Bearings
From the Director
WELCOME to the Winter edition of Signals.
As the days get shorter and winter descends, there is no better place to step out of the cold and into a world of beauty, power and impact than the newly opened Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Once again, this exhibition, from the Natural History Museum in London, is full of the very best images from wildlife photographers from around the world.
2025 marks 80 years since the end of World War II, and the museum is commemorating this anniversary with a range of exhibitions. We have opened Secret Strike, currently on display in the Wharf 7 foyer, which features the stern of one the midget submarines that attacked Sydney Harbour on the evening of 31 May 1942.
Added to this will be an exhibition called Persuasion, displaying propaganda posters from the National Maritime Collection; a small exhibition dealing with powerful objects from Hiroshima; and an exhibition looking at war brides. Alongside these we will present talks and other events.
May saw the first of an important new series of talks, Big Blue Ideas, presented in association with the Minderoo Foundation. These talks will look at the future of our ocean and we will be investigating the positive initiatives that are happening around the world – it will not be all doom and gloom.
The talks will be held throughout the year. Details can be found on page 48 and on the museum’s website.
The winter months also bring Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC, the annual weeks focused on First Nations. The museum will have a range of activities to mark them. A highlight will be 6 July, when we will celebrate NAIDOC with a free all-day program – truly one for the calendar.
As always, I am happy to hear from the museum family about what matters to you, so please, if you have any ideas, drop me a line to thedirector@sea.museum I may not be able to respond directly to every person, but please be assured, different voices are both welcome and encouraged.
Daryl Karp AM Director and CEO
Secret Strike is open in the Wharf 7 foyer from Monday to Friday, 7 am–7 pm. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM
Contents
Winter 2025
Acknowledgment of Country
The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the bamal (earth) and badu (waters) on which we work.
We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the land and waters throughout Australia and pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders past and present.
The words bamal and badu are spoken in the Sydney region’s Eora language. Supplied courtesy of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Cultural warning
People of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that Signals may contain names, images, video, voices, objects and works of people who are deceased. Signals may also contain links to sites that may use content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.
The museum advises there may be historical language and images that are considered inappropriate today and confronting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The museum is proud to fly the Australian flag alongside the flags of our Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Australian South Sea Islander communities.
Cover The accommodation building, or Big Red Shed, at Australia’s Mawson Station in Antarctica. See story on page 2. Image Leon Hamilton
2 A year on the ice
What it’s like to live and work in Antarctica
12 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowships
Drawing inspiration from the frozen continent
20 The enigma of SY Aurora
A famed polar ship and its mysterious fate
24 The archaeology of Mawson’s Huts Preserving Australia’s Antarctic heritage
32 Climate critical RSV Nuyina and the Denman Marine Voyage
40 Nazis on thin ice?
The Third Reich sails south
48 Big Blue Talks series
Deep conversations on the future of our oceans
51 Members news and events
Our program of talks and tours this winter
54 Foundation Seeking support for museum projects
56 Exhibitions
What’s on show this season
60 World War II – The world remade Programs and events mark 80 years since the guns fell silent
64 Collections
The Thorpe Collection: Lyttelton and Antarctic exploration
72 Collections
Matchstick models and a plankton recorder
76 Readings
Archaeology in Antarctica; In Search of the Last Continent
82 Currents
We pay tribute to John Mullen AM, outgoing Chair of our Council
A year on the ice
Living and working in Antarctica
What makes people go back to Antarctica time after time? Leon Hamilton has done five stints there working for the Bureau of Meteorology and describes what it’s like to spend a whole year on the frozen continent.
Emperor penguins on sea ice in an amphitheatre of icebergs near Auster Colony, July 2022.
All images Leon Hamilton
One of the privileges of being on a remote research station is exploring the environment
CASEY, DAVIS, MAWSON AND MACQUARIE ISLAND
are Australia’s major research stations in Antarctica. My seasons were at Macquarie Island, April 2011 to April 2012; Casey, December 2012 to December 2013; and three stints at Mawson, January 2017 to March 2018, January to November 2019 and February 2021 to March 2023. Over each of these seasons I was employed as the technical officer for the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). I undertook weather observations and maintained, repaired and upgraded all of BoM’s instruments, computers and hydrogen-making equipment.
Australia’s Antarctic stations, as well as the major operations to insert and remove personnel, are administered by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Most station personnel are employed by AAD, along with a team of two to three people from BoM. As Macquarie Island is a Tasmanian national park, personnel from the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service also form part of the team. Over winter, the station crew consists of 15 to 25 people; in summer this increases to anywhere from 40 to 120 depending on the number of beds available, the size of projects and any other summer operations that may be occurring.
Other government agencies maintain a presence at Australia’s bases. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) monitors certain elements in the atmosphere, Geoscience Australia has instruments viewing Earth’s magnetic field and seismic action in nearby areas, and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) monitors any potential nuclear activity in the atmosphere.1 These instruments are looked after by various station staff, with members from each agency coming to station for yearly maintenance and upgrades.
Training
Preparation for BoM staff begins with time spent at our training facility in Broadmeadows, Melbourne, learning how to read and report on the changes in weather, deploy weather balloons and repair, replace and maintain the various instruments that are used on station. How long this training lasts depends on how new the trainee is.
We then go to Hobart to meet the rest of the crew and begin the station training, which includes emergency fire response, wilderness first-aid, search and rescue, and governance. There is even a group of four who spend two weeks at Royal Hobart Hospital learning how to assist the station doctor in case of a medical emergency. If you feel queasy at the idea of a chef, plumber or mechanic downing tools and rushing into the doctor’s surgery to help, then you can imagine the amount of training and effort that go into preventing these situations.
01 Daily 9 am weather balloon release on Macquarie Island, 2011.
Other government agencies maintain a presence at Australia’s bases
Macquarie Island station covered in snow, 2011.
