Signals 138

Number

Cook’s Endeavour found Presenting the evidence

Little penguin conservation

A ceramic solution

Blood money

Coins from the Batavia wreck

Bearings

From the Director

GREETINGS – I AM TANYA BUSH, the Interim Director for the museum until a new director commences. Welcome to this edition of Signals

The museum’s biggest news recently has been Kevin Sumption’s announcement in early February that the shipwreck of James Cook’s famous vessel, His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour, has been positively identified. This decision was made using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach.

This announcement follows a 22-year program of fieldwork and research that led Kevin to conclude that the site known as RI 2394, in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, USA, is the location of the remains of HMB Endeavour. The ship was scuttled there by the British 244 years ago and lay forgotten for more than two centuries.

In his announcement, Kevin stated:

I am satisfied that this is the final resting place of one of the most important and contentious vessels in Australia’s maritime history. Since 1999, we have been investigating several 18th-century shipwrecks in a two-square-mile area where we believed that Endeavour sank; however, the last pieces of the puzzle had to be confirmed before I felt able to make this call. Based on archival and archaeological evidence, I’m convinced it’s the Endeavour.

It’s an important historical moment, as this vessel’s role in exploration, astronomy and science applies not just to Australia, but also Aotearoa New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Although only around 15 per cent of the vessel remains, the focus is now on what can be done to protect and preserve it. The museum continues to work closely with maritime experts in Rhode Island and of course with the Australian, Rhode Island and US Governments to secure the site.

Kevin paid tribute to the combined efforts that led to identification of the wreck, in particular the work of Dr Kathy Abbass and her team of volunteers at the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project for their ongoing commitment to the site and its history. He also acknowledged the significant contribution made by the United States of America’s Bicentennial Gift and the Silentworld Foundation in making this work possible.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Signals

Tanya Bush

French archival map from 1778, showing locations of scuttled ships, including Lord Sandwich, formerly HMB Endeavour, in Newport Harbor (indicated within dotted line). Reproduced courtesy Norman B Leventhal Map & Education Centre, Boston Public Library

North Battery

Scuttled vessels

Contents

Autumn 2022

Acknowledgment of Country

The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the Traditional Custodians of the bamal (earth) and badu (waters) on which we work.

We also acknowledge all Traditional Custodians of the land and waters throughout Australia and pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders past and present.

The words bamal and badu are spoken in the Sydney region’s Eora language.

Supplied courtesy of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Cultural warning

People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that Signals may contain names, images, video, voices, objects and works of people who are deceased. Signals may also contain links to sites that may use content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased. The museum advises there may be historical language and images that are considered inappropriate today and confronting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Cover Little penguin nesting modules made for threatened populations in the Derwent Estuary, Tasmania. See article on page 10. Image Peter Whyte Photography

Number 138

March to May

sea.museum

$9.95

2 Cook’s Endeavour identified

The culmination of a 22-year research project

10 Conservation through clay

Artists and scientists create ceramic nesting modules for little penguins

18 Blood money

Coins from the infamous Batavia wreck go on display

26 Hostages to fortune

The remarkable Gladys Baker and her role in a daring WWII rescue

34 ‘Born into it’

The life of wooden boatbuilder Rob Gordon

40 Farewell to Kevin Sumption

Our outgoing director nominates highlights of his decade at the museum

44 In search of a special acquisition

Help us celebrate our 30th birthday

46 Members news and events

Your calendar of special events for Members and their guests

50 Exhibitions

Our temporary and travelling exhibitions this quarter

54 Volunteers

A profile of astronomer Professor Richard de Grijs

58 Education

Our science programs for the year ahead

60 Maritime Heritage Round Australia

Tales from Western Australia’s whaling past at the Albany Maritime Festival

64 National Monument to Migration

A tale of migration from the Greek islands to suburban Sydney

70 The New Beginnings Festival

An arts and culture program by Settlement Services International

72 Viewings

Prince Albert of Monaco and Alick Tipoti star in the film Alick and Albert

76 Readings

Destination Elsewhere; The Whole Picture

Analyses have been undertaken to identify timber and ballast samples collected from the site, as well as small artefacts such as ceramic and glass fragments

Working from within the excavation grid, Irini Malliaros (Silentworld Foundation) carefully retrieves and packs a wooden sheave from one of Endeavour ’s rigging blocks. Image James Hunter/ANMM

Cook’s Endeavour found

Identifying an iconic shipwreck using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach

On Thursday 3 February 2022, the museum’s Director Kevin Sumption PSM hosted a press conference in which he stated that HMB Endeavour had been found in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, USA. This was the culmination of more than two decades of research by the museum and the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project. The museum’s maritime archaeologists Kieran Hosty and Dr James Hunter set out the evidence.

It is with great pride that after a 22-year program of archival and archaeological fieldwork, and based on a preponderance of evidence approach, I have concluded that an archaeological site known as RI 2394, located in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, USA, comprises the shipwreck of HM Bark Endeavour 1

HIS MAJESTY’S BARK ENDEAVOUR is an important vessel in Australian maritime history and one that elicits mixed opinions. For some, the Pacific voyage led by James Cook between 1768 and 1771 embodies the spirit of Europe’s Age of Enlightenment, while for others it symbolises the onset of colonisation and subjugation of First Nations peoples. Less well understood in Australia is Endeavour ’s subsequent life as a British troop transport and prison ship caught up in the American War of Independence. It was in this capacity – and renamed Lord Sandwich – that the vessel was deliberately sunk in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island in 1778. 2

When Endeavour returned to England in 1771, it largely passed out of public view. It was used as a naval transport before being sold to private owners, who renamed the bark Lord Sandwich and used it to

ferry troops to the American colonies in support of British military campaigns. By 1778, the vessel was in poor condition and relegated to gaoling American prisoners of war in Newport Harbor. When American and French forces besieged Newport, Lord Sandwich was one of 13 vessels scuttled (deliberately sunk) to blockade the town’s harbour from an attacking French fleet. It was never salvaged and remained on the seabed where it sank.

In 1998, two Australian historians, Mike Connell and Des Liddy, established the connection between Endeavour and Lord Sandwich via archival research. Their work was expanded upon by members of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP), which resulted in the state of Rhode Island laying claim to the wrecks of all ships scuttled in Newport Harbor in 1778. This claim was upheld by the District Court of the US Federal Government, which granted the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) responsibility for protecting these shipwrecks – including Lord Sandwich (ex-HMB Endeavour) –and regulating archaeological investigation of them.

In 1999, Paul Hundley, curator of the museum’s USA Gallery and a maritime archaeologist, developed a collaborative program with Dr Kathy Abbass, the head of RIMAP, to locate the shipwreck site of Lord Sandwich This relationship led to a series of joint archaeological expeditions in Newport Harbor in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. The expeditions employed remote sensing of Newport Harbor, underwater survey by divers and analysis of samples of stone, coal, timber and sediment raised from a range of shipwreck sites of 18th-century vintage. Using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach developed by RIMAP and the museum in 1999, none of these shipwrecks exhibited characteristics indicative of Lord Sandwich

The museum’s collaborative work with RIMAP resumed in 2015 and included diver-based surveys that investigated a large area of Newport Harbor’s seafloor. However, it was new archival research conducted in the United Kingdom the following year by the museum’s Head of Research, Dr Nigel Erskine, that led to a breakthrough in determining where in the harbour Lord Sandwich was scuttled. Dr Erskine located a letter written in August 1778 by the Agent for Transports in Newport that noted Lord Sandwich (368 tons, British-built) was scuttled with the transports Peggy (250 tons, North American-built), Yowart (272 tons, British-built), Mayflower (197 tons, British-built) and Earl of Orford (231 tons, North American-built) between the northern end of Goat Island and the North Battery in Newport. 3

Two major revelations resulted from Dr Erskine’s research: 1) the search area within Newport Harbor where Lord Sandwich ’s wreck site was likely to be found was significantly reduced; and 2) Lord Sandwich was clearly the largest vessel, by 100 tons or greater, of the five transports scuttled between Goat Island and the North Battery – an area the team dubbed the ‘Limited Study Area’, or ‘LSA’. Between 2017 and 2019, five historic shipwreck sites within the LSA were archaeologically investigated: RI 2396, RI 2397, RI 2578, RI 2393, and RI 2394. Two – RI 2396 and RI 2397 –were later identified as one shipwreck.4

The LSA’s two largest shipwreck sites, RI 2578 and RI 2394, were flagged as the most likely candidates for Lord Sandwich. RI 2578 comprises a 14-metre by 8.2-metre linear stone ballast pile interspersed with iron kentledge (ballast blocks). The site features eroded ship’s timbers that are thought to be associated with the ballast pile. Although a substantial iron anchor and small iron cannon are also present, RI 2578’s overall size is too small to match Lord Sandwich, nor does it exhibit other characteristics consistent with that vessel.

RI 2394 is noticeably larger than RI 2578 and exhibits visible remains that cover an area measuring 18.2 metres long by 7.3 metres wide. It comprises a linear stone ballast pile with a line of partially exposed articulated timber frames (ribs) of substantial size along its eastern periphery. Four iron cannons are also wholly or partially visible above the seabed, as is a lead scupper. Analyses have been undertaken to identify timber and ballast samples collected from the site, as well as small artefacts such as ceramic and glass fragments.

In 2019, the RIMAP–ANMM team was joined by a maritime archaeologist from the Silentworld Foundation and completed a more comprehensive archaeological survey of RI 2394. Permission was obtained from RIHPHC to collect timber samples from a variety of exposed hull components, including frames, ceiling (internal) planking, and a stanchion (vertical post). Analysis by Australian- and US-based experts revealed all sampled timbers were hewn from British/European species of white oak.

01

Archaeologists Irini Malliaros (Silentworld Foundation, left) and Kieran Hosty (Australian National Maritime Museum) use a water induction dredge to excavate between the ship’s floors (lower ribs).

Image James Hunter/ANMM

02

One of the key diagnostic features located during the January 2020 excavation was the stump of one of Endeavour ’s bilge pump shafts. The discovery of this wooden tube allowed the archaeologists to calculate the length of the vessel’s keel and compare that information with original archival drawings.

Image James Hunter/ANMM

02

When American and French forces besieged Newport, Lord Sandwich was one of 13 vessels scuttled to blockade the town’s harbour from an attacking French fleet

No single piece of data is sufficient to positively identify a particular shipwreck site

Armed with this information, the team submitted a successful proposal to RIHPHC to conduct limited excavation of the wreck site. The primary aims of excavation were to expose portions of its surviving hull structure for comprehensive recording and sampling, including accurate scantling (timber measurement) information. Exposed timbers and timber sections, while indicative of a large vessel, were too degraded to provide accurate measurements or samples that could be positively identified. Excavation also enabled the team to locate and measure the wreck site’s keel and compare it to dimensions of Endeavour ’s keel as recorded in Admiralty surveys from 1768. In January 2020 (at the height of winter in the northern hemisphere and with water temperatures hovering around 2 degrees Celsius), the team uncovered the stump of a bilge pump shaft and finally had an identifiable reference point within the hull to work from. When a site plan of RI 2394 was superimposed over Endeavour ’s 1768 Admiralty plans, the locations of the surviving pump shaft, pump well and centreline all aligned. The superimposed imagery also enabled the team to predict the locations of the wreck site’s bow and stern if it was indeed Lord Sandwich

Regrettably, planned fieldwork during summer 2020 was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting inability of the Australian team to travel to Newport.

Aware of the need to locate the ends of RI 2394’s hull and calculate the length of the keel, as well as provide additional archaeological support to RIMAP, the museum contracted Dr John Broadwater to represent the museum during the fieldwork. Dr Broadwater is a respected American maritime archaeologist and renowned specialist in 18th-century British and North American shipwrecks and ship construction. Fieldwork conducted in September 2020 refined the extent and composition of the bilge pump well and collected additional timber scantlings that confirmed RI 2394 was a large, robustly built, flat-floored 18th-century vessel. The team also reported the northern end of the site was heavily degraded, had most likely been affected by laying of electrical and/or telecommunication cables and retained very little identifiable hull structure. During the 2021 Australian summer, the museum’s maritime archaeology team reviewed the findings of the previous fieldwork seasons and predicted that Lord Sandwich ’s bow would have faced to the south when it was scuttled, as prevailing winds during August tend to blow from the south-east. This theory correlated to the predictive model generated from the superimposition of the RI 2394 site plan and Endeavour Admiralty plans, and enabled the team to predict where the bow end of the keel would be located.

With Covid-19 travel restrictions still in place, the museum again contracted Dr Broadwater and a maritime archaeologist and remote sensing specialist, Joshua Daniel, to represent us during fieldwork conducted at RI 2394 in the summer/fall of 2021. Using calculations provided by the museum’s maritime archaeology team, Dr Broadwater and Mr Daniel excavated at intervals along the line of the keel and located the bow at its predicted location. Not entirely convinced they had located the bow, the team excavated around the end of the keel and located a scarph (joint) where it attached to the stem (the vertical post that joined both sides of the bow). The scarph was remarkably well preserved, and its size and form corresponded exactly to that shown on the 1768 Admiralty plans of Endeavour.

No single piece of data is sufficient to positively identify a particular shipwreck site, and there is a risk the identification process can be influenced by ‘ruling theory’, in which researchers’ emotions, political ambitions or cultural inclinations lead them to ignore information that overrules their hypothesis or theory in favour of information that confirms it. With this in mind, in 1999 the museum – in consultation with RIMAP – developed criteria that would have to be met for Endeavour ’s wreck site to be positively identified.

01 Another diagnostic tool used by the archaeologists was the systematic sampling of many of the ship’s timbers. Vice Admiral Michael Noonan, Australia’s Chief of Navy and a former RAN diver (left), assists Kieran Hosty in collecting timber samples from the site. The white patch in the foreground is an epoxy resin that is used to seal off the timber after retrieval of the sample.

Image James Hunter/ANMM

02

Archaeologists uncovered the ship’s keel and associated limber or drainage channel – a notch cut in the inboard face of an external plank used to collect water in a ship’s bilge – in September 2019.

Sampling of the keel indicated it was constructed of European elm – a firm indication the ship was British or European built.

Image Irini Malliaros/Silentworld Foundation

These criteria were revisited in 2018 when Dr Abbass travelled to Australia for the museum’s Archaeology of War conference, and both organisations agreed to continue use of this ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach to identify the site.

Using that approach, we can now confidently state:

• A historical account written by Lieutenant John Knowles, the British officer responsible for scuttling the transports in Newport Harbor, states Lord Sandwich was sunk along with four smaller transports between the northern end of Goat Island and the North Battery. Additional archival research in 2021 indicates one of those sunken transports, Earl of Orford, was very likely re-floated and returned to service. 5 Additional archival research also indicates the three remaining transports scuttled in the LSA (Peggy, Yowart and Mayflower) were all significantly smaller than Lord Sandwich 6

• Timber scantlings recorded at RI 2394 are a close match for those listed for Endeavour in 1768 (as described in survey reports produced by the Admiralty when the vessel entered Royal Navy service) and in 1775 when it was sold out of service. The scantlings are also too large for the other scuttled transports in the LSA, all of which are at least 100 tons smaller than Lord Sandwich

02

01

Dr Kerry Lynch (RIMAP) recording excavation units, context and strata details during the September 2019 field season. While stratigraphy can occur on some underwater sites, archaeologists tend to excavate by ‘spits’, an archaeological excavation unit of a designated or assigned depth and extent. Image James Hunter/ ANMM

02

With a cup of hot tea close by and sitting in front of one of the boat’s heaters, Irini Malliaros notes down the details of her dive. In January 2020 the water temperature was just above 2° Celsius while the air temperature hovered around -5° Celsius.

Identification of the site hinges on the surviving hull and ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach

• The length between the bilge pump shaft stump and the eroded bow end of RI 2394’s keel is almost identical to that recorded on the 1768 Endeavour plans (there is a difference of 6 inches, or 15 centimetres), and exceeds that for any of the other scuttled transports. In addition, the presence of deliberately cut holes in hull planking adjacent to the keel within the stern and midships sections indicate the vessel was deliberately scuttled.

