you have obtained or changed an email address. Our monthly email newsletters allow us to keep in touch and to let you know about any last minute events or activities on offer – simply email members@anmm.gov.au and ask to be added to our email list. Our website is improving all the time and I encourage you to visit the site for news of what’s on. Members have their own passwordprotected area on the site filled with a host of information, picture galleries, transcripts and audio files from past lectures and events, and much more. Do check it out when you can and contact the Members office if you don’t know or have forgotten your login details. I look forward to seeing you at the museum over the coming months and as always encourage you to provide me with any feedback or suggestions on anything to do with your membership or museum experience. Page 21
Photographer A Adam/ANMM
Specially for Members
Members visited Chilean sail trainer Esmeralda
Members Events Calendar September
How to book It’s easy to book for the Members events on the next pages … it only takes a phone call and if you have a credit card ready we can take care of payments on the spot. • To reserve tickets for events call the Members Office on 02 9298 3644 (business hours) or email members@anmm.gov.au. Bookings strictly in order of receipt. • If paying by phone, have credit card details at hand. • If paying by mail after making a reservation, please include a completed booking form with a cheque made out to the Australian National Maritime Museum. • The booking form is on reverse of the address sheet with your Signals mailout. • If payment for an event is not received seven (7) days before the function your booking may be cancelled.
Booked out? We always try to repeat the event in another program.
Cancellations If you can’t attend a booked event, please notify us at least five (5) days before the function for a refund. Otherwise, we regret a refund cannot be made. Events and dates are correct at the time of printing but these may vary … if so, we’ll be sure to inform you.
Parking near museum Wilson Parking offers Members discount parking at nearby Harbourside Carpark, Murray Street, Darling Harbour. To obtain a discount, you must have your ticket validated at the museum ticket desk. Page 22
Sun 2 Tue 18 Thu 20 Sat 22 Sun 23 Thu 27
On the water: Food festival cruise Tour: Endeavour in dry dock Special: Triple-shipwreck book launch Tour: Endeavour in dry dock Lecture: Jellyfish with Lisa Gershwin Screening: Man of Aran farewell screening
Sun 30
Special: Clock & Watch exhibition viewing
October Tues 2 Wed 3 Thu 4 6&7 Tue 9 Wed 10 Thu 11 Thu 18 Sun 21 Thu 25 Sun 28
Vampire flicks: In Which We Serve Vampire flicks: Patrol Boat Vampire flicks: Always another dawn Weekend tour: Newcastle Maritime Festival Vampire flicks: Mr Roberts Vampire flicks: Patrol Boat Vampire flicks: In Which We Serve Tour: Garden Island and Heritage Centre Seminar: Coast to coast – Australian coastal shipping Viewing and lecture: Wrecked! On the water: Jacaranda Cruise
November Fri 9 Thu 15 TBA Sun 25 Fri 30
Viewing and lecture: Ötzi the Iceman Lecture: Nature’s Argonaut – Daniel Solander 1733–1782 Lecture: Story of the Pasha Bulka Special: Members lunch Special: Dall’Italia All’Australia
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Lectures and Talks Special event – triple book launch Shipwrecks, Unfinished Voyages and Mapping the Colonies 6.15–8 pm Thursday 20 September at the museum
Show Time! Special Members after-hours viewing 5–6.30 pm Sunday 30 September at the museum
Winged comb jelly David Fleetham/marinethemes.com
The secret world of Australia’s deadly Jellyfish 11 am–1.30 pm Sunday 23 September at the museum In conjunction with our exhibition Jellyfish – nature inspires art, Australia’s foremost jellyfish expert Lisa Gershwin, adjunct professor of marine and tropical biology at James Cook University, delivers an illustrated lecture. Learn more about these ancient creatures of the deep and hear about some groundbreaking research being undertaken into them, including the most feared, the box jellyfish. Members $15 guests $20. Includes a light lunch and Ensign wines
Pocket watch 19th century ANMM collection
Hear three eminent authors talk about shipwrecks in Australia and abroad. Historian Graeme Henderson discusses notorious Western Australian shipwrecks from 1622 to 1850 in his 2ndedition release of Unfinished Voyages. Michael Nash’s new book Shipwreck Archaeology in Australia delves into maritime archaeology in Australia over the past 30 years, and Norman Etherington, editor of Mapping Colonial Conquest, tells the story of charting the Australian and South African colonies. Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie AO RAN (Rtd) will launch the books. Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer
Members can enjoy an after-hours viewing of the treasures of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors that will be on public display over this weekend. They feature some of the country’s oldest and most valuable timepieces, and rare chronometers. Some of Australia’s foremost watchmakers and restorers will be in attendance to answer your questions, identify and date your timepieces, guide you through the display and talk about the fascinating history of chronometers. Members $10 guests $15. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer Special one-day seminar: Coast to coast – a history of Australian coastal shipping 10 am–4.30 pm Sunday 21 October at the museum
Currach Folk: Man of Aran farewell film screening 6.15–8.30 pm Thursday 27 September at the museum Man of Aran (1934) is a documentary film by Robert J Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Moana and The Louisiana Story) on life on the Aran Islands. It documents the hardships of daily toil such as fishing off high cliffs, farming potatoes where there is little soil, and hunting for huge basking sharks to win their liver oil for lamps. This classic film is famous for its drama and its spectacular cinematography of landscape and seascape. To be screened inside our popular Currach Folk exhibition closing 30 September. Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Phone 02 9298 3644 or fax 02 9298 3660, unless otherwise indicated. All details are correct at publication but subject to change.
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
The Eastern & Australian Auxiliary Steamer Eastern, John Downes 1905, watercolour. ANMM Collection
There was a time when the only way to travel between the Australia’s major cities was by sea, and ships were the backbone of interstate commerce. The 20th century saw new types of coastal ship with more passenger comforts and cargo of secondary importance. Our seminar explores Australian coastal shipping from 1880 to 1980. Speakers: Peter Plowman, author of the new Coast to Coast: Australian coastal liners; author, naval architect and last CEO of Cockatoo Island, John Jeremy; ANMM curator of commerce Patricia Miles; and the Hon. Peter Morris, former Federal Transport Minister and co-author of Independent Review of Australian Shipping. Members $50 guests $60. Includes four lectures, morning and afternoon tea, lunch and afternoon reception
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Specially for Members Shipwrecks are a rich historical resource. There are 850 wrecks along the South Australian coast, each recalling drama and tragedy from a time when shipping was part of daily life and all immigrants came to Australia by sea. This new exhibition from the South Australian Maritime Museum tells some of those dramatic stories, and its curator Bill Seager will be here to take us through some of its famous shipwrecks. Members $15 guests $20 Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer
Tours and walks Exclusive: HMB Endeavour replica at Garden Island 11 am–12.30 pm Tuesday 18 & Saturday 22 September
Photographer R Mattson/ANMM
Members viewing: Wrecked! Tragedy and the Southern Seas 6.15–8 pm Thursday 25 October at the museum
Exhibition viewing and lecture: Iceman – the story of Ötzi 6.15–8 pm Friday 9 November at the museum
Nature’s Argonaut – Daniel Solander 1733–1782 6.15–8 pm Thursday 15 November at the museum Daniel Solander, stamped with the enquiring spirit of the Enlightenment, lived one of the grand adventures of the 18th century. Ed Duyker, author of the celebrated Solander biography Nature’s Argonaut, explores the life of this important naturalist who circled the globe under sail, from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego. Ed highlights Solander’s role as a naturalist on Endeavour during Cook’s voyage along the east coast of Australia, and his pioneering contribution to the scientific study of the new continent. Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer on board the Endeavour replica
EMAIL BULLETINS Have you subscribed to our email bulletins yet? Email your address to members@anmm.gov.au to ensure that you’ll always be advised of activities organised at short notice in reponse to special opportunities.
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Come and see how HMB Endeavour looks out of the water during her refit, and find out about all the works to be undertaken to keep her ready for future display and sailing. Get up close to the underwater hull of the vessel, and inspect her yards and rigging laid out for maintenance. Some walking required, so participants must be reasonably mobile. Members only $15. Meet outside main entry gates, Garden Island, Cowper Point Rd, Woolloomoolloo. Bookings essential and photo ID required for entry Garden Island heritage tour 10 am–1.30 pm Thursday 18 October at Garden Island
Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Over 5,000 years ago, a hunter died on the icy heights of Schnalstal glacier. He was found in 1991 near the Italian-Austrian border, frozen with his clothes and equipment: an archaeological sensation providing a unique insight into the Copper Age. After years of highly specialised research into the mummy and artefacts, they have been displayed since 1998 at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy. Join its director and curator of the Iceman exhibition, Angelika Fleckinger, for a lecture on the fascinating story of Ötzi the Iceman. Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer and a guided exhibition viewing
Don’t miss this behind-the-scenes guided tour of Garden Island heritage precinct with representatives of the Naval Historical Society of Australia. The tour includes areas within the secure military precinct including the WWII Kuttabul memorial, the chapel with its fabulous stained glass, heritage buildings including the original boatshed, and the top of the Captain Cook Dock. You will then take a self-guided tour of the RAN Heritage Centre. Members $25 guests $30. Includes guided tour, entry to RAN Heritage Centre, morning tea. Some walking and stair climbing. Catch 10.10 am Watsons Bay ferry from Circular Quay to Garden Island
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
On the water Afternoon tea cruise – Pacific on a Plate Food Festival 1–2.30 pm Sunday 2 September on the harbour Treat your palate to a selection of exotic sweets, teas and coffees from around the Asia-Pacific rim on a leisurely afternoon cruise on Sydney Harbour. Infuse your senses with brews from Chile to China and indulge your sweet tooth with a range of desserts from Malaysia to Mexico. Arrive early and check out the cultural and culinary events at the museum’s Pacific-themed food festival before joining the cruise. Members $30 guests $40. Includes a glass of Ensign wine and afternoon tea Spring, spray and jacarandas 10 am–1.30 pm Sunday 28 October, Lane Cove River
Special: Spring flicks on Vampire 7–9 pm during October on board HMAS Vampire This spring’s film screening on the heli-deck of Vampire presents a fabulous selection of naval films from the classic In which we serve starring John Mills, Always another dawn featuring a young ‘Bud’ Tingwal, and episodes from the original Patrol Boat television series from 1979, featuring our own collection’s Attack class patrol boat HMAS Advance. Each film is introduced by a guest speaker. Tuesday 2 October In Which We Serve (1942) Wednesday 3 October Patrol Boat episode 1 (1979) Thursday 4 October Always Another Dawn (1949) Tuesday 9 October Mr Roberts (1955) Wednesday 10 October Patrol Boat episode 4 (1979) Thursday 11 October In Which We Serve (1942) Members $20 guests $25. Includes wine, cheese, pop corn, jaffas and James Squire beer
Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Weekend tour: Newcastle Maritime Festival Saturday 6, Sunday 7 October at Newcastle, Hunter Valley
The spring garden holds many delights including jacarandas in bloom. There’s no better way to see them than our leisurely cruise up the Lane Cove River aboard historic ferry Lithgow. Adam Woodhams, assistant gardening editor with Better Homes and Gardens magazine and award-winning gardener, provides expert botanic and historical commentary. This is one of our most popular annual events. Book early! Members $45 guests $55. Includes brunch on board. Meet at Pyrmont Bay Wharf next to the museum
Special events 16th Members anniversary lunch 11.30 am–2.30 pm Sunday 25 November, Terrace Room Book early for our next anniversary lunch with Australian National Maritime Museum director Mary-Louise Williams, the new chairman of the museum’s Council, Mr Peter Sinclair AM CSC, and guest speaker to be announced. Enjoy the good company of fellow Members and a delicious three-course lunch from The Mode Group, the museum’s award-winning caterer, accompanied by wine and beer. The annual anniversary lunch is a fine tradition and gastronomic event … don’t miss it! Members $75 guests $85. Meet in the museum foyer BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Phone 02 9298 3644 or fax 02 9298 3660, unless otherwise indicated. All details are correct at publication but subject to change.