Social events help to keep the community together or celebrate personal milestones
01 Aurora Australis in Kista Strait outside Mawson Station, waiting for the old sea ice in Horseshoe Harbour to break out, and dropping off new personnel, January 2018.
02
Voting at Mawson Station in the 2019 Federal election.
Resupply
On arrival day, there’s always a buzz throughout the ship as people wake early to watch the station and landscape slowly coming into view. When I arrived at Macquarie Island, there was low cloud and strong winds, so it was decided to manoeuvre the ship on the lee side of the island until the winds dropped the next day, when we could start resupply operations.
The voyage south
Life on the ship varies depending on which station we’re going to, which ship we’re using, and any scientific projects that might have been added to the voyage.
The voyage to Macquarie Island is around three days, Casey eight days, Davis close to 14 days and Mawson approximately 17 days of sailing. Such a time at sea may seem claustrophobic to some, but it’s an incredible learning experience as well. We’re not simply passengers being taken somewhere, but an extra set of hands to help in the kitchen or keep the ship clean.
One of my favourite memories was from the January voyage to Mawson in 2017 when we went past a pod of around 200 humpback whales feeding, breaching and playing – the whole ship’s company came outside to see the spectacle.
Another lasting memory of the voyage is the ceremony for all those crossing 60 degrees south for the first time. This ceremony recognises the fragility of the environment and the fact that we are its stewards rather than its rulers.
Resupply is organised chaos. There’s a push to get the ingoing expedition team onto station as early as possible so everyone has enough time for a handover of duties with their outgoing counterpart. At the same time, the year’s supply of food, maintenance parts and fuel is being unloaded from the ship, with a year’s worth of rubbish and scientific samples being backloaded to return to Australia. During fuel operations, all other operations pause to ensure minimal possibility of spills or other environmental impacts.
Life on station
Once the ship departs, we take a couple of days to settle in, unpack and ensure that we have everything needed for the year ahead. At times, resupply has to be cut short for various reasons, such as a long stretch of poor weather or so much sea ice that the ship can’t reach the station; in such cases, everything has to be changed to helicopter operations. These scenarios often result in required or spare parts staying on the ship and going back to Hobart. On very rare occasions there has been no opportunity to refuel the station, meaning that energy use is turned down to a minimum.
In 2011, on Macquarie Island, we had extra personnel, as well as dogs and helicopters, taking part in the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program (MIPEP). MIPEP aimed to finally rid the island of rabbits, rats and mice after previous programs had removed cats and wekas, all of which were introduced by human activity. This baiting and hunting program was very successful and the last of the rabbits were exterminated in November 2011. No sign of any rodent species was found by the hunters and their dogs in the following two years.
One of the privileges of being on a remote research station is exploring the environment for both recreational and scientific reasons. One such trip is to the emperor penguin colony next to Taylor Glacier, which is inside an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) that only a few people are allowed to enter each year. It’s one of only two known emperor penguin colonies that reside on land; all others rely on the yearly formation of sea ice. The colony is about 90 kilometres west of Mawson Station, and each June and September a trip is made so that photos can be taken from certain vantage points and returned to scientists based at AAD for census and population monitoring.
Over the course of the year, social events help to keep the community together or celebrate personal milestones. My younger sister was married during my Macquarie Island season, and the station had a great time putting together a mock wedding – I dressed as the bride, the female doctor was the groom, the mess was repurposed to look like a chapel and a wonderful party ensued. At the same time, a life-size cardboard cutout of me had been organised for home and was placed in front of the microphone while my pre-recorded message was played during the speeches. I snuck away to call my sister’s reception venue and spoke to most people there.
The biggest event during the winter is Midwinter’s Day, which is treated much like Christmas. The chef puts on an amazing meal, everyone spends a month or so leading up to the day making a present for someone else on station, and a hole is cut in the sea ice for a swim – with appropriate safety precautions!
The biggest event during the winter is Midwinter’s Day, which is treated much like Christmas
01 The author taking a midwinter’s day swim, Mawson Station, 2019.
02 King penguin preening on Macquarie Island, 2011.
03 Jade iceberg trapped in sea ice near Mawson, 2017.
01 Hydroponics team, Mawson Station, 2022.
02 Aurora over West Bay and the ice plateau, Mawson Station, 2022.
Hydroponics is one of the biggest drawcards, as fresh greens and vegetables run out very quickly after the ship departs
Other memorable events over the years have been a Halloween, with a meal of brains, tongues and other offal; music and band nights; art shows; a madhatter’s tea party; and playing golf on the sea ice. Other recreational opportunities include ice-skating, cross-country skiing, mountain climbing and hiking.
One of my favourite things about going to Antarctica is the sky, particularly the night sky. During summer the sun does laps around our heads, but in winter, when the nights are long and dark, the stars and aurora come out to play. Seeing the Milky Way and stars all the way to the horizon, with the sky often so bright that you can walk around without a head torch, is a truly incredible experience. A small battle usually occurs over the course of the year between those wanting to turn the lights off for night photography and the need for safety while moving between buildings. The compromise is making sure to turn the lights back on once the photo session is completed.
Several communal projects occur over the course of the year, each of which needs one person to run it and a team of dedicated helpers. Hydroponics is one of the biggest drawcards, as fresh greens and vegetables run out very quickly after the ship departs. Some produce, such as onions and potatoes, can last for almost the whole year with careful planning, but the hydroponics produce is necessary for good nutrition. For many years we also had homebrew kits and brewing vessels, but sadly these were removed a few years ago.
Resupply and home time
After 12 months and a change of crew between winter and summer seasons, we unload all new materials, food, fuel, and scientific supplies for next year’s crew, conduct our own handovers to the next person in our job, then backload all personal gear, scientific equipment and rubbish to be returned to Australia.