• The respective locations of a series of three adjacent floor timbers at midships and one set of paired floor timbers in the bow section correlate exactly to the positions of Endeavour ’s mainmast and foremast, as shown on the 1768 Admiralty plans. These groupings of floor timbers do not occur anywhere else within the recorded hull and suggest additional strengthening to support the weight and stresses generated by both masts.

• In addition to exhibiting the same size and form as that depicted on the Admiralty plans of Endeavour, the scarph between the keel and stem appears to be an extremely unorthodox design that has not so far been found in published literature related to 18th-century British or American shipwrecks and shipbuilding. The scarph has also not been noted on any 18th-century ship plans held in the collections of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK. Interestingly, it bears some similarity to the keel-stem scarph depicted on plans of Marquis of Rockingham (later HMS Adventure), which was constructed by Thomas Fishburn, the shipwright responsible for building the Whitby collier Earl of Pembroke (later HMB Endeavour).

• According to Australian and American timber identification specialists, the wood samples collected from RI 2394 are European species. This indicates the wreck site is that of an English or European-built ship rather than one of the American-built transports.7 In addition, the presence of white oak in the forward end of the keel – which varies from the use of European elm in the keel elsewhere – suggests it may have been a repair. This is reinforced by the presence of a small number of rough-hewn floors between the midships and bow sections, which differ from the refined form of framing elsewhere within the hull. These possible repairs to the hull occur in the same areas where Endeavour was damaged when it grounded on Endeavour Reef in 1770 and later repaired in an English shipyard prior to the vessel being accepted for service as a troop transport during the American War of Independence.

Unique diagnostic artefacts – such as a ship’s bell, name board, or an artefact bearing the name of a crewman, passenger or prisoner associated with Lord Sandwich or Endeavour – have not been encountered on RI 2394. However, given that Lord Sandwich was used as a prison hulk and later intentionally scuttled, it would have been regularly cleaned and ultimately stripped of anything of value before ending up on the bottom of Newport Harbor, and is unlikely to retain diagnostic material. This is reflected by the relative dearth of small finds encountered on the site so far. That being the case, identification of the site hinges on the surviving hull and ‘preponderance of evidence’ approach. Enough of the agreed criteria have now been met to identify RI 2394 as James Cook’s Endeavour and the urgent need is now to secure the highest possible level of legislative and physical protection for the site, given its historical and cultural significance to Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

1 Kevin Sumption PSM , press conference attended by the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, 3 February 2022.

2 J Hunter, K Hosty and I Malliaros, ‘Piecing together a puzzle: Photogrammetric recording in the search for Cook’s Endeavour ’, Signals 125, 2018, pages 14–19.

3 N Erskine, ‘The Endeavour after James Cook: The forgotten years 1771–1778’. The Great Circle, vol 39, no 1, pages 55–88.

4 Ibid.

5 K Hosty and J Hunter, Archaeological identification of the shipwreck site of Lord Sandwich, formerly HM Bark Endeavour, in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, USA. Unpublished report, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 2022.

6 Erskine, op cit, and Hosty and Hunter, ibid.

7 Kellie Michelle VanHorn. Eighteenth-century colonial American merchant ship construction. Master’s thesis, Texas A&M University, 2004. Available electronically from hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /1421.

Further reading

D K Abbass, ‘Newport and Captain Cook’s ships’, The Great Circle, vol 23, no 1, pages 3–20.

M Connell and D Liddy, ‘Cook’s “Endeavour” Bark: did this vessel end its days in Newport, Rhode Island?’, The Great Circle, vol 19, no 1, pages 40–49.

K Hosty and P Hundley (2001), ‘Endeavour – the quest goes on’, Signals no 35, 2001, pages 20–26.

J Hunter, K Hosty and I Malliaros, ‘Rhode Island revisited. The search for Cook’s Endeavour continues’, Signals 129, 2019, pages 20–26.

Acknowledgments

The Australian National Maritime Museum gratefully acknowledges the work of Dr Kathy Abbass and her team at the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project for their ongoing commitment to the investigation of the transport sites and their history. The museum also acknowledges the significant contribution made by the United States of America’s Bicentennial Gift and the Silentworld Foundation – notably John Mullen, Paul Hundley, Irini Malliaros and Heather Berry – in making this work possible.

The burrow is built up with coils of clay, and while the figure is reminiscent of forms in nature, there is some hint of the human

Conservation through clay

Creating ceramic nesting modules for little penguins

Why would anyone buy an artwork knowing that they’d never see it again?

More than a dozen investors have already eagerly done so through an ingenious project that assists little penguin conservation, writes

Keely Jobe .

AT THE END OF WINTER, I came across a little penguin on our local beach. It was the first penguin I had seen in the wild since moving to lutruwita/Tasmania, and it was much smaller than I expected, around 30 centimetres in length. Its body was cold but not yet stiff; it had probably been dead for less than a day.

Population in peril

I couldn’t see any obvious signs of predation, but I soon discovered that the little penguin, Eudyptula minor, faces a lengthy list of threats. There are natural predators such as sea eagles, kelp gulls, pacific gulls, long-nosed fur seals and orcas, all of which can be found in the waters around my home. There are new threats, too: rapidly warming waters (Tasmania’s are warming at four times the global average), excessive silt from human industry, collisions with watercraft, plastics pollution, abandoned fishing nets.

But it’s when the penguins come ashore to breed and to moult that the risks really stack up. In water, the penguins move with a grace akin to flight, but on land their gait is laborious and clumsy. Crossing the tideline, they face rats, cats and dogs, foxes, snakes, goannas and heedless humans. Once inside the nest, they’re susceptible to heat stress and bacterial infections. Tasmania has seen significant environmental shifts in recent years, but the changes are rarely consistent from one place to the next. In some areas, while warming water brings an increase of fish and squid, equating to year-round food security for the penguins, their response to this environmental change is coming at a cost: the birds are no longer breeding seasonally but throughout the year, even in winter. This means they’re on land more often, putting themselves at risk. In other areas, food is becoming scarce, and the penguins must travel further to find it.

Ceramic little penguin nesting module by Jane Bamford. The modules produced by each artist vary in form but share common elements: a spiral chamber, ventilation holes, a ‘cattle grid’ at the entrance to deter digging predators, and a lid to see inside the module.

Image Peter Whyte Photography Australian National Maritime Museum

Conservation efforts are often compromised by the use of non-biodegradable materials. You don’t get much cleaner than clay

Ceramic little penguin nesting module by Jane Bamford. Image Peter Whyte Photography

I couldn’t tell much from the state of the carcass, but the truth is, from the moment it had hatched, there had been danger at every turn for this diminutive seabird. Surviving to adulthood seemed to me a feat in itself.

Little penguins are the smallest penguins in the world. They can be found along the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand. Tasmania is a stronghold of the Australian population: it’s thought that around half live and breed here, though population estimates are a difficult task in this state. The convoluted coastline and profligacy of small, suitable islands mean accuracy is never assured. Along the Derwent estuary, there is at least some clarity, with studies suggesting the population has dropped in recent decades from about 1,000 breeding pairs to 100 individuals.

Every penguin colony faces a different set of threats. For the Derwent population, these include human development, vegetation removal, weed infestation, drowning in gillnets, entanglement in coastal debris, and storm surges that cause critical damage to nesting sites.

Around the same time the little penguin washed ashore on my local beach, a pair of the same species was settling into a new burrow on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. The male had discovered the place unoccupied, and a female opted to shack up with him. The burrow sat comfortably above the tideline. It was a warm hollow tucked beneath a mash of boobialla, sea spurge and African boxthorn, and its walls curled in like a nautilus shell. This coiling kept one part of the chamber hidden from view. It was perfect. When the young ones arrived, they could be tucked away from prying eyes. The male had already gathered grasses and leaves, fashioning a cupped crib in the back of the chamber.

The burrow appeared to be made of stone. An oddly hospitable kind of stone, both earthy and bone dry. There were small chinks in the walls that could catch the breeze no matter which direction it blew from. A stable temperature and clean air might just be possible with a burrow that breathes. There was a metallic disc resting on the floor of the burrow. When the male came across it, he kicked it outside.

Art for the non-human world

Jane Bamford invites me to her home for tea and pumpkin soup. I drive to a small beachside suburb south of Hobart. Jane has been a celebrated ceramicist for many years but recently her practice has veered in a new direction.

Jane has spent much of her life in and around the waters of Tasmania. She snorkels and scuba dives, and volunteers with the local branch of Coastcare. When she was a child, her family would take regular drives up the coast to Triabunna to a shack they call ‘The Duck ’oles’. ‘The water used to boil with life,’ she says. ‘Now my kids won’t even throw a line in. No point – there’s nothing to catch.’ She’s alarmed by the environmental mess left for generations to come, both human and non-human. Over the past few years, this apprehension has found its way into her work.

‘That,’ she says, pointing over my shoulder to a pair of ceramic cups, ‘that might be the last thing I ever make for a human.’

Jane’s practice began to shift in 2017 when the CSIRO approached her to design and sculpt artificial spawning habitats for the spotted handfish, a critically endangered species that is found at only eight sites in the River Derwent. The fish’s natural spawning method was to lay eggs upon the stalked ascidian (or sea squirt), which had been decimated by pollution, mooring chains and the introduction of an invasive sea star. Jane provided ceramic stems as an alternative. Clay was the key element. Conservation efforts are often compromised by the use of non-biodegradable materials. You don’t get much cleaner than clay.

When the design was settled, the University of Tasmania provided a space and a kiln at its art school. Jane produced 3,000 stalks prior to spawning season in 2018 (see Signals 131, June 2020).

She tells me it was the most fulfilling work she had ever done. When the spawning habitat won the ‘Design for Impact’ category at the Design Tasmania Awards for her and the CSIRO, she realised that their submission was the only one conceived for the non-human world.

This insight marked a turning point in the way she approached her practice. Was there a way to make art that decentres humans while still enabling the artist to be paid for their labour? Was it worth pursuing grants from conservation funds when that pool was so drained and the competition so fierce? How might one seek funding from art investors while disrupting the notion of ownership? These questions laid the groundwork for her next project.

‘May I see the penguin burrow?’ I ask.

Jane rushes over to a table and gingerly removes a sheet of plastic covering a large hump. Beneath is one of her nesting modules, designed specifically for threatened penguin colonies along the Derwent. As with the handfish project, this is a collaborative effort. Jane has sought guidance from penguin ecologists, animal behaviourists and PhD students to ensure the most suitable habitat for the birds. With every piece of new information, the design evolves. In this iteration, a hook has been added to secure an iButton, a device like a watch battery containing a chip to record data, which in this case measures temperature inside the burrow. Penguins – like the male on Kangaroo Island –kick them out if they’re not fixed.

The clay is still wet, but there’s a distinct warmth to the material. Despite this being a conservation project that will ultimately be installed beyond human reach, I can understand why Jane gets most of her funding from arts organisations. This is a beautiful object; it belongs in a gallery. I would bring it home if I could. The burrow is built up with coils of clay, and while the figure is reminiscent of forms in nature, there is some hint of the human. The shape alludes to the artist’s movement: a slow, deliberate lassoing. There is evidence of care and learning too, of time spent engaging with experts, or days squatting in penguin colonies studying place. When I look at this work, I see investment inscribed in every line.

An audacious thing to ask

But, for art collectors, this kind of investment is not so straightforward when it comes to the burrow project. Jane’s first penguin module was exhibited at a design show in early 2021, following months of planning with South Australian researchers. The module was for sale, but there was one stipulation: the buyer was required to gift the piece into penguin habitat on Kangaroo Island, in one of the state’s most vulnerable colonies. Jane was nervous. It was an audacious thing to ask of an investor – buy an artwork and never see it again. To soften the blow, she included a few unrelated ceramic works in the exhibition that could be purchased and taken home. Not one of these works sold. The burrow, on the other hand, was bought in a flash and two modules not included in the exhibition were also sold. (One of these has since been occupied by a pair of breeding penguins.)

Jane realised she was on to something.

‘People want to support endeavours like this. You just need to give them the opportunity.’

I’m surprised that buyers are so willing to relinquish ownership. ‘Don’t they want to see what happens to their investment?’ I ask. ‘Is there a risk that they’ll turn up at the colony demanding visitation rights?’

‘It’s not about you,’ Jane replies, and I realise she’s talking directly to the hypothetical investor. ‘This is not a sculpture trail.’

Jane tells me that the most common query she gets is whether she has seen her work installed into habitat. Has she done a dive to see the handfish spawning? Has she hovered on site to see the penguins move in?

‘Why is that necessary?’ she asks. ‘Picture being a new parent. You’re exhausted and starving. The kid requires all your attention, saps all your energy, and on top of it all some guy keeps wandering into your house, getting up in your space and blinding you with a camera flash.’

Later, she admits to some ambivalence. While she’s not creating an outdoor exhibition, the investment model she has developed works precisely because the objects have aesthetic appeal. They embody the science, but they’re suited to a gallery. They demand curatorial attention. Maybe this is why they sell so well.

Jane invites me to an upcoming group show, involving eight ceramic artists – Nanna Bayer, Miriam Berkery, Neil Hoffmann, Orla Marchment, Julia Mountain, Penny Smith, Anna Williams and herself – armed with some scientific input offering their own take on a penguin burrow.

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Artists and scientists at a workshop creating ceramic little penguin nesting modules for the Derwent Estuary, 2021. From left: Miriam Berkery, Anna Williams, Neil Hoffmann, Jane Bamford, Orla Marchment and Bridget Jupe in the ceramics studio at The Friends’ School, Hobart. Image Peter Whyte Photography

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All fourteen works created for the Ceramic Little Penguin Nesting Modules for the Derwent Estuary Project 2021. Image Peter Whyte Photography

Tasmania is a stronghold of the Australian little penguin population: it’s thought that around half live and breed here

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Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel, Kate Welz and Sarah-Lena Reinhold installing Jane Bamford’s first ceramic little penguin nesting module, Kangaroo Island, 2021. Image courtesy Kangaroo Island Wildlife Network

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Little penguin nesting pair in Jane Bamford’s ceramic module on Kangaroo Island, 2021. Visible between their beaks is the iButton, a device containing a chip to record the temperature inside the burrow. Image courtesy Jane Bamford

A response to a need

I arrive at the exhibition 10 minutes early. The place is already packed. Fourteen plinths are occupied by 14 penguin nesting modules. Each is bound for a spot along the River Derwent. As a collective, the objects look like something left after high tide. Flotsam and jetsam. The human imprint has largely been muffled. A quick scan of the artworks shows that five have already sold. The curator has a page of red dots at the ready. Some of the buyers are pitching in as groups to secure a purchase.

While each piece is unique, there are a few uniform features. Every module has a removable lid for research observations, small gaps for ventilation and thermal consistency, and a curved form to keep a part of the chamber screened. There is no floor – the nest is formed in the natural ground – but a short entrance tunnel has bars like a cattle grid to help the penguins climb in and prevent predators from digging a larger access hole.

The external walls are textured to encourage Tetragonia implexicoma, the native bower spinach, a coastal shrub that conceals the burrow while warding off invasive plant species.

In the arts, I often hear the term ‘a response to’. In this case, one should take the term literally. These artworks are answers. They’re form and function as conversation. They demonstrate the kind of inter-species dialogue that comes from recognising the agency of another life form. In paying attention to the little penguin’s needs –through research, knowledge of place and imagination – the artists are given the ability to respond.

More than anything, I love how this exhibition troubles the notion of ownership. As I watch each piece acquire a red dot, I wonder if I’m witnessing a cultural shift. To purchase an artwork and donate it to another species flies in the face of capitalist standards. The individual is background in this transaction. Ego is de-emphasised here. I speak to Orla Marchment, an emerging artist whose work has been included in the show. She seems cognisant that the object has never been entirely hers.

‘It hasn’t even come into its peak yet,’ she says.

‘It won’t until it’s weathered and worn, until it’s hidden by Tetragonia.’

