Signals 139

Winter 2022

Heritage restorations Alma Doepel and John Oxley

Shaped by the Sea

Dual views of deep time Australia

Harald Dannevig

The father of Australian fisheries

Number 139 June to August sea.museum $9.95

Bearings From the Director

GREETINGS – WELCOME to the Winter edition of Signals.

Shaped by the Sea includes these fossils of crinoids found in the Gascoyne River region in Western Australia. They are about 280 million years old.

Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM

At the end of March, The Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, made the exciting announcement that the museum’s new Director and CEO would be Ms Daryl Karp AM. Ms Karp is an experienced administrator and comes to the museum from the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra, which she has directed for the past nine years. She combines over 20 years’ experience as a CEO, non-executive director and senior manager in the museum, broadcast, digital advertising and cultural sectors, whether for-profit, not-for-profit or government.

Daryl will start in the role on 4 July and I know you will all join me in welcoming her.

Since I last wrote to you, we have opened the latest Wildlife Photographer of the Year, which is proving as popular as ever! Every year the audience grows for this exhibition that showcases the very best of nature photography.

In May we launched the Defence Volunteer Program in partnership with Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC). The program will support Defence Force veterans, through volunteering at the museum, to transition to civilian life or retirement, or it can be a stepping stone to general employment or simply community connection. It is an exciting and important initiative that the museum is proud to be a part of.

We are gearing up for the unveiling of our exhibition Shaped by the Sea in July. This is a new experience for which we have completely redeveloped the lower gallery in the museum, and it promises to be unlike anything we have done before. Featuring hundreds of objects from the National Maritime Collection, it will be an immersive experience looking at how the oceans have shaped our continent over millennia. You will find an article in this edition from the curatorial team about what has driven the creation of Shaped by the Sea. We will also have an extensive digital experience online so you can access it from wherever you are.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Signals.

Tanya Bush Acting Director

Contents Winter 2022 Number 139 June to August sea.museum $9.95

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

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

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

Supplied courtesy of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Cultural warning People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that Signals may contain names, images, video, voices, objects and works of people who are deceased.

Signals may also contain links to sites that may use content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.

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

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

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Shaped by the Sea

A new exhibition offers differing views of deep time Australia

Virtual immersion

Introducing Deep Dive, our online centre for maritime archaeology

12 Harald Dannevig and the FIS Endeavour Profiling the pioneer of Australia’s fisheries

20 A Speck in the ocean

Oskar Speck’s 7,000-kilometre journey by folding boat

24 Topsail schooner Alma Doepel Ensuring a future for a historic ship

30 The mystery of HMAS AE1

Sunk in action or lost due to a diving accident?

36 A luminous purchase

Members’ contributions enable an auction coup for our collection

38 ‘The Swap’

Historic vessels John Oxley and Kanangra trade places

46 Members events

Your calendar of special events for Members and their guests

48 Exhibitions

Our temporary and travelling exhibitions this quarter

52 Collections

White Star Line uniforms through the Samuel Hood Collection

60 Australian Register of Historic Vessels

Flood and cyclone: emergency watercraft listed to the ARHV

64 National Monument to Migration Welcoming a further 1,281 new names

66 Defence Force volunteering

A partnership between the museum and CSC

68 Empowerment through the arts

The museum hosts the New Beginnings Festival

70 Viewings

A poignant animated story of a refugee’s life

72 Readings

The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist; White Russians, Red Peril

Cover Alma Doepel in slings, hull restoration completed, about to return to the water alongside lift-ship AAL Shanghai, Port of Melbourne, October 2021. See story page 24. Image Matt McDonald

80 Currents

A happy ending for siblings; Onslow gets aircon; vale Michael Young

In many ways, our seas, rivers and other waterways are a living presence that frames our understanding of and relationship with the environment

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Signals 139 Winter 2022

Shaped by the Sea Dual perspectives of deep time Australia

The museum will soon unveil a new permanent exhibition, Shaped by the Sea – The story of deep time Australia.

The exhibition heralds a new chapter in the museum’s life and vision and transforms the way it interprets the National Maritime Collection. By Senior Curator Dr Stephen Gapps and Indigenous Programs Manager Matt Poll.

Shaped by the Sea has three key themes: Land, Water and Sky. Production still from Dhaŋaŋ Dhukarr © the Mulka Project

Australian National Maritime Museum

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01 An installation in Shaped by the Sea featuring fossilised teeth from giant sharks that lived between 2 and 30 million years ago. They were collected in the 1980s in Victoria’s Portland region – land that, long ago, was under water. National Maritime Collection 0004981–00050450 Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM 02 Preparing the centrepiece Larrakitj as part of the multi-screen immersive installation Dhaŋaŋ Dhukarr. Image © Buku-Larrnggay the Mulka Project 03 The Yidinji Dancers performing ‘Birriniy’ on Bramston Beach, Queensland, 2022. Image Matt Poll

WAY BACK IN 2014, the museum embarked on a rejuvenation of our core exhibitions and stories.

In a series of workshops, one of the key elements of the national maritime story was identified as our relationships with seas, rivers and waterways from the deep past. From 2018, under the co-curation of Stephen Gapps and the former Head of Indigenous Programs Beau James, the exhibition Shaped by the Sea was born.

Shaped by the Sea is the first stage of a major redevelopment of the museum’s core exhibitions and will tell the story of maritime Australia from the formation of the continent and oceans to the present day. In many ways, our seas, rivers and other waterways are a living presence that frames our understanding of, and relationship with, the environment. For millennia, water has shaped the land, plants and animals and sustained ways of life, belief and culture.

Importantly, Shaped by the Sea tells this story of deep time through dual perspectives – historical, scientific and archaeological, as well as the histories, science and knowledge of Australia’s First Peoples. As historian Billy Griffiths has noted, ‘In many societies seas are “sentient”, imbued with social and spiritual connections. They are places of culture, language and history, as well as science and law.’ 1 4

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Shaped by the Sea challenges what we might traditionally think of as maritime history. Even the gallery space itself is designed with a structure of eddies and flows that create unique visitor journeys. It will be an immersive experience of water and time, with three key themes: Land, Water and Sky. These three elements will converge in the central space called, in Yolŋu Dhuwaya language, Dhaŋaŋ Dhukarr (Many Pathways). The stunning installation by the Mulka Project is a cyclic reflection on deep time in Australia.

As the creators describe it: Dhaŋaŋ Dhukarr is symbolic of the collective clans represented within the work and the journeys of their song lines performed throughout its cycle. The land, sea, and sky of the Yolŋu world are expressed through the song lines of the various Yirritja and Dhuwa clans.

The elemental forms they represent are depicted by the Mulka Project, working with traditional media, contemporary senior artists and Yolŋu new media digital artists.

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Shaped by the Sea tells the story of deep time through dual perspectives – historical, scientific and archaeological, as well as the histories, science and knowledge of Australia’s First Peoples

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01 This dhungala biganga (possum skin cloak) can be read as a map of the Moorundie (Murray) River and the surrounding landscape.

Artists Treahna Hamm with Lee Darroch and Vicki Couzens (Yorta Yorta), 2006. National Maritime Collection 00039880 02 A ‘theoretical geography’ of the globe, drawn in 1757 by French cartographer Philippe Buache, shows early efforts by Europeans to understand connections between land masses and oceans. National Maritime Collection 00029305 01

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Hundreds of objects from the National Maritime Collection will be on display for the first time

Hundreds of objects from the National Maritime Collection will be on display for the first time, including more than 20 artworks and cultural pieces from 19 different language groups across Australia and the Torres Strait. Last year, Matt Poll joined the curatorial team as Indigenous Programs Manager and has been actively commissioning several other works for the exhibition, including shell fish-hooks by Sharon Mason, a Yuin artist from Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, and Sheldon Thomas, a canoe-maker from the Bunurong people, Southport, Tasmania.

Our modern understanding of the appearance of the Australian land mass is quite different from how the ancestors of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island nations have seen continental Australia in the past.

Where once were wetlands, today there are arid deserts; mountain tops have become islands and vast stretches of our coastlines that sustained generations of families are today buried deep beneath the oceans.

Incorporating the presence of living cultural knowledge – not only that derived from archaeological or anthropological disciplines – is crucial in rectifying past museum practices of representing Indigenous knowledge without the input of those who bear the responsibility of maintaining it.

The exhibition includes several areas where science and traditional knowledge connect, such as when the Yidinji Dancers perform ‘Birriniy’, an ancient dance that describes the rising seas of the north Queensland coastline that occurred thousands of years ago.

Alongside this, a ‘coral forest’ display shows a series of coral core samples from Hummocky Island in northern Queensland and Coral Bay in Western Australia.

As corals can grow slowly for thousands of years, core samples show marine scientists how these growth layers correlate to sea levels and the impact of river systems in the ocean.

In an ecological context, it is important for museums to respectfully exhibit the vast Australian Indigenous memories of the world. In Shaped by the Sea, memories that describe the rising of the seas around Australia’s coastlines will sit alongside scientific explanations of coastal inundation and sea-level rise after the last ice age. Two different systems of knowledge will be woven through one incredible story of deep time Australia.

1 Billy Griffiths, Shaped by the Sea, 2022.

Shaped by the Sea – the story of deep time Australia will open to visitors in July. Admission is free.

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The web experience highlights the local, national and international work the maritime archaeology program has undertaken since its establishment in 1990

Divers descend a shot line to the site of HMAS Perth (I) in Banten Bay, Indonesia.

Image James Hunter/ANMM 8

Signals 139 Winter 2022

Virtual immersion Deep Dive: The museum’s online centre for maritime archaeology

An innovative web experience enables the public to engage with the research and discoveries of the museum’s maritime archaeologists and to virtually explore the wrecks of HMB Endeavour, HMAS Perth, submarine HMAS AE1 and other lost vessels. By Kieran Hosty and Dr James Hunter.

IN FEBRUARY 2022, the Australian National Maritime Museum made two significant announcements relating to its maritime archaeology program. The first was the statement from the museum’s former Director and CEO, Kevin Sumption, that the site of James Cook’s famous vessel, His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour, had been positively identified following a 22-year program of fieldwork and research in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.

The second major announcement was the launch of an innovative new web experience by The Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. The web experience is dedicated to the museum’s maritime archaeology program and highlights the local, national and international work it has undertaken since its establishment in 1990.

Developed by the museum’s Digital Engagement and Insight team, Deep Dive: The Australian National Maritime Museum’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology allows the general public, as well as educational and academic communities, to engage with the work of the museum’s maritime archaeologists. The website’s content was created with input from the Knowledge team, in which the maritime archaeology program is based, and uses immersive video, still imagery, reconstructive animation, oral interviews and sound bites, photogrammetry data sets, field blogs, online archaeological reports, journals and Signals articles.

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Deep Dive will feature ongoing and future initiatives undertaken by the maritime archaeology team and its collaborative partners

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01 Visualisation of details of the Endeavour wreck. Still image from a video by Mike Daly 02 Endeavour being scuttled in Newport Harbour. Still image from a graphic animation by Ireneusz Herok

Explore Deep Dive today at sea.museum/ explore/maritimearchaeology/deep-dive

Deep Dive enables audiences to experience what it is like to research, discover and investigate shipwrecks and other underwater cultural heritage sites such as historic aircraft, inundated ports and deep time submerged Indigenous sites. It is being published using a staged approach. The first featured story, quite fittingly, is ‘Finding Endeavour’ and its information portal provides the detailed background, underwater footage and archaeological evidence that led to the positive identification of Endeavour’s wreck site.

When a visitor first enters the Deep Dive homepage, they are taken to a series of pull-down menus that are labelled ‘Deep Dive’, ‘The Team’, ‘Finding Endeavour’, ‘Tracing Endeavour’, and ‘Research’. The homepage features a spectacular image of two divers descending the shot line to the site of HMAS Perth (I) in Banten Bay, Indonesia, and a graphic animation of the British transport Lord Sandwich (ex-HMB Endeavour) being scuttled in Newport Harbor. It outlines the Deep Dive concept and then introduces the visitor to other featured and planned stories via a short clip of 3D photogrammetric models created by the maritime archaeology team of shipwreck sites and artefacts.

These include Lord Sandwich, South Australian (wrecked at Victor Harbor, South Australia, in 1837), the paddle steamer Herald (which sank off Sydney Harbour’s North Head in 1884 after one of its boilers ruptured) and a mystery shipwreck at Boot Reef near the entrance to Torres Strait in far north Queensland (possibly the remnants of the Canadian-built convict transport Henry, which wrecked in 1825).

Brief biographies of the museum’s maritime archaeologists are provided on ‘The Team’ page.

The ‘Finding Endeavour’ page presents the archaeological and historical reasoning behind the announcement that Endeavour’s wreck site has finally been found. It is richly illustrated with both underwater still and video imagery, most of which has not been previously published. The visitor is then taken to ‘Tracing Endeavour’, which recounts the ship’s history and how it ended up in Newport, Rhode Island.

The final menu option is broadly termed ‘Research’ and includes The PS Herald Virtual Reality Experience, links to more than 80 journal articles, academic publications and field blogs, and the technical report Archaeological Identification of Shipwreck Site RI 2394 (Endeavour) in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island.

The ‘Research’ page concludes with a video of museum maritime archaeologists surveying the remains of HMAS Perth (I).

Deep Dive will feature ongoing and future initiatives undertaken by the maritime archaeology team and its collaborative partners. Other stories that will be profiled on the website in the near future include archaeological surveys of HMAS Perth (I), the discovery and documentation of the World War I submarine HMAS AE1, ongoing historic shipwreck surveys in the Australian Coral Sea Territory and Great Barrier Reef, and the search for the wreck site of the mid-19th-century Dutch ship Koning Willem II in South Australia.

Deep Dive is a taste of what’s to come from the museum’s new approach of building digital innovations to underpin all of its activities, from storytelling to daily programming. Our focus is on a human-centred design approach to deliver new experiences, both online and in the museum.

None of Deep Dive’s design, configuration or content would have been possible without the fantastic efforts of the museum’s Digital team, including Paula Bray (Head of Digital Engagement and Insight), Leonie Jones (Digital Producer), Renae Mason (Digital Producer), Luke Dearnley (Web Developer) and Snow (Lead Developer).

Australian National Maritime Museum

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Harald Dannevig and the FIS Endeavour Pioneer of Australian fisheries and oceanography

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Signals 139 Winter 2022

FIS Endeavour officers and crew in 1912. Second row: Chief Engineer, A Mackay; unidentified; Mate, J Burkitt; Director of Fisheries, H Dannevig; Master, G Pim; Second Engineer, S Ditchman; unidentified. Other crew members unidentified.

Image courtesy Anne Dannevig Ballard

Harald Dannevig was a leader of Australian fisheries science who laid the foundation for Australian fisheries over just 12 years, through aquaculture and the discovery of new species and profitable trawling grounds.

Dennis Reid and Iain Suthers profile this insightful, inspiring adventurer.

HARALD DANNEVIG (1871–1914) was one of a richly talented cohort of young Norwegian fisheries scientists in the early 1900s. His father, Gunder Dannevig (1841–1911), was a successful sea captain and merchant, who championed the controversial activity of stocking larval cod into fjords to supplement the fishery.

Harald learnt from his father about fish husbandry and larval rearing, and at just 23 he was selected by the Fishery Board for Scotland to supervise the completion of marine fish hatcheries at Dunbar from 1894 to 1898 and Aberdeen from 1898 to 1902. His major contribution was in marine stocking of flatfish, but he also studied fisheries methods of the North Sea, and became an expert in the new techniques of the trawl fishing industry.

Improving fish stocks by hatchery rearing and release was popular in the late 19th century, and there was a strong push for artificial stocking in New South Wales (NSW) waters, which had been depleted through overfishing and pollution of estuaries. In May 1902 the NSW government invited Dannevig to be the inaugural Superintendent of Fisheries Investigations and Fish Culture. Before leaving for Australia, he collected more than 800 European fish and crustaceans, and designed and supervised the construction of facilities to keep them alive for the 41-day voyage from Plymouth, England, to Sydney. With Dannevig and his fish on the passenger/cargo ship RMS Oroya were his wife and three-year-old daughter. As he nurtured the fish throughout the journey, his mission and personality became an attraction for the passengers on board to venture below to see ‘Dannevig’s fish’. There they saw his experiments to test the effect of water temperature on fish mortality in a passenger’s bathtub!