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Photography courtesy of Newcastle Tourism
Join Members manager Adrian Adam for this weekend away at the 2007 Newcastle Maritime Festival. Travel by luxury coach via wine country, visit beautiful Hunter Valley Gardens, historic Maitland homestead Anambah, enjoy a reception on board HM Bark Endeavour. Sunday visits to famous Nobbys Beach and breakwater (site of Pasha Bulka grounding), replica paddlesteamer William IV, Newcastle’s historic east-end, reception and tour of the new Newcastle Maritime Museum, and all the onwater activity of the Newcastle Maritime Festival. Members $420 guests $440. Limited places, single supplement applies. Contact Members office for more details or visit our website Special silent film screening Dall’Italia All’Australia 6–9 pm Friday 30 November at the museum In 1924, the Italian film director Angelo Drovetti embarked on an epic 8,000-nautical-mile voyage with his movie camera. The result, Dall’Italia All’Australia (From Italy to Australia), is regarded by many as the most comprehensive film ever made of a migrant voyage. Author Anthony De Bolfo introduces and commentates on the film, with Italian folk music by acclaimed musicians Kavisha Mazzella, Irini Vela, David De Santi, Mark Holder-Keeping and Bob McInnes. In association with the Institute of Italian Culture and the Italian Embassy. Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer
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What’s on at the museum Spring school holidays
During term time
30 September–14 October
Fun family Sundays Every Sunday 11 am–3 pm
KIDS DECK: Jellyfish – nature inspires art Hourly sessions 10 am–4 pm daily
Photographer Gary Bell
Jellyfish are among the most beautiful, colourful and dangerous creatures in the ocean. They fascinate scientists and artists alike. Learn how they move, what they eat, how big or little they can be and what to do if you get stung! Create your own jellyfish-inspired artworks using weird and wacky materials, including a woven rainbow jellyfish sculpture to take home with you. $7 per child or free for members and adults FREE ACTIVITIES Roaming Character Performances 11 am, 12 pm and 1 pm Monday–Friday only
In September discover the way of life of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land. Feel the skin of saltwater crocodiles and the shells of turtles in the hands-on area and investigate intricately carved and painted Yolngu artefacts. You can even make a bark painting of your own. In October and November learn how jellyfish move, what they eat, how big or little they can be and what to do if you get stung! Create your own jellyfish-inspired artworks using weird and wacky materials, including a woven rainbow jellyfish sculpture. For children aged 5–12 years. $7 per child or FREE with any purchased ticket. Adults FREE Movies on Sundays Every Sunday 12.30 pm, daily during school holidays
Do you need a jellyrod to catch a jellyfish? Is a bluebottle really sad? What makes a jelly blubber? Find out the answers to these mind-blowing questions and more when Professor Maximus Propulsion* floats by. (*Not his real name, in fact we’re not even sure he’s been to university!)
Every Sunday the museum will be showing a FREE film in the Passengers theatrette to complement the temporary exhibition program. During school holidays (30 September–14 October) children’s movies are shown daily. FREE Please call (02) 9298 3777 during weekdays to confirm which film is showing.
Children’s Films – Finding Nemo Weekdays 2 pm / weekends 11 am and 1.30 pm
Mini Mariners Every Tuesday 10–10.45 am (except school holidays)
Dymocks Golden Paw Award 26 September–14 October, Top Deck
Tuesdays in September – Pirates Ahoy! Follow the treasure map around the museum to find out where the secret loot is hidden. Then you can make your own treasure chest to take home. Come dressed the part to double the fun. Tuesdays in October – Boats in the Harbour Join the crew as we row row row through stormy seas singing songs as we go along. You can even make your own boat to take home. Tuesdays in November – Life aboard a Tall Ship Let’s unfurl the masts and set sail on a frolicking adventure on the high seas. We will work hard as we scrub the decks and perform all the duties of an 18th-century sailor. A program for children 5 years and under and their parents/ carers. $7 per child. Members/adults FREE. Booked playgroups are welcome (call 9298 3655)
To raise awareness of threatened Australian native animals of the oceans and coasts, rivers and wetlands, the Foundation of National Parks and Wildlife invites NSW children aged 4–12 years to enter this drawing competition. View 600 of the best entries in this year’s award, selected by representatives from National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Art Gallery of NSW. SPECIAL RATES For groups of 10 children or more; booking essential. $7 per child for a fully organised program of activities that includes: • All museum exhibitions • All children’s activities • Entry to the destroyer HMAS Vampire and submarine HMAS Onslow • Free entry for two adults per 10 children • Free bus parking • NB $2 extra per child for HM Bark Endeavour replica or 1874 tall ship James Craig Book early to ensure your space! For bookings or more information: Phone 02 9298 3777 Fax 02 9298 3660 Email: callen@anmm.gov.au
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Night in the Navy 6 pm–8 pm Saturday 17 November 2007 A family evening of adventure aboard destroyer HMAS Vampire and submarine HMAS Onslow. See areas not open to the public. Check out Vampire’s gun turret. Enter the awesome world of underwater warfare, torpedoes, missiles and mines on Onslow. A sausage sizzle on the museum’s wharf is included. Cost $16, family $54 (2 adults, 2 children). Members $12, Member family $48 (2 adults, 2 children). Bookings essential 9298 3655 SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Spring 2007 program Special events
Jellyfish in science and sculpture. 10 am–12 noon Wednesday 14 November In association with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK
Our fourth biennial food festival celebrates the culinary and cultural diversity of countries on the Pacific Rim. Be tempted by stalls spotlighting the varied and exotic flavours of places as diverse as Chile and China, Malaysia and Mexico, Vietnam and Vladivostok! The weekend’s gastronomic delights will be matched by a vibrant entertainment program of live music, traditional cooking demonstrations and guided vessel tours. Celebrated food critic and journalist Joanna Savill will be your host interviewing guest chefs and providing commentary throughout the weekend. This is a cultural feast for the whole family … so grab a plate and join us on a culinary voyage where east meets west around the Pacific Rim. FREE entry. Lecture: Iceman – the story of Ötzi 10 am–12 noon Friday 9 November Ötzi, a stone-age hunter of the fourth millennium BC, was found preserved in an alpine glacier bordering Italy and Austria in 1991, along with his clothing and equipment. Dr Ted Robertson of Sydney University’s archaeology department describes life in northern Europe during the Copper Age. Dr Angelika Fleckinger, director of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Italy, talks about retrieving and analysing the mummified hunter and his possessions. Mariea Fisher, ANMM manager temporary and travelling exhibitions, presents the logistics of touring and displaying precious, fragile objects. After morning tea join a guided tour of the exhibition. Cost $33. Bookings essential, WEA 02 9264 2781
Program times and venues are correct at time of going to press. To check programs before your museum visit call 02 9298 3777.
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Photograph courtesy Sydney Aquarium
Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
Pacific on a Plate Food Festival 11 am–5 pm Saturday 1–Sunday 2 September
Jellyfish may be 95% water, but the remaining 5% makes them some of the most beautiful and deadly animals in the world. Learn how a blob with appendages can cause painful death, and be uplifted by spectacular art forms inspired by these softbodied creatures. David Watts, senior aquarist at the Sydney Aquarium will concentrate on what makes a jellyfish, and sculptor Suz Gavran will tell how she was inspired to create her sculptures Ebb and Flow and Sea Jewel. After morning tea immerse yourselves in the art and nature of jellyfish in our fascinating exhibition. Cost $33. Bookings essential WEA 9264 2781 2007 Cruise Forum No 3 Joseph Conrad – seaman and storyteller 10 am–2 pm Monday 3 December In association with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK Joseph Conrad, JJoseph Conrad the Polish-born giant of English visited Sydney four times from 1878 literature, vis during earlier career as a master mariner du urriinngg his ea went aand an d we w nt on to write 13 novels and 28 short stories. He described Sydney Harbour stor as ‘one of the finest, most beautiful, vast and safe bays the sun ever va shone upon’. At the 150th anniversary of his birth Associate Professor Anthony Uhlmann, University of Western Sydney, talks about Conrad’s life and work, and historian Bob Irving describes Sydney as Conrad saw it. Our heritage ferry cruise of relevant sites alights at Circular Quay for a closer inspection, then a picnic lunch in the Botanic Gardens. View the museum’s display of photographs, paintings and original letters exploring Conrad’s links with Australia. Cost $60, concession $55, includes morning tea and lunch. Museum entry FREE. Bookings essential WEA 02 9264 2781 FOR YOUR CALENDAR Dunera boys reunion Thursday 6 September World Maritime Day parade and wreath laying Thursday 27 September National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors Displays and evaluations Saturday 29 September–Sunday 1 October Page 27
Winter 2007 exhibitions In our galleries
Discomedusæ by Timothy Horn 2004
Jellyfish – nature inspires art Until 17 February 2008 North Gallery Jellyfish are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring creatures of the marine environment, found all over the world and in all the seas, even in some freshwater locations. Australia is home to many different species, including the world’s deadliest: the box jellyfish and the Irukandji. Jellyfish examines the art, science and natural history of these fascinating creatures. Saltwater: Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country Until 1 October Gallery One Gumatj Monuk by Gaymala Yunupinu 1998
This unique collection of bark paintings explains the spiritual and legal basis of the Yolngu community’s claim to land and sea rights in their north-east Arnhem Land country. The paintings represent sacred knowledge about fresh, tidal and saltwater areas, with images of mystical snakes, crocodiles, fish, turtles and birds, and ancestral beings. Currach Folk – Photographs by Bill Doyle Until 30 September South Gallery
Inismaan slipway by Bill Doyle 1964
These mid-1960s images of Gaelic fishing and farming folk off Ireland’s isolated west coast capture a lost world celebrated by Joyce, Yeats and Synge. The award-winning photographer’s studies of the Aran Islanders’ lives, landscape and their boats, reveal the dignity, humanity and hardship of lives shaped by the sea.