The following day, Jane sends me a text. The show is sold out. But for me, a real mark of the show’s success is that I can’t get Orla’s burrow out of my head. A pale, fleshy form with melting lines, it comes to me throughout the day tucked beneath a rocky outcrop, a coastal succulent ranging across its surface. The sea is near. Inside the burrow, I think there might be life.

Keely Jobe is a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania. She lives by the sea on the east coast of lutruwita/Tasmania. An extended version of this article was first published online in The Monthly, December 2021.

Jane Bamford is a Tasmanian artist who has become known for creating functional forms in species support which embody creative problem solving, functionality and compassion for the non-human world. Over the last six years Jane has consciously moved her artistic practice to focus on projects in collaboration with scientists and researchers in species and habitat support.

Instagram @janebamford_ceramics or website janebamford.com

Ceramic Little Penguin nesting modules created for threatened colonies, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Collaborators Jane Bamford, Sarah-Lena Reinhold, Dr Diane Colombelli-Negrel, Kate Welz

Project supporters Arts Tasmania, Jam Factory, Kangaroo Island Wildlife Network

Ceramic Little Penguin nesting modules created for threatened colonies, Derwent Estuary, Tasmania

We would like to acknowledge:

Collaborating artists Jane Bamford (project co-ordinator), Nanna Bayer, Miriam Berkery, Neil Hoffman, Penny Smith, Anna Williams, Orla Marchment, Julia Mountain, Peter Whyte

Project curator Caroline Davies-Choi

Collaborating scientist and researchers Bridget Jupe (project co-ordinator), Dr Eric Woehler OAM , Ross Monash, Dr Mary-Anne Lee, Madalyn Riley, Jaslyn Allnut, Ursula Taylor

Project supporters RANT Arts, Derwent Little Penguin Advisory Group, Penguin Advisory Group, Kingborough Council, Peter Whyte Photography, The Friends’ School

After punishing the mutineers, Pelsaert set about recovering the chests of silver using the divers he had brought with him

Prinsendaalder of West Friesland, United Provinces of the Netherlands, 1599.

ANMM Collection 00016370

All coins ANMM Collection

Transferred from Australian Netherlands Committee on Old Dutch Shipwrecks

All coin images Jasmine Poole/ ANMM

Blood money

The coins of Batavia

The museum’s new Pearl Trail, to be rolled out progressively this year, will highlight the treasures of our collection. Appearing in the Dutch Pearl are some of the coins found at the site of the infamous Batavia shipwreck. Will Mather has been delving into the origins of these coins and the stories of the people depicted on them.

IN OCTOBER 1628, BATAVIA left the Netherlands with a cargo of silver – 12 chests each carrying 8,000 silver coins – to trade for spices in the East Indies. Using the new route up the west coast of Australia, it struck a reef on the Houtman Abrolhos on 4 June 1629 and sank. Its commander, Francisco Pelsaert, and senior officers went looking for water, and then decided to head to the Dutch trading fort of Batavia (now Jakarta), in Java. The 268 survivors, passengers and crew were left to endure weeks of torment and brutality by the psychopathic Jeronimus Cornelisz. When Pelsaert returned in October to rescue the survivors, he found that Cornelisz and his henchmen had raped and murdered around half of them in their reign of terror.

After punishing the mutineers, Pelsaert set about recovering the chests of silver using the divers he had brought with him. Ten were recovered, one was under a cannon and couldn’t be moved and another had been broken up by the mutineers and the contents scattered. Taking the ten chests, he returned to Batavia in December 1629. The coins in the National Maritime Collection are from the two chests that remained at the wreck site.

The coins from the Batavia shipwreck are unusually diverse in their date and geographic range, reflecting both the scarcity of silver in the Netherlands at the time and the nation’s new role as a centre of the spice trade. The coins in the National Maritime Collection range in date from 1553 to 1628. This period covers the creation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands after its successful rebellion from Philip II of Spain and its spectacular rise as a global maritime trading power. These years also take in the growth of Protestantism in Europe and the start of the Thirty Years’ War between the Protestant and Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire (roughly modern Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic).

Around half of the coins are from the Netherlands. Of these, the majority are the federal coinage of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, consisting of the seven provinces Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, West Friesland and Groningen.

The other half are from the multiplicity of states that made up the Holy Roman Empire: duchies, counties, electorates, prince bishoprics and city states that owed their (at times nominal) allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor. The states represented are overwhelmingly Protestant and mainly from northern Germany, in particular the silver-rich duchy of BrunswickLüneburg, whose rule was divided among various members of the Welf dynasty – a family that would go on to rule Great Britain as the Hanoverians. Two-thirds of these coins are from the self-governing free imperial cities of the empire, which were its economic powerhouses, with Frankfurt and Hamburg supplying the majority. These cities had thrown off control by feudal lords and owed their allegiance directly to the Holy Roman Emperors, whose name and titles appear on the back of their coins as guarantors of each city’s liberties and privileges.

Around half of the coins are from the Netherlands, and half from the multiplicity of states that made up the Holy Roman Empire

Prinsendaalder of West Friesland, United Provinces of the Netherlands, 1599

In the 1590s, the United Provinces of the Netherlands reissued coins with the portrait of William the Silent, the leader of the Dutch Revolt and a national hero, who had been assassinated in 1584 with the encouragement of Philip II. He had been stadtholder (governor) of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht (originally on behalf of Philip II) and it had been hoped that he would become stadtholder, and unifying figure, of all the seven provinces.

Obverse: William the Silent, sword over right shoulder, inscription ‘ [DEUS F]ORTITUD[O] ET SPES NOSTRA’ (‘God is our strength and hope’) and date 1599. Verso: coat of arms of the province of West Friesland, inscription ‘ MO NO ARG DOMI WEST FRISIAE’ (‘New silver money of the domain of West Friesland’).

Daalder of Philip II, King of Spain and Lord of the Netherlands, 1568

In 1568, Philip II was lord of all 17 provinces of the Netherlands, but that was soon to change. They were dominions he had inherited from the Dukes of Burgundy, so one side of the coin bears the cross of Burgundy and names Philip as Lord of Utrecht, one of the provinces. The other has the coat of arms of Burgundy and motto of Philip II. On annexing Portugal in 1580, Philip closed the supply of spices to the Dutch. Their response was to go to the east themselves, eventually supplanting the Portuguese in the spice trade by force.

His religious and financial policies ignited revolt throughout the Netherlands, resulting in the independence of the seven northern provinces in 1581.

Obverse: Burgundy coat of arms with motto of King Philip II ‘ DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR ’ (‘The Lord is my helper’). Verso: cross of Burgundy with date 1568 and inscription ‘ PHS D G HISP Z REX DNS TRAIEC ’ (‘Philip by Grace of God King of Spain etc Lord of Traiectum’ – the Latin for Utrecht).

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Thaler of Frederick Ulrich, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1623

Frederick Ulrich became prince of Wolfenbüttel in 1613 at the age of 22, but was soon deposed by his mother because of his rampant alcoholism. The interim government proved just as ruinous and he was re-installed by his mother’s brother, Christian IV King of Denmark, in 1622. Frederick Ulrich continued to rule, if ineffectually, until his death in 1634. The Wildman often appears on the coinage of this principality, and this is a great example – wide moustaches, hairy arms and legs, holding a tree trunk, with a belt of foliage protecting his modesty. Why he appears is debatable.

Obverse: Wildman with the prince’s motto ‘ DEO ET PATRIAE’ (‘God and country’), date ANNO 1623 and mint mark HS. Verso: coat of arms of the prince and his name and titles ‘ FRIDERIC ULRIC DG DUX BRUNSUI ET L’ (‘Frederick Ulrich by grace of God Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg’).

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Portrait of Philip II of Spain by Sofonisba Anguissola. Anguissola, born in Italy, had a long and distinguished artistic career, including as the official court painter to King Philip II of Spain – a rare appointment for a woman. Image public domain; original painting in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

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Daalder of Philip II, King of Spain and Lord of the Netherlands, 1568. ANMM Collection 00016442

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Thaler of Frederick Ulrich, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1623. ANMM Collection 00016373

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Thaler of John Frederick, Duke of Württemberg, 1623–28

This is one of the few coins in the Batavia collection from a principality in southern Germany. John Frederick was Duke of Württemberg from 1608 to 1628. The obverse bears a very fine portrait of the Duke as a Roman general, although he was not particularly warlike. The verso shows his coat of arms.

Thaler of Dorothea Sophia, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg, 1624

Quedlinburg was one of the very few principalities within the Holy Roman Empire ruled exclusively by women. Dorothea Sophia of Saxony was elected Lutheran Abbess and ruler of Quedlinburg in 1618, ruling until her death in 1645. Her reign therefore spanned almost the entirety of the Thirty Years War (1618–48).

Obverse: coat of arms, remaining inscription ‘ DOR SOPH DU SAX A QV ’ (‘Dorothea Sophia Duchess of Saxony Abbess of Quedlinburg’). Verso (not shown): imperial eagle with the name of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II.

Thaler of Catharina Belgica, regent of Hanau-Münzenberg, 1625

Catharina Belgica was a daughter of William the Silent. On the death of her husband in 1611, she became the regent for her young son, and ruled the County of HanauMünzenberg on his behalf until reluctantly handing over power to him in 1626. The coat of arms combines the House of Hanau on the left and the House of Nassau (her house) on the right. The inscription names her but not her son. The other side has the imperial double-headed eagle and the name and titles of her political opponent, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Catharina was one of the very few women in power at the time; her daughter Amalia Elizabeth proved far a more able ruler as regent of Hesse-Kassel during the minority of her son.

Obverse: coat of arms, inscription ‘ MONETA NOVA CATH BEL PVRAN TUTRIS HANA RM ’ (‘New money of Catharina Belgica guardian [female] of Hanau’). Verso: imperial double-headed eagle, inscription ‘ FERDINANDVS II D G ROM IMP SEMP A[VGV]S ’ (‘Ferdinand II by Grace of God Holy Roman Emperor always Augustus’) and date 1625.

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Thaler of John Frederick Duke of Württemberg, 1623–28. ANMM Collection 00051113

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Thaler of Dorothea Sophia, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg, 1624. ANMM Collection 00048657

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Thaler of Catharina Belgica, regent of Hanau-Münzenberg, 1625. ANMM Collection 00051112

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Countess Catharina Belgica of Nassau (1578–1648). Catharina was 39 when painted in 1617 by the Hague painter Jan van Ravesteyn. Image public domain; original painting in the collection of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

The coins from the Batavia shipwreck are unusually diverse in their date and geographic range

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Thaler of Frederick III, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, 1628. ANMM Collection 00051116

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Thaler of the City of Hamburg, 1621. ANMM Collection 00016371

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Thaler of the City of Frankfurt, 1623. ANMM Collection 00016377

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Thaler of the Hanseatic League city of Magdeburg, 1628. ANMM Collection 00048667

Thaler of Frederick III, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, 1628

Minted in the year Batavia left the Netherlands, this coin bears on its obverse a fine portrait of Frederick III of the House of Oldenburg, the same family that were kings of Denmark. The area he ruled was in a grey area of shared suzerainty between Denmark and the Holy Roman Empire. Given the proximity of both this area and Denmark to the Netherlands, there are surprisingly few coins from either place in the Batavia collection.

Obverse: Frederick III (1616–1659), inscription ‘ FRI[EDERICUS III] G DUX SLES E[T H]OLSAT[I] ’ (‘Frederick by Grace of God duke of Schleswig and Holstein’). Verso: Coat of arms with inscription ‘ [VIRTU]TIS GLOR[IA M]ERCES ’ (‘Gloria the reward of virtue’) and date 1628.

Thaler of the City of Hamburg, 1621

Hamburg became a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Empire in 1189 and has been self-governing since then, being one of Germany’s federal states. Hamburg was a member of the Hanseatic League and a major trading and commercial power. Its coins bear the city’s emblem, a castle with three towers.

Obverse: emblem of Hamburg and date 1621, inscription ‘ MONETA NOVA CIVITATIS HAMBURGENSIS ’ (‘New money of the city of Hamburg’). Verso: Imperial eagle, inscription ‘ FERDINANDUS II DG ROMA IMP SEM AUG ’ (‘Ferdinand II by grace of God Roman Emperor always Augustus’).

Thaler of the City of Frankfurt, 1623

Frankfurt am Main became a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Empire in 1372 and continued as a self-governing city state until 1866. It was the site of imperial elections and imperial coronations. It was also an important and wealthy commercial centre, reflected in the large number of its coins found on the Batavia wreck, the most of any of the city states.

Obverse: Ornate cross, inscription ‘ REIPUB

FRANCOFURTENSISAE MONETA NOVA’ (‘New money of the Republic of Frankfurt’). Verso: Imperial doubleheaded eagle, inscription ‘ FERDINAND II DG ROM IMP SEMP AUGUS ’ (‘Ferdinand II by Grace of God Holy Roman Emperor always Augustus’) with date 1623.

Thaler of the Hanseatic League city of Magdeburg, 1628

The city of Magdeburg, in Saxony, struggled to maintain its independence from its archbishop. Minted in 1628, the year Batavia left Europe, this coin shows on its obverse a woman on a fortified city gate holding aloft a victory wreath in seeming defiance. The verso has the name and titles of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II A year later his forces were besieging the city as a Protestant stronghold during the Thirty Years War, and in 1631 his forces stormed it, massacring 20,000 of its inhabitants and burning the city to the ground, in the most infamous atrocity of the war.

These and other coins from the Batavia wreck will be on display in the Dutch part of the Pearl Trail from late May.

Further articles on the Batavia wreck and massacre can be found in Signals numbers 108 and 119.

Will Mather was formerly one of the museum’s registrars and is now our Manager of Touring Programs.

Hostages to fortune

Escape from New Britain

It’s 80 years since the Japanese invasion of Rabaul, New Guinea, on 23 January 1942. Most stories from this time are grim and tell of Australian soldiers and civilians abandoned by their own government. Ally Martell relates a different tale, one of survival, courage and compassion. It focuses on how the remarkable Gladys Baker helped to rescue 200 Australian soldiers, taking them on a long and perilous journey to Cairns aboard a 40-metre copra lugger, the Burns Philp MV Lakatoi.

AFTER NINE DAYS AT SEA,

travelling more than

1,400 kilometres from the Witu Islands, MV Lakatoi had to wait an agonising 24 hours for clearance before it could berth at Cairns Wharf on 29 March 1942. Its cargo was in a sorry state – 200 sick and injured Australian soldiers, remnants of Lark Force, the garrison stationed at Rabaul, New Guinea. They sat shoulder to shoulder and toe to toe on the main deck for yet another day in the sun while authorities grappled with the magnitude of their arrival. They were among the first survivors from the fall of Rabaul and carried vital information. Also on board were two women: widowed planter Gladys Baker and her assistant, Emma Lehmann. The women had worked tirelessly caring for the men as if they were family.

MV Lakatoi ’s journey had taken weeks of careful coordination; not by the Australian government, war cabinet or defence forces, but by a handful of exceptional civilians and local villagers who risked their lives to care for our young soldiers – and they were young; average age 19. The civilians included Assistant District Officer Keith McCarthy, timber cutter Frank Holland, planters Rod Marsland, Ken Douglas and Lincoln Bell, radio operator Nelson To Kidoro, Gladys Baker and Emma Lehmann.

Originally from Carlton in Melbourne, Gladys had been in the New Guinea islands since 1923. She was renowned as a hard-working planter, a capable nurse and midwife, a master mariner, a crack shot, a generous hostess, a wicked card player and a whiskey drinker with a penchant for French couture.

Gladys (left) and a cousin in Melbourne, late 1930s. Gladys was greatly interested in fashion, and during her time in Australia after the rescue she took a position as manager of the H W Curtis Frock Salon in Armidale, northern New South Wales. It was a job that she adored. All images courtesy Diana Martell and Brett Sowerby unless otherwise stated

Gladys guarded the food stores with a rifle and hardly slept in weeks

The fall of Rabaul, 23 January 1942

When the Japanese Imperial Forces (air, sea and land) invaded Rabaul, the Australian garrison Lark Force was outnumbered by something like five to one. Lark Force commanding officer Colonel Scanlon gave the order ‘every man for himself’, sending 1,600 militia (farmers, clerks and teachers) into the jungle without weapons, provisions, maps or any plan for escape, reinforcement or rescue.