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When Dannevig arrived in August 1902, he found a country booming with confidence from federation but also found significant overfishing of freshwater and estuarine resources, with no capacity or interest in harvesting the coastal ocean. He soon established a research laboratory and hatching pond at Cronulla, NSW, commissioned in 1905.1 The transportation of fish from England was hailed as a great success, but subsequent acclimatisation efforts on these fish failed. Dannevig noted the poor quality of fresh fish and the high price, when smoking and new freezing technologies were available. By now his thoughts had shifted towards establishing a commercial wild fisheries industry, including a fish transport, handling and marketing system that provided a reasonably priced product. He also noted that Australia did not have the motivation or capacity to explore the continental shelf.

In July 1908 he was appointed as Australia’s first Commonwealth Director of Fisheries and scientific director of Australia’s first research vessel.

The exploration of Australian waters with a new state-ofthe-art ship coincided with similar projects in the North Atlantic with a 1910 expedition led by the renowned Norwegian fisheries scientist Johan Hjort, and in South Africa under the Scottish scientist John Gilchrist from 1896 to 1901 on the Scottish-built trawler Peter Faure.

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Signals 139 Winter 2022

FIS Endeavour and identification of fishing grounds from 1909 to 1914

The Fisheries Investigation Ship FIS Endeavour (41 metres long, 336 tonnes, draught 3.6 metres) was built at the eastern shipbuilding slipway adjoining the Fitzroy Dock at Sydney’s Cockatoo Island. The ship’s design was based on plans of the Norwegian research vessel Michael Sars – an English trawler (38 metres, 230 tonnes, draught 3.65 metres) rebuilt under Hjort’s supervision in Norway in June 1900, for oceanographic and fisheries research. Plans and specifications of the Norwegian ship were obtained in March 1907 through renowned explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen, then Norwegian ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Endeavour was designed by eminent naval architect Walter Reeks, who modified the Michael Sars plans to suit Australian conditions and the requirements of the Endeavour project. Construction was supervised by Andrew Christie. The keel was laid on 1 June 1908, trials were conducted in Sydney Harbour and offshore in January 1909, and the first cruise commenced on 9 March 1909.

Endeavour was a side trawler, in which the trawl and the trawl doors are deployed and retrieved from fore and aft gantries on the starboard side. George Cartwright was the first captain appointed, but from the outset

Improving native fish stocks by artificial stocking was very popular internationally in the late 19th century 01 Dannevig family at Cronulla laboratory grounds in 1908, prior to the move to Melbourne.

Front row: daughter Sigrid (aged nine), Harald Dannevig’s brother Georg, Harald’s wife Annie, Harald Dannevig, sister-in-law Janet Dannevig (wife of Georg Dannevig). Image courtesy Anne Dannevig Ballard 02 Construction of FIS Endeavour at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, August 1908. The Sabraon Training Ship is in the background.

Image CSIRO Archives

it was apparent that he resented the authority given to Dannevig and the relationship remained fractious, culminating in Cartwright’s dismissal in August 1911.

Captain George Pim replaced him, with considerable experience as master of fishing vessels and an important scientific expedition in New Guinea, and was much more successful in the position.

Endeavour was equipped with several oceanographic instruments, for which Dannevig provided training for those on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition on at least two occasions (1911 and 1912), including the crew of SY Aurora.

On the 1912 voyage from Melbourne to Eden, Aurora’s Captain John King Davis noted the use of the Ekman current meter, an Ekman reversing water bottle fitted with a Richter thermometer, and a Lucas sounding machine.2 The East Australian Current (EAC) was not scientifically examined until the 1960s, although Dannevig wrote about organising fast-going steamers to record sea surface temperatures en route to New Zealand, and he noted:3 … it appears that the centre of the warm current is normally situated somewhere within 100 to 150 miles off the NSW coastline in the latitude of Sydney; its western border brushes along the headlands and is known to coasting crafts and line fishermen.

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In a paper published after his death he described strong currents of the EAC beginning at Sandy Cape (Fraser Island) and again evident at Smoky Cape, and that the currents extended down several hundred fathoms. He wrote that the EAC functions ‘as a soft broom’ in depositing the sediments south of the major river mouths, and south of Gabo Island ‘where the final and largest eddy is formed’.4 His appreciation of the EAC eddies is prescient of the studies of the 1980s

by CSIRO and university oceanographers.

In a second posthumously published paper, Dannevig described the depths, sediments and trawling potential of the continental shelf off southeastern Australia, and in Bass Strait. This area remains one of the most profitable trawling regions in southern Australia, the fishery known as the southeast trawl.5 As Fisheries Director, he instigated 99 research cruises in six years to determine suitable trawling grounds. These voyages led to the identification of 263 new species (including 96 new fish species), and approximately 5,000 catalogued specimens.

The specimens collected by Dannevig were delivered to Allan McCulloch at the Australian Museum, regarded as one of the greatest Australian ichthyologists.

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01 FIS Endeavour’s main engine ready to be fitted, August 1908.

Superintendent of Cockatoo Island Dockyard, A E Cutler, is on right.

Image Government Dockyard, Biloela Annual Report 1908–09.

Reproduced with permission 02 FIS Endeavour moored at the south bank of the Yarra River, Melbourne. Photographed by Allen C Green, courtesy State Library of Victoria

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Signals 139 Winter 2022

Australia had no marine fishing industry before 1900, very little history of marine research and sparse scientific infrastructure apart from natural history museums

McCulloch described the new species, and published five major reports on the museum’s Endeavour collection between 1911 and 1926. In particular, one common and globally distributed viperfish was named Chauliodus dannevigi by McCulloch. McCulloch wrote: 6 The specimen described …. was one of the last fishes preserved on board the Endeavour before she left on her ill-fated voyage to Macquarie Island. I associate with it the name of my friend, the late Mr Harald C. Dannevig, who collected it and whose untimely loss terminated a grand chapter in the fisheries investigation in Australia.

Between 1909 and 1914 the Endeavour cruises covered 7,000 kilometres of coastline and identified 15,540 square kilometres of fishing grounds suitable for trawling off eastern Australia, and 10,360 square kilometres in the Great Australian Bight. Endeavour also made preliminary surveys of fishing grounds off Western Australia as far as Geraldton, and discovered new prawn stocks off Brisbane which are known today as Endeavour prawns. Dannevig was on most of the research cruises over the six years of operation, each lasting two to three weeks. Based on these trawls, which he cautioned were only scientific trawls rather than commercial, he found favourable quantities of fish. Within a decade these catch rates nearly halved, and the trawl fishery that Dannevig discovered and promoted had largely collapsed by the late 1950s.

Dannevig enthusiastically spread the message of establishing a new industry, and employed posters, public and scientific presentations, pamphlets and even a seven-minute promotional film, Day on a Trawler, which was filmed in 1913 by Bert Ive, the pioneer Australian Commonwealth Cinematographer.7 Dannevig made a major contribution to the 1912 Royal Commission on Food Supply, explaining the findings of the Endeavour program and prospects for a future fishing industry. The momentum of fisheries research initiated by Dannevig was stopped in late 1914 when the Endeavour was assigned to its final, fatal voyage to Macquarie Island to service the meteorological station, while the Antarctic expedition ship SY Aurora was in refit and naval vessels were committed to World War I. The Australian military forces left Australia on 1 November 1914, only 24 days before Endeavour left Hobart for Macquarie Island.

On the return voyage, a severe gale up to Beaufort 10 was recorded at Macquarie Island on 4 December, and the vessel disappeared without a trace. Multiple gales were recorded in the area in the following three weeks.

Despite the impending war, the loss of the Endeavour and the 21 people aboard filled the national press pages leading up to the inquiry, and three vessels searched the area for up to two months. Based on the approximate time of departure and steaming at less than 8 knots, we estimate that the wreck probably lies at approximately 4,000 metres depth, 400 kilometres northwest of the island. In the 1915 Marine Court of Enquiry documents it was noted that a set of questions was sent to Dannevig and Captain Pim to ascertain the suitability of the vessel, although their specific responses are unknown.

Dannevig’s legacy

Dannevig is regarded as the father of Australian fisheries science, but further research remained dormant until the establishment of the CSIR (later CSIRO) Fisheries Investigation Section in 1935. His major scientific advance concerned the importance of the egg and larval survival for future fisheries, and his 1907 paper on the effect of coastal winds on future estuarine fisheries was a world first. His discoveries were all the more remarkable, as methods of statistics and fisheries production had not yet been developed. Dannevig was very technically minded, focusing his work on a range of programs from the aquaculture of larval fish and crustaceans to the detailed design of the Endeavour.

Australia had no marine fishing industry before 1900, very little history of marine research and sparse scientific infrastructure apart from natural history museums.

He made major contributions to freshwater hatcheries in the Snowy Mountains and led a major review on the status of the iconic Murray cod. Dannevig was virtually a lone force, for just six years in NSW and a further six years as the founding Director of Australian Fisheries.

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The distribution of trawling areas explored by Endeavour off eastern Australia, Western Australia and the Great Australian Bight spans an area as wide as the North Atlantic

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Harald Dannevig employed posters, public and scientific presentations, pamphlets and even a seven-minute promotional film

01 Commonwealth Cinematographer Bert Ive on hero platform (top centre) filming Day on a Trawler in October 1913. Image courtesy Anne Dannevig Ballard 02 On board Endeavour after a successful trawl, October 1913.

In foreground is Dannevig with a large snapper at his feet; at rear from left are Captain George Pim, unknown (possibly cinematographer’s assistant) and senior engineer Angus Mackay. Other crew members unidentified. Image courtesy Ann Dannevig Ballard

It is clear that Dannevig had a larger synthesis work under way in 1914, and it is likely that much of this work was on board Endeavour when it was lost.

Besides some fauna, Dannevig’s name is given to an island in the Glennie Group, on the western side of Wilson’s Promontory in Bass Strait. The Cronulla fisheries laboratory originally built by Dannevig was named the HC Dannevig Laboratory in 2006, and in 2010, a NSW Fisheries patrol boat was named Harald Dannevig. In a 1915 obituary, Dannevig’s department head Sir Nicholas Lockyer wrote about Dannevig’s legacy: 8 No more capable man could have been chosen to direct it than Harald Dannevig, who combined a knowledge of the habits and the life of fish, acquired from childhood, with the enthusiasm of one who loved his profession and spent most of his life on it. Out in all weather, in storm and sunshine, when he could have readily directed the work from a comfortable office on shore, his one thought and ambition was to succeed in bringing home to the many doubting minds in Australia that there is a rich reserve of food supply in the fisheries of our coast, simply waiting to be harvested.

1 The Cronulla laboratories were used by the NSW Government Fisheries Department until 1920, by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), later the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), from 1939 to 1984, and NSW Fisheries from 1984 until closure of the site to fisheries research by the NSW government in 2012.

2 Iain M Suthers, Dennis D Reid, Erlend Moksness and Hayden T Schilling (2020). ‘Novel fisheries investigations by Harald Dannevig: some parallels with Johan Hjort on the other side of the world’, ICES Journal of Marine Science, doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa001 p 6.

3 H C Dannevig (1907). ‘On some peculiarities in our coastal winds and their influence upon the abundance of fish in inshore waters’, Journal of the Royal Society of NSW 41: p 41.

4 H C Dannevig (1915). ‘The Continental Shelf of the East Coast’, in H C Dannevig, Zoological Results of the Fishery Experiments Carried on by the FIS ‘Endeavour’, Vol 3, Pt VII. Department of Trade and Customs, Melbourne, pp 342–3.

5 H C Dannevig (1915). ‘Bass Strait’, in H C Dannevig, Zoological Results of the Fishery Experiments Carried on by the FIS ‘Endeavour’, Vol 3, Pt VIII. Department of Trade and Customs, Melbourne, pp 347–53.

6 A R McCulloch (1916). ‘Report on some fishes obtained by the FIS ‘Endeavour’ on the coasts of Queensland, New South Wales and south and south-western Australia’, in Biological Results of the Fishery Experiments Carried on by the FIS ‘Endeavour’, Vol 4, Pt IV, 1918.

Department of Trade and Customs, Melbourne, p 181.

7 National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, ID 13249.

8 N Lockyer (1915). ‘In Memoriam: Harald Christian Dannevig, Director, and the work and loss of the FIS Endeavour’, in H C Dannevig, Biological Results of the Fishing Experiments Carried on by the FIS ‘Endeavour’, 1909–1914. Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Trade and Customs, Sydney, pp iii-vi.

Further reading ABC Podcast 2018. abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-historylisten/the-man-who-made-us-eat-fish/10404854.

Dennis Reid is a Research Associate at the Australian Museum, Sydney. Iain Suthers is a Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales.

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Travelling with a folding boat through the high seas had its difficulties

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A Speck in the ocean An unlikely journey by folding boat

Ninety years ago, an intrepid young man left his home in Germany for a dangerous adventure. Seven years and 50,000 kilometres later, he arrived in Australia – right at the start of World War II. Curator of Post-war Immigration Dr Roland Leikauf traces Oskar Speck’s remarkable trip.

01 Oskar Speck and his kayak with its sail set, looking tiny in the waters close to Dili, Portuguese Timor (now Timor-Leste).

Australian Maritime Collection ANMS1249[010] 02 The route of Speck’s voyage from Germany to Australia. Image Jo Kaupe

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Ulm Germany

Saibai Island Torres Strait

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WHEN THE GERMAN OSKAR SPECK decided to leave his home country in 1932, he would not have believed that his journey would take him seven years to complete.

Germany was ravaged by a strong economic downturn, and Speck was out of work. He decided to solve his problems by doing what he loved most: kayaking.

At 25, Speck was already an accomplished kayaker.

His folding kayak (in German, Faltboot) named Sunnschien (literally, ‘the sun shone’) had served him well so far. The journey he was now attempting, however, was unlike anything he had done before: his aim was to reach the island of Cyprus and find work in the lucrative mining industry.

Sunnschien looked tiny and fragile. Not even six metres long, it had a hull made of laminated rubber and a canvas skin stretched over a light, pliable timber frame.

Speck had to trust his kayak completely. It served him well, but did not survive his voyage. Four times it was damaged or lost, and each time the folding-boat builders at the Pionier Faltbootwerft in Bad Tolz, Germany, sponsored him by replacing it.

Speck’s journey started in the German city of Ulm. The Danube carried him through Austria and into Hungary. The second river Speck braved was the Varda, which was challenging, and hard on his kayak. He followed it until he finally reached the Mediterranean coast.

Here, Speck had to relearn how to use a kayak in the open sea, where using the foot-operated rudder in unison with the sail was more important than strong paddling.

He passed the Greek islands and followed the coast of Turkey towards Cyprus. Speck, who also had a background in geology, had to decide whether to follow his original plan and seek work in the Cypriot mining industry, or continue his journey and expand his adventure. In the end, he set his sights on a new destination that must have sounded implausible to those who followed his travels: Australia.

The easy route was denied him, as he could not take his kayak through the Suez Canal. Now his Faltboot showed its true value. He disassembled it and travelled by bus until he reached the Syrian city of Maskanah. From there, the Euphrates River carried him into the Arabian Gulf.

Beyond the gulf, the open ocean beckoned.

Speck faced many challenges. The malaria he contracted in Iran returned again and again, forcing him to pause his travels for days or weeks, and his kayak was damaged, stolen or destroyed several times. In one incident, he was robbed and beaten so severely that he spent months in a hospital. More often than not, however, the locals greeted him kindly and supported him, even giving him ‘during our goodbye palm leaves filled with rice, which are of great value as food for a traveller’.1 Many times he was provided with food, shelter and help.

Australian National Maritime Museum

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01 A group of people surrounds Oskar Speck’s kayak Sunnschien, possibly in the city of Tepa on the Babar Islands. Australian Maritime Collection ANMS0545[286]

Speck’s kayak was damaged, stolen or destroyed several times

02 A young Oskar Speck wearing the traditional Schiffermütze (sailor’s cap) of northern Germany. Speck grew up in the port city of Hamburg-Altona.