The voyage home is generally quieter, as people are tired from 12 months of work – although on one trip from Mawson we had a full and busy ship, with both the summer crew who had arrived in November and the departing summer crew from Davis station. In years gone by the crew from Aurora Australis used to run a charity auction raising funds for Camp Quality on this voyage.
Once we land in Hobart, we have a quick debrief with our managers and a day or so to farewell our station crew, then it’s home to family and friends and a slow reintroduction to using keys and wallets and talking to people and driving. It’s common to lock ourselves out of home and to forget long-unused PINs, but eventually we reintegrate – and then start looking for the next opportunity to go back to Antarctica.
1 ARPANSA’s instrument detected the North Korea nuclear tests in 2017.
Artistic inspiration
The Antarctic Arts Fellowships 2024
Since 1984, the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowships have enabled arts communicators to travel to Antarctica to further their practice. Signals editor Janine Flew profiles Maura Chamberlain and Favel Parrett, the latest recipients of this prestigious award.
Macquarie Island is unique as the world’s most southerly plantgrowing community
THE ANTARCTIC ARTS FELLOWSHIPS are awarded by the Australian Government to enable arts communicators with a non-science focus to experience Antarctica first-hand. Visual artists, film-makers, performers, writers and musicians are among those who have been selected for the program. The latest fellowships were awarded to botanical illustrator Maura Chamberlain and writer Favel Parrett, who joined the annual resupply trip to Macquarie Island in May 2024 aboard RSV Nuyina.
‘A fantastic adventure’
Halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica lies subAntarctic Macquarie Island, whose grasslands, bogs and fens support a variety of flora, such as mega herbs, tussock grasses and endemic orchids. They were the focus of Maura Chamberlain’s successful application for an Antarctic Arts Fellowship, which she undertook last year. Armed with a permit to collect eight of the island’s plants from Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Maura spent hours traversing the windswept island seeking specimens to illustrate.
She has a particular interest in endangered and endemic (native) species in their original locations. ‘Macca’ is unique as the world’s most southerly plant-growing community, and visiting the island realised a long-held dream for Maura. Until that trip, her experience of its plants was limited to dried and cultivated specimens. She had worked in ‘The Vault’ in the Tasmanian Herbarium at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, where thousands of dried plant specimens are kept in optimum conditions for scientific research, and she was given special access to the back-up conservation collection of subantarctic species at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart.
There she made initial drawing studies of larger plants, such as Carex trifida, a flowering sedge, and Poa foliosa, a species of tussock grass. She also studied some that have parts visible only under a microscope, including Luzula crinita, a member of the rush family, and Epilobium pendunculare, a perennial herb.
In addition, she examined and documented two tiny and endangered endemic helmet orchids, Corybas sulcatus and Corybas dienemus
Maura Chamberlain aboard RSV Nuyina, working on a painting of Stilbocarpa polaris (Macquarie Island cabbage). Image Maren Preuss/ABC
‘It’s so immersive and it’s incredibly lush, especially on the edges down by sea level’
01
Maura took two long walks of about seven and four hours to collect her plant specimens from different sites on Macquarie Island.
02
After collecting plants, Maura took them back to her studio on RSV Nuyina to create her illustrations.
Images © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
Maura’s visit to Macquarie Island was a long time coming. She applied for and was awarded the Antarctic Arts Fellowship in 2020, just before the COVID pandemic halted the program for four years. Finally, in May 2024, after several days at sea aboard RSV Nuyina and then a short chopper ride, she was able to set foot on the island:1
Even though it is winter and the plants aren’t in flower, they are in their habitat, and seeing them with the other plants they grow with, the communities, is actually really inspiring. The vegetation is not outwardly amazing in that it’s not colourful, there are no beautiful flowers, but it is extraordinary because it survives in such torrid conditions.
After finding, digging up and bagging her chosen specimens, she took them back to a makeshift studio aboard Nuyina to begin work. Each illustration can take up to 80 hours to complete, using graphite, watercolour, coloured pencils and sometimes fine liner pen.
Botanical illustration is a scientific tradition that predates photography by centuries, and has not been superseded by it:2
Botanical illustration is about trying to put down all the different features of a plant, so that if a person wants to use that illustration for identification, they can.
The finished artworks will form the basis of an exhibition and a book highlighting the success of a pest eradication program begun more than 15 years ago.
At that time, the island’s flora and fauna were both in crisis. Rats and mice were eating birds’ eggs, and hillside erosion, exacerbated by rabbits, led to landslides, one of which killed hundreds of king penguins. Rabbits had also denuded areas of vegetation, affecting bird nesting sites.
In 2007 an ambitious campaign was begun to wipe out all three pest species at once. It employed aerial baiting, release of the calicivirus, and hunting with dogs. By 2014, no rabbit, rat or mouse had been seen for two years, and the island was declared pest free.
The result has been a remarkable recovery in both plant and animal species, says Dr Aleks Terauds, Program Leader at the Australian Antarctic Division:3
Some of us on this trip have been working on this wildlife monitoring program for many years and what we’re seeing now, 15 years on, is a really big improvement in the vegetation on the island, with important flow-on effects for the breeding sea birds. From a vegetation point of view, the island is in great shape.
Maura noted the lushness of the vegetation on her visit:4 You’re walking through almost like rivers of grass that are at your shoulder height, and between them are penguin tracks and seal wallows. It’s so immersive and it’s incredibly lush, especially on the edges down by sea level, just unbelievable. It’s sort of like a grass rainforest … [it’s] really, really spectacular.
She adds:
I would like to thank the Australian Antarctic Division for the amazing support in sending me to Macquarie Island – so many people worked so hard on my behalf to make sure my project actually happened.