Three hundred kilometres away in the Witu Islands, Gladys Baker was at home on Langu Plantation, which produced copra (coconut fibre). She had not wanted to evacuate with the other women and children because she thought she could be useful, having been a Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing orderly during World War I. She learned about the invasion from smoke signals communicated from village to village on the mainland of New Britain, to the south, and from the deep booming drums on her island.

Gladys knew it was time to implement the ‘Blue Book Plan’ under the direction of Assistant District Officer Keith McCarthy – essentially a civilian evacuation plan for the island of New Britain. She immediately began making supply dumps along the New Britain coast 100 kilometres away – a journey that took six hours each way in her little pinnace, Langu II, which was 27 feet (eight metres) long and averaged just nine knots (13 km/h). As if monsoonal rains and high seas didn’t provide enough danger, on one mission the pinnace was boarded by the crew of an enemy seaplane. Afraid of being taken prisoner, Gladys hid in the bilge under the after-decking, leaving her crew to do the talking.

The escape plan

During the invasion of Rabaul, the men of Lark Force formed small groups and headed out of town in vehicles until they ran out of petrol, then continued on foot. Each unknowingly faced a life and death decision: anyone who headed northwest would meet up with Keith McCarthy and join the civilian escape, but those who headed south would probably die.

In the north, at Pondo Plantation, Keith distributed notes and hand-drawn maps to the soldiers with the simple instruction to head 300 miles west along the coast to remote and secluded Iboki Plantation, where Gladys Baker was officer in charge. If they were too sick to walk, they were ferried along the coast in boats and canoes by civilians and New Guinea nationals.

The men who chose the south road met the enemy at Tol Plantation, where 160 were massacred in cold blood. Frank Holland risked his life trekking for days to round up those who had gone south and bring them north to join the escape plan. He found a few, including two survivors of the Tol massacre, Alf Robinson and Bill ‘Wilkie’ Collins, who came into Gladys’s care and escaped with her to Australia.

From February to late March, groups of men trickled into Iboki, where Gladys and Emma were responsible for triage, medical treatment, bedding, food and water. Gladys would often spend hours debriding and bandaging ulcers or administering quinine and cod liver oil. She guarded the food stores with a rifle and hardly slept in weeks. She also made several night-time trips in a canoe to rescue soldiers who had collapsed on a nearby beach.

Gladys was renowned as a hard-working planter, a capable nurse and midwife, a master mariner, a crack shot, a generous hostess, a wicked card player and a whiskey drinker with a penchant for French couture

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Gladys used her eight-metre pinnace Langu II to make supply dumps along the New Britain coast, 100 kilometres away, in preparation for the evacuation. The journey took six hours each way under constant risk of enemy observation or attack.

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Gladys Baker with family friend Dion Coote at Langu in the 1930s. Gladys was later awarded the MBE for her role in the rescue and escape. The honour surprised and embarrassed her; she said that she just ‘did her bit’.

Lakatoi continued through the China Straits, still without charts, trusting to meet up with Australia sometime, somehow

This is how Private Neil Olney of the 2/22 Battalion described meeting Gladys for the first time: 1

Well, Mrs Baker eventually arrived and it was like looking at something magic to see her walking up from the little pier.

This woman isn’t the usual type of person you meet, she has a charming manner, is 100% efficient and above all has the courage which made us all feel mighty proud to have ever been associated with her.

The Harris Navy

A fifteen-year-old local lad from Nordup village, Nelson To Kidoro, was a skilled radio operator who received a message from the Australian Defence headquarters in Port Moresby. It instructed Keith McCarthy to take the men from Iboki Plantation across the Vitiaz Strait to mainland New Guinea, where they could then make the 300-kilometre trek to Port Moresby. A flotilla of small boats had been organised.

It comprised government and mission boats and became known as the Harris Navy or ‘Little Dunkirk’. Under the command of District Officer for Lae, Gwynne ‘Blue’ Harris, were the vessels Gnair, Bavaria, Umboi, Totol, Nereu, Winton and Thetis. Boats from New Britain were Aussie, Dafaur, Langu II and Malahuka

After weeks in the jungle, many soldiers were too ill to move, so Keith decided the best use of the Harris Navy was to transport the men to Gladys’s plantation, Langu, a distance of 53 nautical miles (100 kilometres). There they would transfer to the MV Lakatoi, which was hiding from the enemy. They could then steam either to Port Moresby or maybe even Australia. They took a vote and decided on Australia.

MV Lakatoi

While most soldiers lay feverishly around Langu homestead, on the verandahs, in the hallways and in all seven bedrooms, others set about camouflaging MV Lakatoi to look like an island from the air.

A highly flammable cargo of copra was removed and replaced with sandbags for ballast and supplies of water, while the ship was painted green and camouflaged with tree branches. Gladys calculated the amount of food and water that would be required to sustain the 200 men for the trip to Australia. She plundered her stores and vegetable gardens and butchered her cattle. Her carefully calculated rations held out – just!

It was at this point that Gladys faced a terrible decision: if she stayed behind on her plantation, the men she was nursing could die. But if joined them she would have to leave her island home with nowhere to live in Australia, no money and no job. She eventually chose loyalty to her country.

She and the others boarded Lakatoi in the afternoon and waited to leave under the cover of darkness. Gladys recalled playing cards while they waited, but her heart wasn’t in it and she lost £11.

Here’s how Private Norm Furness of the 2/22nd Battalion described it: 2

... so anyhow, finally they got us all on board. I don’t know the exact number, but there was about 200 of us on board, on this copra boat. And we were sitting on the deck, laying on the deck, and we were just shoulder to shoulder all the way. There was no room. We were just like chooks sitting on it.

It had a freeboard of 18 inches. So the deck was 18 inches above the water. You could dangle your heads in it.

They put a rail over the back that was the toilet. So if you wanted to go to the toilet, you just sat on that, hung on like grim death and hoped that you didn’t fall off.

As darkness fell, Lakatoi headed westward, doing a steady 10 knots (18 km/h). Gladys helped pilot from Witu through the Dampier Strait, with its reefs and strong tides, then it was all hands on deck to navigate past Finschhaffen (already taken by the enemy) in broad daylight, and along the main Japanese sea route past Gasmata. This was impressive considering they had no charts of any description.

MV Lakatoi. Image courtesy Sydney Maritime Museum –Burns Philp Collection

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Route of Lakatoi ’s 1400-kilometre journey from Langu, New Britain, to Cairns. Image Jeremy Austen

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Route of the civilian escape from New Britain. Image Jeremy Austen

Langu Plantation Bali

Garove Island

Harris Navy ferries men from Iboki to Langu

Men too sick to trek are ferried along the coast

Japanese invasion

Tol Plantation 160 men massacred Frank Holland rounds up men and takes them north

(Gladys)

Umboi Island

When land finally came into sight, the mood lightened and the men began singing

With the help of some Papuan men, they steamed to the Trobriand Islands and onto the D’Entrecasteaux Group, where they were to meet the much larger Papuan government yacht Laurabada. The plan had been to transfer the soldiers to Laurabada, but the sea was too rough; instead, Laurabada was able to hand over extra medical supplies, then it headed to the south coast of New Britain, picked up 200 more survivors of Lark Force and brought them safely to Port Moresby.

Lakatoi continued through the China Strait, still without charts, trusting to meet up with Australia sometime, somehow. When land finally came into sight, the mood lightened and the men began singing.

Journey’s end

Norm Furness remembered:

And we got to Cairns, and we didn’t know our way into the harbour ... and we sat outside Cairns for 24 hours. What an anti-climax … So finally we arrived back in Australia. And when we got there, we lined up on the wharf. The boat was so small that it didn’t reach the wharf. And they had to put rope ladders down, and we had to climb up the rope ladders. I’d hate to be the fellow that was under me, because I only had a lap lap on! 3

And this from Major Fred Field: 4

People were wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. We had nothing of course. You looked like a lot of pirates. No-one had any clothes, you had no shoes, some with just lap laps and there was a rag around their head.

On arrival in Cairns, soldiers and civilians were separated as the local community arranged for showers, clothes and a slap-up meal at any café in town. The civilians were hit hard by the reality of what they had achieved:

Keith McCarthy was catatonic, Nelson To Kidoro was lost in a strange land, Gladys and Emma finally collapsed suffering malnutrition and exhaustion, and Frank Holland just kept whistling.

Out of Lark Force’s 1,600 or so men, 200 escaped on MV Lakatoi, another 200 on the Laurabada, 160 were killed at Tol Plantation and more than 1,000 died when the Japanese prisoner of war ship Montevideo Maru was torpedoed on 1 July 1942.

Lest we forget.

Ally Martell is a freelance writer based in Toowoomba, QLD. She has spent several years researching the life of the indomitable and extraordinary Gladys Baker, who was her mother’s godmother. She is hoping to publish Gladys’s biography in the near future.

In September 1946, the Reynella was the first ship to take civilians back to New Guinea, and of course Gladys and Emma were on board ready to resume their old life. Gladys set about rebuilding Langu and her little clinic, working tirelessly to help the people on her island.

On 29 December 1946, just months after her return, Gladys died from black water fever, a very severe form of malaria. She is buried at Langu.

1 Pte J N Olney 2/22BN A.I.F Account of experiences when escaping from Rabaul 23 Jan–14 May 1942. Australian War Memorial AWM 181.12.

2 australiansatwarfilmarchive.unsw.edu.au/archive/464-norman-furness.

3 Ibid.

4 Transcript of Oral History Recording AWM S01044: Field, Dudley Frederick (Major) on 11 April 1991 interviewed by Hank Nelson. Australian War Memorial

‘Born into it’

The life of a wooden boatbuilder

Rob Gordon was born into a family of boatbuilders and grew up on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour. Half a century later he’s still there, making wooden boats the traditional way in his father’s old boatshed under a railway viaduct at Lavender Bay.

Bob Gordon (behind the wood pile), his wife Joan (left) and helper Don Mills working in their boatyard at Berrys Bay on land subleased from Woodley’s, 1963. The steam box is steaming away just to the left of Joan. Bob and Joan lived in the shack on the right. The vessel under construction is the 40-foot Yacaaba

All images courtesy Rob Gordon

I GOT TAKEN TO SEA before I could walk on one of Dad’s early fishing boats. One of my earliest memories is of my father’s deckhand waving a shark head in my face and thinking it was hilarious.

My father was first a plumber. One day he was at Dover Heights in the middle of winter up a ladder and he saw a yacht beating its way down the coast in a cold southerly, and he thought that was a much better place to be than up a ladder plumbing. That’s how he got started.

At the age of 16 he built his first boat. His whole premise for getting into boatbuilding was escapism. He wanted to escape a very hard upbringing through the Great Depression and a pretty terrible family life. He spent his life building boats – he built ones he wanted to build. He never had a large company. He occasionally built fishing boats and did commercial fishing and that’s how he got through life, living under the radar, doing what he wanted to do every day.

He started off in the late 1930s in Rushcutters Bay, where the Cruising Yacht Club now is. He married my mum in 1953 and they lived in an idyllic location, in a shack on the foreshore of Berry’s Bay. It was a very castaway-type life.

Then in 1970 that was all closed down – his boatyard got turned into a car park and he picked up a sublease from Neptune, a big marine engineering company in Lavender Bay. After a year or two of paying rent, he started paying his rent in fish, from fishing boats. That’s how they went for the next 20-odd years. They liked him being there, he took good care of the place and shovelled sand out of the slipway, so they just let him stay rent free. When the developers moved in and built some home units, his subleased land reverted to public park and that’s when he retreated to this archway that I’m currently in. This archway was always our storage shed from the 1970s.

When I was a kid over at Berry’s Bay, there was a guy in a caravan on the barge living there. There was another guy on the western side, living in a shack on the public beach. There were all sorts of characters around the waterfront.

01 Bob Gordon and his wife, Joan, sailing aboard Widgeon, 1964.

02 Widgeon being launched from Woodley’s Boatyard at Berrys Bay, 1964.

‘You have to understand the styling and be a real student of where these vessels have come from and the heritage of them’

‘I do it because I was born into it and I can’t really come up with a better way to spend my time’

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Rob caulks

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Rob

‘The work I do is so niche. For every 10,000 boats being built there’s probably one wooden one being built’

Many people of my vintage will tell you how interesting the waterfront used to be and how boring it is these days. There were places of interest – there were boats being built, waterfront industrial stuff, all sorts of higgledy-piggledy one-man-shows about the place –and all of that’s just about gone.

There’s been this sanitisation of things and the harbour is a much cleaner place – full credit to all of that – but it’s become a bit bland. In the good old days there was always something changing, something going on in the waterfront, and these days it’s a very static place.

All my life I was working, being a kid on board fishing boats and working around the boatyard doing whatever I could on the weekend, scrap jobs. Whether I wanted to be there or not was another question.

When I was 18 Dad needed help with another boat, so I quit my office job and came down to work with him – that’s where our proper boatbuilding relationship started, where I became more of a student and full-time employee.

In about 1998 he wanted to start building smaller wooden boats in this archway where we are. We built two boats from scratch down here before he died in 2005. It was in that time where I really learnt about timber boatbuilding.

The work I do is so niche. For every 10,000 boats being built there’s probably one wooden one being built. There’s only two other guys in Sydney I know who are currently building a very traditional wooden boat like this, and that’s pretty rare.

The timbers we use are select boatbuilding timbers. One of the old classic Manly ferries got scrapped half a century ago and the old man grabbed a lot of the timber from the deck. It’s the most beautiful, greasy Burmese teak you’ll ever find, we always find somewhere to use a bit of it, it’s such a marvellous timber.

I’m currently building a couta boat which has a deck and a cabin and will be used for picnic sail charter work on Sydney Harbour. It uses New Zealand kauri for the planking, which was recycled out of a beer vat from one of the commercial breweries. There’s also spotted gum that was selected and cut down on the south coast for me by a bloke with a bush mill south of Ulladulla. You have to be able to understand the heritage. If we’re building a classic American yacht, then we have to lift it up a notch and bring the glamour out. You have to understand the styling and be a real student of where these vessels have come from and the heritage of them. I do it because I was born into it and I can’t really come up with a better way to spend my time. To imagine something deep in your imagination, plan that idea, build that idea, and then see that idea function. Boatbuilding completely satisfies that deep desire in me, and that was the same for my father.

Then one day she’s in the water, and I tell you what, when you step aboard a boat that you built, when you step aboard her for the first time when it’s floating, you swear there’s life in it. It’s unbelievable. There’s movement and things are rocking around, you can hear the water slapping on the sides, it’s an amazing feeling.

Rob Gordon’s boatshed featured in Big hART’s Acoustic Life of Boatsheds at Sydney Festival, a partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum. This story was first published on the Big hART blog (see www.bighart.org) and is based on an interview with Rob Gordon conducted by Bettina Richter.

his latest build, a couta boat, in the Lavender Bay boatshed, 2021.

with his father pulling 28-foot Ivy out of the Lavender Bay boatshed, 2005.

Farewell to Kevin Sumption

The highlights of a decade

Form and function combine perfectly in Action Stations to showcase the importance of the Royal Australian Navy in our maritime history

Director and CEO Kevin Sumption left the Australian National Maritime Museum in February after ten years at the helm. Before he departed, we asked him to nominate what he considered to be the highlights of his tenure.

Action Stations

The success of our navy warships pavilion, Action Stations , has been greatly satisfying. Back in 2015 this was a pioneering project that gave me an opportunity to work closely with the architects at FJMT. Looking back, this was a rare privilege and undoubtedly a career highlight for me. The building is significant, not just for its award-winning design, but because its form and function combine perfectly to showcase the importance of the Royal Australian Navy in our maritime history. The architecture, exhibition design and interactive cinema have garnered around 20 national and international awards.