Australian Maritime Collection ANMS1249[006] 01

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After surviving hunger, attacks and the unfriendly sea, Speck experienced a challenge that he could not overcome 02

Travelling in a folding boat through the high seas had its difficulties. Speck likened the experience to riding a bicycle – it was necessary to keep moving to prevent it from capsizing. The transition to and from the shore was especially perilous, and he had to retrieve his capsized boat many times.

After surviving hunger, attacks and the unfriendly sea, Speck experienced a challenge that he could not overcome. When he reached Thursday Island (in the western Torres Strait, off Cape York Peninsula) in September 1939, he was arrested by the Australian authorities. Australia and Germany were at war, and this strange German in his easy-to-hide boat, and armed with a notepad and a camera, seemed more than suspect to the Australian officials. After an escape attempt, Speck spent the rest of the war in an internment camp in South Australia.

Was Speck loyal to Nazi Germany? His kayak sported a small German flag (a Wimpel) with the swastika, and he ended letters to the German consulate with ‘Heil Hitler’. His friends, however, described him as apolitical, and current research by the Australian National Maritime Museum has found no evidence that Speck joined the NSDAP (National Socialist Party) or any other Nazi organisation. The Papua news correspondent of the Cairns Post told his readers after Speck arrived that the German actually ‘carried the Australian flag forward and the Swastika aft’.2

After his release from Loveday Internment Camp, Speck decided to use his knowledge of geology in a lucrative way. He started opal mining in the New South Wales outback and developed a successful opal-cutting business. Although he became an honorary member of the New South Wales Canoe Club, his exploits remained relatively unknown in Australia. Wartime censorship and postwar disinterest meant that Speck’s impossible journey was almost forgotten.

The Australian National Maritime Museum has become the custodian of many of Speck’s belongings. Thanks to a donation by the Nancy Steele estate, the museum’s collection contains photographs, 16-millimetre film, letters, documents and other objects connected to his journey. With these treasures, the museum was able to honour Speck’s achievements in its former Watermarks gallery, and some of them will soon be shown in the Pearl Trail temporary exhibition.

Speck began his voyage as a poor German out of work and finished it as a successful Australian businessman.

He challenged himself by braving rivers and conquering oceans, and only stopped his travels after he found a new home in Australia. Oskar Speck died in his beloved Killcare home, on the New South Wales Central Coast, in 1993.

1 Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, „Abenteuer in der Sunda-See”, 4. Fortsetzung.

2 Cairns Post, 1 August 1939, page 11.

The Oskar Speck objects in the museum’s Pearl Trail will be on display later this year – please check our website for updates.

Further reading Penny Cuthbert, Oskar Speck: 50,000 kilometres by kayak, Sydney, 2011.

Available from the Vaughan Evans Library: call number 623.829 SPE Australian National Maritime Museum

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It’s intangible, but it’s real, that link with the past, with the people who worked on the ship in years gone by

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Alma Doepel’s Restoration Director, Peter Harris, checks another day’s replanking work on the hull of the ship, docked on its restoration barge in Docklands, Melbourne, 2021.

All images courtesy Sail & Adventure Ltd unless otherwise noted

Topsail schooner Alma Doepel The story of a survivor

Coastal trader, ‘jam fleet’ vessel, army ketch, sail trainer – Alma Doepel has been all these and more in a life of almost 120 years.

An ambitious restoration project in Melbourne is now readying it for the next stage of its career, writes Alan Edenborough.

DOES IT MATTER TO SAVE AN OLD SHIP? This question was posed by the late Peter Stanford, founder of New York’s South Street Seaport. His answer: You have to see the ships, and walk their decks, to know the answer to this question. These old ships gain power past their time when they are, in fact, preserved and men come to walk their decks as other men walked them in another time.

Stanford’s words are understood by the men – and women – who have had the privilege, and the pain, of restoring an old ship. It’s intangible, but it’s real, that link with the past, with the people who worked on the ship in years gone by. Restoring what they built, to sail again, is to honour them and their ship.

And so to the life and current restoration of the 1903-built three-masted foretopsail schooner Alma Doepel.

In 1903 at Bellingen, New South Wales, Frederik Doepel had his sawmill on the banks of the Bellinger River.

An ex-seafarer who had neither secondary schooling nor formal adult qualifications, Doepel was a master craftsman with timber. He had already built small ships and droghers and his seafaring experience had taught him what to look for in a well-found ship. Alma Doepel was designed on a rough piece of paper on the kitchen table, and so good was Doepel’s design that the ship has lived on to the present day.

Alma Doepel was designed for coastal trading, able to cross the treacherous bar at the mouth of the Bellinger River but capable of safe coastal passages, to take the produce of northern New South Wales to Sydney.

The ship’s length overall is 45 metres, with a beam of 8 metres and draught of 2.2 metres. Masthead height is 28 metres. For much of its life, Alma Doepel was rigged as a three-masted foretopsail schooner, setting square yards on the foremast.

Launched with much fanfare on 10 October 1903, the new ship was named Alma Doepel after Doepel’s youngest daughter. In December of that year, the ship made its maiden voyage to Sydney carrying timber.

Then began a decade of coastal and trans-Tasman trading. General goods from the northern rivers region of New South Wales to Sydney were the staple cargoes.

The arrival of the north coast railway and regular coastal steamship routes greatly affected the trade of the coastal sailing ships on the east coast. But in Tasmania there was a real need for small ships and in January 1916, Alma Doepel was sold to jam-makers Henry Jones & Company of Hobart.

Alma Doepel became one of the fleet of small sailing ships that plied the route between Tasmania and the southern mainland, known, regardless of their rig, as ‘ketches’ and often referred to as the ‘mosquito fleet’.

From 1916, Melbourne was a regular port of call for Alma Doepel. So, too, were Adelaide, Geelong, Portland, Southport and Port Huon. Typical cargoes were timber sleepers for the railways, structural timber for buildings and, after the Great War ended, fruit, cases of jam, and pulped and dried fruit, as Alma Doepel became a significant vessel in the Henry Jones & Co ‘jam fleet’.

Alma Doepel was a fast ship and in the 1930s it claimed the record for a crossing from Hobart to Port Phillip Heads, Melbourne, of 58 hours 30 minutes.

Australian National Maritime Museum

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Alma Doepel was designed on a rough piece of paper on the kitchen table, and so good was its design that the ship has lived on to the present day 01

World War II pressed Alma Doepel into military service, as it did so many varied craft around Australia.

It was taken over by the army in 1943, its rig cut down, deckhouses and a bridge added, along with new engines and armament, and Alma Doepel became Army Ketch 82, painted grey from bowsprit to rudder.

AK82 was on active service between northern Australian ports, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, its crew army sailors – cooks, solicitors, horse-breakers – apparently anything but seamen.

At war’s end, Alma Doepel was returned to the IXL company, Henry Jones & Co, for a major refit before resuming its Bass Strait trade. Back and forth went Alma Doepel, averaging seven or eight round-trips each year, predominantly to Melbourne. Its interstate trading ended in 1959 and Alma was consigned to limestone shipment in Tasmania, carrying stone on a 30-nautical-mile route between Electrona and Deep Hole, sea transport of the limestone being the cheapest method.

The ship’s trading days ended for good in 1975 and it lay idle until purchased by Sail & Adventure Limited, a not-for-profit organisation that set about its first restoration and commissioning as a sail training ship in Port Phillip.

From the 1980s through the 1990s, Alma introduced thousands of young people to sail training and its potential for youth development. This successful period came to an end through poor decisions and the ship entered a period best described as ‘in the wilderness’.

Taken from Melbourne to Port Macquarie in New South Wales, the ship became a static exhibit alongside the town wharf, with minimal maintenance.

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A decision to ‘rescue’ the ship and return it to Melbourne was hatched and the board of Sail & Adventure Limited was reconstituted. The ship was slipped in Port Macquarie to assess the state of the hull in preparation for the 750-nautical-mile passage to Melbourne.

Inspection on the slip discovered teredo worm damage to large areas of the port side. Water flow from a storm drain adjacent to the ship’s town berth, and warmer than the main river, had provided ideal conditions for a worm infestation.

Ferdi Darley, a master shipwright with international experience in traditional wooden shipbuilding, was stunned by the extent of the worm damage.

As a temporary measure, Darley decided to fibreglass the most badly damaged areas, but after consultation with the team it was decided that an additional layer of hull protection would be needed.

A member of the team who had attempted it in a Sydney project suggested ‘fothering’ the hull. Instead of using a sail, the traditional covering for a leaking hull, the idea was to use theatrical backdrop canvas, a dense heavyweight material. It was not available in Port Macquarie, but a supplier was eventually located and enough canvas ordered to cover the hull on both sides to above the waterline – no small order! That meant booking a second slipping for the fothering task.

There was more than one raised eyebrow as the team set to work with reams of canvas and a thick mastic to stick it to the hull, painted over with anti-fouling and battens fastened over the canvas in a one-metre-square pattern. But it worked! In January 2009 Alma Doepel once again passed through Port Phillip Heads to begin its long and much-needed restoration in Docklands.

01 Tied up with other ‘ketches’ of the Mosquito Fleet, Alma Doepel awaits a cargo, c1920s.

02 Alma Doepel under full sail during its days as a sail training ship, 1990s.

From the 1980s through the 1990s, Alma Doepel introduced thousands of young people to sail training and its potential for youth development

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01 ‘Fothering’ the hull in 2008 by attaching heavyweight canvas, embedded in thick mastic.

Birdon Shipyard, Port Macquarie, December 2008.

02 Fothered, anti-fouled and battened, Alma Doepel is ready for the water once again at Birdon’s in Port Macquarie, December 2008.

There was more than one raised eyebrow as the team set to work with reams of canvas and a thick mastic to stick it to the hull

01

02

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For further information, or to donate to the Alma Doepel restoration fund, see almadoepel.com.au.

If you would like to join the restoration team as a volunteer, or can offer the project goods or services in kind, please contact the Restoration Director, Peter Harris, on 0427 829 134.

Alma’s return to Melbourne was popular and the authorities were helpful from the start. A large unused shed on North Wharf at Docklands was provided by Development Victoria as a workshop base and City of Melbourne Waterways provided berthing space adjacent to Shed 2.

All set to go!

Alma Doepel’s hull needed major restoration and that meant removing everything from inside the hull, as well as removing masts and spars and one of the deckhouses.

Shed 2 was soon the repository of individual items of Alma’s gear and equipment, everything sorted for restoration or replacement and suitably tagged.

Planning was paramount. The restoration objective was to return Alma Doepel to commercial survey, which meant working with surveyors and other professionals as well as the certifying authority.

A detailed restoration plan was prepared and costed, and this has become the single most important document of the project. Updated continuously, it has driven fundraising and budgeting as well as setting the rate of workflow.

Volunteers joined Ferdi Darley’s shipwrights as members of the Docklands restoration team with Sail & Adventure board member and Restoration Director, Dr Peter Harris OAM, co-ordinating the project.

Work has been steady and continuous since 2010.

The need to work on hull restoration for an extended period meant creating a floating barge large and sturdy enough to take the size and weight of the ship.

Working with a naval architect and a creative marine contracting firm, components were acquired to provide sufficient buoyancy, including containers with all openings welded up. The resulting barge was large enough to provide work areas around the hull of the ship to allow the erection of scaffolding.

The ship was docked on the barge in BAE Systems’ historic Alfred Graving Dock in Williamstown and then towed back to its Docklands berth alongside Shed 2.

The hull restoration work was more extensive than anticipated, but the team never lost sight of the fact this is an historic ship of considerable maritime heritage significance. Where fabric could be retained it has been, while balancing the need to restore the ship to a standard which will ensure it regains its commercial survey certification.

October 2021 marked a high point of the restoration project to date. In a complex operation, Alma Doepel was lifted from its work barge by the cranes aboard lift-ship AAL Shanghai and slowly lowered into the water.

To the absolute delight of the team, the bilges stayed dry as Alma returned to water.

There is still about two years’ work in refitting the ship, the timetable always governed by fundraising, which has seen more than $3 million raised, with a little more than another $1 million to go to completion.

Anyone seeing Alma Doepel today knows that Peter Stanford was right: it does matter to save an old ship!

For further information, or to donate to the Alma Doepel restoration fund, see almadoepel.com.au.

Alma Doepel is listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels as HV000436.

Alan Edenborough chairs Sail & Adventure Limited and has been involved with the Alma Doepel project since 2008.

He is a member of the Council and Steering Committee of the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV), President of the Australian Maritime Museums Council (AMMC), and a member of the Executive Council of the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM).

Australian National Maritime Museum

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The mystery of HMAS AE1 Why did it dive?

The discovery of HMAS AE1 in 2017, 103 years after it disappeared without trace, solved one mystery but created another – was it sunk in action or lost due to a diving accident? Rear Admiral (Rtd) Peter Briggs lays out the evidence.

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HMAS AE1 FAILED TO RETURN to Rabaul on 14 September 1914 after a day patrolling in Papua New Guinea’s St Georges Channel. There are circumstantial indications that the submarine may have come under attack, necessitating a hasty dive while its crew prepared the torpedo tubes to retaliate. Perhaps in the confusion they overlooked a crucial ventilation valve, allowing water to enter, causing a depth excursion and consequent implosion of the forward hull that crushed the submarine and killed its crew of 35 British, Australian and New Zealand sailors?

AE1 was identified on 20 December 2017, lying in over 300 metres of water off Mioko Island in the Duke of York Islands group, near Rabaul. The follow-up examination conducted aboard Research Vessel Petrel 1 found the submarine lying upright on the bottom, on course for Rabaul, hydroplanes hard to rise, conning tower hatch shut, bow and stern torpedo tube caps open and the fateful clue: the ventilation valve two-thirds open.

What was AE1 doing on 14 September 1914?

We are fortunate to have many of the Australian fleet’s signal and deck logs, along with reports from the fleet commander and commanding officers, to reconstruct AE1’s circumstances and movements on the fateful day.

A detailed consideration of these sources is contained in a document I will refer to as the ‘Search Report 2012’.2 I am indebted to the dedicated team of researchers who contributed to this report, which will be quoted extensively in supporting the analysis presented in this article.

We believe the starboard engine clutch was jammed in, preventing its associated diesel engine from being disengaged from the shaft and depriving AE1 of its starboard screw to go astern or propel when dived.3 The signal logs on the day imply that HMAS Sydney (I) had manufactured a set of bolts and sent them across to the submarine depot ship. Significantly, this defect would have deprived AE1 of 50 per cent propulsion power to recover from a flooding incident while dived.

If an attack did take place, what evidence would we expect to find when the detailed examination was undertaken, 103 years later?

3D photogrammetric model of the AE1 wreck site, showing implosion damage over the forward torpedo room and control room.

From images courtesy Paul G Allen, Find AE1 Ltd, ANMM and Curtin University. © Curtin University Australian National Maritime Museum

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Lieutenant Commander Thomas Besant, AE1’s commanding officer, deviated from the orders issued to Parramatta to patrol St Georges Channel and headed northeast to the Duke of York Islands. We believe he was looking for a German steamer seen in this area

by HMAS Yarra (I) the previous evening. This may have been the steamer Meklong and its tender, which were subsequently found on 23 September, well hidden in Mioko Harbour.

There is no evidence AE1 saw any sign of the steamer.

From the position of its wreck site, the submarine appears to have been heading back to Rabaul, in conformance with Rear Admiral Patey’s personal direction to Besant and Warren to ‘be back by dark’.

AE1 was clearly lost to a diving accident, caused by a depth excursion, which resulted in the hull collapsing (imploding) over the forward torpedo compartment and control room. A more detailed discussion of the circumstances and possibilities is included in the baseline survey report.4 Why would AE1 dive?

The simplest explanation is a practice dive. As the submarines sailed on the surface from the UK, where they were built, to Australia, there would have been sound reason to undertake a practice dive whenever the opportunity presented itself. However, I think Besant’s focus this late in the day would have been the return to harbour, to repair the defective clutch. Along with the direct orders to be back by dark, these factors would have weighed against a practice dive en route to Rabaul.

I believe it is highly likely AE1 completed a ‘trim dive’ after parting company with Parramatta to ensure the submarine was ready to dive at short notice and that all systems were working correctly. This was – and still is – standard submarine practice on leaving harbour.