1 ‘Arts fellows seek inspiration from Macquarie Island’, Australian Antarctic Program, accessed 5 May 2025, < https://www.antarctica.gov. au/news/2024/arts-fellows-seek-inspiration-from-macquarie-island/>
2 Jano Gibson, ‘Creative ambitions pursued as part of Australian Antarctic Division’s art fellowship program’, accessed 4 May 2025, <abc.net.au/news/2024-06-27/tas-macquarie-island-illustrator-maurachamberlain-aad/104023304>.
3 ‘Macquarie Island’s astounding recovery, ten years on from rats, mice and rabbits’, Australian Antarctic Program, accessed 5 May 2025, <https://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2024/macquarie-islandsastounding-recovery-ten-years-on-from-rats-mice-and-rabbits/>
4 Jano Gibson, ‘Creative ambitions’, op cit.
Maura Chamberlain’s botanical illustrations of Macquarie Island plants will be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in early 2026. For more information on her work, see her website: maurachamberlain.com
Inspired by icebreakers
The other Antarctic Fellow last year was writer Favel Parrett. Her fascination with Antarctic icebreakers has seen her undertake two Antarctic Arts Fellowships, resulting in one published novel and another in progress.
As a child living in Hobart, Favel became obsessed with the Antarctic icebreaker Nella Dan. Fondly known as ‘the little red ship’, for many locals it was a familiar and beloved sight. Built in 1961 for the Australian National Antarctic Research Division (ANARE), it played a key role in the development of Australia’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean marine science program. It also resupplied Australian Antarctic stations, including Macquarie Island. There, in 1987, bad weather arose during resupply operations. The ship dragged anchor and was driven aground just metres off the island. No crew or station staff were injured, but the ship was seriously damaged, and the decision was made to scuttle it. It now lies in 4,000 metres of water off Macquarie Island.
Favel, then 13, was one of many people devastated by the news. Years later, she channelled her fascination with the ship and her grief at its loss into her novel When The Night Comes, which relates the friendship between a lonely, displaced mother and daughter and a Danish sailor from Nella Dan:1
When I was about 33 I found a photo of the ship and I started writing about it, but I knew I couldn’t do it without understanding how it sounds and smells and how resupply happens, so I applied for the Antarctic Fellowship and I got it.
This first fellowship, in 2012, afforded her a bunk on the Australian Antarctic resupply vessel Aurora Australis and a six-week round-trip to Casey station in Antarctica. She effectively worked as a trainee steward:2
I’d get up at 4.30 am and mop the internal decks and then do the breakfast service and the lunch service and wash dishes, then I’d have an hour-and-a-half off and I’d do the dinner service, so I know how hard the stewards work. It was really tough but it was fantastic.
Favel applied for her second fellowship before the Covid pandemic halted the program, and in early 2024 she suddenly got the go-ahead. She spent almost four weeks on RSV Nuyina in May 2024 as it undertook the annual Macquarie Island resupply. To research her book, she interviewed crew and passengers, worked in the kitchens, monitored cargo movements and sat with the night watch on the bridge:3
Talking to the crew about their pathways to being someone who works at sea, and just living it –that’s where you get all the richness in the novel.
Favel Parrett at Casey Station in 2012, during her first arts fellowship. Image Australian Antarctic Division
02
As part of her research, Favel Parrett interviewed most of the crew of RSV Nuyina and worked in its kitchens. Image © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
Parrett channelled her fascination with Nella Dan and her grief at its loss into her novel When The Night Comes
‘I want young people, especially girls, to know that they can work at sea if they choose, in all sort of jobs’
Favel Parrett spent her 50th birthday on Macquarie Island: ‘I wasn’t meant to be going ashore but they found me a camp bed for the night on the island in the workshop shed and made me a huge chocolate cake and it was fantastic.’ Image Favel Parrett
As a child she had dreamed of working at sea on an icebreaker like Nella Dan but, as a female, could not:4
All I could do was be a steward and even then, there were no female chief stewards so the options for advancement were limited. On this voyage, there were three young females on board. One is an IR [integrated rating], so working on the deck doing all the tough work, and two are cadets who’ll be third mates soon. It just fills my heart. I feel emotional about it because I’m just so happy to see they can do that now.
Her novel for children is about a nine-year-old girl who is so obsessed with the new icebreaker Nuyina that she stows away on it. When she is found, the ship is too far away from land to turn back and return her. After informing her parents, the crew and the captain say that she will have to work for her keep:5
So she starts doing jobs with every level of the ship, so that the reader learns all the things that go on at sea. There are some really strong female roles that I wanted to highlight, like the second mate, Katrina Beams. I want young people, especially young girls, to know that they can work at sea if they choose, in all sort of jobs. They can be a dog handler on Macquarie Island or a traditional sailor or a helicopter pilot.
Her time on the ship influenced a crucial plot point:6
There was a biosecurity dog on board and I thought ‘Wow, this is a character that kids will love, this feisty little Jack Russell at sea’, so Curly ended up being the one who found my stowaway heroine.
Several years ago Favel was asked to help judge a competition that invited Australian primary school students to name the new ship. Nuyina means ‘aurora Australis’ in palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aboriginal people, and connects the new ship to its predecessor, which served for a record 31 years.
‘This new ship is absolutely incredible’, she says:7
We all loved the previous Antarctic ship Aurora Australis but in the end all she could do was cargo, there was no science going on for a long time, and in this time of climate change crisis Nuyina is doing what she was built for. This new ship is what Nella Dan was for her time, so I feel I’ve come full circle and it’s a beautiful thing.
1 ‘Arts fellows seek inspiration from Macquarie Island’, Australian Antarctic Program, accessed 5 May 2025, <https://www.antarctica.gov. au/news/2024/arts-fellows-seek-inspiration-from-macquarie-island/>.
2 Ibid.
3 Phone interview with Signals editor Janine Flew, 2 May 2025.
4 ‘Arts fellows seek inspiration from Macquarie Island’, op cit.