Sydney Harbour Gallery and Ben Lexcen Terrace

We are fortunate to be one of the few masterpiece buildings by architect Philip Cox left standing, and we have only slightly modified his design during my time. These modifications, the Sydney Harbour Gallery and the Ben Lexcen Terrace, give the museum a new transparency that allows the harbour and our floating fleet to be appreciated from inside the building.

Duyfken

We have added to our fleet of wonderful floating vessels with the exceptional Duyfken replica. We are now investigating new ways to get the fleet vessels active on the harbour and around the country.

Outgoing Director and CEO Kevin Sumption PSM in front of Action Stations , which opened in 2015. Image Andrew Frolows/ ANMM

‘Developing our collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maritime heritage was my most important goal when I took up this role in 2012’

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection

Developing our collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maritime heritage was my most important goal when I took up this role in 2012. Now we have a world-class collection of art and artefacts that speaks to the central role played by lakes, rivers and oceans in First Nations societies, histories and traditions. And with these collections we have gone on to build multi-award-winning exhibitions such as Gapu-Mon_uk Saltwater – Journey to Sea Country and Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns)

On Their Own – Britain’s child migrants

I arrived in Australia as a migrant in 1991, having lived in Cyprus, the Netherlands, South Africa and Wales. So it’s not surprising that the stories of migrants and their arrival in Australia were deeply personal to me, or that the success of our On Their Own exhibition was so important. On Their Own focused on the stories of British child migrants to this country, and following a tour of the UK and Australia it had a profound impact and helped encourage formal recognition of the plight of child migrants.

Digital games

Early in my museum career I was a curator of computing sciences, and so I have always had a passion for all things digital. The development of our multi-award-winning online education games The Voyage, Cook’s Voyages and the recently launched Wreck Seekers are highlights for me.

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The helm (steering wheel) of HMAS AE1 on top of the conning tower. It was attached to the submarine’s forward periscope pedestal. Image Find the Men of AE1 Ltd

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Developing the museum’s collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maritime heritage has been a priority during Kevin Sumption’s directorship. Pictured is Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns), which showcases works by Alick Tipoti. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

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On Their Own: Britain’s child migrants resonated strongly with visitors during its Australian and British tours. Former child migrants Connie (left) and Beryl Merrick visited the exhibition in Albury, NSW, in 2013, and were shocked and excited to find a photo of themselves and their three brothers arriving in Fremantle, WA, in 1950. Image Kim Tao/ANMM

Protecting HMAS Perth and finding AE1

Over the past decade our researchers and maritime archaeologists have documented the deterioration of HMAS Perth due to illegal salvage, and their detailed research led directly to the Indonesian Government’s agreement to protect the wreck site.

Then, in 2017, the museum was part of the team that discovered HMAS AE1 – Australia’s first submarine and its first naval casualty of war, which was lost in 1914. Since then the museum has been involved in documenting the wreck and analysing the findings. It has been a source of great pride to me that the museum’s work has led to greater protection for these significant wreck sites, as well as helped bring closure for many families.

Identification of Cook’s Endeavour

It was a huge privilege to be able to announce, right at the end of my time at the museum, that the site known as RI 2394 in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, is the location of the remains of HMB Endeavour. It was scuttled by the British 244 years ago and lay forgotten for over two centuries. This announcement was the culmination of a 22-year program of archival and archaeological research by the museum’s experts and their collaborators in Newport. Based on their findings, I am satisfied that this is the final resting place of one of the most significant and contentious vessels in Australia’s maritime history. It’s an important historical moment, as this vessel’s role in exploration, astronomy and science applies not only to Australia, but also Aotearoa New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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In

search of a special acquisition

Help us celebrate our 30th birthday

This replica of John Harrison’s chronometer H1 is part of a bequest and gift from its maker, Mr Norman Banham. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

THE MUSEUM’S SUCCESS over the past three decades would not have been possible without the dedication, spirit and ongoing support of so many people: our donors, volunteers and Members –our community. All of you have been such a big part of the museum over the years, and we can’t thank you enough for your commitment and involvement. It’s our 30th year, and amid the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need your help more than ever.

Our community and our collection lie at the heart of our institution. The National Maritime Collection now numbers more than 155,000 historic artefacts, ranging from seagoing ships to shiny gold buttons. Behind each of these objects is a remarkable story.

To commemorate our 30th birthday year, the museum is hoping to raise funds from you, our community, to purchase a significant new object for the National Maritime Collection.

Our curators are currently researching objects from all over the maritime world. They are in conversation with private collectors and auction houses in several countries, searching for the perfect addition to the collection. They aim to find an important artefact that will not only enrich the collection and commemorate this 30th year as a gift from our supporter community, but also enable us to tell new stories about Australia and the sea.

It will be an object associated with 18th- and 19th-century voyaging and adventuring in the Indo-Pacific region, and one that can be reimagined for audiences today, like the pictured replica Harrison chronometer H1, made by Australian Mr Norman Banham. So many stories about this object excite and inspire viewers today, just as the original Harrison chronometers did in 18th-century Britain, when they played their part in the quest for longitude.

In the spirit of true celebration and community, we are asking you to contribute to this milestone 30th anniversary appeal. All donations are tax deductible.

This is your opportunity to become an important part of the museum’s history. We will keep you informed about our progress with this significant acquisition and of course invite our donors to view it. Please help make this a birthday to remember by making your contribution today.

You may do so by:

• donating online at sea.museum/support/donate

• sending a cheque to Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation, 58 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, NSW 2009

• or paying by credit card over the phone on 02 9298 3777

For more information, please call the museum’s Foundation team on 02 9298 3777 and speak to Matt Lee, Manager – VIP Relations, or Daina Fletcher, Head of Acquisitions. Both Daina and Matt will be happy to help you.

A smorgasbord of offerings

Marking your membership with fine fare and new horizons

It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces at our annual Members Anniversary Lunch in December, and a huge pleasure to be able to hold this event again after 2020’s lunch was cancelled due to Covid-19. It was the perfect day to celebrate the museum’s 30th anniversary, and the perfect way to relaunch our Members program for the year ahead. By

Matt Lee .

THE GUEST SPEAKER for our 30th anniversary lunch was Paul van Reyk, a Sydney food writer who entertained us with tales of Australia’s culinary history from his new book True to the Land – A history of food in Australia. Paul migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka in 1962 on the P&O liner Arcadia, as part of the diaspora of Sri Lankan burghers. As he is a migrant himself, it is not surprising that major themes in his book include the making of the Australian multicultural table and the roles migrants have played in producing our country’s food. Paul told us about Mak Sai Ying, the earliest recorded Chinese migrant to the colony of New South Wales, in 1818, who became the publican of the Golden Lion Hotel in Parramatta. When gold was discovered in the 1850s, Chinese flocked to the Victorian goldfields looking to make their fortune. Some opened cookshops and the flavours of Chinese food arrived in Australia. Some Chinese migrants went to the goldfields in Queensland and became the first to plant bananas and pineapples, crops that grew into major industries.

In 1838, 200 Lutheran emigrants from Prussia landed in Adelaide. By 1900 some 18,000 German migrants had arrived in South Australia, where they began to farm and sell their traditional German crops and plant grape vines for home consumption. Today, the Barossa Valley is renowned both as a premier wine region in Australia and for its German cuisine.

Greeks arrived from the 1850s and opened fruit and vegetable shops, cake shops and oyster bars. Later they opened family-run cafés and imported soda fountains from America.

Pasta arrived in Australia as early as 1823, and Italian migrant Pietro Lucini was soon producing macaroni in Melbourne from Australian-grown wheat. The Italians also brought their coffee culture with them, and Rinaldo Massoni installed the first espresso coffee machine at the Café Florentino in Melbourne in 1929.

Paul went on to talk about the rise of Asian cuisine as the White Australia policy was phased out and migration from Asian countries increased. Many Australians developed a taste for Asian food from travels to the region, and soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War had enjoyed Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian dishes, so Asian migrants now had a market to set up restaurants serving dishes from their homelands.

It was a rich and fascinating talk, prompting the question ‘What is Australian cuisine?’ when Paul explained that the status of the Aussie meat pie as a national food is now challenged by the kebab wrap, Vietnamese pork roll and Portuguese grilled chicken. Food is always popular at our Members events and I’ll be looking to knit more culinary experiences into our program in the future.

Making connections

The last couple of years have been challenging for the museum, especially due to the two lockdown periods and the inability to offer many events or services. While we managed to hold a series of virtual events, nothing beats an in-person talk or an on-the-water experience.

Although I have only recently taken over managing the Members program, I have been closely involved with our Members throughout my 27-year history at the museum in other roles. I remember fondly working closely with former Members managers Fran Mead, Adrian Adam and Di Osmond over the years, and I’ll be using all the things I learned from them to help me reshape our Members program and the range of events that we offer.

In the next couple of months, we will be in touch with all our Members, asking them what they would like to see in our events. A Members program should not only be about connecting our Members with the museum and its collection, but also be a form of community, where they can meet like-minded people who share passions and interests in things maritime.

There will be a range of talks by guest speakers on a wide selection of topics and themes. Obviously one of the major attractions of the museum is our fleet of floating vessels, so Members will find more opportunities to get out on the harbour and also to explore visiting ships and boats from other organisations.

We are also planning a series of outings to historic sites and places of interest in a new series of ‘Meet the Neighbours’ events. You can find more information about the upcoming Members events on page 48.

As the Covid-19 situation improves, we hope to soon re-open the Members Lounge.

The Chairman’s Circle

We are also putting together a series of VIP events for our Chairman’s Circle Members. These dedicated supporters of the museum and its Foundation assist us financially in maintaining and developing the National Maritime Collection. The Circle supports a range of activities each year. To join the Chairman’s Circle, members make an annual donation of $1,000 to the museum’s Foundation. In return, they receive invitations to meet our director, chairman and curatorial and collections staff, experience the museum after hours, go behind the scenes and attend exclusive VIP events. They are also recognised on the museum’s Supporters wall. To find out more about the Chairman’s Circle or to join, please contact me on 02 9298 3777 or email matt.lee@sea.museum.

So to all our Members, remember to look out for a questionnaire asking for your feedback on the Members program and what you would like to see included – and together we can curate a series of events with something for everyone.

I look forward to seeing you back at the museum in the near future.

Matt Lee, Manager – VIP Relations

True to the Land – A history of food in Australia by Paul van Reyk is published by Reaktion Books (2021). ISBN 9781789144062 RRP $50.00

A chef on a cruise liner tempts a passenger with a food platter, 1970s. ANMM Collection ANMS1424[034]

Gift from P&OSNCo. Image © and reproduced courtesy of P&O Heritage

Members events

Members event: Speakers talk

The Australian navy in Antarctica

2–3.30 pm Thursday 31 March

Richard de Grijs tells how, after World War II, the Commonwealth government sought to establish a permanent base in the Australian Antarctic Territory and assert sovereignty. For their expedition vessel, they overhauled an old polar favourite, MV Wyatt Earp. Plagued by problems during the 1947–48 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, its crew turned a potential disaster into the navy’s first and only successful polar research expedition.

Free for Members and their guests. Bookings essential; see below.

Members event: Speakers talk

Mutiny on the Bounty anniversary

2–3.30 pm Thursday 28 April

What led to the infamous mutiny aboard the Bounty? What actually took place that day, and why were William Bligh and 18 men cast adrift in an overcrowded open boat to fend for themselves?

Join speaker Arthur Pearce to hear about one of the greatest feats of survival and endurance in modern history.

Free for Members and their guests. Bookings essential; see below.

Members event: Speakers talk Midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour

2–3.30 pm Tuesday 31 May

In late May 1952, three Japanese midget class submarines entered Sydney Harbour with a mission to attack and sink the Allied Fleet. Find out from Gillian Lewis how the attack was carried out by courageous Japanese naval personnel and why the harbour defences at the time were incomplete and inadequate.

Free for Members and their guests. Bookings essential; see below.

Members event: Author talk

The Tasman Map

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 7 April

Join author Ian Burnet as he discusses the history of the Tasman Map and how it arrived in Australia. This tale of the first Dutch voyages to encounter Australia is set against the background of the struggle of the newly formed Dutch Republic to gain its independence from the Kingdom of Spain, and the Dutch East India Company’s fight for trade supremacy in the East Indies against its Portuguese, Spanish and English rivals.

Free for Members and their guests. Bookings essential; see below.

Members event: Speakers talk Lusitania

2–3.30 pm Friday 6 May

Join us to hear the story of the Cunard Line’s RMS Lusitania – once the largest passenger ship in the world and holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic in 1908. Just seven years later it was sunk by a German U-boat, influencing the USA’s decision to enter World War II.

Free for Members and their guests. Bookings essential; see below.

To book Members events, email memberevents@sea.museum and tell us which event you wish to attend, and who is coming. Alternatively, you can phone 02 9297 3777.

For all other events, please see our website for further details and how to book.

Please note that other museum events, including family and children’s programs, were still being finalised as Signals went to press. Please check sea.museum or sea.museum/kids for details.

All events are subject to NSW Covid-19 public health orders. For updates, please check our website at sea.museum.

Facsimile Tasman Map (detail), showing the results of Abel Tasman’s voyages of 1642–3 and 1644. State Library of New South Wales

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns)

Now showing

Alick Tipoti is arguably the most important artist of his generation from Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait Islands), and Mariw Minaral is the first retrospective of his works.

A CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL

ARTIST, Alick Tipoti is highly respected for his work in regenerating cultural knowledge and language. Guided by the traditional cultural practices of his people, Tipoti’s storytelling encompasses traditional cosmology, marine environments and ocean conservation – focusing on what it means to be a sea person. Tipoti is revered for his sophistication and ability to spread his concerns and messages through his art.

Among the works on display will be the sculptures Kisay Dhangal (Moonlight Dugong ), made from bronze and pearl shell, and Kaygasiw Usul – which means ‘the trail of dust underwater created by the shovel nose shark’ in the language of the Maluyligal People. Also on show will be some of Tipoti’s large-scale linocut prints, whose intricate detail highlights the artist’s skill.

sea.museum/mariw-minaral

Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

Ocean Wonders

Until September

Over the past two years, Schmidt Ocean Institute has collaborated with research institutions from across Australia and the globe. Their mission: to explore the deepest and most remote parts of selected Australian and Pacific marine environments.

Ocean Wonders can be viewed at the museum’s Wharf 7 forecourt.

Ocean Wonders is delivered in partnership with Schmidt Ocean Institute

Image Schmidt Ocean Institute

One Ocean – Our Future

Until October

Marvel at the diversity of Australia’s marine life revealed by Schmidt Ocean Institute’s 2020 circumnavigation of Australia aboard their research vessel Falkor. Discover, manipulate and inspect 3D visualisations of five extraordinary deep-sea specimens, hear about the impacts of a changing planet and oceans, and learn how two centuries of analysing and examining the ocean have given us the knowledge to change things for the better. sea.museum/one-ocean

Image ANMM

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

From 10 March

Out of Sight, Out of Mind reminds us what there is to admire, love and protect about the ocean.

Travel the globe in this interactive exhibition of panoramic images captured by underwater photographer and explorer Christophe Bailhache with his one-of-akind SVII camera. QR codes transport you into the images, allowing you to explore unique underwater worlds.

This temporary exhibition in the Tasman Light Gallery is brought to you by Australian charity Underwater Earth.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 57

From 9 April

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

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. sea.museum/wildlife

Shaped by the Sea

From late May

Shaped by the Sea tells the story of Australia’s maritime history and our relationship with seas, rivers and waterways from the deep past.

As an island nation, Australia has a unique relationship with the sea – now told through the lens of modern science and maritime archaeology, as well as through Indigenous knowledge.

This permanent exhibition transforms the way the museum has interpreted the National Maritime Collection and heralds a new chapter in the life and vision of the museum. Hundreds of objects from the collection will be on display for the first time. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a commissioned work by the Mulka Art Project. This stunning contemporary video installation called Dhaŋaŋ Dhukarr (Many Pathways) brings together all the elements of the exhibition – land, water and sky – into an immersive, cyclic reflection on deep-time Australia.