The other possibility is that AE1 crash dived to avoid attack or engagement with an enemy vessel. There are circumstantial indicators that this may have occurred.

The failure to shut the ship’s ventilation valve points towards a dive in haste. Second, the outer doors to the bow and stern torpedo tubes are open, indicating the first step in preparing them for use.

It is possible the preparation of both torpedo tubes may have been undertaken earlier in the day, to prepare for the eventuality of coming across the steamer sighted the night before. Alternatively, they could have been ordered open as part of a practice dive.

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They could also indicate that AE1 was under attack or its crew anticipated attacking an enemy vessel when it dived. If the tubes were ordered to be prepared as AE1 dived, this would have added to the crew’s workload and confusion, which may have caused the ventilation valve to be overlooked.

In his book Entombed but Not Forgotten, John Foster records a handed-down story from the Mioko Islanders, who spoke of AE1 being sighted the day it disappeared.

Where could an attack have come from?

An RAN signalman, Aubrey Hodgson,5 who temporarily served on the New Zealand steamship Aorangi, recorded an account in his diary of a discussion with Wilhelm Gustav Edwin Reuschel, an Imperial German Navy petty officer.6 Reuschel claimed to have been in charge of a yacht, the ‘colonial’ [sic], which attacked and ran down AE1.7 This name bears some similarity to that of Kolonialgesellschaft, an armed steamer that may have been operating near the Duke of York Islands at the time AE1 disappeared.

There are numerous factual errors and confused dates in Hodgson’s diary, casting doubts on its veracity.

These are discussed in greater detail in Annex D of the 2012 Search Report. Nor is there any record of Hodgson’s account in the official reports of AE1’s loss.

It is possible it was not deemed credible or, more likely, it was written after the events and was never considered by authorities.

Reuschel was a machinist on the German vessel Planet.

Some nine weeks earlier he and several other crew members were hospitalised in Rabaul suffering from typhoid. In addition to the date and other inconsistencies in Hodgson’s diary, there is no satisfactory explanation as to how Reuschel came to be on board and in charge of Kolonialgesellschaft, as he claimed.

If an attack did take place, what evidence would we expect to find when the detailed examination was undertaken, 103 years later?

The fin is a likely target for gunfire, given its visual prominence and presence of the bridge watchkeepers.

It is plated in bronze, which remains in good physical condition today. The port side and top of the fin were examined closely during the Baseline Survey; there is no evidence of damage from gunfire. On the other hand, firing at the bridge, even if it missed, would be sufficient to cause a hasty dive to avoid being hit.

The failure to shut the ship’s ventilation valve points towards a dive in haste, rather than a more deliberate training dive

Edge of sluice valve plate

01 Ventilation valve partially open.

02 RV Petrel’s remotely operated vehicle inspecting the stern tube.

Images courtesy Paul G Allen, Find AE1 Ltd, ANMM and Curtin University. © Navigea Ltd

01 02

Australian National Maritime Museum

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01 AE1’s fin port side, showing no signs of gunshot damage.

02 AE1’s fin starboard side (partial) and top showing no signs of gunshot damage.

Images courtesy of Paul G Allen, Find AE1 Ltd, ANMM and Curtin University. © Navigea Ltd

AE1 was clearly lost to a diving accident, caused by a depth excursion, which resulted in the hull imploding

Conning tower access ladder

After periscope Conning tower bolted flange Conning tower wheel

Lower conning tower hatch opening

01 02

Opening to after fin

Engine room telegraph

After periscope

Forward periscope

Bridge guardrail stanchion with aftermost stanchion hanging below

Flood valve opening

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Conning tower upper hatch (shut)

Starboard blower/ballast pump outlet

Lauer had reason to be quiet about his role in any attack on AE1. On capture in Rabaul he was listed as a land surveyor (his role as a lieutenant in the German Army reserves was not revealed), gave his parole and was repatriated to Germany, where he enlisted in the German Army and was killed on the Western Front.12

According to the German provincial governor’s report,8 Kolonialgesellschaft was en route from Madang to Rabaul with a party of armed German Army reservists and only made it as far as Cape Lambert, 68 nautical miles to the west of Mioko Island, where it ran aground on 16 September and was abandoned. The governor’s report annexes an account provided by the officer in charge of the reservists, Lieutenant Emil Joseph Lauer.9 Unfortunately, that document has not been located.

Kolonialgesellschaft was designed for an expedition to explore the Sepik River. Reports indicate that the vessel carried sufficient fresh water and coal for a voyage of 1,400 kilometres.10 Kolonialgesellschaft was armed with a one-inch Nordenfelt gun, estimated to be capable of penetrating AE1’s pressure hull from close range.

On 18 September, HMAS Warrego was searching for AE1 when it came across the wreck of Kolonialgesellschaft, aground on a reef to the North of Cape Lambert.

To my mind, questions remain: Why did AE1 dive this late in the day, en route to Rabaul? Why were two torpedo tubes partially prepared for action? Was AE1 lost in action with a German steamer, or the victim of a tragic accident?

I nominate a number of research targets for future investigation to try to resolve the question: • Meklong was probably the steamship sighted by HMAS Yarra (I) on 13 September. Could it have attacked AE1?

• Are there corroborating reports from Aorangi or other ships of the account in Hodgson’s diary?

• Where are the diary and report provided to Governor Haber by Lieutenant Lauer, the officer in charge of the party on Kolonialgesellschaft?

• Are there any other accounts of Kolonialgesellschaft’s performance and movements?

• Are there any additional Mioko Islander stories that describe an action between AE1 and another vessel?

1 Research Vessel Petrel – Baseline Survey of HMAS AE1 (‘RV Petrel Baseline Survey’), Find AE1 Ltd and Australian National Maritime Museum, April 2018.

2 SUBSUNK HMAS AE1, 14 September 1914, Search Area Recommendation (‘Search Report 2012’), AE1 Inc, 10 February 2012.

Based on the departure date from Madang of 5 September recorded in a report produced by Herr Fritz Hoyer, postmaster at Frederich Wilhelmshaven (modern-day Madang) and a military reservist who took passage on Kolonialgesellschaft, it could have been capable of reaching the Duke of York Islands; however, we have no corroborating evidence that this occurred.

3 AE1’s engines had no gearbox. When wishing to go astern on the surface or to propel while diving, the diesel engines had to be stopped and the engine clutches opened before the electric motors could propel the submarine ahead or astern.

Conclusion

8 Search Report 2012, para 5.10.3.2. File Bundesarchiv 1001/2613 The War in New Guinea 1914 Vol. 3 see Vol 4, 15 January–15 July, which includes a report by Governor Haber on the war in German New Guinea. AIll 323/15.

In drawing some preliminary conclusions, it is likely that Hodgson reconstructed the account well after the events, and hence little faith can be placed in it.

AE1’s crew were poorly prepared for an operational task, with little diving experience and no work-up or weapon firing training. This lends weight to the training dive/accident theory,11 but there is also circumstantial evidence of a hasty dive to avoid attack.

In the latter case, the most likely candidate seems to be Kolonialgesellschaft. It had a suitable weapon and the personnel to operate it, and was rumoured to have undertaken a successful attack, but the lack of any later claim by the Germans is perhaps the most telling factor against this scenario.

4 RV Petrel Baseline Survey, Annex C, page 96.

5 Search Report 2012, para 4.7.

6 Search Report 2012, para 4.11.

7 Search Report 2012, para 4.7.

9 Search Report 2012, para 4.10.

10 Source: Peter Richardson from the Bundesarchiv, 28-39-191109-30 p. 652, Expedition des Reichskolonialamtes und der Dt Kolonialgesellschaft zur Erforschung der Gebiete des Kaiserin-AugustaFlussa. Der Dampfer Kolonialgesellschaft (detailed technical description of Kolonialgesellschaft).

11 RV Petrel Baseline Survey, pages 34 and 35.

12 Search Report 2012, para 4.10.

Peter Briggs AO OAM CSC is a retired rear admiral of the Royal Australian Navy and a submarine specialist. He was chair of the board of Find AE1 Ltd, which was formed to research and lead the successful search to locate the final resting place of Australia’s first submarine. He was also a member of the expedition team aboard RV Petrel that surveyed the wreck of HMAS AE1 in 2018.

Australian National Maritime Museum

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A luminous purchase Sydney Harbour Bridge watercolour

Thirty years ago, the Australian National Maritime Museum became a new landmark on the shores of Sydney Harbour. What better way to celebrate the anniversary than an auction coup that encapsulates a similar aspiration?

Importantly, it was the generous contributions of Members to the Foundation that made this purchase possible. By Dr Peter Hobbins.

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02

IN MARCH 2022, SPIRITED BIDDING saw the museum secure a little-known yet stunning watercolour of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Painted in 1924, this is a work of national significance, embodying the ambitions of a modernising Australia in the aftermath of World War I. A notably maritime work, it features the soon-tobe-scuttled HMAS Australia (I) at right, plus a busy foreground scene of working boats, pleasure craft and international liners passing beneath the distinctive steel arch.

This is a work of national significance, embodying the ambitions of a modernising Australia in the aftermath of World War I

Measuring 1.7 metres across, this depiction is signed by Cyril Arthur Farey, acknowledged as Britain’s leading 20th-century architectural perspectivist. Assisted by fellow architect Graham Richard Dawbarn, Farey portrayed the final engineering design of the bridge at the very moment that its construction was guaranteed. It is arguably the first full rendering of a structure that embodied Australia’s rising international stature.

The work was almost certainly commissioned

by British consulting architects Sir John Burnet & Partners, who designed the bridge’s granite-faced pylons. It only came onto the market in 2022, after nearly a century gracing the headquarters of the engineering firm that undertook the detailed design and erection of the bridge.

01 Sydney Harbour Bridge, Cyril Farey and Graham Dawbarn, 1924. The work was purchased at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, in March 2022.

National Maritime Collection 00056191 Supported by the ANMM Foundation.

Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM 02 Harold Cazneaux, Arch in the sky, 1930. The museum has a significant collection of photographs taken during the bridge’s construction, such as this one showing the two arches almost at the point of meeting. National Maritime Collection 00054650

Based in Middlesbrough, northern England, Dorman Long & Company won the tender for a bridge to connect Millers Point with Sydney’s north shore in March 1924.

Completed in 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge did more than unite the two sides of the city. It also gave Australians a physical symbol of industrial independence, financial confidence and international recognition.

This delightful watercolour will soon be on temporary display in the museum’s Sydney Harbour Gallery.

Preliminary curatorial research indicates that this artwork has never been exhibited in Australia. We are now inviting you to give to this year’s end-of-financial-year appeal to raise the funds needed to bring it ‘home’ for the first time in nearly a century.

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

All donations are tax deductible You can contribute through: Donating on our website at sea.museum/support/donate By direct deposit to: Account name: Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation BSB: 062000 Account: 1616 9309 By contacting the Foundation on 02 9298 3777 and donating over the phone.

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‘The Swap’

Historic vessels John Oxley and Kanangra trade places

The Sydney Heritage Fleet says it only gets to launch one of its restoration projects every 20 years. That’s why events in early April at the fleet’s overcrowded shipyard in a small corner of Sydney Harbour were such a big deal for the volunteer-run organisation, writes Geoff Pow.

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John Oxley bow in the rain, heading for Garden Island dock. Image Daniel Linnet

Seventy years in the hostile saltwater environment had left John Oxley in a bad way and riddled with corrosion

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AFTER MORE THAN TWO DECADES and a full hull replacement, the 1927 coastal steamer John Oxley was ready in April for its long-anticipated launch.

However, the planners and logistics experts at the Sydney Heritage Fleet (SHF) wanted to outdo themselves this time. Yes, they were planning a major turning point in the long-term restoration of Australia’s last coastal steamer. But at the same time, they would be aiming to get the historic 1912 Sydney Harbour ferry Kanangra out of the water for the first time since 1987, for a desperately needed new hull.

The one-in-one-out manoeuvre quickly became known as ‘The Swap’. A lot was riding on its success.

Both vessels are intimately linked to the future viability of the SHF, which operates and maintains the restored 1874 square rigger James Craig, and one of the largest fleets of historic vessels in the world, on Sydney Harbour.

Late on 29 March, frantic efforts were still under way to make sure the first stage of the swap would begin the following morning. The deadline had already been brought forward two days to avoid the sort of bad weather that could sink even the notion of towing a 760-tonne ship down the harbour while it sat high on a floating pontoon.

Volunteers and staff had put in all sorts of crazy hours in previous days on the planned tow. Shipyard Operations Manager, Tim Drinkwater, was the last to leave at 1.30 am that night after painting the draught marks in roman numerals on John Oxley’s bow. Tim would be back just a few hours later to help get the ship under way.

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01 Kanangra floating above the sunken pontoon in the Garden Island dock. Image Brett Smith 02 John Oxley dead slow under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Image Daniel Linnet

At 7 am on 30 March, tides and weather had been checked, two tugs were standing by, and the order was given to cast off the shorelines and fenders that had kept the fleet’s floating pontoon, known as the Sea Heritage Dock, moored.

Ahead was a squeeze through the waterway adjoining Sydney’s disused Glebe Island Bridge, with only a metre to spare on each side of the pontoon. Then under the Harbour Bridge, past the Opera House and on to the dry dock at the Garden Island Naval Base.

So why is this relic from a past era of shipping worth saving?

John Oxley is typical of vessels that were very common in Australian waters in the early part of the 20th century – ships that were the only way of moving cargo and passengers along the coast before road and rail links took over. When restoration is finished, it will be the largest operational steamship in the country, and one that can instantly transport Australians back to a bygone era of coastal travel by ship.

The mechanics of the swap, getting John Oxley back in the water and then placing Kanangra on the fleet’s Heritage Dock, involved a complicated sequence of precise steps 02

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01 Kanangra propped in the drained Garden Island dock.

Image Tim Drinkwater 02 Kanangra leaving dry dock.

The barnacle-covered hull had been in water since 1987.

Image Geoff Eastwood

Both John Oxley and Kanangra are intimately linked to the future viability of the Sydney Heritage Fleet

John Oxley was built in 1927 near Glasgow, in an era when Scotland was world famous for quality marine technology, as well as for the sheer number of ships it could turn out. John Oxley’s riveted hull, teak decks, two Scotch boilers and triple-expansion engine were typical of the day, although Queensland maple timber had been sent specially from Australia to be included in the ship’s cabins.

Going alongside one large passenger ship one night, he told of being covered in an avalanche of leftovers from passengers’ tables. Row boat and crew alike were left in a sticky, greasy mess. The pilot’s gabardine coat was covered in a mixture of sauces and gravy and as he grabbed the ladder and began to climb, he was already rehearsing what he was going to say when he reached the bridge of that ship!

The Queensland Harbours and Marine Department put it to work as a pilot steamer and a maintenance ship servicing navigation beacons and lighthouses along the coast. Naming the ship was easy, as it would be sailing in waters explored by early colonial adventurer and surveyor John Oxley, between the Brisbane River and present-day Gladstone.

John Oxley was decommissioned in 1968. Maritime work and accommodation conditions were changing, and in its later years the vessel had become increasingly decrepit. In 1964 the Seamen’s Union of Australia called it a ‘rust heap’ with the worst living conditions of any Australian ship.

During World War II, John Oxley was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy, returning to civilian pilot duties in 1946, when it was converted from coal to oil-fired propulsion. That ended the messy process of dumping ash from the boilers in a trail behind the stern.

John Oxley originally had a crew of 15 and could carry up to 14 pilots, who would be rowed to ships arriving in, or leaving, the Port of Brisbane. A good turn of speed, up to 14 knots, allowed it to keep up with the much bigger ships wanting help in unfamiliar surroundings.

The pilots, who had to clamber up ladders from the clinker rowing boats dispatched from John Oxley, told some shocking stories of what was being thrown from those visiting ships. They had many discharge points. Ron Thiele was one of those crewing the row boats in 1950. He said the hazards they faced included condenser water, oily bilge water being cleared before the ship entered port and, worst of all, the numerous galley refuse chutes.

The ship was donated to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum (a precursor of the Sydney Heritage Fleet) and it arrived in Sydney Harbour under its own steam in August 1970. But it would be another 27 years before it could be taken out of the water and placed on the fleet’s Heritage Dock, and a further five years before restoration work could begin in earnest in 2004.