Fort Denison by Mike Meyer 2007
Fort Denison Until 11 November Tasman Light In October it’s 150 years since Fort Denison was named after Sir William Thomas Denison, then governor of NSW. It was built to protect the harbour against perceived threats including the Russian navy and American privateers. Photographs and artworks show the island from its beginnings as a prison to the present day. Page 28
Escape! Fremantle to Freedom Until 25 November USA Gallery Billed as the greatest prison break in Australian history, this exhibition from Fremantle Prison, WA, tells the story of the daring, dangerous escape by a group of Irish Fenian prisoners from the prison in 1876 in the Yankee whaler Catalpa (pictured). Wrecked! Tragedy and the Southern Seas 18 October 2007–27 January 2008 The 850 wrecks along the wild South Australian coast bring to life the drama and tragedy of our shipping history. Iceman – the story of Ötzi 9 November 2007–17 February 2008 Conserved for 5,300 years in an Italian glacier, this mummified neolithic hunter teaches us about life in the late Stone Age. Conrad and Australia 15 November 2007–10 February 2008 Joseph Conrad, the giant of English literature, sailed to Australia as master of the barque Otago.
On the water Replica of James Cook’s Endeavour Open at museum wharves 10 am–4 pm until 3 September Open in Newcastle 6–8 October Open at museum wharves 20 October–7 November Open at museum wharves 13 November–through Xmas holidays Visit the magnificent Australian-built replica of the vessel on which James Cook made his first circumnavigation (1768–71), charting Australia’s east coast and claiming it for Britain. Members FREE. Adults $15, child/concession $8, family $30. Other ticket combinations available. Enquiries 02 9298 3777 Barque James Craig (1874) Daily Wharf 7 (except when sailing) Sydney Heritage Fleet’s magnificent iron-hulled ship is the result of an award-winning 30-year restoration. Tour the ship with various museum ticket packages (discount for Members).
ANMM travelling exhibitions The River – Life on the Murray-Darling 14 September–25 November Shear Outback, Hay NSW Australian Fishes – Illustrations by Walter Stackpool 5 October–25 November Albury Regional Museum, NSW Patriotism Persuasion Propaganda – American War Posters 7 September–25 November Pine Rivers Heritage Museum, Strathpine QLD Antarctic Views by Hurley and Ponting 6 September–10 November Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, QLD
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
For schools Escape – Fremantle to Freedom Years 9–12 History & Science
Over 30 programs for students K–12, across a range of syllabus areas. Options include extension workshops, hands-on sessions, theatre, tours with museum teacherguides and harbour cruises. Programs link to both core museum and special temporary exhibitions. Bookings essential: telephone 02 9298 3655 fax 02 9298 3660 email bookings@anmm.gov.au or visit our website: www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=29
The Irish Fenians were among the last convicts sent to Western Australia, signalling the end of the convict era in Australia. This exhibition traces their story from Ireland to Australia, examines life in Australia’s last convict prison, and their daring escape from Fremantle Prison to freedom in the USA aboard the American whaling ship Catalpa. Guided tours $6 per student, or add to Science or Navigators Jellyfish – nature inspires art All years Visual Arts, Science
This program investigates early contact with the Australian continent. Students encounter non-European traders, traditional navigation techniques and early European explorers. Items on display include artefacts from ships such as Endeavour and Batavia, and material from Dutch, English, French, Torres Strait Islander and Makassan explorers. Ideal to combine with a visit to HMB Endeavour replica. $8 per student Endeavour only. $12 per student Navigators + Endeavour package Pyrmont walk Years 9–12 History & Geography
Photographer L Shaw/ANMM
Navigators Years 3–6 HSIE
Explore this inner-city suburb from the perspective of changing demographics, construction, planning and development. Led by a teacher-guide, students walk the streets of Pyrmont and examine changes. The program is suitable as a site study for History and Geography. A harbour cruise examining change and development along the waterfront is also available. $12 per student. Cruise extra
The Art of Jellyfish for years 7–10 shows students how jellyfish have inspired works of art, then students design their own work. $8 per student Visual Design for years 11–12 shows students how designers use an existing space, alter its character and engage an audience. Includes a short presentation by a professional 3-D designer. $6 per student
Science and the sea Years 6–8 Science
Splash! Years K-2 HSIE, PD, PE & Health, Creative Arts
This program demonstrates key scientific principles that relate to a maritime environment. Working through a series of experiment stations, students cover areas such as buoyancy, corrosion, navigation, communication and animal classification. Also includes visits to Escape! to see how the convicts relied on Morse code in their plan, and Jellyfish to investigate marine environments. $12 per student, includes submarine
Students tour the museum, identifying various forms of transport connected with water. They see sailing ships, rowboats, ferries, tugs, a Navy destroyer, water traffic and even a helicopter! A transport cruise is also available, where students board a heritage ferry and look at industrial, commercial and passenger transport systems on the harbour. $6 per student (cruise $7 extra per student) SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
This hands-on program allows younger visitors to explore leisure in, on, under and near the water through movement, dress-ups, games and stories. Includes a guided tour of our Watermarks and Jellyfish exhibitions, Students make their own jellyfish craftwork to take home. $8 per student Pirate School Years K–4 English, Maths, HSIE, Creative Arts Photographer A Frolows/ANMM
Transport Years K–2 HSIE, Science
Jellyfish are among the most amazing creatures of the marine environment. Australia is home to many species, including the deadly box jellyfish. This exhibition examines the science and natural history of these remarkable creatures, and shows how they have been the inspiration for beautiful works of art. A visit to Jellyfish can also be incorporated into several of our programs. Guided tours $6 per student
Join the Pirate School for lessons in treasure counting, speaking like a pirate, map reading and more! Then join a treasure hunt through the museum and board the tall ship James Craig. $10 per student (James Craig $2 extra per student)
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The 20th-century
Hidden within the museum’s authentic replica of James Cook’s 18th-century Endeavour is another ship that few visitors will ever see. Signals editor Jeffrey Mellefont introduces us to the 20th-century Endeavour and her chief engineer. THE MUSEUM’S REPLICA of James Cook’s most famous ship of discovery, HM Bark Endeavour, has been highly acclaimed as one of the world’s fi nest re-creations of an historical vessel. The team that researched and built the ship between 1988 and 1994 in Fremantle, Western Australia, was deeply committed to historical authenticity (see ‘The replica’s story’ on page 33). During service as a naval vessel the original ship had been surveyed, and detailed documentation survived in England. This allowed the replica to be built confidently to the same specifications as Cook’s Endeavour. Re-creating authentic details above and below decks – everything from door handles and floor coverings to the hues of paint and varnish – took years of Page 30
research by a specialist in the restoration and replication of historic ships. As a result, the visitor’s experience of the upper and lower decks and cabins where Cook and his officers, scientists, seamen and marines lived and worked, ate and slept, is as satisfying as it can be. Wherever Endeavour is displayed, scores of replica artefacts researched and commissioned by the ship’s historian and curator are unpacked and deployed, to give the feeling that Cook and his men have just stepped away from their charts and specimens, their hammocks or their meals. Yet the Endeavour replica was never intended to be just a static museum display. Since being commissioned in 1994, the ship has made over 200 ocean passages totalling more than 170,000 SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Endeavour
nautical miles, rounding the great capes and visiting 29 countries while giving over 8,000 men and women the experience of 18th-century sailing. While the ship carries a small professional crew at sea, the vast majority of these ‘voyage crew’, as they are called, paid for their berths.
cooked on a wood stove and then served up again as cold leftovers, just like the 18th-century sailors, most prospective passengers expect reasonable standards of nutrition and hygiene as well as safety. In short, as well as being an authentic 18th-century ship, a voyaging replica like this one also needs to be a fully-powered,
To carry paying voyage crew, the ship has to meet stringent, modern survey standards to ensure the safety of those on board Now to get in and out of harbours and to meet tight voyaging schedules when winds might fail, a sailing vessel of this size simply has to have an engine and the fuel to run it. To carry paying voyage crew at all, it has to meet stringent, modern survey standards to ensure the safety of those on board and to protect the environment in which it operates. And while a few enthusiasts might be happy to go unwashed for days or weeks at sea, eating hard tack and salt beef SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
fully-equipped modern ship with modern navigation and communications equipment, modern cooking facilities, refrigeration, showers and toilets. How can the two be reconciled? In the case of the Endeavour replica, inspired design made her into both these very different ships, at once. But a visitor can spend hours on board exploring the 18th-century spaces above and below decks without ever noticing this other, contemporary ship.
OPPOSITE: Engineer Wally Mounster in the engine room, next to the ship’s port diesel engine. At the left of the photograph is the desalination plant. All photographs J Mellefont/ANMM
ABOVE: Down in the modern galley in Endeavour’s 20th-century deck, cook’s mate Tegan Sime prepares lunch with the aid of modern appliances.