Exhibitions

Travelling Exhibitions

Remarkable – stories of Australians and their boats

Portland Maritime Discovery Centre, VIC

1 February–30 April

Val Melville Cultural Centre, South Kempsey, NSW March–April

Old Courthouse Museum, Batemans Bay, NSW 1 March–5 April

Injune Library, QLD 7 March–10 April

Bermagui Historical Society, NSW 18 April–May

Moruya District Historical Society, NSW

Early May–mid June

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

James Cameron – Challenging the

Deep

Telus World of Science, Alberta, Canada

Until 3 April

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

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

Sea Monsters – prehistoric ocean predators

Otago Museum, New Zealand

Until 1 May

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

Voyage to the Deep – underwater adventures

Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Maine, USA

Until 1 May

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

Brickwrecks – sunken ships

in LEGO® bricks

Western Australia Shipwrecks Museum, Albany WA Until 8 May

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

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

Image of Batavia LEGO ® model courtesy Rebecca Mansell/WA Museum

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

Volunteers

Star struck

Meet museum volunteer Professor Richard de Grijs

The museum could not function without its volunteers, who work both with the public and behind the scenes in all manner of essential roles. This issue we profile volunteer Richard de Grijs, a professor of astronomy.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff

Carl Sagan, American astronomer

ASTRONOMER PROFESSOR RICHARD DE GRIJS was born in Amsterdam and grew up in the mostly rural province of Friesland. A bright student, at primary school he especially loved studying geography. He once missed a lesson about the moon, due to illness, which prompted him to start reading about space, astronomy and spaceflight. His school had a tradition that allowed students to get up in front of the class each morning and share something. Richard thinks he must have bored his teacher and classmates for months on end, as he always had new things to relate about space. Unsurprisingly, Richard declared that he wanted to become an astronaut when he grew up, but his parents suggested that he should perhaps focus on something more achievable. So, aged ten, he decided to be an astronomer.

After high school, he went to the University of Groningen and studied physics and astronomy. Richard stayed at Groningen for a PhD in astrophysics, which he completed in 1997. As is usual in science, he took on a short-term appointment as a postdoctoral researcher, moving to the USA to work for three years with a senior professor at the University of Virginia. To meet people and make friends, he joined a weekly conversation group. There he met a bright young Chinese graduate student in biology, Jie Na. She and Richard ‘clicked’ almost immediately. Jie Na is also an academic, and presently works as a stem cell biologist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She and Richard have now been married for 20 years, but their marriage has occasionally been a long-distance one due to their respective careers.

Richard’s next appointment was as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he spent three years. He then accepted a lectureship at the University of Sheffield.

After Richard had spent seven years at Sheffield, both he and Jie Na were offered senior positions at good universities in Beijing, China. He was made a full professor at Peking University’s Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Richard thrived as a scientist and he enjoyed his time there tremendously. However, he also realised that he did not want to stay in China until (and beyond) his retirement; the language barrier was simply too significant. So, when an opportunity came to join Macquarie University in Sydney as Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of its Faculty of Science and Engineering, he took it, arriving in Australia in March 2018. (Jie Na plans to eventually join him.)

Richard at the museum, aboard the Endeavour replica. Image Mona Hussain/ANMM

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Richard at the Macquarie University Astronomical Observatory, 2018.

Richard at the 21CMA radio telescope in Xinjiang, China, 2008.

Images courtesy Richard de Grijs

One of Richard’s tasks as a museum volunteer is very specific: each weekend, he winds our replica of John Harrison’s marine chronometer H1

As he was initially here alone, Richard explored options to do something interesting. After he came across the Maritime Museum, he then contacted the volunteers’ office, and is now a regular Sunday volunteer and of the museum’s speakers. One of his tasks as a volunteer is very specific: each weekend, he winds the museum’s replica of John Harrison’s marine chronometer H1. Richard also doubles as crew on the Duyfken replica and on Murder Mystery at Sea events.

Richard loves volunteering at the museum because of the interaction with people and the social life with the team. He also enjoys the chance to do something useful in the community and to spend time following his passion in the beautiful environment of Darling Harbour. The following are Richard’s replies to a few questions we asked him.

What were your impressions of Australia when you arrived?

I love it here, particular the fact that we are so multi-cultural and that doesn’t lead to major problems (of course, there are still issues, but this is a country where multiple cultures can live together without too many problems). Plus, I like the climate and the beautiful nature here!

What do you miss the most in your country of origin?

Not much anymore these days ... perhaps mostly my family (at the moment that’s pretty much my mother) and a number of close friends whom I haven’t seen for a long time ... You can now get any material things you want from anywhere on the globe, so I can get my Dutch food cravings sorted easily.

How was it like to teach at Cambridge University?

Cambridge was amazing to work at. I worked with a top professor and his team, and with brilliant colleagues. Spending time there is pretty much a ticket to a good next job.

How do you find your current university?

How many students do you teach?

Macquarie University is a good university and the colleagues here are amazing; we have a great team and everyone is very supportive. I teach a main undergraduate class each semester (40–50 students in first year, 15 or so in third year), plus I am responsible for supervising project work of undergraduate and Masters students, half a dozen to a dozen students in each unit.

What is your favourite gem of knowledge to share about your astrophysics background?

Space is empty, so when the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy eventually collide in 4.5 billion years from now, you wouldn’t notice much or even anything on Earth (assuming we’re still around then!). Think about it as follows: suppose we have two galaxies, each the size of Australia but in 3D. Each of those galaxies would have three to five wasps freely flying around in it. Now think of the chance that a wasp from one of those galaxies meets one from the other galaxy – that gives you an idea of the emptiness of space.

Some of Richard’s publications are listed below. He has also published a number of edited conference volumes (in astrophysics), he is contracted to SpringerNature to write a biography of William Dawes (the astronomer on the First Fleet) and he is preparing a book on HMAS Labuan

For those who would like to meet Richard in person, please visit us at the museum on Sundays, when he is there like ‘clockwork’ – rewinding John Harrison’s clock, on display in our permanent exhibition Under Southern Skies

Publications by Richard de Grijs An Introduction to Distance Measurement in Astronomy (Wiley, 2011, ISBN 978-0-4705-1180-0)

Time and Time Again: Determination of longitude at sea in the 17th century (IOP Publishing, 2017, ISBN (print) 978-0-7503-1195-3 (online) 978-0-7503-1194-6)

Articles on the history of maritime navigation: astro-expat.info/history.html

Articles about various aspects of astrophysics: astro-expat.info/papersrev.pdf

This article was written by Mona Hussain and Richard de Grijs. The replica of John Harrison’s marine chronometer H1, on display in the museum, was made by Norman Banham (see Signals 134).

Science at the sea museum Programs for the year ahead

The museum is committed to supporting the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and in response the Education team has developed both onsite and digital learning programs for school students. Education Officer Dr Mat Sloane profiles what’s on offer this year.

AS 2021 DREW TO A CLOSE, we had visions of school children coming through the museum’s doors once again in the new year, learning how to be a pirate, discovering life on a tall ship or hearing the stories of migrants that have helped to shape the nation. Instead, the Omicron variant has left us wondering what the new school year will look like. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, the Education team quickly adapted to deliver its programs online, and we saw unprecedented demand for virtual excursions (see Signals 137). So, whether there is continued demand for our digital resources, or a gradual return to onsite excursions, our experience leaves us in a good position to offer immersive educational experiences for schools in 2022.

In term 1 we will launch our first ocean science and sustainability programs and resources in support of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) (see Signals 132, 133 and 137). We plan an integrated approach, in which onsite programs will complement digital resources, to ensure their longevity and engagement with the widest possible audience. These new programs will sit alongside our popular history programs, such as HMB Endeavour and Australian Migration Stories.

Our first project kicked off with the exhibition

One Ocean – Our Future. We made sets of action cards for all visitors and inquiry panels tailored to primary and secondary students. The 12 action cards offer enjoyable tasks such as ‘Be inspired by a First Nations artwork. What would you make out of waste in the ocean and what story would it tell?’ and ‘The ocean is rising but so can you! What will you do to look after the ocean?’. The two inquiry panels for schools have a set of openended activities based on objects and displays in the exhibition that relate to the curriculum. We hope these resources will spark the inner curiosity of visitors and help them to reflect on the wonder and importance of the ocean, and their role in its sustainable management. In line with the ethos of the exhibition, the cards were printed on 100 per cent recyclable cardboard made

Analysis of the Seabin ‘catch’ also helps us to understand the sources of pollution

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from paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®). They will live on as they travel with the exhibition and appear in a virtual 3D tour of the exhibition, designed in collaboration with the museum’s Digital team.

Our two new onsite programs for students in years 1–4 are ‘Ocean plastic – you are the solution’ and ‘Plankton superpowers’. The Ocean Plastic program is a collaboration with the Seabin Project, which makes rubbish bins for the oceans that collect and remove trash, oil, fuel and detergents from the water (see Signals 126). Analysis of the Seabin ‘catch’ also helps us to understand the sources of pollution, and this data can be used to inform decision-making about responsible waste management. There are more than 700 Seabins installed in 50 countries around the world, including 16 in Sydney Harbour, one of which is right here at the museum. Students will watch the Seabin in action and discover what types of plastic get into the ocean, and how. They’ll go on a ‘Trash and treasure’ tour through the museum’s exhibitions, solving riddles to find plastic trash and marine treasures. In the process, they will discover the effects of plastic on food chains and learn how to minimise its use and dispose of it correctly in their own lives.

‘Plankton superpowers’ will also take advantage of the museum’s waterfront precinct to explore the beauty, diversity and importance of plankton for ocean health. Students will catch their own plankton samples from the wharf and view a microscopic world buzzing with activity, geometric shapes and tiny creatures with alien features. Every second breath that we take is thanks to these tiny creatures!

Our programs will address the United Nations goals of quality education, which contributes to students’ awareness of the importance of clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, climate action and life below the water.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19, the Education team is ready for 2022 and we can’t wait to share our ocean science and sustainability programs with students around the country.

Plastic, plastic, more plastic and a few cigarette butts: just a small sample of what the museum’s Seabin might gather on a typical day, and a catch that helps to educate students about ocean pollution. ANMM image

The Education team has created cards to enhance visitors’ experience of the museum’s current exhibition One Ocean –Our Future. ANMM image

The 2021 Albany Maritime Festival

Tales from a whaling past

Whaling ended in Australia in 1978, but its history lives on at Albany in Western Australia. Elise van Gorp, General Manager of Albany’s Historic Whaling Station, relates highlights of the inaugural 2021 Albany Maritime Festival.

CELEBRATING ALBANY’S UNIQUE SEAFARING

HISTORY, the 2021 Albany Maritime Festival was held during the two-week school holiday period, and featured events and programs at locations in and around the city. Albany’s Historic Whaling Station crafted a series of nautical activities, exhibitions and musical performances as part of this inaugural festival.

In the first week of the festival, the team from Marine Energy Research Australia was onsite with their ‘Wave Hello to Renewable Energy’ program. As wave power is the new frontier of renewable energy research, visitors were able to learn about the ocean as a renewable energy source and its huge potential to contribute to Australia’s energy mix. Visitors were able to interact with specially designed water tanks to re-create ocean environments, with demonstrations of different wave energy technologies that are being trialled across the world.

Visitors could also interact with our new indoor beachcombing display, while exploring the magnificent shell display and uncovering the animals that lived inside the shells, using our newly designed touchscreen display.

As visitors explored the Historic Whaling Station during the second week of the festival, they had the opportunity to meet real-life former whalers. These men related their personal stories as they looked back on their time working for the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, a major industry in both Albany’s and Australia’s maritime history. Or, if visitors missed speaking face to face with a whaler, they could watch snippets from a range of interviews taken from the ‘Whaler’s Tales’ oral history project.

On the middle weekend of the festivities, the Historic Whaling Station came alive with the sound of pounding feet and roaring voices emanating from under the pygmy blue whale skeleton, with some lively performances from folk and shanty singers, including the Anchormen and Green Herring Oz.

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Dr Wiebke Ebeling, from the team at Marine Energy Research Australia, shows visitors how a wave tank can be used to simulate real-life energy transfer.

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The Anchormen perform at Albany’s Historic Whaling Station, below the skeleton of a pygmy blue whale.

All images courtesy Albany’s Historic Whaling Station

The Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian National Maritime Museum. It provides grants of up to $15,000 in cash or in-kind support to not-for-profit organisations to help display and conserve objects of national and historical maritime significance. For more information, or to apply for a grant or internship, see sea.museum/grants or contact 02 9298 3743.

Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats

With over 1,000 rivers and a coast that stretches for more than 36,000 kilometres, it is no surprise that Australia abounds with stories of people who have lived and worked on the water. The travelling exhibition Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats presents some of those tales, exploring the connections between people and their boats.

Created by the Australian Maritime Museum Council (AMMC) and funded by the Australian National Maritime Museum, Remarkable was designed to give regional audiences the chance to hear both national and local stories. This travelling exhibition was a great addition to the 2021 Albany Maritime Festival.

Albany’s Historic Whaling Station features in the exhibition with its story ‘Sea Legs,’ joining 12 other compelling Australian maritime stories selected from the eastern states.

‘Sea Legs’ is the Historic Whaling Station’s own story of Captain Cheslyn Stubbs and how he lost his leg at sea. A selection of artefacts and an audio-visual presentation also complemented the exhibit and told more of Captain Stubbs’ story. The Stubbs are one of Albany’s most prominent past whaling families, with all three sons also being former whalers.

A major highlight for festival goers was the unique opportunity to hear whaling stories first-hand from two of his sons, Cheslyn II and Kim. Audio-visual interviews with Kim and eldest son, Mick, were taken from the oral history project, ‘Whalers’ Tales: Oral histories of Albany’s past whaling community’, which was funded by the 2019/2020 Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS).

See Signals 107 for stories on Albany’s Historic Whaling Station and the end of commercial whaling in Australia.

Remarkable – Stories of Australians and their boats has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

01 Cheslyn Stubbs II (left) and his brother Kim Stubbs (right) shared their personal whaling stories at the Albany Maritime Festival. Also pictured is Cheslyn IV, grandson of Cheslyn II.

02 Captain Cheslyn Stubbs stands at the bow of a whaling ship and sends the harpoon after a whale. A similar moment on another hunt led to Captain Stubbs losing his leg.

The difficult postwar years of intense poverty and political unrest were pivotal in shaping George’s world view

George’s journey

Sacrifice and community

The Manikakis and Ziros families’ story of migration to Australia shares a common thread with those of so many people across the globe who, propelled by seismic historical events, embarked on a journey to an elsewhere, hoping for a better life. Fotini Manikakis traces the story of her parents, who left behind village lives on remote Greek islands to try their luck in Australia.

National Monument to Migration

GREECE, LIKE MOST OF EUROPE, felt the ravages of World War II and Nazi occupation deeply. Afterwards, while most European countries were rebuilding, it faced additional struggles – a further five years of civil war sparked by the recalibration of geopolitical spheres of influence and the interference by foreign powers in its domestic affairs. The devastation that ensued forced an entire generation to flee poverty, political instability and persecution to seek economic opportunities elsewhere and plant seeds of regeneration and hope.

In our family this responsibility fell to our father, George Manikakis, an elder son. At 22 years of age, he was asked to make this sacrifice for the greater good of his family.

The difficult postwar years of intense poverty and political unrest were pivotal in shaping George’s world view. He witnessed great inequality and human rights abuses first hand. His island home, Agios Efstratios, was one of many remote islands used to banish and detain thousands of political prisoners who were involved in the pro-democracy movement and suspected or charged with being leftists or communists – a threat to the interim provisional government that had been installed by the British in lieu of free elections.

George saw some of Greece’s best and brightest citizens – politicians, lawyers, teachers, scientists, academics, workers, resistance fighters, unionists, writers, musicians and artists – imprisoned, tortured or murdered for defending and speaking up for what they believed.