Seventy years in the hostile saltwater environment had left the ship in a bad way and riddled with corrosion.

The restoration became a huge task, as volunteers revived old skills and invented new ways to repair machinery. All but two of the ship’s hull plates have been replaced and fastened with hot metal rivets.

The mechanics of the swap, getting John Oxley back in the water and then placing Kanangra on the fleet’s Heritage Dock, involved a complicated sequence of precise steps.

Defence contractor Thales, which operates the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island, had found a two-week window in its schedule, for both vessels.

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John Oxley is typical of vessels that were very common in Australian waters in the early part of the 20th century

01 John Oxley afloat in Sydney Harbour. Image benlee.com.au

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John Oxley was floated into the dock on a pontoon.

With the caissons (gates) closed behind it, seawater was then pumped out until the ship and the pontoon were sitting as one unit on the floor of the dry dock. After John Oxley was inspected, hatches on the pontoon were then left open and the dock refilled. As the water rose again, the pontoon stayed where it was and John Oxley floated free. The delicate operation included checking for leaks and ensuring the rudder would not be damaged during lift-off.

With the ship safely back in the harbour, the sequence was repeated. The dock was pumped out and the pontoon prepared to take Kanangra. The whole operation could not have been achieved without the support of Thales and tug operator Ausbarge. Even so, the swap and finishing work on John Oxley will total about $1.4 million. Donations from supporters and sponsors have reduced the amount still needed to $850,000.

Restoration of Kanangra is estimated at $4–5 million over five years, so there are many challenges for the fleet’s fundraisers. The organisation receives some specific grant money, but no ongoing government funding.

02 Relieved Sydney Heritage Fleet personnel waving from the stern of John Oxley after the tow home.

Image benlee.com.au

The Sydney Heritage Fleet believes John Oxley will be attractive to visitors as both a static display and for voyages in Sydney Harbour and along the New South Wales coast. Kanangra’s passenger-carrying potential, too, could make it a real revenue-earner for the fleet in the years to come.

Since the fleet began in 1965, more than 7,500 volunteers have provided over 2.5 million hours of service, while crewing, repairing and restoring the fleet’s vessels.

Those with existing skills are as welcome as those who wish to learn new ones.

With plans for a new workshop onshore, the fleet is hoping to create a base that can display many vessels in its collection, under the umbrella of a new Museum of Sydney Harbour.

Geoff Pow is a volunteer at the Sydney Heritage Fleet.

For more information on Sydney Heritage Fleet voyages, volunteering or donations, see shf.org.au or phone 02 9298 3888.

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Members events

Speakers talk

Speakers talk

Speakers talk

MV Krait

RAAF Catalinas in WWII – The amazing flying boats

Stories of quarantine

2–3.30 pm Thursday 28 July

The growing colonies of Australia relied on ships for immigrants and trade with the rest of the world. A sea voyage in the 19th century, however, involved many perils, including the infectious diseases that often accompanied passengers and crew. One of the few responses to this threat was quarantine. By looking at the history and archaeology of Sydney’s North Head Quarantine Station, this talk by Pam Forbes and Greg Jackson explores the social history of modern Australia and developments in medicine and transport over the last 200 years.

How did the new colony react to the hazard of infectious diseases and what other purposes was quarantine put to?

What were the personal experiences of new arrivals isolated in a strange new place or returning citizens unable to complete their journey? And how does this compare to the modern response to pandemics?

2–3.30 pm Friday 24 June MV Krait was at the centre of Operation Jaywick, an audacious and successful World War II raid on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour by a group of Allied commandos who demonstrated extraordinary bravery, resilience and ingenuity. Operation Jaywick is considered the most daring seaborne raid in military history. Join Merv Rosen to find out about the training and equipment required to conduct the raid and the lasting legacy left by these brave men.

Free for Members and one guest.

Bookings essential; see box.

Most people will have heard of the wartime exploits of the Dam Busters, or RAF Bomber Command, or the crucial role played by the Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons in the Battle of Britain – but fewer will be aware of the many exploits of the Catalina flying boat. Come and hear Arthur Pearce tell the stories of the many roles the Catalinas played in World War II, including air–sea rescue, convoy escort, supplying coast watchers and Z Special Unit, as well as the strategic mine-laying operations by the Black Cats.

Free for Members and one guest.

Bookings essential; see box.

Curator talk and tour

Science Week curator talk

Shaped by the Sea

How to understand the ocean in 10 objects

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 29 June Join museum curators Dr Stephen Gapps and Matt Poll on a tour of the museum’s new exhibition Shaped by the Sea, which tells the story of Australia’s maritime history and our relationship with seas, rivers and waterways from the deep past to the present. The experience transforms the way the museum has interpreted the National Maritime Collection and heralds a new chapter in its life and vision.

Free for Members and one guest.

Bookings essential; see box.

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 17 August Technologies developed for the marine environment do any number of tasks, from helping us to stay alive, cleaning our seas, or gathering ocean data that informs policy and knowledge of the ocean.

The museum’s collection of contemporary marine technologies helps us to tell stories about our modern ocean and how we use and understand it. Join Emily Jateff, Curator of Ocean Science and Technology, as she shows how just ten objects in our collection can help you to better understand our ocean.

2–3.30 pm Wednesday 24 August

Free for Members and one guest.

Bookings essential; see box.

Free for Members and one guest.

Bookings essential; see box.

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 9298 3777.

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

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

All events are subject to NSW COVID-19 public health orders.

For updates, please check our website at sea.museum.

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CTD (Conductivity temperature and depth) rosette being deployed from RV Investigator.

Courtesy CSIRO/Marine National Facility, photographer Merinda McMahon

Members events

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Exhibitions

Ice bear as sea bear © Martin Gregus

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Now showing

From the Natural History Museum in London, this exhibition features over 100 exceptional images that capture fascinating animal behaviour, spectacular species and the breathtaking diversity of the natural world.

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USING PHOTOGRAPHY’S UNIQUE emotive power to engage and inspire audiences, the images shine a light on stories and species around the world and encourage a future of advocating for the planet.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photography event of its kind, providing a global platform that showcases the natural world’s most astonishing and challenging sights. The competition receives over 50,000 entries from all over the world. sea.museum/wildlife

Exhibitions

Ocean Wonders

One Ocean – Our Future

Shaped by the Sea

Now showing

Until 23 October

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. This free outdoor exhibition reveals a selection of their stunning underwater images.

Marvel at the diversity of Australia’s marine life revealed by Schmidt Ocean Institute’s 2020 circumnavigation of Australia aboard 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.

From July; see website for confirmation of opening date

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

Ocean Wonders is delivered in partnership with Schmidt Ocean Institute sea.museum/oceanwonders

Sea Monsters – Prehistoric ocean predators Returning until 14 August 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!

Cast of a five-metre Shonisaurus ichthyosaur skull. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM

sea.museum/one-ocean Sea star preying on coral.

Image Schmidt Ocean Institute

Mariw Minaral (Spiritual Patterns) Season extended until 5 February 2023 For the first time from the National Maritime Museum Collection, we bring together works by Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) artist Alick Tipoti.

With over 25 years as an artist, Tipoti is 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. sea.museum/mariw-minaral

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 dual perspectives 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. sea.museum/shaped-by-the-sea

Exhibitions

Travelling exhibitions

Remarkable – stories of Australians and their boats Yamba Museum (NSW), until 3 July Seaside Museum Moreton Bay (QLD), until 30 July Townsville Maritime Museum (QLD), until 31 July Newman Visitor Centre (WA), mid-June–August Port of Morgan (SA), 25 July–28 August Clarence River Historical Society (NSW), 1 August–11 September Port MacDonnell Community Complex (SA) 5 August–2 October 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 from 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. sea.museum/remarkable

Voyage to the Deep – Underwater adventures

Sea Monsters – Prehistoric ocean predators

Discovery Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Until 31 August

Newcastle Museum, September 2022–February 2023

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.

Earth’s oceans were home to some of the largest, fiercest and most successful predators ever. While dinosaurs ruled the land, giant reptiles and sharks hunted the depths.

What can their fossilised bones tell us about how they lived? How do they compare to today’s top ocean predators?

Discover the secrets of these monsters of the deep in this exhibition that will delight all ages! sea.museum/sea-monsters-travelling

Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO® bricks Museum of the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie, WA Until 14 August Museum of Geraldton, WA 26 August–21 November 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 was 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

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.

Adventures with Captain Nemo in Voyage to the Deep. Image ANMM 50

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While the Australia trade did not quite carry the cachet of the transAtlantic passenger run on the large mail ships, it still represented an impressive posting for an ambitious young officer

White Star Line officer wearing cap with White Star Line badge and removable ribbed white cap cover.

00020869 All images Samuel J Hood Collection, ANMM 52

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Monkey jackets and ‘farbs’ White Star Line officers’ uniforms through the lens of the Samuel Hood Collection

The uniform of an ocean liner’s officer served several functions in the early years of the 20th century, as it still does today. It designated both the wearer’s role as crew and their rank in the ship’s hierarchy of command. There was a set of protocols about what was to be worn, and also how and when. On long ocean voyages, however, sometimes rules were stretched or even broken, writes Inger Sheil.

I had orders to report; and on arriving in Liverpool, found I was appointed to the RMS Medic, the first of the five huge White Star Liners that were to open the new Australian service. I suppose I ought to have felt flattered at being picked out from among the many, but it was rather a staggerer, since all my outfit happened to be roaming somewhere round the railways, more or less lost, and certainly unobtainable.

When the Marine Superintendent told me the ship was sailing within a couple of days, I blurted out, ‘Good Lord, I’ve no clothes.’ His reply was short, and to the point.

‘Get some.’ I did, and rambled off to Australia with slightly less than half an outfit. But it was the White Star Line, the summit, at that time, of my ambitions.

Titanic and Other Ships, Charles Lightoller (1935)

THE WHITE STAR LINE’S AUSTRALIA SERVICE had its origins in the mid-19th century, and by the turn of the 20th century had been reinvigorated by the discovery of gold in Western Australia and an increase in migration numbers to the soon-to-be federated nation. Seeing opportunities in both emigration and the transportation of produce, the White Star Line launched the Jubilee class of ships, the largest vessels yet to serve the Australia trade. Five ships were required to run a monthly passenger service from Britain to Australia, with the first, Medic, making the voyage in 1899. Medic was soon joined by the Afric, Persic, Runic and Suevic.

The company that Charles Lightoller joined was one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world.

While the Australia trade did not quite carry the cachet of the trans-Atlantic passenger run on the large mail ships, it still represented an impressive posting for an ambitious young officer. On paper, at least, ships’ officers were expected to dress and conduct themselves to reflect the prestige of the line. In an undated, pre-1900 publication, Regulations for the Safe and Efficient Navigation of the Company’s Steamships, these expectations were explicitly set out in respect of uniforms: The uniform prescribed by the company is to be worn on board, at all times, by the officers (the engineer on watch excepted). The crew, consisting of the seamen, firemen and stewards, excepting firemen on duty, must always wear it on Sundays, at sea or in port; also on the days of sailing from or arriving in port, each of the crew being compelled to provide himself with a uniform.

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A summer standard uniform, often worn in Australian climes during the warmer months, was also part of a full officer’s kit

The uniforms adopted by the British mercantile marine were based on those worn in the Royal Navy.

At a time when Britain’s navy was in a position of global ascendency, such an association carried status.

The more prestigious merchant shipping lines, including the White Star Line, also considered it desirable for their officers to hold commissions in the Royal Naval Reserve. As the regulations stated, the onus was on the officers themselves to provide their own garb. The White Star crew, in common with those of many other lines, sourced their uniforms from Miller’s Naval Tailors and Outfitters in their London, Southampton and Tilbury branches.

The basic ensemble for both deck and engineering officers was known as the standard ‘service dress’ – sometimes referred to as ‘undress’. This uniform served the purpose of workaday attire, and consisted of a double-breasted, eight-buttoned waist-length reefer jacket in navy blue wool, referred to by the crew somewhat derisively as a ‘monkey jacket.’ This was worn with a white dress shirt, black tie and a collar and cuffs that were removable for laundering. Trousers were navy blue wool.

In 1856, Royal Navy officer insignia shifted to the use of gold lace (or braid) stripes worn on both sleeves to indicate rank, and the merchant service followed suit.

At the turn of the 20th century, the ship’s captain wore four rows of lace, the top having a loop known as the executive curl. The chief officer had three rows with an executive curl, the first officer had two, and the second and subsequent officers, numbering up to six on larger lines, had a single stripe with executive curl.

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A similar system, minus the executive curl, was in place for the engineering officers. In the post-World War I era, the colour purple was added as a base fabric for merchant navy engineers’ braids, giving rise to a legend that the colour was chosen to honour the heroism of the engineering officers who perished with the White Star liner Titanic in 1912. Purple, however, had been associated with the engineering branch of the Royal Navy since at least the 1860s. Black mohair braids could be worn instead of gold braid on service dress.

These were suitable for rougher work, being cheaper to replace and less easy to damage than the gilded copper wire braid.

A summer standard uniform, often worn in Australian climes during the warmer months, was also part of a full officer’s kit. This consisted of a white single-breasted jacket with a high Russian collar, worn without a shirt and tie. Shoulder boards were worn instead of cuff braid to identify rank. The outfit was completed with white trousers and sometimes white shoes. Photographs of the period, particularly formal and semi-formal photographs taken on board, often show the navy blue reefer jacket combined with the white trousers.

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01 Deck officer of the White Star Line in summer uniform.

Two bars on his shoulder boards indicate that he holds the rank of First Officer.

0002058 02 Engineering officer in full dress, including a somewhat rumpled frock coat and white cap cover. 00020801

02 Australian National Maritime Museum

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While official sources may tell us what ‘correct’ behaviour was in matters such as dress, they do not always tell us the full story

01 Deck officer in full dress with dark gloves as worn on watch.

The uniform indicates this photo may have been taken soon after arrival, while embarking or disembarking passengers, or shortly prior to departure.

00021370 02 The White Star liner RMS Medic was one of the premier passenger liners on the Australian service in the early years of the 20th century. 00023693 56

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Full company dress constituted the most formal uniform worn by White Star Line officers. It was marked by the adoption of the double-breasted navy blue knee-length frock coat worn with trousers of navy blue Melton wool.

A waistcoat, also of navy blue, was worn over a white cotton or linen bib-front shirt with turn-down collar and with a black silk necktie. Photographs also show the frock coat worn with dark gloves when an officer was on watch. For mess dress, worn by senior crew entitled to dine with passengers, a bow tie instead of necktie was worn with full company dress, and ceremonial white cloth gloves were appropriate.

The uniforms included a cap with a black patent leather visor and a cap badge with the line’s insignia (a swallowtail flag with a white star on a red field), surrounded by laurel leaves and surmounted by a crown.

A removable white cap cover was worn over the top of the cap as part of the summer uniform or as part of full company dress.

Brass buttons, supplied by manufacturers such as Waterburys or Rayner and Sons of Liverpool, were worn on the uniform jackets. These featured an embossed White Star Line house flag.

The Samuel Hood collection

The Australian National Maritime Museum’s Samuel Hood collection is a rich visual documentation of the crews of ships that called at Sydney in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In photographs ranging from candid shots to more formally posed images, Hood documented the officers on the decks of their vessels, taking a moment from their working life in port to be captured on film.

On paper, at least, ships’ officers were expected to dress and conduct themselves to reflect the prestige of the line

While unfortunately most of these men have not yet been identified by name, the resulting images provide a record of what they wore in their daily working life.

The White Star Line’s General Regulations booklet of 1900 made it known that the commander, officers and engineers were expected to wear mess dress ‘while entering or leaving port, when embarking or disembarking passengers, and when attending Sunday Service’. On other occasions the company’s undress might be worn. Many of the Hood photographs reflect these protocols, with excellent examples of the types of uniforms described above.