That’s because the machinery and modern facilities are cleverly hidden in modules that are out of sight, most of them located in what would have been Endeavour’s hold – the space that in Cook’s day was crammed with barrels of supplies and cordage and fi rewood and spare sails. It’s what its latter-day designers have called the Endeavour replica’s 20th-century deck. It contains the engine room, workshop and tankage, a big modern galley and freezers, crew mess, locker room, washroom, shower and toilet blocks and laundry. For a guided tour of this 20th-century deck, I was escorted by Wally Mounster, Page 31
TOP TO BOTTOM: Mess accommodates 25 at a sitting; changing room off the shower block has lockers where crew can stow their gear; wash room where each crewmember’s vital safety harness – mandatory when going aloft – is stowed.
the Endeavour replica’s engineer of many years and many voyages. These include the most recent ones under museum management, when the ship sailed to Melbourne last year for the Commonwealth Games and to Tasmania early this year for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart. Wally, a Tasmanian, was a mechanical engineer in power stations who retired at 55 to follow other interests – among them, building marine steam engines and sailing as engineer on board historical ships. His first square rigger was his home town’s replica of the Lady Nelson which carried the first settlers to Hobart in 1803. Wally sailed with her across Bass Strait and up to Queensland. He then joined the South Australian sail trainer One And All for 18 months, before sailing on the Endeavour replica for the first time in 1994 when she was making her maiden Australian coastal voyage. Wally was with Endeavour for her first voyage to New Zealand in 1995, and for her first world voyage of 1996–2000. He rejoined the ship in 2001 when she was chartered by BBC TV to produce a reality-documentary series The Ship, which showed how 21st-century volunteers coped with the diet, work and living conditions that Cook’s crew endured. As ship’s engineer, Wally was involved in two major refits, one in Garden Island in 1995 and the following year in Fremantle, when modifications were made to some of Endeavour’s machinery and other modern fitout. There may not be anyone who knows the 20th-century Endeavour better than Wally, and he showed me round the ship’s hidden spaces with evident pride and pleasure. We started in the engine room, climbing down a companionway from the cramped lower deck where Cook’s contingent of marines slung their hammocks. After negotiating this 18th-century lower deck, doubled over and ducking huge timber deck beams, the engine room is a miracle of space and light, well laid out with neat aluminium non-skid flooring and plenty of room to move. There’s a bewildering array of plumbing and wiring and equipment, but with plenty of Page 32
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
The replica’s story Endeavour voyage’s importance was that it led directly to Britain establishing a colony here, in 1788.
Photographer Steven Wenban
In 1987, when the Australian National Maritime Museum was in its infancy and still four years from opening to the public, one of its Interim Council members, Bruce Stannard, proposed the idea of building a full-scale museum replica of Endeavour. The Bond Corporation, then one of Australia’s highest-profile companies, took on the project as a gift to the Australian people, to celebrate the bicentennial of British settlement. Work began in January 1988, and in October of that year the keel was laid in a specially designed covered shipyard and dock at Fremantle, Western Australia.
LIEUTENANT James Cook RN sailed HM Bark Endeavour from England to Tahiti to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun, which would help astronomers to calculate the sun’s distance from the earth. Cook continued across the Pacific to circumnavigate New Zealand, and to chart (and claim for Britain) the east coast of Australia, a coast that until then was unknown to Europeans. From an Australian perspective the
By 1990 the Bond Corporation was in financial difficulties and withdrew from the project. However, a dedicated group of staff and guides continued working on a voluntary basis. With financial assistance from corporate supporters and from the Australian and NSW State Governments, a charitable trust – the HM Bark Endeavour Foundation – was established to complete, commission and operate the vessel. The Australian National
workbenches and stowage for tools and spare parts, a lathe and even a filing cabinet. It is, in fact, your ultimate shed.
Maritime Museum was to be her Australian home port. The Endeavour replica was launched on 9 December 1993, rigged, sea-trialled and then commissioned on 16 April 1994. Over the next 11 years, under the management of the HM Bark Endeavour Foundation, the ship made an ambitious series of voyages that would take her twice around the globe. Under a core professional crew, she carried thousands of voyage crew who paid to experience 18th-century square-rigger sailing on ocean passages. In between voyaging, in ports all around the world, the ship was set up in museum mode and was seen by hundreds of thousands of paying visitors. Readers of Signals magazine followed the ship’s progress in every issue. On 17 April 2005 the HM Bark Endeavour Foundation, struggling with the financial challenges of keeping the ship in survey and continuing this rigorous sailing schedule, handed the replica over to the Australian Government and disbanded. The Australian Government has provided funding for the ship to be managed, displayed and kept in sailing survey by the Australian National Maritime Museum. The ship continues to voyage under museum management, taking this important historical icon to other Australian ports.
With the main Caterpillar engines running at an economical speed, the ship is capable of cruising under power for 21 days
and expire its own hot air. It does so through large forced-air vents up on deck, cunningly disguised as oldfashioned elm-tree bilge pumps. Camouflage is also used on modern deck fittings like life raft pods, and the consoles on the quarter deck that house engine controls and electronic navigation dials and screens. These are very simply but effectively covered by heavy canvas covers, so tar-smeared and 18th-centurylike that they blend in perfectly with the rest of the ship’s timber, canvas and tar.
They actually look quite modest in size, when you think about pushing that boxy, bluff-bowed collier hull through the seas. Wally assures me they are well up to the task of keeping the ship on schedule when the winds are absent or, what’s more demanding, when they’re contrary. He can only remember one time when the twin Cats, faced with heavy headwinds and steep, opposing seas, couldn’t quite keep the ship on time for an appointment. He points out that the engines are widely spaced,
Endeavour carries 34,000 litres of diesel fuel and 12 tonnes of water. Two hundred litres of fuel are consumed by the ship’s two diesel generator sets, each day that the ship is away from the wharf and shore power. An 85 kVA Cummins and a 25 kVA Onan provide both 415-volt, three-phase AC electricity and domestic 240-volt AC power. The three phase current powers heavy water pumps (bilge, deck and firefighting), refrigeration compressors, a desalinator plant, sewage treatment plant and the
At its heart are Endeavour’s two turbocharged, six-cylinder, 400horsepower, 3406B Caterpillar marine diesel engines, in cheerful Cat yellow.
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
providing desirable torque for manoeuvring under power. The engine speed is reduced 2.5 times by Twin Disc gearboxes, a well-known name in marine applications. The propeller shafts are supported by stern tube bearings where they exit the hull,
and by A-brackets near the propellers. The shafts run in cutless bearings, that is, longitudinally grooved rubber bearings lubricated by sea water. To reduce drag when the ship is under sail, the three moveable blades of each propeller can be feathered. This is achieved by a hydraulic pushrod in the centre of the propeller shafts, acting on cams in the propeller hub. The engine room needs to breathe in copious quantities of air for the diesels,
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engine room air blowers. Most of the other appliances – lower-pressure fans, galley refrigerators, stove, oven and microwave, hot-water heaters, washing machines and dryer, lights and power tools – draw 240 volts. With the main Caterpillar engines running at an economical speed, the ship is capable of cruising under power for 21 days. Of course, the wind never stops blowing for that long, so the Endeavour is capable of making pretty much any ocean passage chosen. Managing water is one of the major engineering tasks on board – making it, storing it, moving it, and discharging it.
sewage from the Blake marine toilets that are flushed with seawater, by means of a manually-operated pump handle. At sea the grey and black waste can be discharged overboard, although for its time in US waters the ship was required to install a sewage treatment plant which macerates, chlorinates and aerates the waste before it is discharged. When the ship is alongside, waste water can be pumped out into a road tanker. The holding tanks, one for grey and one for black waste, hold two tonnes each. All of this water – seawater, fresh water, grey or black waste water, bilge water – is directed through a labyrinth of pipes and manifolds, or chests of valves. Seawater
As well as being an authentic 18th-century ship, a voyaging replica like this one also needs to be a fully-equipped modern ship In addition to those 12 tonnes of fresh water held in six tanks underneath the modern galley and mess, the ship’s reverse-osmosis desalinator plant can make two tonnes of water in eight hours. It passes clean seawater at very high pressure through membranes. Ten percent of the seawater passes through the membranes as fresh water and is fed into the tanks; the salt and the remainder of the seawater are discharged overboard. Although the process consumes energy, it’s the most economical form of water production for a ship of this size. Grey waste water from freshwater showers and galley sinks is held in holding tanks, as is ‘black’ water – Page 34
for various purposes is drawn from seacocks either side of the keel, and sent to cool engines, supply the desalinator, wash decks or fight fires. Bilge water can be pumped out of any one of six compartments. Bilge water, engine cooling water or other wastes discharge from above-waterline vents in the hull. The main line of defence against internal fi res in confi ned spaces such as the engine room and galley is a system called Mistex, which delivers pressurised water spray from a series of strategically located nozzles. The water comes from permanently pressurised tanks, so it’s independent of electric, hydraulic or mechanical systems that
LEFT : Navigation room with navigation and communications electronics. RIGHT: Navigation instrumentation hides in 18th-century-style binnacle.
may be down during a fi re emergency. Immediately aft of the engine room are located the big walk-in cold rooms, one a fridge and the other a freezer, that allow the ship to keep the full voyaging complement well-fed for extended ocean passages. Should the freezer fail, the fridge can be adjusted by thermostat to take over its role. We are now in the ship’s stern, an area that would traditionally be termed the lazarette. It’s where Cook and his gentlemen kept their private stores. Today there’s shelving and bins for storing large quantities of potatoes, pumpkin and onions which can be kept for weeks if adequately ventilated and tended. Forward of the engine room are the 20thcentury galley and mess. This area is entered down a companionway leading from the lower deck where the 18thcentury mess and galley is located – dominated by the big, black replica of a wood-fuelled iron hearth. Initially this monster was installed for display only. One of engineer Wally Mounster’s tasks, a few years ago, was to turn it into a working hearth for the BBC-TV documentary The Ship, which called for 18th-century provisions and cooking. The cook on that voyage went through a couple of tonnes of firewood in the hearth’s fire grates, heating up an oven, spit and two big, built-in boiler pots. SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Immediately below it, in the 20th-century deck, we find a modern, industrial-sized galley that runs on electricity. It’s staffed by a cook and a cook’s mate, while each of the ship’s three watches provides a ‘galley slave’ to help out. The adjoining mess can seat 25 at a time. So when there’s a full complement of 56 on board, each meal is handled in two sittings. As the ship runs a three-watch system, one of these sittings comprises two watches, and the other sitting is the remaining watch plus the ‘idlers’. Idlers are the people who don’t join a watch – the captain, supernumeraries, specialists like the sail
One vital 20th-century installation is tucked out of sight upstairs at the entrance to the gentlemen’s quarters where visitors can view the cabins of expeditioners such as astronomer Charles Green and artist Sydney Parkinson. Here, hidden in what would have been a pantry, is the navigation room. Clustered around a yacht-like chartplotting desk are all the electronics you would expect to find on any modern, ocean-going vessel – high-frequency and VHF radio, Decca radar console, wind instruments, depth sounder, weather fax, GPS, satellite communications and a pair of computers. Here too is a fire detector
The machinery and modern facilities are cleverly hidden in modules that are out of sight, most of them in Endeavour’s hold master, navigator, bosun, cook and their mates – and Wally, the engineer. Further forward are the wash rooms, showers and toilets, and a changing room lined with lockers for crew to stow their belongings. These facilities are duplicated on both sides of the ship, the men’s to starboard and the ladies to port.