5 Phone interview with Janine Flew, 2 May 2025.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
Favel Parrett’s as-yet-untitled novel about the Nuyina stowaway is due to publish in 2026, as is her latest novel for adults, Tell Me Something , a love story set in Norway. Both will be available through Hachette: hachette.com.au.
For more about Favel Parrett’s works, see favelparrett.com.au
For more on RSV Nuyina, see Signals 135 (June 2021).
The author wishes to thank the staff of the Australian Antarctic Program for providing materials and images for this article.
Our volunteers are the beating heart of the museum. We’re always on the lookout for new members of our crew. Whether you’re a maritime buff or just looking to be part of your community, we have a wide range of roles for people of all interests and backgrounds.
The enigma of SY Aurora
What was the fate of this famed polar ship?
What happened to the merchant vessel Aurora, a ship described by Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson as ‘the finest boat afloat for Polar exploration work’?
An exhibition opening in late September shows that after more than a century, few questions about its disappearance have been answered. By Tim Barlass.
Officers
Sir Douglas Mawson told the press that if the ship was lost, ‘it must be due to foul play or submarine attack’
THE CREDENTIALS of the merchant vessel Aurora to perform well in extreme weather were beyond doubt. The former whaler and sealer, built in Scotland, had been used on five expeditions to Antarctica by no less than Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton.
The vessel, of 580 tons gross, sailed from Sydney on 18 June 1917, and then two days later from Newcastle, New South Wales, with a cargo of coal bound for Iqique in northern Chile.
According to press reports, before departure Aurora had been thoroughly overhauled and equipped with wireless apparatus.1 Shortly after the vessel sailed for South America, it encountered stormy weather. But if disaster were to overcome the ship, it was believed that the wireless plant would be sufficiently strong to send messages to either Australia or New Zealand.
When the vessel became long overdue, there were concerns that it had foundered with the loss of the crew of 21. Those concerns were heightened in early December when a lifebuoy was found by a Captain Petrie, of the steamer Coombar, near Tacking Point lighthouse between Coffs Harbour and Forster on the New South Wales north coast.
The buoy, covered on one side with small barnacles, carried the lettering SY AURORA. Also visible were faint letters referring to two previous expeditions: ITAE, standing for Shackleton’s 1914–17 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, from which the ship had recently returned, and AAE, denoting Mawson’s 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Petrie also reported having seen flotsam in the water as he passed the Solitary Islands, which might have come from Aurora. The mystery deepened.
and crew of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) aboard Aurora in Hobart, 1912. ANMM Collection ANMS1114[001]
01
Aurora lifebuoy made of cork and painted canvas, bearing shadowy acronyms ITAE and AAE, from two of the ship’s former expeditions.
ANMM Collection 00054969
Image Emma Bjorndahl/ANMM
02
Aurora was originally built to serve in the Arctic whaling fleet that sailed annually from Dundee, Scotland, to Canada. This painting, part of the exhibition, was commissioned by its captain, James Fairweather, in 1884, and shows the ship ff the entrance to Dundee.
ANMM Collection 00050156
Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM
Before departure
Aurora had been thoroughly overhauled and equipped with wireless apparatus
Shipping insurer Lloyd’s of London posted the ship as ‘missing’ the following March. Sir Douglas Mawson, its previous owner, told the press that if the ship was lost, ‘it must be due to foul play or submarine attack’. 2 (The First World War was in its third year when the ship disappeared.)
‘Our experience with the Aurora,’ he said, ‘proved her sea worthiness in the heaviest gales. We could not sink her and after the splendid history she has had it is very sad to think that she has been lost.’ 3
Mawson, who purchased Aurora in 1911, fitted the ship out for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. He said that under the command of Captain John King Davis, Aurora successfully navigated a total distance of 30,000 nautical miles (55,000 kilometres) in high southern latitudes, in the foulest weather possible.4
In 1914 Aurora was transferred to Sir Ernest Shackleton as the supply vessel for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17. During this time, Aurora was beset in the ice and drifted for nine months in the Ross Sea before limping to New Zealand.
Young radio officer Lionel Hooke was on board and made repeated attempts to contact both the land party, now marooned, and shore stations, eventually making contact with a radio receiver at The Bluff in New Zealand’s far south. The handwritten message, on letterhead of the Postmaster General’s Department Tasmania, reads:
Do not require assistance sincere thanks for offer position one am latitude 54.40S longitude 167°20 E AURORA north to west under sail speed three to four knots will raise steam when 350 miles from Cape Saunders, Respects, Stenhouse.
Senior curator Daina Fletcher has brought eight of the most relevant items together for the exhibition. She said:
Aurora broke its mooring and drifted off. Endurance, with Shackleton and Captain Frank Hurley, was also beset in the ice and was subsequently crushed and broke up. So why didn’t Aurora also crush? I have spoken to naval architects, and they think it is all down to the design of the hull.
She added:
When Aurora set off for Chile there were 21 souls on board; all perished. The ship was never seen again. All of the objects have been kept and treasured and they all have historic and contemporary relevance. If you look at the lifebuoy, it actually unveils its own story. It is so powerful. I have been through the archives and there are letters from a mother writing: ‘Is it really, is it really from the Aurora?’ because she had lost her son. It’s the only thing that was found. It’s a symbolic object about the risk of being at sea.
The items in this exhibition are a poignant demonstration of the importance of the National Maritime Collection and the significance of objects to the museum’s storytelling.
1 The Examiner (Launceston), 27 November 1917.
2 The Register (Adelaide), 20 March 1918.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
Other objects in the exhibition include a set of five medals awarded to Sir Lionel Hooke; the diary logs of Frank Douglas Fletcher from 1904 to 1913; Sir Douglas Mawson’s sled; and Morrie and Ursa, two taxidermied huskies.
Author Tim Barlass is a journalist who has worked at The Sydney Morning Herald and is currently contracted to write for the museum.