However, work at sea – and in port – was conducted in a corrosive environment, and the wear and tear on uniforms during the long passage out meant that keeping an officer’s kit in good order required considerable attention. While the primary role of the deck officers was to oversee the safe navigation of the ship, they might also find themselves called up for other duties on the voyage, such as supervising crew as they ventured into the cargo areas to retrieve luggage that had been labelled as ‘not wanted on the voyage’ but which a capricious passenger had decided they wanted after all. In foul weather they might find themselves working exposed on deck, and in tropical climes conditions could be stifling in spite of a summer uniform. In port, they oversaw the stowage of cargo and the resupply of the ship. In the days of coal-burning steamers, dockyards were gritty, grimy working areas. Engineers also faced challenging conditions, working deep in the hull and overseeing operations in engines, boiler rooms and coal bunkers.

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Laundry facilities aboard were fairly basic, and on some ships might consist of little more than a deeper wash basin to hand-wash garments. Some liners carried a steward charged with looking after the officers, but much of the uniform upkeep fell to the officers themselves. Having started their careers as apprentices, they would have learned early in their seafaring days the value of carrying essentials for maintaining their clothing.

Frank Bullen, writing in Men of the Merchant Service (1900), suggested that all apprentices should be fitted out with blacking, ‘a pair of very small shoe-brushes’, ‘a small clothes-brush’, three bars of ‘good yellow soap’ and ‘a housewife [mending kit], well supplied with needles and thread (not cotton), and mending wool, scissors and tweezers’. While White Star liners may have been able to provide some of these, officers also brought their own necessary items. A shoe brush and spare White Star Line buttons were among the objects found in a bag salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic that has been identified as belonging to First Officer William Murdoch. In light of the wear and tear an officer could expect to their kit, it is not surprising that standards of dress sometimes slipped.

Farbs and ‘authentic farbs’

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There is a term familiar to military re-enactors that dates back to the 1960s: ‘farb’. There are several theories as to the word’s origins – it may derive from the phrase ‘Far be it from me to criticise…’ or ‘Far Below Standard’ – but disputed etymology aside, its meaning is clear as a derogatory term applied to re-enactors who, it is asserted, have failed to assemble a historically accurate kit. What constitutes a farb is often a matter of dispute, as researchers delve into historical sources to establish authenticity in both clothing and conduct.

Online communities have developed a counter to this, light-heartedly dubbing the results ‘authentic farbs’.

These are primary sources such as photographs and illustrations that show period figures, usually military, wearing their garb in ways not officially sanctioned by regulations. Rank insignia worn incorrectly, non-militaryissue accoutrements such as weapons, belts and hats, gear appropriated from opposing forces – all of these are typical for an authentic farb that would not pass the eagle eye of a modern-day re-enacting purist, but which were part of the lived experiences of historic figures for whom not all wear was dictated ‘by the book’.

Collections

‘Farb’ is a derogatory term applied to historical re-enactors who, it is asserted, have failed to assemble a historically accurate kit

01 An engineer in service dress, displaying dark mohair braid in place of gold braid. 00020805 02 Deck officer in full dress wearing a frock coat with two columns of six buttons – an anomaly, when known examples from this period have two columns of five buttons. 0021403

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Hood’s photographs reveal similar uniform transgressions.

In one image (02 above), we see a frock coat with two columns of six buttons – an anomaly, when known examples from this period have two columns of five.

In one particularly notable example of a uniform styling that defies regulation dress, an officer wears a frock jacket with summer white trousers – while officers sometimes wore the navy reefer jacket of service dress with the white trousers, wearing the more formal frock jacket in this way presents us with an incongruous combination (03 above).

03 An officer flouts regulation dress by wearing a frock coat with summer white trousers.

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Inger Sheil is an assistant curator at the museum and the author of Titanic Valour: The life of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe (The History Press, 2011).

The author would like to thank Titanic researcher John Hemmert for sharing his extensive knowledge and insight on White Star Line uniforms.

As Lightoller’s words about travelling to Australia ‘with slightly less than half an outfit’ indicate, not every officer was fully kitted out. Nor, having voyaged for months with a limited wardrobe and limited laundry facilities, was every garment still fit for purpose. Our unknown deck officer in the image above made do with what he had to hand, and if he was somewhat surprised at being captured on a nitrate negative by the visit of an enterprising photographer, his stance indicates he decided to brazen it out for the camera. The resulting mismatch is a delightful reminder that while official sources may tell us what ‘correct’ behaviour was in matters such as dress, they do not always tell us the full story.

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Australian Register of Historic Vessels

Flood and cyclone Emergency response watercraft listed to the ARHV

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

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Australian Register of Historic Vessels

In January 1918, Mackay was struck by a cyclone and the massive tidal surge devastated shipping in the Pioneer River

Residents escape flooding in Lismore, February 2022.

Image Jason O’Brien/AAP

NEWS COVERAGE OF THE RECENT FLOODS in northern New South Wales and Queensland has featured a number of images of community members carrying out rescues in all kinds of watercraft.

Variations on the ‘flood boat’ have been actively used in these regions since the mid-19th century, and the Australian Register of Historic Vessels (ARHV) has documented a number of such craft.

The January 2022 round of nominations to the ARHV included a flood boat from Woodford in Queensland.

Built in the 1890s for use by the local police service, the 16-foot (5-metre) Woodford Flood Rescue Boat (WFRB) was deployed to rescue people and livestock during periods of flood in and around Woodford. Located on the southeastern bank of the Stanley River, Woodford is prone to heavy rain. The addition of two creeks between the town and the river often resulted in a confluence of waterways, causing strandings and sometimes drownings. In 1890 the water in Woodford rose to 8.5 metres and in 1893 to 11.5 metres.

The WFRB was built from local timbers, probably cedar or hardwood, and has heavy-duty metal fasteners, a vee-bottom hull shape and a flat skeg at its stern.

Its proportions allowed for good manoeuvrability, speed and balance. Newspaper records show the WFRB’s involvement in floods in Maryborough and Woodford in 1893 and 1931. The vessel has stayed in the local community and is now proudly owned by the Woodford Historical Society.

A number of other flood boats from Queensland are listed on the ARHV.1 Vessels May-Belle (HV000534), the Coen flood boat (HV000546), Water Baby (HV000768) and the Yandilla Station flood boat (HV000807) were built in the same period as WFRB, but differ through their construction in iron or steel plating. These materials were more suited to hot and dry inland Queensland environments, where wooden vessels tended to shrink and open at the seams.

Flood boats of wooden construction do feature on the ARHV, from the New South Wales regions of the South Coast (Noah HV000702), Central Coast (Maitland Flood Boat HV000583) and Northern Rivers (Cedar Queen HV000710), where coastal conditions are more forgiving.

Further up the Queensland coast is Eleanor, a 22-foot (6.7-metre) motor launch that was also deployed in an emergency (HV000825). Launched in Mackay in 1913, Eleanor was originally used as a recreational craft by builder and owner Henry Charles Rose. Shortly after its completion, Eleanor made a trip north to Bowen to compete in the 1914 Easter regatta, placing second and winning one pound in prize money.

In January 1918, Mackay was struck by a cyclone.

The massive tidal surge devastated shipping in the Pioneer River, destroyed the bridge connecting north and south Mackay and cut all forms of communication.

It claimed 22 lives in the Mackay region, left hundreds homeless and severely affected local economies such as sugar and cattle. Eleanor was the only vessel to survive this cyclone intact.

Charles Rose put the vessel to use, taking supplies to those isolated by the flooding and helping to communicate with relief vessels that arrived off Flat Top Island. Eleanor further acted as a passenger ferry across the Pioneer River until the bridge was repaired.

Following the cyclone, Eleanor remained under the ownership of Charles Rose until he died in 1977.

In 1987 it was donated to the Mackay Museum, and as of 2022 remains on display, predominantly original in all its components.

The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the bravery of local community members assisting rescue efforts in their chosen watercraft, and wishes a swift and safe recovery to the communities navigating these trying times.

1 Other articles about flood boats, including profiles of May-Belle and Water Baby, can be found in Signals issues 102 (March–May 2013) and 137 (June–August 2019).

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Australian Register of Historic Vessels 01

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MMAPPS grants In the 2022–23 round of applications for the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme (MMAPSS), a priority weighting will be given to applications from organisations affected by the floods of early 2022. Please see sea.museum/grants for more details, or phone the MMAPSS Coordinator on 02 9298 3743.

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The Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

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Images 1–6 courtesy the vessels’ owners

This online, national heritage project, devised and coordinated by the Australian National Maritime Museum in association with Sydney Heritage Fleet, reaches across Australia to collect stories about the nation’s existing historic vessels and their designers and builders. Search the complete Australian Register of Historic Vessels at sea.museum/arhv

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Name

Type

Builder

Date

Number

01

MV Macleay

Pilot vessel

Holmes Bros

1935

HV000821

02

Fitzroy

Launch

Cockatoo Island Dockyard

1928

HV000822

03

MV Spray

Launch

Clarrie Motum

1954

HV000823

04

Adina

Sloop

Percy Coverdale

1932

HV000824

05

Eleanor

Launch

Henry Charles Rose

1913

HV000825

06

Woodford Flood Rescue Boat (WFRB)

Flood boat

Owen Haggar

1890s

HV000826

Signals 139 Winter 2022

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Glass Octopus. Phoenix Islands. Image courtesy Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Explore the deepest and most remote parts of the Australian marine environment.

National Monument to Migration

A day of ceremony and celebration National Monument to Migration celebrates 1,281 new names 01

The latest names added to the museum’s National Monument to Migration represent migrants from more than 70 countries. Each name tells its own unique story, and each story is one of hope. By Pamela Proestos.

… being here today brings to mind for me the important message that no matter what our origins, our history as the children of migrants, who may have even fought on opposing sides in World War II, we can come together here in Australia, recognise and value both our similarities and our differences, and build a safe, inclusive and nurturing community for all.

Associate Professor Phillip Braslins, son of Latvian immigrant Ilgonis Gunars Braslins, speaking at the 2.30pm unveiling ceremony 64

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National Monument to Migration

01 From left: Emmanuel Alfieris, President, Kytherian Association; Madilina Tresca, NMM donor, from the Italian community; Mahbobi Rawi OAM, Afghan community; Christine Castley, CEO of museum partner Multicultural Australia; Stephen Coutts, Australian National Maritime Museum Councillor; Virginia Langeberg, SBS presenter; Daina Fletcher, Senior Executive, Australian National Maritime Museum; Craig Madden, Gadigal Bundjalung man.

Image Marinco Kojdanovski 02 Singer Tina Bangel and guitarist Nono from the Filipino community performed during the ceremonies.

Image Marinco Kojdanovski

The monument features more than 30,000 names from over 200 countries – including, this year, people from Afghanistan, Gabon, Sierra Leone and Somalia. The top ten countries represented in the three ceremonies held on 20 March were the United Kingdom, Italy, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, South Africa, Ireland, the Philippines and Latvia. At the 12.30 pm ceremony, Australian National Maritime Foundation Director Simon Chan said: The experiences and names inscribed on the monument speak of universal themes such as love, adventure, family, safety and striving for a better life. Some are journeys of loss and sadness, some of triumph but, ultimately, all speak of hope … We are grateful to our donors to the Migration Heritage Fund, which supports the museum’s ongoing commitment to telling the nation’s migration story.

Immortalise a loved one or honour your community

SUNDAY 20 MARCH MARKED A MILESTONE for the museum’s National Monument to Migration.

In an emotional day of ceremony, we welcomed migrants and families of migrants and unveiled new panels honouring 1,281 names.

In three ceremonies held during the day, Gadigal Bundjalung man Craig Madden presented a formal Welcome to Country for all attendees. He was followed by speakers and performers from diverse communities, representing layers and waves of migration over the past 234 years. Their fascinating stories of hope, courage and resilience emanated from 73 countries.

Last year, the National Monument to Migration was formally renamed by the Governor General, affirming the museum’s Welcome Wall (as it was formerly known) as a nationally significant landmark.

It honours those thousands of migrants who arrived in Australia to build new homes and new lives. Each year, more names are inscribed on the bronze-panelled wall that faces the waters of Darling Harbour and Pyrmont Bay to the museum’s north – waters which once welcomed migrant shipping arrivals.

Donors are invited to contribute photographs and a brief story about the person being honoured for the monument website. The museum is now accepting names for the next panels for the monument to be unveiled in October this year (see details below).

CEOs from museum partners Settlement Services International and Multicultural Australia, who have been working with the museum on this nationally significant project, spoke about the importance of the initiative as well as their personal migration histories.

A special collaboration with these organisations calls for donations to honour new migrants to this country, which is important to the national migration story.

The museum also announced that it has been working closely with the Greek community on a special fundraiser to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence and to honour the contribution of Greek Australians in building our nation.

To contribute to this initiative, please see sea.museum/ Greek-campaign.

To be part of the next panel to commemorate the lives of your family and community, please donate by 30 June at sea.museum/support/national-monument or call Pamela Proestos, manager of the National Monument to Migration, on 02 8241 8337.

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A new volunteer program Welcoming Defence Force veterans

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM, in conjunction with our major partner Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, is proud to announce a new and exciting collaboration. This will involve the expansion of the museum’s existing volunteer program, with the development and implementation of a Defence volunteering program designed to engage and welcome new Defence Force veterans as volunteers to the museum.

The expansion of the museum’s volunteer program represents a fantastic opportunity for the museum and CSC to assist Australian Defence Force veterans by providing training, support, experience and recognition as they transition to civilian life, retirement or employment beyond the Defence Force. Importantly, this collaboration also seeks to provide a greater sense of belonging and community connection among participants.

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While veterans will have the opportunity to contribute to existing positions, a range of new and diverse volunteer roles is also being developed across the museum.

These positions will be matched to applicants to ensure a good fit between existing skill level, experience, interests and preferences, as well as the potential to provide opportunity for growth and learning.

It’s hoped this exciting initiative will lead to further collaborations between like-minded organisations, which will allow the museum to further expand the program. sea.museum/defence-force-volunteers

Volunteers

A program is being designed to engage and welcome new Defence Force veterans as volunteers to the museum

Volunteer roles Here are some of the jobs volunteers can do at the museum: Tour guide Enhance the visitor experience by engaging and providing information and advice about museum collections, exhibitions, and outdoor exhibits such as the historic fleet.

Fleet maintenance Work alongside our shipkeepers and shipwrights to help preserve our fleet.

Sailing hand Train alongside crew members to support the museum’s tall ships as sailing crew.

Project assistant Help design, build and present upcoming exhibitions and programs.

ANMM volunteers Paul Gardiner and John Withers with Vice Admiral Michael Noonan AO RAN at the announcement of the new Defence Force volunteering program, 18 May 2022.

Image Marinco Kojdanovski

As well as learning new skills and developing experience, volunteers can also access a range of social and educational activities as part of the museum’s team. If you or someone you know would like to find out more about volunteering, please visit sea.museum/volunteer.

Settlement Services International

Empowerment through the arts The New Beginnings Festival

Since its partnership with Settlement Services International (SSI) began, the museum has been helping to build social bridges with members of refugee and migrant communities and creating a sense of welcome. SSI’s Arts and Culture Manager, Laura Luna, explains the organisation’s work in delivering its flagship arts and culture event, the New Beginnings Festival, at the museum last month.

SETTLEMENT SERVICES INTERNATIONAL (SSI) has long recognised the enormous potential of the arts to help people forge their identities and build more inclusive communities for everyone.

In 2014, we established an innovative arts and culture program encouraging cultural engagement and nurturing artists and cultural practitioners from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

Being able to experience – and participate in – 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 selfexpression, arts and culture initiatives can empower individuals, bring communities together and help build a stronger society.

Underpinning our arts and culture program is the philosophy of UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Adopted in 2005 and ratified by Australia in 2009, the convention aims to ensure that artists, cultural practitioners and citizens worldwide have the right to cultural practice and preservation.

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Before the pandemic, New Beginnings was held annually at Darling Harbour. Its mix of lively dance and music performances, interactive workshops and culinary market stalls showcased more than 25 different cultures from around the world.

This year we were excited to re-emerge after two long years of restrictions and co-host our festival with the museum.

The headline acts, Dobby, a Filipino–First Nations rapper and drummer, and Gordon Koang, a household name in South Sudan who arrived in Australia seeking asylum, really encapsulated the festival and this year’s theme of bringing people from all walks of life together and creating synergies through the arts.