system, monitoring sensors all over the ship and allowing control of fans, pumps and the Mistex firefighting system described above. There are other areas of the Endeavour replica where the 20th century lurks for a variety of pragmatic reasons, usually discernible only if you know where to look. The ship’s great timber windlass is
used to haul up the massive 18thcentury pattern anchors, but you need a very sharp eye to detect the hydraulic lines feeding the hidden hydraulic motor that turns it. Some modern materials or techniques have been used for durability in other areas of construction, to ensure as long a life afloat as possible. For example, massive floors, futtocks and knees have been laminated using Australian hardwoods and epoxy instead of grown English oak, which is now unobtainable. Some modern fibres have been used in parts of the rigging and sails. Nonetheless, the skills needed to handle those myriad lines running through hundreds of blocks, and to set and furl those sails, are the very same ones 18thcentury seafarers required. That, of course, is a convincing part of the rationale for making a replica – to keep those old skills alive, and to learn more about them by sailing the ship. And by sailing the ship to other ports, we maximise the number of people who can visit her and learn about Cook’s extraordinary 18th-century Endeavour. Brought to them courtesy of the extraordinary 20th-century Endeavour!
At the Festival Pontoon Australian National Maritime Museum
For more information or to book contact 02 9280 1110 or www.sydneybysail.com
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
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YOUNG VOICES The museum taps into educational curricula by packaging history in engaging ways. Curator of postFederation immigration, Lindl Lawton, relates a moving encounter that took place here between former ‘boat people’ and school students during Refugee Week 2007. REFUGEE WEEK is an annual event, organised by the Refugee Council of Australia and various agencies, that welcomes refugees to this country, celebrates their diverse contributions to Australian life, and raises awareness of issues faced by refugees in the wider community. The Australian National Maritime Museum commemorates the week with events and exhibitions that explore their extraordinary stories of escape and survival. The theme for Refugee Week in June 2007 was ‘Young Voices’, emphasising the challenges faced by young refugees to Australia. The museum collaborated with the Sydney Jewish Museum to create a schools program that reflected this theme. At the Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst, students listened to the institution’s own survivor guides recount their experience as children during World War II. They also toured a new exhibition, Butterflies of Hope, documenting the stories of children during the Holocaust. Here at the maritime museum we focused on the story of Dao and Dzung Lu who escaped Vietnam as children on Tu Do (Freedom), now part of the historic fleet at our wharves. With our own teacher guides linking the program back to the school curriculum, students visited an exhibit about the Lu sisters located in the museum’s Passengers gallery, inspected objects from Tu Do, and watched a documentary on the Lu family’s ordeal. On the wharves Tu Do was fitted out with replicas of provisions and equipment taken by the Lu family on their voyage. Page 36
The highlight of our program, however, was undoubtedly storytelling by Vietnamese guides who had also fled their homes as children. Now in their 30s, the guides vividly remembered the trauma of leaving, the conditions on board, pirate attacks and the deprivations of crowded refugee camps. Although many had never shared these experiences with an audience before, they proved impressive raconteurs, recounting the suspense of departure, their intense confusion as kids, and their anxiety over missing parents (some of whom they never saw again). One of them was Dai Le, an awardwinning ABC radio journalist and documentary film maker. In April 1975, Dai, her mother and two younger sisters were taken to an American camp in the Philippines. After their father (who had been working for the Americans) failed to arrive, her mother decided to escape by boat. During the voyage the vessel became stranded on a coral reef. Dai recounted the unusual story of their salvation: ‘Suddenly, the guys fixing the boat sounded quite alarmed. They were yelling to one another to jump back on the boat because they could sense something was swimming towards them – they thought it was a shark! It was a baby whale. It swam really close to the boat. The guys in the water started talking to it, asking it to try and push the boat out. It was like they were cheering the whale on!’
With students from Chifley College in Sydney’s west are Vietnamese guides Toan Nguyen (left) and ABC journalist Dai Le (second from left). All photographs Elizabeth Maloney
The whale did manage to dislodge the boat and as Dai leaned over the side ‘… it released a spume of water ... and I remember till this day ... the amazing feeling of wonderment as those drops of water landed on my face.’ After 10 harrowing days at sea a patrol boat picked them up and took Dai’s family and the other passengers to a refugee camp in Hong Kong. At eight years old, Dai was forced to work in a factory to help provide for the family. The Le family were eventually accepted by Australia in 1977. Dai has filmed the story of another Vietnamese refugee, Vu Nguyen, in her documentary In Limbo, tracking the experience of other refugees stranded in the Philippines. Vu escaped Vietnam as a six year old with 90 other people on a tiny boat in 1989. He remembers conditions on board that were so cramped no-one could lie down. After five days they arrived at a small island in the Philippines and were later transferred to Palawan refugee camp, where they lived for seven years. Classified stateless, the family was not legally permitted to work or own property in the Philippines. Vu’s family eventually received assistance from a SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
young Vietnamese-Australian lawyer and was accepted by Australia 11 years after fleeing Vietnam. Dinh Tran had an entirely different story. She arrived in Australia as a ten year old in 1977 on the Song Be 12 – a government-owned boat commanded by her uncle, which a group of South Vietnamese had stolen for the voyage. Dinh recalled the night of departure as being so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The refugees were piled onto a small boat to transfer them to the bigger vessel and Dinh’s mother pleaded with her not to sleep in case she slipped off the side. Dinh did sleep, but by some miracle managed to stay secure.
description of how to use the clay cooking stove that we displayed on Tu Do, because it was a common domestic fixture in Liberia where he came from.
LEFT: Vietnamese guide Toan Nguyen with students from Chifley College on the stern of the museum’s Vietnamese refugee boat, the former fishing boat Tu Do.
One of the most surprising elements of the program was the enthusiasm of the Vietnamese guides. For some, it seemed to be a cathartic experience; for others, a way of commemorating the courage of their families. All asked to be involved in future programs and their enthusiasm, coupled with the positive response from teacher guides, teachers and students, has encouraged the museum to offer the Young Voices program on an ongoing basis.
ABOVE: Visiting students are shocked by the cramped fish holds where most of Tu Do’s 39 passengers slept during its 1977 voyage from Vietnam to Darwin in the Northern Territory, via Malaysia and Indonesia.