Douglas Mawson named Cape Denison ‘Home of the Blizzard’, as it is the windiest place on earth at sea level
Australian Antarctic Expedition living quarters (at rear) and the workshop hut. One of the tasks of the 2010 conservation project was to remediate the roof of the workshop hut. The orange coating visible here was a sealant that had to be painstakingly removed and the debris disposed of back in Australia. Image Stirling Smith
The archaeology of Mawson’s Huts
And the search for SY Aurora’s anchors
Mawson’s Huts are unique and fragile remnants of Australia’s role in Antarctic research and exploration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stirling Smith discusses their historical context and ongoing efforts to conserve them.
A PERIOD OF INTENSE EXPLORATION of Antarctica took place roughly from 1897 to 1922. Often known as the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration, it was characterised by daring expeditions and significant achievements in charting its geography and pushing the limits of human endurance in this harsh environment.1 These included the race to the South Pole between Norwegian Roald Amundsen and the British Terra Nova Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen was the first to reach the pole, in December 1911, with Scott’s party arriving over a month later. Amundsen and his team returned safely and received the accolades of success, but Scott and his four companions eventually succumbed to exhaustion and starvation and died on their return trip.
In contrast, Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17) would become famous for turning a tragedy into one of history’s greatest tales of survival, leadership and endurance. Shackleton’s expedition was attempting to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. Before they were even able to make landfall, their ship Endurance was trapped in ice. After being beset for almost 10 months, it was eventually crushed and sunk, leaving the 28 members trapped on the ice. In an epic tale of survival, Shackleton and his crew travelled across frozen sea ice, then sailed for 15 days across open sea in small lifeboats to Elephant Island. Most of the party remained there while Shackleton and five others sailed a lifeboat 1,300 kilometres to reach South Georgia Island. Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean then walked across the island’s mountains and glaciers, a total of 50 kilometres, to find a whaling station and seek help. The men stranded at Elephant Island were finally rescued after more than four months alone.
Although the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition had failed to traverse the Antarctic continent, Shackleton had successfully led all members of his team back to safety, despite the odds. They had been away for 633 days.
Australia’s most famous Antarctic explorer of this era is undoubtedly Dr (later Sir) Douglas Mawson. He was also a geologist, cartographer and scientific researcher, and led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911–14. The AAE was unique as the only expedition organised, staffed and supported predominantly by Australians. 2 Mawson established the AAE base at Cape Denison (Commonwealth Bay, George V Land, East Antarctica), some 2,600 kilometres south of Hobart. The expedition team, equipment, supplies and 29 sled dogs were transported to Cape Denison on the steam yacht (SY) Aurora. There the team constructed a series of buildings and structures for accommodation and to assist in scientific research. They included the main accommodation and living hut, Magnetograph House, Transit Hut and Absolute Magnetic Hut. The main hut was constructed with a pyramid-shaped roofed to shed snow and was home to the 18 men of the AAE. The hut has two sections, living quarters and workshop, which were prefabricated in Sydney and Melbourne respectively and shipped to the site for construction in 1912 by the AAE team. 3 This base was used for the duration of the expedition’s stay in Antarctica.
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Mawson’s cubicle. As expedition leader, Douglas Mawson was the only one who had his own private room, fitted with a desk, bed, chair and bookshelf.
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Frank Hurley’s darkroom, showing original developing chemicals that have been conserved and replaced on the shelves.
Images Stirling Smith
When the Australasian Antarctic Expedition departed Cape Denison in 1913, they left the huts and much of their equipment behind
Although Mawson’s expedition was highly successful, it also had its own story of tragic loss and dramatic survival. In early November 1912, Douglas Mawson, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz departed Cape Denison. On 14 December, Ninnis and his sledge, including the party’s tent and food and a dog team, fell into a crevasse and were lost. With most of their food and shelter gone, Mawson and Mertz immediately turned back for Cape Denison with the remaining dog team. When their food ran out, they were forced to kill and eat their dogs. Tragically, however, Mertz died on the return journey from exhaustion and suspected vitamin A poisoning from eating the dogs’ livers.
Mawson survived for a month alone, struggling back with the scientific specimens. Heartbreakingly, he arrived just in time to see Aurora, which had returned to take the expedition members back to Australia, disappear over the horizon.4 Fortunately, a relief party of six men had elected to remain behind in case the sledging party returned to Cape Denison. They and Mawson then had to endure another year in Antarctica before they could be recovered by Aurora in December 1913.
Douglas Mawson and the men of the AAE returned to Australia as Antarctic heroes. Despite enduring tragic loss, they had successfully mapped large regions of the continent and greatly added to our scientific understanding of Antarctica. Due to the efforts of Douglas Mawson and other scientists and explorers, Australia now lays claim to the largest Antarctic territory, comprising some 5.9 million square kilometres, or 42 per cent of the continent. When the AAE departed Cape Denison in 1913, they left the huts and much of their equipment behind. The site was revisited on several occasions, but never again used as a major expedition base. Instead, over time, the huts were reclaimed by ice and snow, entombing thousands of artefacts. Not until the mid-1980s were the first conservation works undertaken to save the huts, and in 1996 the Mawson’s Huts Foundation was established.
The mission of the Mawson’s Huts Foundation is to conserve, protect and maintain the huts
01 Expedition members enjoying a midnight barbecue at Sorensen Hut.
02 A sunbaking Weddel seal outside Sorensen Hut.
Images Stirling Smith
The mission of this not-for-profit charity is to conserve, protect and maintain the huts, and to educate the public about Australia’s Antarctic heritage and inspire future generations.