SSI moderated a discussion on climate emergencies to coincide with the United Nations 66th Commission for the Status of Women (CSW66), highlighting how increased inequalities and risks for women are exacerbated by climate change and disproportionately affect communities already experiencing vulnerability.

South Asian fusion arts company Bindi Bosses presented the debut of ‘Signs’, expressing the devastating effects of, and intersections between, climate change, colonisation and rising temperatures in Western Sydney.

The choreography was created in collaboration with Ella Havelka – a descendant of the Wiradjuri people, former Bangarra Dance company member and the first Aboriginal woman to join the Australian Ballet – and was set to spoken word by Boori Monty Pryor, a multi-disciplinary Birri-gubba and Kunggandji author, performer and poet.

The festival’s ambassador Shyamla Eswaran, an independent movement artist, teacher and founder of Bindi Bosses, who has a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law, said this year’s theme ‘Where You Belong’ invited the public to join a broader conversation through arts and culture, attracting thousands of Sydneysiders to the event.

Settlement Services International

This year’s theme ‘Where You Belong’ invited the public to join a broader conversation through arts and culture 01 Hip hop artist Dobby (Rhyan Clapham), a Filipino and First Nations musician, performs at New Beginnings Festival. Image Danish Ravi 02 SSI New Beginning Festival Ambassador Shyamla Eswaran (right), an award-winning independent movement artist, teacher and founder of Bindi Bosses, performs a dance on the effects of climate change with Sarangi Rupasinghe.

Image Stephen Webb

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Australian National Maritime Museum

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Viewings

Lies and a new life A refugee’s story

THE MOVIE FLEE follows refugee Amin Nawabi and his ordeal to find a new home after leaving Afghanistan.

This animated feature film uses sequences that look hand-drawn, interspersed with real footage. It is about the struggle to find a country that accepts Amin as a refugee, but it also talks about the price a refugee pays for leaving home, whether their journey is successful or not.

Amin’s family loses their father when he is still young.

After being imprisoned by the communist government of Afghanistan, he vanishes from jail without explanation.

The family is still waiting for answers about his fate when the fight between the Mujahedeen and government troops reaches the capital, Kabul. Leaving everything behind, the family flees to Russia. Here they hide, always fearful of being discovered, and dependent on the support of others.

Their exile starts a constant cycle of paying smugglers for attempts to reach Europe, only to be defrauded of the money, or being discovered escaping and sent back to Russia. Between these escape attempts they wait in a legal limbo while hiding from the police, only protected by anonymity and sometimes a well-placed bribe.

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Viewings Flee tells the story of refugee Amin Nawabi through animation and real footage. Image courtesy Madman Entertainment

Flee

Only by retelling and reliving what he experienced is Amin able to take the next step into a settled life

Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen; written by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi; produced by Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte de la Gournerie; runtime 90 minutes.

Distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment

The movie also shows another Amin. In the present, he is a successful migrant in Denmark, with a developing career and a loving boyfriend. He is separated from his family, however, and still carries the scars from his time as a refugee. Whatever he does, his past experiences influence how he interacts with the world. An overpowering feeling of guilt and debt – many others had to sacrifice much for him to have this new life – keeps him from settling down permanently.

His work ethic is based on obligation, which leads to a strained relationship with his boyfriend. The irrational fear of being found out and deported is always present.

It has become a part of Amin’s personality.

The most important journey that Amin undertakes in Flee is the one through his own story. Only by retelling and reliving what he experienced is he able to take the next step into a settled life with his boyfriend and later husband. Amin is lucky. He can revisit his history, find the right aesthetic, and work with director Jonas Poher Rasmussen and a film team to bring it to a format that garners numerous awards and even an Oscar nomination. Amin and the production team have created a very personal, realistic and compassionate depiction of the refugee experience, but above all, their story is complete. It does not ignore the refugee of the present over the refugee experiences of the past.

Another influence on Amin’s life is the lies he had to tell to be accepted in his new country. The peopletraffickers who brought him to Denmark successfully created a new identity for him: a boy without family who lost everyone, and is without any documentation.

Amin’s life becomes a lie, and that lie separates the family. When finally all of his family makes it out of Russia, they are spread out all over Europe.

Getting a chance to visit his sisters, who almost suffocated in a shipping container on their way from Russia, takes Amin years. His lie becomes a part of his life, always driven by the fear of losing his visa and of being deported, maybe even back to Afghanistan.

For many refugees, the act of fleeing means a life of insecurity and exploitation, embedded in endless periods of waiting and hoping. Understanding refugees means understanding that all strategies they develop to overcome these challenges stay with them if they are successful in finding a new life. Some, like Amin, approach life as a challenge, being driven to excel and develop their skills. Many struggle to stop thinking and living like a refugee. Flee shows that this struggle is best tackled with the help of others, and that revisiting your story, however painful it may be, can be essential for starting the next part of your life.

Reviewer Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Migration.

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Readings Mai, the voyaging Ra’iatean, in a 1775 portrait by Joshua Reynolds that is now highly controversial.

Creative Commons

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Readings

The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire

By Kate Fullagar, published

by Yale University Press, New Haven, 2020.

Hardcover, 306 pages, illustrated, index.

ISBN 9780300243062 RRP $66.95 Vaughan Evans Library 325.3410922 FUL

Traits and portraits Three 18th-century worlds, melded in art

Mai is one of a trio of 18th-century characters whose worlds, journeys and portraits are enfolded into Kate Fullagar’s master work of historical empathy.

Ranging from the 1720s until the close of the century, The Warrior, the Voyager and the Artist explores the overlaps of three dynamic realms.

The first was the Cherokee nation, both bounded and bruised by the encroaching British colony of Virginia. Here we meet Ostenaco, whom Fullagar terms a ‘warrior–diplomat’. His formative years were characterised by bitter warfare with the nearby Creek people; he subsequently allied with the adjacent Chota.

Fullagar’s writing is at her richest here, drawing us into Native American beliefs and politics, including pragmatic attempts to parlay with the colonisers and their soldiery.

IN THE SUMMER OF 1776, as the American colonies declared themselves free of the King’s domain, Sir Joshua Reynolds exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. As its President, Reynolds took the liberty of presenting 13 paintings for the season, predominantly portraits. Number 236 in the catalogue was entitled simply Omiah.

War and peace, friend and adversary, were never simple matters for Ostenaco. Somewhat self-appointed, in 1762 he elected to join two other Cherokee representatives on a mission to England. As Britain’s global war with France began to wind down, the captured naval snow L’Epreuve conveyed them to Plymouth. Arriving in London, the Cherokee envoys became celebrated curiosities before earning an audience with George III.

Even within this single word, misrepresentations abound.

The subject of the work was not ‘Omiah’, or even ‘Omai’, as he was commonly known in Georgian Britain.

Mai was a 20-year-old venturer who had sailed to England aboard the former Whitby collier HMS Adventure.

Born on Ra‘iatea – an island neighbour of Tahiti – he had chanced upon James Cook’s second Pacific expedition.

When asked his name, the young man replied ‘Omai’ – ‘I am Mai’. The misnomer survives to this day, thanks in no small part to Reynolds’ portrayal.

During this English interlude, Ostenaco sat for a portrait by the rising Reynolds. It was not a success. Despite the potential audience appeal, Reynolds completed but did not exhibit this oil, which he titled Scyacust Utah – a poor transliteration of ‘skiagusta Ostenaca’, meaning ‘war chief Ostenaco’. While the sitter’s impressions are not recorded, Fullagar suggests Ostenaco appreciated that portraiture was ‘always of the most significant leaders in a society, intended also to remind future viewers of those leaders and their values after death’.

Australian National Maritime Museum

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Readings

The Warrior, the Voyager and the Artist explores the overlaps of three dynamic realms

01 Joseph Banks Esq, engraving from a 1774 painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Mai lodged with Banks after he arrived in London in 1774.

National Maritime Collection ANMM 00004855 02 Ostenaco was a highly respected Cherokee warrior, but Reynolds was unhappy with this portrait and never exhibited it. Creative Commons 01

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Readings

Kate Fullagar’s book is a master work of historical empathy

Mai, like Ostenaco before him, pointedly sought the acquaintance of George III. In addition to his tattoos, Mai also bore the scars of being twice wounded by maritime marauders. The first projectile to pierce his body was blasted from the cannon of HMS Dolphin, lying off Tahiti in 1767. Mai’s second scar was the result of being speared on Huahine five years later, during a Bora Boran attack in the name of the god ‘Oro.

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These were, of course, prime reasons for Reynolds to specialise in portraits. His successes – both artistic and political – help explain the artist’s knighthood and his ascension to the inaugural presidency of the Royal Academy. Reynolds’ sitters included Joseph Banks, famed for his HMB Endeavour voyage with Cook, and soon to become president of the parallel Royal Society.

Establishment art was no liberal salon, however.

Reynolds’ world was one in which the English army led the dissolution of Scottish autonomy, before Britain’s combined arms forced the diminution of France’s global empire. Yet even as the nation’s military, commercial and diplomatic opportunities grew, this imperium was challenged by American truculence. By 1775 Reynolds’ star was also wavering, with some growing ‘tired of his constantly winning ways, the firmness of his dictates about what constituted proper art, the relentlessness of his social and professional successes’.

This was the time when Mai disembarked in Portsmouth.

Arriving in 1774, he lodged with Banks and posed for Reynolds late the following year. Depicted in an inaccurate Orientalist turban and gowns, Mai’s hands and wrists are spotted with tattoos. Rather than a realistic rendering of a venturesome Polynesian, Fullagar suggests that the final portrait is ‘a conglomeration of a wide range of stereotypes’.

These two encounters underpinned Mai’s voyage to England, and his determination to return to Huahine.

Four years with Britons had convinced him of the power of their weapons and the symbolic strength he anticipated as their ally. In 1777 Cook welcomed him aboard HMS Resolution for a third and final foray into the South Seas, where Mai acted sometimes as an interlocutor and elsewhere an interloper during contact with First Nations peoples.

Yet Cook scuppered Mai’s hopes of being outfitted to lead a reprisal war against Bora Bora, leaving him embittered and vulnerable. Meanwhile, in Chickamauga, Ostenaco wearied of being courted by both revolutionary and Native American factions. ‘Much as he had done at other key moments in his life’, Fullagar empathises, ‘Ostenaco turned what appeared to be a sad tale of Indigenous reaction to foreign forces into an Indigenous tale of deliberate, local creativity for a group’s survival’.

The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist is an extraordinary achievement. Its creative prose is matched by exhaustive research and a generosity of spirit that accords its three protagonists equal validity, volition and voice. It draws us deep into parallel worlds that were increasingly entwined by the late 18th century, linking Pacific, American and British history in the decades before the First Fleet forced new encounters on Australian shores. While pitched at an academic audience, this book will appeal to many readers and well deserved its 2021 NSW Premier’s History Award.

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

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Readings

White Russians, Red Peril: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia

By Sheila Fitzpatrick.

Published by La Trobe University Press, Melbourne, 2021.

Softcover, 384 pages, tables, index.

ISBN 9781760641863.

RRP $35.00 Vaughan Evans Library 994.0049171 FIT

A complex microcosm Australia’s Russian diaspora

‘POPULATE OR PERISH’ – the slogan for Australia’s post-war immigration program implied great urgency.

A country with a small population seemed unable to cope with the challenges of the future, especially competing with nations like China and Japan. Urgency, however, did not mean openness. Australia’s most ambitious immigration program to date was extremely restrictive and governed by both spoken and unspoken rules.

In White Russians, Red Peril, Sheila Fitzpatrick looks at a complex and diverse group that entered Australia as immigrants: 25,000 Russians, who arrived in Australia after the end of World War II. Many of these ‘Russians’ (an ill-defined phrase in a world where borders were constantly shifting and countries were dissolved and restored) had long careers as displaced persons behind them. Displaced persons camps in Europe were just the last in a series of temporary homes.

For some, the Russian Revolution was the event that made them stateless and homeless, and even though these so-called ‘White Russians’ were not technically eligible for post-World War II resettlement, many were able to overcome this problem with a little ingenuity.

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The expansion of Soviet Russia led to sizeable Russian diasporas around the world. Shanghai, already a destabilised melting pot when the Russians arrived, was one of them. Cities like Harbin in China were others.

These groups were then joined by those who lost their homes in Eastern Europe during World War II and were either unable or unwilling to return to communistdominated countries. Fitzpatrick describes these backgrounds in depth for a reason: they had a decisive impact on the lives of these émigrés in Australia.

While ‘White Russian’ versus ‘Red Russian’ could be used in the context of the Russian Civil War, it took on a different connotation after World War II. Had the potential immigrants fought for Soviet Russia against Nazi Germany, or had they decided that fighting against the communists justified working for the Nazis?

Were they forced to join Nazi organisations, or did they co-operate willingly? Fitzpatrick shows that the impact of these background histories on the immigration process was heavily influenced by real-world politics.

Nazi loyalty or co-operation could potentially negate any chance of being selected for migration to Australia, at least at the start of the post-war migration program.

Readings

The general public in Australia thought of Russian immigrants as former citizens of Soviet Russia, without reflecting on the complexities of a multi-ethnic state

Russians like the Seiz family participated in the rich cultural life of Harbin. Manchurian dance troupes were an important part of the community until most Russians had to flee the city after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The Seiz family fled to Australia. Image Australian Maritime Collection 00054795

However, those who had worked against Soviet Russia in any capacity, even by fighting actively for the Germans, were soon defined as acceptable by Australia, because this was seen as proof of anti-communist activity.

Most Australians thought of Russian immigrants as former citizens of Soviet Russia, without reflecting on the complexities of its having been a multi-ethnic state.

Using oral history interviews, Fitzpatrick shows how complex both the real and constructed identities of these immigrants were. As communism gained more and more traction in Russia, China and other countries, sympathy for those who fled their homeland became mixed with the fear of possible spies and instigators.

But these challenges did not stop the immigrants from developing a rich cultural life. Establishing Scout chapters, clubs, churches and even schools was not new to them – they had done so before in places like Shanghai and Harbin. However, doing so in Australia did not create a cohesive Russian community. The cracks between ‘White Russians’, communist sympathisers, those who came from China or Europe and the displaced of the Russian Civil War and World War II became clearly visible.

Fitzpatrick’s book brings this complex and conflictwrought microcosm to life. Many of these immigrants had to develop two new homes: one in their new country of residence, and another one in these competing Russian communities. Cold War tensions made achieving both goals more difficult. Russian intelligence operations in Australia tried to convince immigrants to repatriate or co-operate, and while the impact of these efforts seemed to have been low, it did not help to create acceptance for the Russian immigrants or more co-operation between their communities.

Fitzpatrick shows that for many Russian immigrants, their heritage was a source of pride, but also of confusion and significant challenges. Community work, anti-communist sentiment and commitment to the ideals of Australia did not guarantee acceptance by the Australian public. While the reader can sometimes become a little lost in a plethora of specific examples, Fitzpatrick succeeds in giving this group of immigrants the historical and social depth they deserve.

Reviewer Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Immigration.

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Readings Image Joy Lai

New books in the Vaughan Evans Library

Are you exploring your family history, chasing oceanic adventures or seeking a deep understanding of our Indigenous maritime cultures? Then start your voyage of discovery in the museum’s Vaughan Evans Library.

Each month we add new works across a wide range of topics, including naval history, immigration, diverse local cultures, ocean science, river stories, Australian history, school textbooks and titles for kids. We also offer a variety of maritime, genealogical and general research databases.

Check our library catalogue, schedule a visit and enjoy our wonderful new books.

Or you can request many of our titles on interlibrary loan via your own local library.