The students seemed captivated by the guides’ stories, and embraced the opportunity to question each ‘living historian’ Reliving these experiences was highly emotional, and Dinh broke down as she reflected, at the museum, on the sacrifice and courage of her mother. They were good tears she emphasised – tears she was able to shed because these events are now part of a remote past. One of the young hearing-impaired students attending the Young Voices program was similarly affected, signing that ‘When you told your story ... my eyes filled with water’. The students seemed captivated by the guides’ stories, and embraced the opportunity to question each ‘living historian’. Several girls in one group had also arrived by boat from the Middle East via Indonesia, and could compare their experience with that of the Lu girls. Another student provided an evocative SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Speaking as curator of the refugee vessel Tu Do I can say that the program has marked a wonderful breakthrough. The museum has been trying to connect with the Vietnamese community for many years – to encourage them to see both Tu Do and the museum as a space for sharing their stories. Older Vietnamese seemed reluctant to discuss their past – the trauma was too raw, their focus overwhelmingly on the present and getting ahead. It is their children, it seems, who want to commemorate these dramatic journeys and share their families’ stories. They are stories that resonate through time and space. The conversations between Vietnamese guides and students, some of whom have endured similar journeys as refugees, open up
wonderful opportunities for further programs. What continuities are there in the experience of escaping home as a child? Highschool students study physical and inner journeys as part of the English syllabus. The Young Voices program provides a highly experiential journey to draw on using various elements – storytelling, physical objects, and film – to construct a narrative that isn’t heavily reliant on written text. The museum remains committed to developing other programs with the Vietnamese community that continue these conversations and package history in exciting new ways. During History Week, September 2007, film director Khoa Do (who also escaped Vietnam by boat as a two year old) will direct a performance titled Missing Water with members of the Powerhouse Youth Theatre. The performance will use Tu Do as a stage and conjure up the experience of escaping Vietnam by boat. The Australian National Maritime Museum would like to extend warm thanks to the Archive of Vietnamese Boat People, Dai Le, Vu Nguyen, Toan Nguyen, and Dinh Tran for making this program possible. Page 37
Fort Denison –
celebrating 150 years
This prominent Sydney Harbour landmark was named Fort Denison in October 1857 in honour of the Governor of NSW from 1855 to 1861, Sir William Thomas Denison. Subject of a sesqui-centenary exhibition, its tale is retold by senior curator Lindsey Shaw. FORT DENISON has had many names. It was Mat-te-wan-ye to Sydney’s Indigenous population, Rock Island to Captain Arthur Phillip and Pinchgut to the first convicts who, between 1788 and 1796, were sometimes left on the island for a week with only bread and water. It has been a fishing spot, prison island, defensive platform, military training base, navigational marker, tide gauge station, time marker, automatic weather station, architectural marvel, exclusive function venue and remains today a harbour icon. In 1840 convicts were put to work levelling the island to make a defensive platform. By 1842 the gun battery was completed and ten 24-pounder guns were installed. The work was resumed during the Crimean War (1855–1857) as a major line of defence against potential attack from the Russian navy, and French or American privateers. By 1858 all the main armaments of the island had been installed. Page 38
There were nine 32-pounders facing up the harbour towards any incoming threat, three inside the tower, two 10-inch guns on the southern bastion and a single 8-inch gun on top of the tower. The rocks that were removed from the island during the construction years in the 1840s and 1850s were used as fill in the construction of Circular Quay. Prior to that, large rocks were taken for use as ship ballast. The fort itself was built of sandstone blocks from nearby Kurraba Point. The Martello tower is the most striking feature, 16 metres high with walls 3.5 metres thick at the base. This type of tower was named after one on Mortella Point in Corsica which successfully resisted bombardment by a Royal Navy ship in the 19th century. Despite its martial origins Fort Denison became (and remains) important to harbour shipping and leisure craft as a channel marker and navigational light station. It had a fixed red light installed in
1858 which was initially fuelled by whale oil. In 1913 a fourth-order dioptric lens powered by acetylene gas was installed. This light was converted to electricity in the mid-1920s. In 2003, after 90 years of service, the lantern was removed by helicopter for a complete renovation. It was reinstalled in May 2004. Until 1870 the island was manned by Royal Artillerymen. They lived on the island with their wives and families and a number of children were born there. They were succeeded by a lightkeeper and his family who also acted as caretakers for all the buildings and gardens. In 1994 the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service took over the running and maintenance of Fort Denison. Major archaeological, conservation and restoration works followed and the island was reopened to the public in 2000. A restaurant was added and marquees are erected for special functions. SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
OPPOSITE: Pinchgut Island ‘Wood Thorpe Published March 11th 1803. Artist M. Jones Paternoster Row’ Etching. ANMM collection TOP: Fort Denison by John Allcot 1925. Oil on board. ANMM collection. MIDDLE LEFT: Yacht racing on Sydney Harbour, early 20th century, William Hall Studio. ANMM collection MIDDLE RIGHT: Taken from a warship heading to a mooring at Garden Island or Farm Cove. Samuel J Hood Studio 1930. ANMM collection RIGHT: A visit to the island by The Esperanto Club, possibly 1930s, when its gardens and exotic pines were well-established. Samuel J Hood Studio. ANMM collection SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
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Swinging sixties at sea In 1968 Ian Wilkinson, whose name and journey details were a recent addition to our Welcome Wall and its online database, travelled by sea from London to take up a doctorate scholarship in Sydney. He kept a journal during his trip to record his experiences at sea. I FIRST STUDIED a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) at the University of Southampton from 1964–1967. Once I had finished this degree I was offered a scholarship at the University of Warwick, QLD, which I decided not to take up. Nevertheless I was interested in the idea of travelling to Australia – I think it was both the sense of adventure, and the idea of being a ₤10 Pom. It also helped to have an uncle living in Dapto, NSW, who would sponsor me. The alternative was a job working for Air Products (a combined gases and chemicals company) in London. At the time I had also considered moving to Canada. In my interview with the Canadian embassy I was asked if I was religious, and when I said that I wasn’t I was told that most of the entertainment in Canada is based around the church. I thought, ‘Bugger that!’ After that I had an interview at Australia House and decided to emigrate to Australia instead. I sent letters and pre-arranged interviews with companies in Australia, and I was offered a scholarship to undertake a PhD in marketing at the University of NSW in October 1967 which I accepted. But I still came out as a ₤10 Pom. I left England on 26 November 1968. I kept a journal of my experiences on the SS Fairsea because sailing halfway around the world was going to be an exciting adventure. And I knew that when I got to Australia I would be walking on streets that I had only ever seen before in maps! It was an amazing life aboard the ship. I shared a cabin with five others, and the liveliest man in the cabin was 70 years old. The rest of my cabin-mates used to go to bed at about 8.00 pm! The
The 1960s was a time of the great ‘Aussie adventure’, when young people were flocking to ‘the old country’
Capetown and Fremantle (on Boxing Day). We spent about a day in each place and there were two weeks of travel in between.
late 1960s was a time of the great ‘Aussie adventure’, when young Australians were flocking to visit ‘the old country’. On the SS Fairsea Aussies were returning home from their European adventures. Northerners (English) were relocating to ‘show the colonies how to behave’ and lots of English teachers had been recruited to work in Australia, so there was an amazing cross-section of people on the boat.
The first week on the ship I didn’t really meet anyone as we were hit by a typhoon leaving the Bay of Biscay and it was extremely rough. I wrote Sea sickness appears to be taking its toll. The meal table dwindled in numbers every sitting. Last night I felt a bit queasy myself whilst watching ‘The Pumpkin Eater’ in the fore lounge (note the nautical terminology). The screen kept swaying back and forth and sideways – distorting the picture as it did. The big gala welcome dance was even cancelled due to the rough weather.
The Suez Canal was closed at the time, due to Israel’s Six-Day War the previous year, so we made three stops: the Canary Islands,
It was quite a social network – those who weren’t seasick were busy drinking and having fun. When the bar closes tonight we
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The museum’s tribute to migrants, The Welcome Wall, encourages people to recall and record their stories of coming to live in Australia.
hope to arrange a party of some kind with beer we have taken away. Someone has a portable record player and several home records. Could be good!! Momentous events were happening in South Africa when we had our brief stopover there, and we didn’t even know. Apartheid was still rife and around the time we were there, there was the infamous sacking of a multicultural street in South Africa. An excerpt from the journal reads Landed in Cape Town last night at 12.00 am. All rushed off eagerly – in the pouring rain – to take in some of the night life. Strange sensation walking around – being very conscious
of seeing negroes. The sign on the taxi first hits you saying Whites only (there are others saying Non-whites only).’ I became friends with Mark and Judy Mallam who had just got married and had been given a cabin together, which was unusual in those days. Mark had been to Australia before and was returning to work in an architecture firm. We still keep in touch.
mentioned the redback spider to my uncle who asked if I wanted to see one. I said yes thinking that he might have an embalmed one, but he took me out to the garage, picked up a shoe and they were underneath! LEFT: Life is a beach for a newly arrived ₤10 Pom getting to know his Antipodean cousin Janet. Photographs courtesy of the author BELOW: Boys being boys to while away a six-week voyage of migration on board SS Fairsea. The author is third from the left in the image at left.
In January 1969, I signed on at the University of NSW for my PhD. The scholarship by itself was worth more than I would have earned working as an investment banker back in the city of London, as the Australian dollar was very strong back then. Once he completed his PhD in 1972, Ian returned to the UK to work at the Cranfield Business School for a year, then lectured at Temple University in Philadelphia for three years. Since his return to Australia in 1977, he has lectured in Marketing at the University of NSW, University of Western Sydney, Nepean; and as a visiting professor of economics in Stockholm. In 2001 he returned to the University of NSW as a Professor of Marketing.
The Suez Canal was closed at the time, so we made three stops: the Canary Islands, Capetown and Fremantle (on Boxing Day) While I was on the ship, I even made notes of Australian phrases in my journal and translated them so that I would understand them. Booma – old male kangaroo – fantastic; Rubbishing – taking the piss; and Shout you a beer – buy you a beer! One of the first things I remember about arriving in Australia was being at my uncle’s place and wandering around the house for ages trying to find the loo. It was an outdoor dunny and walking out to it reminded me of going to the London Zoo, with all the animals and insects. I had read all about the dangerous spiders in Australia and SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
It costs just $105 to register a name and honour your family’s arrival in this great country! We’d love to add your family’s name to the Welcome Wall, cast in bronze, and your story to the online database at www.anmm.gov.au/ww. So please don’t hesitate to call Helen Jones during business hours with any enquiries regarding the project on 02 9298 3777.
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COLLECTIONS
Puppets taught post-war migrants Handmade puppets were effective teaching aides on a migrant ship and in Australian migrant reception centres. 20.8.55 Red Sea. You really cannot imagine what the past three days have been like. Students fainting in class, everybody suffering with heatsickness – I find I am having mental blackouts … We wanted to have a sing-song this afternoon, but it’s just too hot. LOIS CARRINGTON (nee Griffiths) was one of hundreds of enthusiastic young Australians employed to smooth the passage of migrants to Australia after World War II. Excerpts from her shipboard diaries on the Toscana recount her experience as a young shipboard education officer recruited to teach English ‘on the way’. In early 2007 Lois donated a delightful collection of handmade puppets and props used to teach English on the migrant ships and reception centres in Australia. While the Australian National Maritime Museum has an extensive collection of mementos linked to migrant voyages to Australia it has, to date, little about the government schemes – and individuals – that facilitated this migration. Learning English was a key tenet of the Australian Government’s official policy of assimilation after World War II. Migrants were offered classes in the European Embarkation Camps, en route, in Australia’s migrant reception centres and in the workplace. Australia actually pioneered the style of English teaching that is now embraced the world over. ‘Situational Page 42
English’ was developed here to address the challenge of teaching classrooms of migrants who spoke a multitude of languages. Rather than focusing on structure, vocabulary and grammar, migrants were taught complete English sentences using film, role play and props. Lois was a student studying Russian, French and Latin languages when she was selected by the Australian Government as an English teacher. Australians recruited by the government to work in migrant camps were usually fresh from university, given limited resources and literally thrown in at the deep end. They often demonstrated as much ingenuity in their jobs as their migrant charges did in adapting to a new culture. Lois recalls the camps at Bonegilla, Benalla and Greta as bleak, overcrowded places where young teachers desperately tried to inject some colour and humour into their classrooms. After watching a Dutch puppeteer stage a play at Bathurst’s migrant camp, Lois realised that puppets not only lightened the mood, but managed to reach across cultural and language barriers. ‘In Benalla camp, which was pretty lonely, I sat down with my needle and thread and a few scraps of fabric,’ Lois told The Canberra Times recently. ‘The first ones were three little pigs, and although crudely made were wonderfully effective.’ Lois used her puppet troupe not so much for teaching English, but for reinforcing lessons and drills. Mascara brushes sufficed as toothbrushes in lessons on personal hygiene, while pastry brushes provided suitable brooms in classes on household cleanliness. The puppets acted out children’s stories (excellent SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
LEFT: Lois Carrington and her puppets. Photographer Graham Tidy, reproduced courtesy of The Canberra Times. CENTRE: Gigi the clown. RIGHT: Wolf and little pigs. Photographer A Frolows
space – the corner of a deck or a vacant ballroom – and blackboards were roped to the walls during rough weather. While an SEO would typically begin the voyage with enrolments of up to 500 students, numbers could plunge to about 30 during violent storms at sea. In 1955 Lois was appointed an SEO on the migrant liner Toscana. Gigi the clown, one of her two string puppets, was packed for each voyage in a red tin patrol case and used during on-deck lesson drills. SEOs were supplied with an ‘Australia kit’ or small suitcase crammed with teaching props such as enamel cups, plates, sets of cutlery, china eggs, a clock face, hammers, nails and screwdrivers. After 1955, each migrant was also given a copy of the book English on the Way which structured lessons and was used for out-of-class reinforcements.