As an archaeologist I have always had a very keen interest in polar heritage. In 2010 I travelled to Cape Denison for the Mawson’s Huts Foundation as part of team of five, including heritage carpenters, a conservator and our own doctor. As there is no permanent base at Cape Denison, we were given a lift by the French Icebreaker L’Astrolabe and dropped off for our five-week stay. Apart from the occasional cruise ship with a permit to visit Cape Denison, we were completely on our own. My job was to undertake archaeological recording during the removal of snow and ice deposits from the floor within the main hut building, investigate the artefact deposits on the outside of the huts and monitor for potential impacts to archaeological remains by the stabilisation works to the Transit Hut (used by the AAE to take celestial sightings).
Each day, our team would walk from our modern accommodation building, known as Sorensen Hut, across to Mawson’s historic huts in the adjacent valley. Sorensen Hut is in a different valley to the original AAE huts to ensure that the visual setting is not disturbed by a modern building. Walking to work each day provided us with a great opportunity to enjoy the spectacular scenery and see some of the incredible wildlife, such as Adélie penguins, skuas, snow petrels and the occasional sunbaking Weddell seal. As we had 24 hours of daylight, our start time would greatly depend on the weather. Douglas Mawson named Cape Denison ‘Home of the Blizzard’, as it is the windiest place on earth at sea level. During our stay the winds tended to be stronger in the early morning and to ease by late evening. Accordingly, we often started work at lunch time and worked into the night, returning to our accommodation in time for a midnight barbecue.
Due to the efforts of Douglas Mawson and other scientists and explorers, Australia now lays claim to the largest Antarctic territory
01 Iceberg with silhouette of the French icebreaker L’Astrolabe Image Mawson’s Huts Foundation 02
Adélie penguins outside the main huts. Image Stirling Smith
A lot of our work program was related to removing deposits of ice and snow from the interior of Mawson’s main huts. Any artefacts found during this work were either treated and catalogued onsite or sent back to Australia for further treatment before being returned to the huts and replaced in their original locations. Our final project was to finish making measured plans of the interior of the huts. These were used to produce a replica of Mawson’s Hut at Constitution Dock in Hobart, which is now open to the public and serves to interpret the site and help educate visitors about Douglas Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
All too quickly our time at Cape Denison came to an end and we headed back to Hobart. The following year we were scheduled to return to continue our conservation works and also to conduct a maritime archaeology survey. During its visits to Cape Denison in 1913–14, SY Aurora had lost three of its anchors in Commonwealth Bay. In 2000, the Oceanic Research Foundation Ltd had undertaken a search for the anchors but was unsuccessful.5 We planned to undertake a new remote sensing survey for the Aurora anchors, as well as continue to excavate the snow and ice deposits from within the huts. Unfortunately, the day we were due to depart we received news that an Iceberg called B09B had collided with the Mertz Glacier tongue, causing it to break away.6 Iceberg B09B subsequently grounded in Commonwealth Bay, near Mawson’s Huts Historic Site, making it impossible to access the site, and our expedition had to be cancelled.
As well as affecting our access to the site, this massive iceberg also had a dramatic impact on the local wildlife. Before the iceberg grounded, Commonwealth Bay had a population of approximately 160,000 Adélie penguins that had direct access to the water. After B09B grounded, the penguins had to walk 60 kilometres to reach open water, and their population crashed to a few thousand.7
The iceberg disrupted access to Commonwealth Bay for the next 10 years. This year the Mawson’s Huts Foundation will be sending a team back to Cape Denison to continue conservation works on the huts. It is also hoped that as ice conditions improve with the breakup of iceberg B09B, the search for the Aurora anchors will also be able to resume, and these significant maritime heritage objects can be located and recorded.
1 Mawson’s Huts Historic Site Management Plan 2013–2018 , Australian Government, 2007, <https://www.antarctica.gov.au/site/ assets/files/49371/mawsonshut_low.pdf>.
2 Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911–14 – Australian Antarctic Program, viewed 1 May 2025, <www.antarctica.gov.au/aboutantarctica/history/exploration-and-expeditions/australasian-antarcticexpedition>.
3 Mawson’s Huts Foundation, viewed 1 May 2025, <www.mawsonshuts.org.au>.
4 Sir Douglas Mawson, viewed 1 May 2025, <https://www.mawsonshuts.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Mawson-FactFile01-SirDouglas-Mawson-.pdf>
5 ‘Locating the Anchors of the SY Aurora ’, unpublished report, Oceanic Research Foundation Ltd, February 2000.
6 Australian Antarctic Program, viewed 1 May 2025, <https://www. antarctica.gov.au/news/2010/gigantic-iceberg-altering-naturalprocesses>.
7 Australian Geographic , viewed 1 May 2025, <https://www. australiangeographic.com.au/news/2016/02/giant-iceberg-decimatesantarctic-penguin-colonies>
Stirling Smith is the Curator of Navy at the Australian National Maritime Museum. He previously worked as the archaeologist for Mawson’s Huts Foundation and was also an expert member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) – International Polar Heritage Committee.
Climate critical
The Denman Marine Voyage
From March to May this year, an ambitious scientific expedition aboard Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina investigated the Denman Glacier, a little-known body of ice that could be critical to the future of our oceans.
By Signals editor Janine Flew.
The Denman Glacier sits on a trench thought to be the deepest point on continental earth, at 3.5 kilometres
The Denman Glacier and the adjacent Shackleton Ice Shelf are a transition zone between land and ocean. The Denman Marine Voyage set out to research conditions and changes in this region. Image © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
THE DENMAN GLACIER is a sleeping giant. It’s one of the largest glaciers in east Antarctica, at 11–16 kilometres wide and about 110 kilometres long. It’s also melting rapidly. Research indicates that it retreated some five kilometres between 1996 and 2018. If it melted completely, the Denman alone could potentially raise sea levels by 1.5 metres.
The Denman Glacier sits on a trench thought to be the deepest point on continental earth, at 3.5 kilometres. Scientists suspect that warmer waters coming up underneath the glacier may be causing this rapid melt rate; but is this part of a natural cyclical fluctuation, or the start of a worrying new trend? And how will it affect global sea levels and regional biodiversity in future?