George Manikakis in the family bakery on the Greek island of Agios Efstratios, before he left for Australia. Image Vasilis Manikakis

A year of correspondence between George and Helen evolved into a formal engagement celebrated with family and friends

This chance exposure to the ocean of knowledge and ideas that descended on his small island’s shores was life changing. It fuelled his commitment to social justice and human rights movements throughout his life, including his 65 years in Australia. Here he contributed tirelessly to the labour movement, the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, the fight to end apartheid in South Africa and the struggles for Australian Indigenous rights. He also opposed the brutal establishment of military juntas around the globe.

On New Year’s Eve in 1956, after completing a full day’s work in the family bakery fulfilling hundreds of village orders for vasilopita (traditional New Year cake), George was filled with dread as the passing minutes ticked closer to his departure. He hung his apron for the last time, farewelled his beloved family and with great sadness turned his back on his village and beautiful island home for what he feared would be the last time. He then embarked alone on a 19,000-kilometre journey to Australia by ship to find work to support his extended family and to feed, clothe and educate his five younger siblings.

His sense of duty was such that he did not question or argue, but resolved to make the voyage with purpose. After arriving in Australia on SS Skaugum, he picked grapes in Mildura, Victoria, then found work at a dairy farm near Parkes, New South Wales, before securing jobs in factories in Adelaide then Sydney, often working overtime. Eventually, he became a waterside worker on Sydney’s wharves, where he remained until his retirement.

Our mother, Helen Diamataris, came to Australia from the island of Limnos as a proxy bride, to marry a man she had not met. The union was arranged by their parents, a common practice among families whose young women, following the mass exodus of men, faced shrinking opportunities at home. Marriage and starting a family were cultural and social rites of passage, so arranged marriages were seen as the most viable option. The men who had moved to Australia were keen to marry a girl from home, and so matchmakers on both sides of the globe worked hard to secure successful unions.

A photo of George Manikakis taken specially taken to send to Helen after their betrothal.

George and Helen on their wedding day.

All images courtesy the Manikakis/Ziros families unless otherwise stated

Mum remembers that she was working in the fields not far from her house when she was told to smooth her hair, straighten her clothes and head back home because prospective in-laws were arriving. The story goes that when our father’s parents saw our mother, they instinctively knew she was a match for him. They showed her his photo (he really did look like a Hollywood movie star), sparking a twinkle in her eye. A year of correspondence between them evolved into a formal engagement celebrated with family and friends – with George in absentia. In May 1959 Helen boarded the Flaminia to Australia to meet and marry him.

Helen speaks of the fear and immense pain of leaving family, but also a sense of excitement and curiosity about what lay ahead. She promised herself that if he wasn’t what he seemed, she would turn around and come straight back home. They married as planned, however, and both worked very hard to support relatives in Greece, buy their own home and start a family. With time their union became a love match.

George and Helen laid the foundations for other family members to make the journey – George’s sisters Elizabeth and Fani, then Helen’s brothers Nikolas and Peter, and later her parents George and Fotini. With family settled in Sydney and their letters filled with stories about life in Australia, the journey for those who followed was not as precarious. Family helped other family to make the transition and establish new lives.

For instance, when Elizabeth arrived as a newly trained hairdresser, George and Helen found a shop for her to start her business, and they all moved in together above the premises. They renovated the shop to create Elizabeth’s Hair Salon in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. In the 1960s and early 70s, women queued for hours to be styled by Elizabeth, who had arrived with a selection of the latest European hairdos including the conical beehive and the bouffant, but expanded her repertoire in no time to master local favourites such as the blue rinse perm. Fani had trained as a beauty therapist and joined the business a few years later, before transferring her clients to Helen when she decided to pursue tertiary studies

The village ethos was transplanted to the suburbs of Sydney along with a spirit of generosity and possibility

Elizabeth’s Hair Salon was run with the spirit of community typical of a Greek village (with kids in tow) and the essence of Greek hospitality, or filoxenia; good coffee flowed freely, as did generous helpings of homemade sweets. A visit to the salon was more akin to an intercultural party, where relationships were forged and great friendships made. Customers loved the sense of care, belonging and connectedness they encountered at the salon, and for Elizabeth and Helen, as working mothers of young children, the salon provided a bridge to a new world. Customers helped them navigate their new life in Australia: providing advice on schooling, sporting activities and academic pursuits; explaining the meaning of expressions like ‘bring a plate’ or customs like the Easter hat parade; extending invitations to the annual Melbourne Cup luncheon; and giving hints on how to enter yiayia ’s (grandmother’s) treasured embroideries into the Royal Easter Show.

John Ziros, who became Elizabeth’s husband, arrived in Australia in May 1960 on board the Patris. They met at the Greek Atlas Club while performing in one of the many plays that were staged there. John worked as a taxi driver for many years before studying and qualifying to become a medical interpreter for the New South Wales Department of Health.

Together they all helped their sister Fani to realise her dream to study science at Sydney University and become the first family member to secure a tertiary education. In Australia, this story is not a singular one. Our family was one of thousands who, in their shared plights and experiences, quests and objectives, found solace, camaraderie, strength and purpose – the village ethos transplanted to the suburbs of Sydney along with a spirit of generosity and possibility. Migrants helped one another, forging new connections that cemented the foundations for a broad, active and vibrant community in Australia.

George, Helen, John, Elizabeth and Fani, along with many others, worked tirelessly for their community. They raised funds to build churches and schools; helped to create advocacy and welfare groups that provided information, translation services and language classes; and organised cultural and social events such as dances, musical performances, theatre productions, picnics, feast days, national days and festivals. They were a few of many who sowed the seeds for a two-way cultural exchange that helped to transform Australia, and whose legacy is enmeshed in the fabric of our nation’s story.

George Manikakis did return to Greece. The first of several visits was in 1964, eight years after he had left, to introduce his three-year-old son to the family.

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2021 marked the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek War of Independence. To honour the contribution of Greek Australians to building our nation, we invite you to donate to the National Monument to Migration. For every $500 donated, one Greek migrant family of limited financial means will be recognised on the monument at the National Maritime Museum.

Donate by 25 March 2022 at sea.museum/ national-monument or call 02 9298 3777.

A special partnership with the Greek Welfare Centre.

01 Elizabeth and Helen with their children outside Elizabeth’s Hair Salon in the Sydney suburb of Kensington.

02 Fani and Elizabeth working at the salon.

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Electra, George, Helen and Fotini Manikakis at the National Monument to Migration, March 2021. Image Jamie Williams

The New Beginnings Festival

An event to empower communities and lift the spirit

On 19 March, the museum will host the New Beginnings Festival, a free, family-friendly event presented by Settlement Services International.

Raphael Brasil profiles one of the festival’s major artists, musician Bukhchuluun Ganburged.

Musician Bukhchuluun Ganburged and his traditional Mongolian morin khuur (horsehead fiddle). Image courtesy Cooper Brady and SSI

New Beginnings showcases the artistic vibrancy and cultural heritage of migrant and refugee artists

WHEN MONGOLIAN MUSICIAN Bukhchuluun

Ganburged (Bukhu) first arrived in Australia, he couldn’t speak English, but he had to learn the language so he could explain his culture and music to people intrigued by his busking.

Since then he has become a cultural ambassador for his country, taking his virtuosic talents with the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and khuumii (Mongolian harmonicovertone throat singing) to the Sydney Opera House and WOMADelaide and to audiences in Europe and Asia.

Bukhu has a Bachelor degree from the Music and Dance Conservatory of Ulaanbaatar (the capital of Mongolia). He performs Mongolian folk music, bringing a contemporary take on the tradition of Mongolian bards and acting as a national memory bank by working mythologies, historical figures and events into traditional verse form.

Based in Sydney since 2009, he was granted the prestigious Distinguished Talent Visa by the Australian government as an internationally recognised artist with exceptional contributions to the arts. He is a member of Sydney bands Equus and Horse & Wood, and was formerly a member of the Morin Khuur Ensemble, Khangal Quartet and Domog folk bands.

He says the morin khuur is important culturally because it is a significant part of Mongolian nomadic life. He learned to play the beautiful instrument from his uncle, who was taught by his grandfather. Bukhu hopes to pass the tradition on to his two children.

Khuumii is a technique with origins in Mongolian shamanism, whereby a single performer simultaneously produces up to three separate vocal lines. Bukhu says it is deeply spiritual, connecting the sky to the earth and the soul to the body: ‘Every single note is connected to the spirit.’

In addition to preserving and passing on Mongolian folk traditions, Bukhu is also an accomplished contemporary composer, with recent live performances exploring experimental and electro-acoustic sound palettes – using loops and edits created on pedals, portable devices, samplers, synthesisers, sequencers and drum machines.

Visitors to the Maritime Museum will be able to hear Bukhu at Settlement Services International’s New Beginnings Festival on 19 March. New Beginnings is a multi-form arts festival that showcases the artistic vibrancy and cultural heritage of migrant and refugee artists.

Settlement Services International has long recognised the enormous potential of the arts to help people forge their identities and build more inclusive communities for everyone. Being able to experience – and participate in – the arts and cultural life is essential to the wellbeing of every human being.

For refugees and new migrants to Australia, such interactions have a doubly important role. By providing a platform for connection and self-expression, arts and culture initiatives can empower individuals, bring communities together and help build a stronger society.

Others in the 2022 festival line-up include rapper BARKAA, a Malyangapa/Barkindji woman from Western New South Wales, and Gordon Koang, who is a household name in South Sudan, an astounding performer with nine albums under his belt. Gordon recently arrived in Australia seeking refuge from a country torn by civil war.

To find out more about the New Beginnings Festival, see newbeginningsfestival.com.au/.

Raphael Brasil is Settlement Services International’s Arts and Culture Producer.

Alick and Albert

Directed by Douglas Watkin; written by Trish Lake, Alick Tipoti and Douglas Watkin; starring Prince Albert of Monaco and Alick Tipoti. Now screening on Stan; also available for special screenings in cinemas. More information at AlickandAlbert.com

Different lenses

Two worlds, one ocean

THE FILM ALICK AND ALBERT, produced by Freshwater Pictures and released in Australia in December 2021, captures a beautiful friendship that developed between one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists, Alick Tipoti, and Prince Albert of Monaco. The men’s shared passion for environmental advocacy is explored through two very different lenses, culminating in a week-long visit to Badu Island by the prince and a return visit by Tipoti to Monaco.

In a classic fish-out-of-water premise, the prince’s initial reactions to his arrival on Badu are contrasted throughout the film with his royal lifestyle in Monaco. Alick and Albert visit each other’s homes and workplaces. The scenes of Alick in Monaco and Albert in Badu present some of the more light-hearted moments. At no stage does Prince Albert demonstrate any sense of awkwardness relating to his arrival or time on the Island. His willingness to engage with the island’s children playing in the streets, and even collecting rubbish along the beach, shows his humble willingness to be a part of the everyday life of Badu Islanders.

All images courtesy Freshwater Productions

The scenes of Alick in Monaco and Albert in Badu present some of the more light-hearted moments

Prince Albert of Monaco and artist Alick Tipoti on Alick’s home island of Badu in Torres Strait.

Alick’s work was first introduced to Prince Albert through an exhibition held in 2016 at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco

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Tipoti’s work Turtle mating and nesting season covered around 670 square metres of the roof of Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum

Prince Albert with Alick Tipoti (far right) and Badu Islanders.

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The main focus of the film is the protagonists’ passion for best-practice management of the environment

Alick Tipoti is a cultural leader on the island of Badu in Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait). He is an artist and linguist who explores the history, traditions and sustainability of the culture and community of Badu Islanders, whose lives are governed by the land, seas and skies of their island home.

Alick’s work was first introduced to Prince Albert through an exhibition held in 2016 at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. The film captures the prince’s astonishment at seeing Alick Tipoti’s works Turtle mating and nesting season and the magnificent Kisay Dhangal, a life-sized bronze dugong sculpture. Turtle mating and nesting season covered around 670 square metres of the roof of the Oceanographic Museum, which was founded by Prince Albert’s grandfather in 1910.

The contrast between the lives of the film’s protagonists – bridging the Principality of Monaco, a sovereign city-state on the French Riviera, and Badu Island in the western Torres Strait – is fascinating, but the main focus of the film is their passion for best-practice management of the environment. That this is an ongoing process in both nations becomes increasingly evident as the film progresses.

Perhaps one of the more touching moments of this film is the prince’s delight at hearing stories of the impact that his mother, Princess Grace – formerly Hollywood actress Grace Kelly – had on Tipoti’s mother’s generation. ‘It’s just incredible that so many years after her passing she still very much has a vivid presence in a lot of people’s minds and hearts,’ the prince has said previously.

Alick and Albert transcend a binary representation of the issues dominating our media about climate change. The film advocates for the ocean environment by revealing how Badu identity, cultural practices and beliefs are informed by a deep-time understanding of the marine environment, and shows how these understandings in no way differ from what motivates Prince Albert’s hopes for his nation. Alick’s and Albert’s two nations may be worlds apart, but they are united by their shared vision of a better future for all.

Reviewer Matt Poll is the museum’s Manager of Indigenous Programs.

Kisay Dhangal, along with other works by Alick Tipoti, is currently on display in his exhibition Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns) at the museum.

Many decision makers identified the family as the institution that had been most damaged by Nazi intervention

Seeking sanctuary

The long road to postwar resettlement

WHEN THE DISPLACED UKRAINIANS Mykola and Stefani began their long road of migrating to Australia after World War II, starring in a movie was probably the last thing on their minds. Their journey was immortalised in the film Mike and Stefani, which was shot in the displaced persons camp of Leipheim, Germany, in 1949.

The Australian Department of Immigration wanted to showcase the Australian displaced persons resettlement scheme.1 Supported by the International Refugee Organisation, more than one million displaced persons waited in camps until their application to migrate to a host nation was approved. Canada and America were the first choice for many, but more than 170,000 were resettled in Australia between 1947 and 1951.

That Australia participated in tackling one the most enduring legacies of World War II – 60 million people uprooted globally, 20 million displaced persons in Germany alone – necessitated a significant marketing campaign. Immigration was seen as key to postwar recovery, but had to be actively sold to a sceptical public. Destination Elsewhere follows displaced persons like Mykola and Stefani on their long journey to Australia.

For the final cut of Mike and Stefani, an over-aggressive Australian immigration officer was omitted, because his behaviour seemed too authoritarian and antagonistic. The process was supposed to look effortless: shrewd immigration officials finding potential new Australians with ease and efficiency. The book tries to dispel such myths and show the process of becoming Australians as truthfully as it can be reconstructed.

Destination Elsewhere: Displaced persons and their quest to leave postwar Europe

By Ruth Balint. Published by Cornell University Press, New York, 2021. Hardcover, 228 pages, illustrations, index. ISBN 9781501760211.

RRP $45.00 Vaughan Evans Library 940.53145 BAL

Most displaced persons knew Australia only as a continent on a world map. America or Canada were the preferred destinations for migration.

More than one million displaced persons waited in camps until their application to migrate to a host nation was approved

01 The prospect of employment was used to attract new migrants to Australia, but in return the country demanded two years of hard labour, during which families were separated.

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Convincing the Australian officials on the selection committee was key to being allowed to migrate to Australia.

Immigration was seen as key to postwar recovery, but had to be actively sold to a sceptical public

Destination Elsewhere spends a long time on the elusive concept of truth, and looks at both sides of the immigration process. The book shows how changing identities, backgrounds and allegiances became an important tool for would-be immigrants to Australia in a challenging selection process. The country demanded two years of hard physical labour, during which families were separated. The ‘White Australia’ policy often excluded people on basic appearance, and the selection process included a health assessment that considered even minor injuries unacceptable. Who was eligible for migration and who was excluded could also change rapidly. Those who fought for Nazi Germany were automatically excluded at first, but as the Cold War grew more intense, anti-communist sentiment could easily override former loyalty to Hitler.

The book uses many examples to lend a human face to the challenges that the displaced persons faced. Its greatest achievement is to identify the hidden, unspoken hierarchy among the prospective migrants. Many decision makers identified the family as the institution that had been most damaged by Nazi intervention. Because of this, all immigration procedures supported fathers first and foremost, while wives were seen as dependants and single mothers as undesirables. Women who fulfilled all necessary criteria for immigration were denied entry when their husbands did not, but the opposite was only rarely true.