for their repetitive sentence structures) and ‘Australianisation’ scenes – demonstrating how to buy a bar of soap at the corner store, post a letter, or purchase a train ticket. Other puppets provided comic relief during lessons. ‘Cat’ blew bubbles by dipping a pipe clamped between its jaws into a dish of soapy water. The pipe was attached to a tube that ran down the length of its body and into the puppeteer’s mouth. As Cat’s manipulator Lois became highly adept at blowing bubbles and meowing in the same breath. Bubble pipe, tube and soap bottle were all donated with a well-worn Cat to the museum, along with a copy of the musical soundtrack that punctuated the puppets’ dialogue. In 1953 Lois returned to Melbourne and secured a position teaching English to migrants at the General Motors Holden Factory at Fisherman’s Bend. The turban-clad puppet Karagheuz (based on a much-loved Turkish folk character) and his sidekick, the fez-wearing tortoise, acted out both situational role plays and traditional folk stories. New plots were gleaned from comic strips sent by the families of her enthusiastic Turkish Cypriot students. From 1948 the Australian government placed shipboard education officers (SEOs) on ships departing Italy where the bulk of migrants approved by the International Refugee Organisation were held before embarking for Australia. SEOs taught English classes throughout the voyage or supervised passenger teachers who had undertaken similar work in the Embarkation Camps. They were also responsible for instruction on the nuances of Australian culture, administering a library of Australian magazines and books, and screening films (with such scintillating titles as Bee keeping on the move). Classrooms were located wherever there was available SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Lois recalled that class enrolments always skyrocketed when her often multilingual migrants discovered that their new country was monolingual. While most were aware that English was Australia’s principal language, they were panicked by the revelation that it was the only language in which they would be understood. Even out of class, Lois recalls that ‘ … whenever I poked my head outside my cabin door, I was set upon by enthusiastic Triestini wanting to know about railways, or ringtails, or rigatoni production.’ The first port of call was Fremantle in Western Australia where migrants had a chance to test their hard-won English. Lois remembered being bowled over in Perth by groups of over-excited migrants, thrilled that they had actually managed to buy a pound of cherries or purchase a bus ticket. Lois left the Toscana in 1956 and later returned to Bonegilla as a teacher, where her puppets were again put to work teaching and providing pleasure. In 1959 she married George Carrington, a Polish migrant, and in 1968 the couple and their young family shifted to Papua New Guinea for six years. Lois used the puppets to teach English in PNG, travelling the country with a portable puppet theatre strapped to the roof racks. On returning home Lois joined the Australian National University’s linguistics department where she worked for more than 20 years. Her granddaughters embraced the puppet family, acting out their favourite stories behind the brown velveteen couch in Lois’s Lyneham home. When I visited Lois in Canberra to inspect the puppets, I realised how much they had become a part of her family’s history and indeed her family. Her attachment to ‘the little guys’ makes her donation to the museum all the more generous. They were all recently displayed in the museum’s new acquisitions case as part of the immigration collection. We are interested in hearing from people who have worked in various roles in immigration and who, like Lois, have mementos and stories they would like to share. By Lindl Lawton, curator of post-Federation immigration Page 43
CURRENTS
Visitors to the museum helped us to celebrate Indigenous cultures during the annual NAIDOC week, with a fun-filled day for the whole family on Sunday 15 July. This year’s organisers celebrated 50 years of NAIDOC observances. The Aboriginal training vessel Tribal Warrior, a Torres Strait pearling lugger more than a century old, operated short trips and was the venue for the traditional smoking ceremony (TOP LEFT). The Terrace function room was full of craft activities for families (LEFT). Guest of honour at the openings of our new Eora Indigenous gallery and exhibition Saltwater – Yirrkala bark paintings of Sea Country was former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, seen ABOVE with Yolngu art expert Andrew Blake. The exhibition was opened by media personality Rhoda Roberts, at right of picture. Live saltwater crocodiles were provided by Australian Wildlife Displays (BELOW LEFT). Gavan Flick of Gavala Aboriginal Art Centre gave guests hands-on digeridu lessons. Photography S Andrew/ANMM (top left) and J Mellefont/ANMM
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History mystery day
The program began by outlining the history mystery case study for the day – the occurrences at Maralinga and Woomera in the 1950s. Then other 20th-century history mysteries were examined to see how evidence could be used to piece together their stories. This was followed by a history quiz. Students were shown a series of mystery objects and given time to work out what they were
Photographer Robert Lewis, Ryebuck Media
On 25 May, the Australian National Maritime Museum played host to the 2007 Australian History Mysteries Youth Challenge, an innovative program jointly run by the National Museum of Australia and Ryebuck Media. Museum staff members Kieran Hosty, curator of maritime archaeology and ship technology, and education officer Jeff Fletcher, joined more than 120 high school students and their teachers for a day that challenged students in a number of ways. Among their tasks: to use historical methodology to investigate case studies in Australian history, to solve the riddle of mystery objects, and to work with their counterparts from different schools to present role-play scenarios to showcase their findings. and what they could tell us about the past. ANMM staff member Keiran Hosty, as guest historian, showcased a selection of shipwreck artefacts to set students a maritime challenge, and presented a session on how maritime archaeologists work. The afternoon sessions saw students working in groups to develop role-plays
based around the question: ‘Was the atomic testing at Maralinga in the 1950s necessary and justified?’ Museum educationalist Jeff Fletcher, who had earlier given a talk to teachers about our museum’s history programs for schools, was asked to be one of the guest judges for these plays, which were highly entertaining and showcased the students’ abilities in historical inquiry.
Intern from Port Kembla’s Heritage Park Donna Abbati (pictured, right), a volunteer at the Port Kembla Heritage Park for the past 14 years, has devoted two weeks of annual leave from her day job to complete an internship here at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Donna, who works as a senior nuclear medicine technologist at Wollongong Hospital, spent her internship working with our conservation and registration staff. She’s shown here in the conservation laboratory with conservator Caroline Whitely (pictured, left). The visit was organised through our Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme, which is jointly funded by the museum and Commonwealth Government. ‘I applied for the internship because I wanted to develop a collection management policy for the Heritage Park and to get some practical expertise in conservation to train our other volunteers,’ says Donna, who is a curator at the Park’s Military Museum. ‘We have a lot of paper objects like books and pamphlets and I have been a bit nervous of them, but now I know how to clean objects, make basic repairs and store them in acid-free packets or boxes.’ SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
She freely admits to having ‘an organisation fixation’ and has returned home with ‘20 pages so far’ of collection policies and procedures for accepting and recording objects. The Heritage Park has no full-time staff and relies on a dozen of its 45 volunteer members to manage the military, maritime and Aboriginal heritage within the site. Located adjacent to the eastern breakwater of Pork Kembla Harbour, the Heritage Park displays Aboriginal middens, World War II gun emplacements, the former Pilots Station, the Military Museum in the Breakwater Battery Building, and the 1890s steam crane used in construction of the breakwater. Two Evelyn Owen WW II sub-machine guns built at the former Lysaght Steelworks, and a flag used on the Waratah recruiting march of 1915, are key objects in the collection. A self-guided interpretative walk demonstrates to visitors the historical and Aboriginal significance of the site and a maritime display is being developed to open late 2007. Gaynor Stanley Page 45
CURRENTS Journeyman to distant shores Dirk Gockel (pictured here), from the village of Diersheim near Strasbourg, Germany, spent several days on the museum’s replica of HM Bark Endeavour last July undertaking maintenance tasks during an extraordinary, round-the-world odyssey as a traditional journeyman. A journeyman, in the old tradeguild traditions of Europe, is a tradesman who has completed an apprenticeship and is sent out into the wide world to gain experience working in his trade. During their allotted number of years of travel – three years and one day, according to guild traditions – journeymen aren’t permitted to return any closer than 50 km to their home town. Dirk is a member of Europe’s oldest surviving journeyman guild, an organisation of carpenters and roofers called Vereinigung der Fremdem Zimmer und Schieferdackorgesellen that’s over 800 years old. The working costume he’s pictured in here is a part of that tradition. Following his three-year apprenticeship he committed himself to his guild’s journeyman odyssey, and it’s taken him around the world. After his initial work experiences all over Europe and Scandinavia he headed to South Africa and from there to Australia. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
Some of his most enjoyable work experiences, Dirk told us, included building timber fishing trawlers in Scotland and a timber sailing ship in Croatia. In keeping with the traditions of his guild, Dirk hasn’t been home since he began his travels in March 2003. After leaving Sydney he was planning to return home to Diersheim at last – having enjoyed his experiences so much that his travels have stretched out well over four years. JM
COMING AND GOING ... LEFT: The museum’s new chairman of Council Mr Peter Sinclair was announced in July (details page 48). During his first official visit to the museum he encountered teacher guide Jan Bell who was in pirate mode working with a visiting school group. RIGHT: Former ANMM and Powerhouse Museum director Dr Kevin Fewster visited us just before he left to take up his new position as head of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich UK. Dr Fewster, who led ANMM from 1989 to 1999, presented director Mary-Louise Williams with historic museum T-shirts, memorabilia of its opening in 1991. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM
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SPONSORS Bequests – leaving a gift in your will Museum Sponsors
LEAVING A GIFT to the Australian National Maritime Museum in your will is a thoughtful way to benefit the community, showing forethought, planning and commitment. People from all walks of life leave gifts both large and small to museums and galleries, recognising the role such institutions play in our lives. It can be a way to make the type of gift that you may not be able to make during your lifetime. Your bequest (or gift) to the Australian National Maritime Museum can take many forms including cash or securities, real estate, life insurance policies, life income plans, annuities or trusts, cultural property such as books and maps or maritime related works of art. A bequest can be used for many things including developing and managing the National Maritime Collection; research, acquisition, conservation, interpretation, scholarship, publication outreach and education; or fostering traditional maritime skills and practices. Unrestricted bequests can also be made without a designated purpose so that they assist with the ANMM’s priorities at the time. This allows greater flexibility and a way for the ANMM to meet sometimes unpredictable future needs. The museum will follow the wishes of the person making a bequest wherever possible. With bequests of objects and artworks, we have to check the condition of the object before accepting it into the collection. There are a number of different types of bequest. An outright bequest is an unconditional gift of cash, financial instrument, real or any other form of property. A residuary bequest provides for
the ANMM to receive the remainder of your estate after all other bequests have been granted. In a contingent bequest, you stipulate that the ANMM will receive the bequest only if your other named beneficiaries (usually family members) die before you. An endowment bequest uses endowment funds to ensure the permanence of your gift. These are managed in a way that protects the original value of the capital against inflation. Your original gift stays intact and only the annual income is used. It’s an excellent way to help build the future while creating a lasting tribute in your name or in memory of someone special to you. Whatever area of the ANMM your bequest supports, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you have added a legacy of quality for those who live after you. As each individual’s financial and family situations are unique, please discuss all options with your solicitor, accountant or other financial adviser to determine the best one for your situation. If you make a bequest in your will to the Australian National Maritime Museum, do let us know about it. We can then keep you up to date with information and developments at the museum and invite you to relevant special events throughout the year that we hold for our benefactors. All information received by the museum is treated in the strictest confidence and we will respect your wishes if you choose to remain anonymous. To discuss leaving a bequest or receive further information, please contact us on 02 9298 3777 or email mdingle@anmm.gov.au.