Enjoy some of our new titles Ruth Balint Destination Elsewhere: Displaced persons and their quest to leave postwar Europe Call number 940.53145 BAL

Denis Byrne The Heritage Corridor: A transnational approach to the heritage of Chinese migration Call number 304.851 BYR

Pearl Binder Treasure Islands: The trials of the ocean islanders Call number 996.8 BIN

Danielle Clode In Search of the Woman Who Sailed the World Call number 410.4092 CLO

Jeremy Black Naval Warfare: A global history since 1860 Call number 359 BLA

A J (Tony) Coen River & Coastal Vessels Trading Out of Hobart, 1832–2015 Call number 387.209946 COE

Phillip Bradley Salamaua 1943 Call number 940.542653 BRA Don and Sue Brian Offshore Whalers at Norfolk Island in the Days of Sail: American, British and colonial deep-sea whalers Call number 639.28 BRI Angus Britts Neglected Skies: The demise of British naval power in the Far East, 1922–42 Call number 940.5425 BRI

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Alexandra Dellios and Eureka Henrich (eds) Migrant, Multicultural and Diasporic Heritage: Beyond and between borders Call number 305.9069 DEL John Dowson Fremantle Port: Pictorial history Call number 387.1099411 DOW David Hill Convict Colony: The remarkable story of the fledgling settlement that survived against the odds Call number 994.402 HIL

Rebecca Huntley Australia Fair: Listening to the nation Call number 300.994 HUN Jan C Jansen (ed) Refugee Crises, 1945–2000: Political and societal responses in international comparison Call number 362.8709 REF Louise C Johnson, Tanja Luckins and David Walker The Story of Australia: A new history of people and place Call number 994 STO Yasuko Hassall Kobayashi and Shinnosuke Takahashi (eds) Transpacific Visions: Connected histories of the Pacific across north and south Call number 990 TRA Waldemar Ossowski (ed) The Copper Ship: A medieval shipwreck and its cargo Call number 910.45309438 COP

Amra Pajalic and Demet Divaroren (eds) Growing up Muslim in Australia: Coming of age Call number 305.69794 PAJ Elspeth Probyn, Kate Johnston and Nancy Lee (eds) Sustaining Seas: Oceanic space and the politics of care Call number 551.45 SUS Michael Stoddart The Blythe Star Tragedy: How indifference and neglect sank a ship and cost three men their lives Call number 910.4530994 STO Randi Svensen A Changing Tide: The history of Berrys Bay Call number 623.8209941 SVE Richard Turner Made in Lancashire: A collective biography of assisted migrants from Lancashire to Victoria 1852–1853 Call number 304.894041 TUR sea.museum/collections/library

Readings

Australian National Maritime Museum

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Following Frank’s death at sea, William and Beryl were adopted separately; at the time, it was believed that adoptees needed a ‘clean break’ from any remaining relatives

A happy ending SS Iron Crown orphans reunited at last

Last December, Bill Stewart and his sister Beryl saw each other for the first time in nearly 80 years. They were separated in 1942 after their father died on SS Iron Crown, but a series of fortunate occurrences finally reunited them, writes Emily Jateff.

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Following Frank’s death at sea, William and Beryl were adopted separately. This seems harsh now, but at the time, it was believed that adoptees needed a ‘clean break’ from any remaining relatives. Family member Kylie Watson says, ‘I don’t believe there was legislation in place to support siblings to remain in contact. It is my understanding that it was quite the opposite and common practice to discourage any further contact with their past lives.’

THE AUSTRALIAN MERCHANT VESSEL SS Iron Crown was en route from Whyalla to Newcastle, New South Wales, when it was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-27 on 4 June 1942. It sank within minutes, taking 38 of the 43 crew with it.

Beryl was adopted at age seven by Walter and Rose Johnson and lived in South Australia for her whole life.

Bill was placed with the Allen family in Adelaide when he was 14, moved to Sydney when he was 19, and is still resident in New South Wales. Bill and Beryl spent the following decades apart, not knowing where the other was, or if they still lived.

This included 64-year-old fireman Frank Stewart, who was born in London, England, in 1878. Frank and his wife Margaret had two children, William and Beryl.

After Margaret died in 1935, and Frank joined the merchant navy, both children were sent to St Joseph’s Orphanage at Larg’s Bay, South Australia.

In April 2019, with the support of CSIRO Marine National Facility RV Investigator, a joint maritime archaeological research project by the Australian National Maritime Museum and Heritage Victoria located the last resting place of SS Iron Crown in 672 metres of water in Bass Strait.

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On Merchant Navy Day (3 September) 2019, more than 50 descendants of Iron Crown’s crew gathered for a memorial event at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Victoria. Brigadier David Westphalen, himself a descendant, had applied for eligible crew members to receive the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal, which were accepted by the descendants.

Rachel asked me to connect the two, and with their permission, I did. And so, after 79 years, Bill and Beryl were finally reunited.

At this event, I met Bill Stewart, Frank Stewart’s son, and Natalie Corbett-Jones, Bill’s grand-daughter.

Bill Stewart said that the discovery gave him comfort because he finally knows his dad’s resting place, and that it brings peace to ‘the forgotten men of the war’.

This wasn’t the end of the story, however.

Although they had both tried to find each other, Bill Stewart and his sister Beryl remained separated.

Then, more than a year later, an email from ABC journalist Rachel Mealey, who had covered the memorial event in 2019, popped up in my inbox. She had received a message from Kylie Watson, grand-daughter of Ronald Francis Pavy, Margaret’s youngest son from her first marriage, who had heard of the discovery and thought she might be related to Bill Stewart.

This isn’t what usually happens when you find a shipwreck. But I’m very glad it did.

Author Emily Jateff is the museum’s Curator of Ocean Science and Technology.

Thanks to Kylie Watson, Natalie Corbett-Jones, Bill Stewart and all the families of those lost on the SS Iron Crown.

01 Siblings Bill and Beryl reunited at last.

02 Emily Jateff and Bill Stewart at the SS Iron Crown Memorial Service in September 2019.

Images courtesy Natalie Corbett-Jones Australian National Maritime Museum

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Air conditioning for Onslow A family pays tribute with a generous gift

The museum’s Foundation acknowledges the generous gift from the Nathwani family in honour of Samim Nathwani

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01 Ashak Nathwani and his children, Rehana and Amyn, on HMAS Onslow.

Image Marinco Kojdanovski 02 Samim Nathwani was an early childhood educator in whose honour the Nathwani family designed and funded the installation of Onslow’s new air conditioning system.

Image courtesy of the Nathwani family

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THE MUSEUM IS HOME to one of Australia’s Cold War remnants, the Oberon class submarine HMAS Onslow.

It was given to the museum in 1999 and is a major drawcard for museum visitors. Issues arise in the heat and humidity of a Sydney summer, however, when the museum has been forced to close the vessel to the public as conditions inside become uncomfortable.

Onslow’s existing ventilation system comprised only an axial fan, which delivered unfiltered and unconditioned air through the conning tower into the occupied areas of the submarine. This led to temperatures inside the vessel reaching 4–5°C higher than outside.

Enter Ashak Nathwani AM, Researcher and Senior Lecturer in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) at the University of Sydney. Ashak knew the museum well, having been a designer of its original air-conditioning system in 1991 as a director of leading HVAC consultants Norman, Disney and Young.

Ashak was at the museum discussing all things COVID-19 and air conditioning with museum management when he heard about the continual environmental problems with Onslow. Learning that the early closures affected children during school visits and school holidays, he was inspired to design and cover the costs of a new system on behalf of the Nathwani family, in honour of his late wife, Samim.

Samim Nathwani was an early childhood development expert with two Masters degrees, who tragically succumbed to the insidious motor neurone disease (MND) in November 2019. ‘Samim always advocated that children learn through experience and would not have been happy knowing that children were missing out,’ said Ashak. ‘It struck me that I could provide a solution through my expertise in air conditioning and the family could provide the funds to make it happen.

It seemed like a fitting tribute to her passion.’

Designing and installing the system posed numerous challenges. It had to be custom-made due to size constraints, with options limited due to heritage considerations. In addition, the condensing unit had to be brought in on a barge and craned into the chamber below the main cabins. Getting the fan coil unit into the sub required many trips up and down service ladders and through a tight passageway. The fan coil unit was then connected with a large flexible duct, which was woven through the support structure within the conning tower, across to the air intake shaft for final connection.

Supply air needed to be filtered with MERV-13 air filters (to meet COVID requirements).

Conditioned air now flows down the air intake shaft, feeds fore and aft right through the submarine, then is exhausted at each end of the vessel. The new system has resulted in temperatures of 4–5°C lower than the ambient temperature, allowing Onslow to open fully with happy visitors, volunteers and staff.

‘With school groups starting back after COVID-19 we couldn’t be happier,’ says museum Interim Director, Tanya Bush. ‘The feedback – particularly from our volunteers, who are on Onslow for long periods – has been great. We thank Ashak, Amyn and Rehana Nathwani for their generosity and this wonderful tribute to their wife and mother, Samim.’

Steve Riethoff, Head of Communications Australian National Maritime Museum

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Currents When Duyfken departed in 2000 on an expedition to Indonesia and Queensland, Michael’s contacts in the Aboriginal community enabled the crew to carry a boorn wongkiny, or message stick, with a message written in Noongar. Michael Young is at right. Image courtesy Graeme Cocks

Remembering the founder of the Duyfken Project Vale Michael Young (1947–2022)

MICHAEL YOUNG, WHO DIED IN FEBRUARY, was the founder of the Duyfken Project, and the Duyfken replica will always be his great achievement in a life full of adventure.

Born Jacob Jong on 26 February 1947 in The Netherlands, he was the youngest of three children. When he was just three years old, his parents decided to start a new life in Australia. Their first taste of Australian life was at a migrant hostel at Nelson Bay, north of Newcastle, and they eventually settled on a remote farm station in northern New South Wales, working for the Livingston family.

His mother once said that Michael was not very interested in his home schooling, but he would sneak out of bed at night and delve into the Livingstons’ home library where he read anything he could get his hands on. He was fascinated by the world outside the confines of the farm and at eight years of age, he told his mother that his history lesson that day was wrong: the Dutch, not the English, were the first Europeans to visit Australia. That historic truth stayed with him as life took many turns.

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Tired of the constant mispronunciation of his name, Jacob Jong changed his name to Michael Young.

He studied for an economics degree at Sydney University, left to work at a bank, married Janine, and returned to university to complete a social science degree.

In 1985, with his family, he moved from Sydney to Perth to take a position in the Premier’s Department of the Western Australian Government. He was always on the move. In 1989 and 1990, he managed what is now one of the oldest Aboriginal art centres, Tiwi Designs, on Bathurst Island. He discovered many Dutch names around the Torres Strait Islands and it stimulated an interest in the Indigenous connections with Dutch explorers.

When construction of the Endeavour replica began in Fremantle, he wrote a letter to the Fremantle Herald which was published on 23 December 1993. It had the heading ‘A new Endeavour?’ He proposed building a replica of the first European ship recorded in Australia’s history — Duyfken. He said it was a relatively small ship that would maintain the historic shipbuilding industry, and it could be home-ported in Fremantle. He was inundated with calls offering encouragement.

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In early 1994, Michael Young invited me to attend a meeting at the family home in East Fremantle. He passed around reams of photocopies and began to list all the people he’d talked to in the past few weeks: media, public servants, politicians and diplomats, extending from Australia to New Zealand and The Netherlands, and including maritime journalist James Henderson.

It was wonderfully exciting to be talking about building a wooden sailing ship from scratch. This informal group ultimately became the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation Inc, which would fund and oversee the construction of the vessel.

Michael approached Michael (M G) Kailis for assistance.

Michael Kailis was a leading member of the Greek community and a very successful fishing industry entrepreneur based in Fremantle. He agreed to be a part of the project and the dream of building a ship quickly became real.

A committee was formed to provide advice on the ship’s design. It was an expert group of maritime archaeologists and historians, drawing on the resources of the research community in Australia and The Netherlands.

The group helped to develop a design that is now hailed as the finest reconstruction of an ‘Age of Discovery’ vessel ever built.

In May 1995, Michael Young and Graeme Henderson (son of James Henderson) travelled to Indonesia to look at traditional shipbuilding in Madura, following advice from maritime historian Nick Burningham. There they saw how the shipwrights bent the timber hull planks using fire and how the planks were formed into the hull shape before internal framing was added. As a result, the ship was constructed using the same plank-first construction used by the Dutch and Indonesians.

Construction of the shipyard building, the Lotteries Duyfken Village, began in late 1996. Harold Clough allocated several staff at his engineering firm, Entact Clough, to oversee the building’s construction and many suppliers provided goods and services free or at cost.

Michael Young was no shrinking violet. After the keel was laid on 11 January 1997, Dutch Prince Willem Alexander attended a function at Burswood to unveil a sculpture marking the anniversary of Willem De Vlamingh’s visit to Australia. The Friends of the Duyfken had a food stall nearby.

Australian National Maritime Museum

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Duyfken’s design is now hailed as the finest reconstruction of an ‘Age of Discovery’ vessel ever built

Duyfken departing Sydney in 2002 for its voyage to The Netherlands. ANMM image

Michael Young brazenly arranged for a Duyfken tee-shirt to be offered to the prince, who gladly received it, later asking whether he could buy another 10 for the royal party when they dived on the Batavia wreck site at the Abrolhos Islands. Only Michael could do that!

On 21 January 1999, just a little over five years after Michael Young wrote his letter to the Fremantle Herald, the Duyfken replica was jacked onto a trailer, paraded through the streets of Fremantle then taken to Fremantle Boatlifters to be launched. Michael Kailis died just weeks before Duyfken sailed for the first time.

In 2000, Duyfken set sail on an expedition to Indonesia and Queensland. Michael Young joined the ship in Kupang, West Timor, where he was then living.

He sailed aboard Duyfken to the island of Banda, where the re-enactment part of the expedition was to take place. How extraordinary that his boyish enthusiasm of many decades before had resulted in that surreal moment where the Duyfken replica was in the same harbour from which Willem Jansz departed in 1606 in the original ship, on a voyage which would put Australia on the map for the first time!

Duyfken later arrived at the mouth of the Pennefather River in Cape York, Queensland. A boorn wongkiny, or message stick, with a message written in Noongar, 86

Signals 139 Winter 2022

was handed to the custodians of the area by Ship’s Master Peter Manthorpe. Captain Manthorpe asked for permission to land, an act of reconciliation to recognise the mistakes of the past. Most importantly, thanks to Michael Young and James Henderson’s influence, the story of the first recorded ship to visit Australia was told from both the European perspective and that of the Australians who saw its white sails on the horizon.

Duyfken sailed from the Australian National Maritime Museum’s wharves to The Netherlands in 2002 to mark the 400th anniversary of the Dutch East India Company.

It was the longest voyage ever undertaken in an ‘Age of Discovery’ replica ship. Michael Young was then living permanently in Indonesia, but flew to the Dutch island of Texel to greet the ship and crew. It had taken half a century, but that young Dutch migrant boy who knew the historical truth of the story of the Dutch voyages to Australia was now satisfied that Willem Jansz and Duyfken had the recognition they deserved.

Author Graeme Cocks had a 20-year association with Duyfken and served for many years as chair of the Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation. His book, Through Darkest Seas, documenting the story of the Duyfken replica, will be published later this year by Wilkinson Publishing.

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 Vice Admiral Russell Crane AO CSM Stephen Crane John Cunneen Laurie Dilks Dr Nigel Erskine John Farrell Dr Kevin Fewster CBE AM FRSA Bernard Flack Daina Fletcher Sally Fletcher Teresia Fors CDR Geoff Geraghty AM John Gibbins Anthony Gibbs RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN Paul Gorrick Lee Graham 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 Peter Rout Kay Saunders AM Kevin Scarce AC CSC RAN David Scott-Smith Sergio Sergi Ann Sherry AO Ken Sherwell Shane Simpson AM Peter John Sinclair AM CSC Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ (RADM) John Singleton AM Brian Skingsley Eva Skira AM Bruce Stannard AM J J Stephens OAM Michael Stevens Neville Stevens AO Frank Talbot AM Mitchell Turner Adam Watson Jeanette Wheildon Hon Margaret White AO Mary-Louise Williams AM Nerolie Withnall Cecilia Woolford (nee Caffrey)

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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 Acting Director Tanya Bush Councillors Hon Ian Campbell Mr Stephen Coutts Hon Justice S C Derrington Rear Admiral Mark Hammond AM RAN Ms Gisele Kapterian Mr John Longley AM Mr Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO Ms Alison Page Ms Judy Potter Ms Arlene Tansey Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation Board Chairman Mr Daniel Janes Ex officio Chair Mr John Mullen AM Ex officio Acting Director Tanya Bush 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 Mr Robert Moore II Mr John Mullen AM Acting Director Tanya Bush

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