Nor was the protection for families unbiased. If a husband had left his family behind in a displaced persons camp and founded a new one in Australia, only his new family was seen as legitimate. It was not unusual for families in displaced person camps to wait for a message from their breadwinner (who had sailed ahead to Australia to establish himself) that never came. The process of finding relatives who had already migrated to Australia was similarly biased. If a family member wanted no longer to be found (because they had remarried or wanted to leave war-torn Europe behind), the searcher only received the message ‘person could not be traced’.

Migration is often only told through success stories. Destination Elsewhere not only shows the many failures people had to endure on their way to Australia, it also depicts those that did not succeed, were abandoned or were categorised as unhealthy, too old or simply undesirable.

The book gives the reader deep insights into a time when the populations of whole countries were reshaped by assisted migration. Millions were transferred to places they knew only from newspapers, books, movies or hearsay. That these migrants lied, deceived and denounced other displaced persons is put into perspective by showing their situation and the complexities of their migration process. Destination Elsewhere is a book about the history of displaced persons in Europe and on their way to Australia, but it also grants copious insights into the very human struggles of those who had lost everything and were searching for something they lacked most: a new home.

1 For more information on the film, see trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ article/18393326

Reviewer Dr Roland Leikauf is a historian who recently joined the museum as Curator of Post-war Migration.

Even apparently benign items such as this sugar bowl can lead into contested histories – in this case, the issue of indentured labour in the sugar industry.

ANMM Collection 00007216

Procter fills out the larger – and often darker – colonial histories behind the images, sculptures, objects and collections on display

The Whole Picture: the colonial story of the art in our museums & why we need to talk about it

By Alice Procter,

published by Cassell, London, 2021. Paperback, 319 pages, illustrated, index. ISBN 9781788402453. RRP $25.00 Vaughan Evans Library 306.47 PRO

In whose image?

Revealing the darker stories behind colonial collections

ONE OF THE BENEFITS of our museum’s relative newness is that we are rarely haunted by awkward legacies. Since collecting began for the Australian National Maritime Museum in the late 1980s, our registration system has captured information on provenance, intellectual property and cultural authority. We have acquired our materials in good faith and established clear title to more than 150,000 objects that now comprise the National Maritime Collection.

This modern approach means that the museum does not hold or display human remains. All of our Indigenous and First Nations items were purchased or donated in collaboration with the creators or their authorised agents. We do not knowingly acquire stolen artefacts or cultural materials torn from their historical or spiritual context. In this sense, the museum is more fortunate than many older institutions that have inherited disturbing relics of former practices.

But does that comfortable assumption represent the whole picture?

Alice Procter would suggest otherwise. Since 2017 she has led groups on ‘Uncomfortable Art Tours’ through museums and galleries in London. As an art historian and scholar of museums, her premise is simple. Procter fills out the larger – and often darker – colonial histories behind the images, sculptures, objects and collections on display. As The Whole Picture details, what she reveals is indeed often uncomfortable.

The book is structured into four ‘types’ of collecting institution: the Palace, the Classroom, the Memorial and the Playground. Each section comprises a series of essays focused on a specific object, including how it came to be in a museum or gallery and how it is currently represented. As with her tours, Procter’s essays unravel the threads of power, brutality, racism, exploitation and misrepresentation that are not addressed in each item’s minimally worded caption.

Procter’s essays unravel the threads of power, brutality, racism, exploitation and misrepresentation

01

Dinner menu from the Messageries Maritimes steamship Australien, 1894. Beyond this obvious colonial image lie the complexities of French representations of African people and the generic use of the ‘orient’ on a liner named ‘Australia’.

ANMM Collection 00036243

02

Fid for lace making carved from whale tooth. What does the clenched fist represent, and for whom? ANMM Collection 00006650

01

02

There are always multiple stories, perspectives, histories, ambiguities and truths around our objects

Although her focus is on institutions in Britain –where Procter is based – several are highly relevant to Australia. One is often referred to as the ‘Gweagal shield’. It is generally believed to have been created by Gweagal ancestors who stood on the shore of Kamay Botany Bay when James Cook and his party came ashore in April 1770. This item is currently on display in the British Museum and was one of the artefacts featured in their highly influential book A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Procter critiques the ‘Enlightenment’ gallery in which the shield appears, as well as its mounting and caption. The latter associates the shield with Cook’s time in Australia – including shots fired at Aboriginal people –but does not claim that it is the actual shield that warriors were recorded to have dropped during this moment of violence. In fact, she notes, the British Museum holds no clear records from before 1978 to date the item’s origins. Subsequent research suggests that in fact it was not created by Gweagal artisans, and that the shield was collected much further north and much later than 1770.

Added to this mix are calls to repatriate the shield to Australia because of its associations with Aboriginal resistance – both to colonisation and to subsequent attempts to erase the multiple cultures that thrived before 1770. Yet in the British Museum, the shield remains as an almost generic marker of Indigeneity across the Pacific Ocean. The museum’s trustees, furthermore, remain reluctant to return the shield to where it was created.

This is just one of the discomfiting stories that populate The Whole Picture. Other chapters interrogate dried heads carved with Māori moko (tattoos), an Egyptian sarcophagus and Joshua Reynold’s painting of 18th-century Raiatean voyager Mai. All are connected with colonial conquest, unfree labour, enforced movement and exploitation – including the market forces that foster forgeries and lead to the looting of antiquities. What unites these objects is Procter’s assertion that they ‘are always going to be adrift, disconnected from a history that is too big to tell completely’.

This dilemma is, of course, one faced by all museums. There are always multiple stories, perspectives, histories, ambiguities and truths around our objects. How do we do them justice – especially when the very concept of ‘justice’ constantly shifts beneath our feet? Indeed, as Procter suggests in her 2021 coda, ‘it feels as if we are in a moment, now, that might be a turning point’. But to what are we turning?

This book is intended to be a provocation not to guilt, but to conversation. For this, I thank Procter. She doesn’t offer simple answers, but suggests many ways of acknowledging that every collection can be seen in different ways to redress past injustices. Each object in the National Maritime Collection offers such possibilities, down to the most humble seashell.

As the museum rethinks what our audiences expect in the post-pandemic world, perhaps we can also respond to William Blake’s exhortation ‘to see a world in a grain of sand’. What Procter quite reasonably proposes is that we ask honestly whose world, and how the museum came by that grain of sand.

Reviewer Dr Peter Hobbins is the museum’s Head of Knowledge.

Readings

Look out for a new-look library

Treasures go on display

SOON THERE WILL BE EVEN MORE ENTICEMENT to return to the Vaughan Evans Library. We have just taken delivery of a series of display cases to share some old and new treasures in our extensive collection.

Rather than mounting traditional exhibitions, these cases will encourage library visitors to start their research journeys and explore new directions.

Some of the stories already planned include finding families at sea, taking a healthy interest in maritime quarantine and unravelling historical handwriting. Each of the displays will highlight surprising connections and offer research tips from our specialist library staff.

Regular readers will also notice that every issue of Signals now contains book reviews that feature new titles in the library’s collection. These books are available for browsing by visitors or via interlibrary loan requests. We also welcome suggestions for additional titles to add to the library – it’s your collection, too!

Can you help us fill some gaps?

And speaking of collections, the library is always seeking to fill some important gaps. We would welcome donations or might potentially purchase some of the hard-to-find titles below. If you can assist, please email the library team on library@sea.museum or telephone 02 9298 3739 or 02 9298 3693.

Department of Shipping and Transport, Australian Shipping and Shipbuilding Statistics (Melbourne: The Department, 1950)

John Hunter Farrell, Peacemakers: Interfet’s liberation of East Timor (Rocklea: Fullbore Magazines, 2000)

Edwin Fox Society, Edwin Fox: Hard-won heritage (Picton: Edwin Fox Society, 2004)

Ross Gillett, HMAS Vampire , 25 Years (Sydney: no publisher noted, 1984)

Holbrook Submarine Museum, Holbrook & Submarines: The connection (Holbrook: Holbrook Submarine Museum, 2011)

Martin Allan Hooper, The Scottish Connection: The Whitecrosses and the MacFarlanes (Belmont: Benmax Box, 2009)

Stephen Linthouse, Alexander Stephens & Sons Limited 1939–1946 (Glasgow: Alexander Stephens & Sons Limited, no date)

Felix Newbery, The Story of the Cutty Sark (London: Belgravia Publications, no date)

Martin Orchard, The Homeward Trade: A brief history of the conference shipping service from Australia to Europe 1912 to 2006 (Sydney: Shipping Australia Limited, 2006)

Warwick Outram, SS Cormorant : Protecting Bribie Island from ca 1958–1990 (Bongaree: Warwick Outram Publications, 2015)

Lawrance Ryan, Holbrook: The submarine town (Holbrook: Greater Hume Shire Council, 2008)

R T Sexton, Ships that Passed: A glimpse of South Australian maritime history (Port Adelaide: Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum, 1997)

John Tod and W C McGibbon, Marine Engineers’ Board of Trade Examinations: Containing all the latest elementary questions with answers, including notes on verbals, as used in Board of Trade examinations, 7th ed (Glasgow: James Munro, 1909)

Beryl J Young, Immigrants to Queensland, Vol 1 (Stones Corner: The Genealogical Society of Queensland, no date)

Dr Peter Hobbins, Head of Knowledge

Acknowledgments

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

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

Honorary Fellows

John Mullen AM

Peter Dexter AM

Valerie Taylor AM

Ambassadors

Norman Banham

Christine Sadler

David and Jennie Sutherland

Major Donors – SY Ena

Conservation Fund

David and Jennie Sutherland

Foundation

Honorary Research Associates

Rear Admiral Peter Briggs AO

John Dikkenberg

Dr Nigel Erskine

Paul Hundley

Dr Ian MacLeod

Jeffrey Mellefont

David Payne

Lindsey Shaw

Major Benefactors

Margaret Cusack

Basil Jenkins

Dr Keith Jones

RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RN

Geoff and Beryl Winter

Honorary Life Members

Yvonne Abadee

Dr Kathy Abbass

Robert Albert AO RFD RD

Bob Allan

Vivian Balmer

Vice Admiral Tim Barrett AO CSC

Lyndl Beard

Maria Bentley

Mark Bethwaite AM

Paul Binsted

Marcus Blackmore AM

David Blackley

John Blanchfield

Alexander Books

Ian Bowie

Colin Boyd

Ron Brown OAM

Paul Bruce

Anthony Buckley OAM

Richard Bunting

Capt Richard Burgess AM

Kevin Byrne

Sue Calwell

RADM David Campbell AM

Marion Carter

Victor Chiang

Robert Clifford AO

Helen Clift

Hon Peter Collins AM QC

Kay Cottee AO

Helen Coulson OAM

Vice Admiral Russell Crane AO CSM

Stephen Crane

John Cunneen

Laurie Dilks

Dr Nigel Erskine

John Farrell

Dr Kevin Fewster CBE AM FRSA

Bernard Flack

Daina Fletcher

Sally Fletcher

Teresia Fors

Derek Freeman

CDR Geoff Geraghty AM

John Gibbins

Anthony Gibbs

RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN

Paul Gorrick

Lee Graham

Macklan Gridley

Sir James Hardy KBE OBE

RADM Simon Harrington AM

Jane Harris

Christopher Harry

Gaye Hart AM

Peter Harvie

Janita Hercus

Robyn Holt

William Hopkins OAM

Julia Horne

Kieran Hosty

RADM Tony Hunt AO

Marilyn Jenner

John Jeremy AM

Vice Admiral Peter Jones AO DSC

Hon Dr Tricia Kavanagh

John Keelty

Richard Keyes

Kris Klugman OAM

Judy Lee

Matt Lee

David Leigh

Keith Leleu OAM

Andrew Lishmund

James Litten

Hugo Llorens

Tim Lloyd

Ian Mackinder

Stephen Martin

Will Mather

Stuart Mayer

Bruce McDonald AM

Lyn McHale

VADM Jonathan Mead AO

Arthur Moss

Patrick Moss

Rob Mundle OAM

Alwyn Murray

Martin Nakata

David O’Connor

Gary Paquet

David Payne

Prof John Penrose AM

Neville Perry

Hon Justice Anthe Philippides

Peter Pigott AM

Len Price

Eda Ritchie AM

John Rothwell AO

Kay Saunders AM

Kevin Scarce AC CSC RAN

David Scott-Smith

Sergio Sergi

Ann Sherry AO

Ken Sherwell

Shane Simpson AM

Peter John Sinclair AM CSC

Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ (RADM)

John Singleton AM

Brian Skingsley

Eva Skira AM

Bruce Stannard AM

J J Stephens OAM

Michael Stevens

Neville Stevens AO

Frank Talbot AM

Mitchell Turner

Adam Watson

Jeanette Wheildon

Hon Margaret White AO

Mary-Louise Williams AM

Nerolie Withnall

Cecilia Woolford (nee Caffrey)

What’s in the shop?

WHEN YOU NEXT COME TO THE MUSEUM

you will see an exciting new change in our foyer. We are proud to announce the new museum shop! The intention behind a redesigned shop was to create a space that is an essential destination during a visit to the museum – and one that seamlessly blends within the foyer. We want our shop to be famous for all things oceanic, and for it to echo the sea in colour, theme and finish. It includes seating and space to rest and read, as well as comfortable and discreet areas to try on clothing. Our buyers have carefully selected items that reflect the museum’s themes. We would love the shop to become a favourite source for thoughtful, interesting, high-quality gifts.

The category areas in the shop reflect favourite themes from the museum:

• Ships and shipwrecks (history, books, model boats, etc)

• Marine life (ocean health, sustainability, books and games)

• First Nations (books, homewares)

• Aquatic gifts (nautical soaps, brassware, glass décor, ceramics)

• Adventure (kids’ toys, clothing, educational games, books)

• Jewellery, apparel and accessories (men’s, women’s, t-shirts, hats, caps, scarves, socks)

• Temporary exhibition merchandise.

We have many new products in the shop, with more on the way in coming weeks.

So come and say hello when you next visit and see all that is new. Our shop staff would love to see you.

Signals

ISSN 1033-4688

Editor Janine Flew

Staff Photographer Elizabeth Maloney Design & production Austen Kaupe

Printed in Australia by Pegasus Print Group

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

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ANMM Council

Chairman Mr John Mullen AM

Interim Director Ms Tanya Bush

Councillors

Hon Ian Campbell

Mr Stephen Coutts

Hon Justice S C Derrington

Rear Admiral Mark Hammond AM RAN

Mr John Longley AM

Mr Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO

Ms Alison Page

Ms Judy Potter

Ms Arlene Tansey

Dr Ian Watt AC

Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation Board

Chairman Mr Daniel Janes

Ex officio Chair Mr John Mullen AM

Ex officio Director Mr Kevin Sumption PSM

Mr David Blackley

Mr Simon Chan

Mr Peter Dexter AM

Mr David Mathlin

Mr Tom O’Donnell

Dr Jeanne-Claude Strong

Ms Arlene Tansey

American Friends of the

Australian National Maritime Museum

Ms Sharon Hudson-Dean

Mr Robert Moore II

Mr John Mullen AM

Mr Kevin Sumption PSM

Signals is printed in Australia on Hannoart Plus Silk 250 gsm (cover) and Hannoart Plus Silk 115 gsm (text) using vegetable-based inks.

Foundation sponsor

ANZ

Major sponsors

Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation

Guilty

Port Authority of New South Wales

Sponsors

Australian Maritime Museums Council

Challis & Company

Colin Biggers & Paisley

Gage Roads Brewing Co

Lloyds

Nova Systems

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Schmidt Ocean Institute

Smit Lamnalco

Tomra

Supporters

Australian Antarctic Division

Australian Government

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Faroe Marine Research Institute

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

Royal Wolf

Settlement Services International

Silentworld Foundation

Sydney by Sail

The Ocean Cleanup

Tyrrell’s Vineyards

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