Corporate Members of the museum Admiral Memberships
HMAS Waterhen
Abloy Security Pty Ltd CHAMP Pty Ltd Leighton Holdings
HMAS Watson Welfare Fund
Commodore Memberships
LOPAC Pty Limited HMAS Creswell Maritime Workers of Australia Credit Union
Hapag Lloyd (Australia) P/L Trace Personnel
Maritime Union of Australia (NSW Branch)
Captain Memberships
Naval Association of Australia
Art Exhibitions Australia Ltd Asiaworld Shipping Services Pty Ltd Australia Japan Cable Ltd DSTO Aeronautical & Research Laboratory Ferris Skrzynski & Associates P/L HMAS Albatross Welfare Fund HMAS Creswell HMAS Kuttabul HMAS Newcastle HMAS Vampire Association
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
Middle Harbour Yacht Club Canterbury-Bankstown Sub Section Penrith Returned Services League Pivod Technologies Pty Ltd Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruises SME Regimental Trust Fund Svitzer Australasia Sydney Pilot Service Pty Ltd Thales Underwater Systems P/L Zim Shipping Australasia
Princial Sponsor ANZ Australian Customs Service State Forest of NSW
Major Sponsors Akzo Nobel Blackmores Ltd Raytheon Australia Pty Ltd Spotless Tenix Pty Ltd
Sponsors Australian Maritime Safety Authority Abloy Security Bill and Jean Lane BT Australasia Centenary of Federation Institution of Engineers Australia Louis Vuitton Speedo Australia Spotless Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics
Project Sponsors 3M ABLOY Australia ANL Container Line Pty Ltd Cathay Pacific Cargo CGEA Transport Sydney Crawford Partners Architects CSIRO Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade Forrest Training Harbourside Darling Harbour Lloyd’s Register Asia Maritime Union of Australia Maxwell Optical Industries Mercantile Mutual Holdings Penrith Lakes Development Corp Philips Electronics Australia SBS Scandinavian Airlines SDV (Australia) Pty Ltd Shell Companies in Australia Sydney by Sail Visions of Australia – Commonwealth Govt Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation
Founding Patrons Alcatel Australia ANL Limited Ansett Airfreight Bovis Lend Lease BP Australia Bruce & Joy Reid Foundation Doyle’s Seafood Restaurant Howard Smith Limited James Hardie Industries PG, TG & MG Kailis National Australia Bank P&O Nedlloyd Telstra Westpac Banking Corporation Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Zim Shipping Australasia
Donors Grant Pirrie Gallery State Street Australia
Page 47
From the Director
Mary-Louise Williams
Director Mary-Louise Williams at dinner on board Chile’s sailtraining ship CS Esmeralda. To her left are South Australian Senator Grant Chapman, Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer, Esmeralda’s Commander Umberto Ramirez Navarro, and former Australian Ambassador to Chile, Matine Letts, now deputy director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Photograph Captain Jorge Rodriguez CN, Defence Attaché for Chile
IT GIVES ME great pleasure to welcome Mr Peter Sinclair AM CSC as the new Chairman of Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum. The appointment was announced in July by the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator George Brandis SC. The Australian National Maritime Museum is a Commonwealth statutory authority and all members of the Council who guide and advise it are appointed by our national government for defined terms. Mr Sinclair, who has had a distinguished career in the Royal Australian Navy – earning a Conspicuous Service Cross for his work with the RAN in the Persian Gulf – will be the museum’s fourth chairman. He succeeds Mr Mark Bethwaite, Sydney businessman and international yachtsman, as chair of the museum council. Mr Sinclair knows the museum well, has an interest in history and is looking forward to working
Greenwich is one of the most highly regarded maritime museums in the world. Our links with it have grown considerably in recent years, with a program of staff and research exchanges, and the I’m sure the cooperation between our two national maritime museums can only benefit from Kevin’s appointment. CHILE’S SPECTACULAR sail-training ship CS Esmeralda was a popular attraction for Members (photographs page 22). In return Esmeralda’s commander Umberto Ramirez Navarro led a group of officers and crew on a visit to our museum. As you’ll see from the photograph on this page, Esmeralda’s ward room – where I was honoured to be invited for dinner – is absolutely magnificent, and the dinner service is out of this world. That occasion was part of this museum’s ever-growing engagement with the maritime cultures of the Iberian peninsula, Spain and Portugal. We recently hosted an exhibition about Spanish exploration of the South Pacific, and we’re currently talking to Portuguese museums and the Smithsonian Institution about developing an exhibition of precious charts and art works. These will highlight Portugal’s crucial role in the maritime expansion of the western world which includes, of course, their discoveries that brought European sailors and merchants to the East Indies and ultimately to Australia. Part of the discussion at dinner on Esmeralda was about an invitation that’s come to me from the chief of Chile’s navy, Admiral Rodolfo Codina, to visit Chile in October to advise on the redevelopment of their naval museum in Valparaiso. This reflects that fact that the Australian National Maritime Museum is widely regarded as a benchmark for maritime museums, particularly for its facilities, varied programs and high standards of display. It’s a pleasure to be able to contribute our experience and expertise in this way.
Our links with the UK’s National Maritime Museum have grown considerably in recent years closely with us. He has an unrivalled knowledge of one of the museum’s most popular attractions, the former RAN submarine HMAS Onslow, since he was commander of HMAS Otway, another Oberon Class submarine. JUST AS WE went to press we held a staff morning tea to welcome chairman Peter Sinclair, and at the same time to say farewell and good luck to this museum’s founding director Dr Kevin Fewster AM FRSA, who has recently been appointed the director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England (photographs page 46). Kevin was director of ANMM from 1989 to 1999, guiding the museum through its opening and early development before moving on to head up Sydney’s biggest museum, the Powerhouse. Originally a historian, his first museum job was developing the South Australian Maritime Museum in the 1980s. As most readers would know, the NMM Page 48
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Online shopping now available safely and securely on www.anmm.gov.au and click on SHOP. Hundreds of books … Something for everyone … from key rings to shipmodels and boating clothes … Friendly service … Mail Order … Members discounts! We’re open 9.30 am to 5.00 pm seven days a week. To contact our helpful staff phone 02 9298 3698 or fax orders to 02 9298 3675 or email mlee@anmm.gov.au
Nautical naughts and crosses in brass-inlaid box $25.00 Members $22.50
Boxed brass sextant, 5”, the perfect corporate gift $99.95 Members $89.95
Russian Matryoshka dolls within dolls, sailor with wheel $59.95 Members $53.95
Dunoon English fine stoneware/bone china mugs, very nautical $49.95 Members $44.95
Assorted gemstone jewel boxes for your treasures $49.95 Members $44.95
Check, mate! Russian navy chess set $120.00 Members $108.00
Tie land – signal flags, map of discovery and Bayeux tapestry. $79.95 Members $71.95
Keep your weather eye on this thermometer/hygrometer in brass shipwheel $150.00 Members $135.00
Esquisite enamelled lighthouse pill box $69.95 Members $62.95
Assorted small fish for your glass menagerie $10.00 each Members $9.00
Replicas of RAN ships’ badges mounted on wall plaques Vampire or Onslow $69.95 Members $62.95
Ensign Wines Cabernet Rose, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon each $19.95 Members $17.95
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007
The Museum Open daily except Christmas Day 9.30 am to 5.00 pm (January to 6.00 pm) Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW Australia Phone 02 9298 3777 Facsimile 02 9298 3780
ANMM Council Chairman Mr Peter Sinclair AM CSC
Director Ms Mary-Louise Williams
Councillors CDRE P Jones DSC AM RAN Hon Brian Gibson AM Ms Gaye Hart AM Emeritus Professor John Penrose Mrs Eda Ritchie Mr John Rothwell AO Dr Andrew Sutherland Mrs Nerolie Withnall
Signals ISSN1033-4688 Editorial production Editor Jeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647 Assistant Editor Antonia Macarthur
Photography Staff photographer Andrew Frolows
DTP production Aad van der Stap, Vanda Graphics
Printer Printed in Australia by Pirion
Advertising enquiries Jeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647 Deadline end of January, April, July, October for issues March, June, September, December
Signals back issues The museum sells a selection of back issues of Signals. Back issues $4.00, 10 back issues $30.00. Extra copies of current issue $4.95. Call Matt Lee at The Store 02 9298 3698 Material from Signals may be reproduced only with the editor’s permission 02 9298 3647. The Australian National Maritime Museum is a Statutory Authority of the Commonwealth Government. For more information contact us at: GPO Box 5131 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia
ANMM on the web www.anmm.gov.au
SIGNALS 80 September–November 2007