The ice sheet of east Antarctica has generally been thought more stable than that of west Antarctica, but that view is evolving. ‘The key question for the Denman is what is driving the changes we’ve observed through the satellite record,’ says physical oceanographer Dr Laura Herraiz Borreguero, from the CSIRO:1
The grounding line, where the ice meets the ocean, is retreating inland really rapidly, and that’s telling us there are processes that are taking ice away from the Antarctic ice sheet.
The Denman Marine Voyage was a collaboration between four funding bodies: the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) and the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership (AAPP). It drew together 60 scientists of all levels, from professors to early-career researchers. This was RSV Nuyina ’s first dedicated science voyage and saw the icebreaker’s science equipment, technology and laboratories working at full capacity for the first time.
The scientists worked staggered 24-hour shifts in disciplines including physical and chemical oceanography, atmospheric processes, molecular biology and biodiversity. Some studied the glacier from the ocean to understand how factors like circulation and temperature are melting the ice from below. Others examined the atmosphere to understand how aerosols (such as dust and pollutants) affect the ice from above.
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More than 100 CTD (conductivity, temperate, depth) rosettes were deployed to measure aspects of the water.
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RSV Nuyina supports science operations in the Antarctic, as well as resupplying the Australian Antarctic Division stations of Casey, Davis, Mawson and Macquarie Island.
Images © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
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The Denman Marine Voyage was a collaboration between four funding bodies
Up on deck, scientists deployed CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) instruments and Argo floats to measure the ocean’s salinity, temperature, pressure and depth to gauge how the region is changing. They also released robotic floats to follow the underwater currents and send back data.
Geologists looked for signs of glacial movement on the seafloor, while glaciologists collected rocks whose chemical signals reveal when an area was last covered in ice. Evolutionary biologists collected seafloor animals such as octopus, sea spiders, starfish and urchins, whose DNA can show how life in the Southern Ocean has evolved in step with the movement of the ice.
Other teams researched plankton, tiny plants and creatures that are critical to the food webs of the Southern Ocean. Studies of the region’s phytoplankton revealed something unexpected: it was growing down to 300 metres deep. Professor Delphine Lannuzel of ACEAS says:2
This is really surprising because phytoplankton needs light to grow, and down to 300 metres there’s no lights, so we’re trying to understand what was driving that growth with phytoplankton that far deep in the water column.
The animal life of the ocean was another focus, notes AAD voyage science lead Dr Leonie Suter:3
There’s very little we know about the animal biodiversity of the region so we’re looking in surface waters as well as throughout the water column all the way down to the sea floor to see what lives there.
Marine biologists used the ship’s wet well, deep inside the ship, to observe delicate creatures and capture them intact. Among their catches were krill and zooplankton, sea pigs (a type of sea cucumber), small crustaceans known as isopods, and a sea butterfly. This creature – nicknamed Clio, for its taxonomic name Clio pyramidata – later laid eggs in an onboard aquarium, enabling scientists to observe and document pteropod egg development for the first time.
Members
the scientific
Sixty researchers worked staggered 24-hour shifts across various scientific disciplines
of
team aboard RSV Nuyina Image © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
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Like weather stations for the sea, three mooring stations were set up in strategic spots to monitor ocean heat over the next few years. Image © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
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Scientists from the Denman Terrestrial Voyage examined the glacier and the adjacent Shackleton Ice Shelf from the land. Image © Richard Jones/ Australian Antarctic Division
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From left: Dr Leonie Suter (AAD), Dr Laura Herraiz Borreguero (AAPP), Senator Catryna Bilyk, Emma Campbell (AAD), Senator Carol Brown, Master Paul Clarke (Serco), Professor Delphine Lannuzel (ACEAS), Professor Jan Strugnell (SAEF). Image © Pete Harmsen/ Australian Antarctic Division
Even unseen animals can be detected, through their environmental DNA (eDNA). ‘eDNA is genetic material shed by all organisms into the environment,’ explains Dr Suter:4
By taking just a small water sample, we can determine what animals live in the environment from the genetic traces they left behind, without the need of directly observing or collecting the animals.
The Denman Marine Voyage is the most ambitious ship-based science campaign run by the Australian Antarctic Program in decades, and the data it has yielded will keep researchers busy for years to come. SAEF science coordinator Professor Jan Strugnell said:5
The data gathered on this trip will be crucial to understanding the diversity, distribution and connectivity of life in this habitat, which is key to its conservation.
An associated program, the Denman Terrestrial Campaign, ran from December 2022 to early 2025. It based glaciologists, geologists, marine ecologists and other experts inland in the Bunger Hills, some 450 kilometres west of Australia’s Casey research station. There they spent two seasons examining the glacier and the adjacent Shackleton Ice Shelf from the land. Together, the Denman campaigns will inform national and global decision-making about climate change responses.
Is the glacier’s rapid melt rate part of a natural cyclical fluctuation, or the start of a worrying new trend?
1 ‘Research voyage heads to Denman Glacier’, CSIRO, accessed 9 May 2025, <https://www.csiro. au/en/news/all/articles/2025/march/australianantarctic-program-voyage>.
2 ‘Achievements of the Denman Marine Voyage 2025’, Australian Antarctic Program, YouTube, accessed 8 May 2025, <https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tbnl7M4kZTk>.
3 Ibid.
4 ‘“The key question is what’s driving the changes we’re seeing in the satellite record?”: research voyage heads to Denman Glacier’, Australian Antarctic Program, accessed 8 May 2025, <https://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2025/ denman-marine-voyage-takes-scientists-to-eastantarctic-glacier-thats-sitting-on-the-deepestcontinental-chasm-on-earth/>
5 Ibid.
The author wishes to thank the staff of the Australian Antarctic Program for providing materials and images for this article.
Nazis on thin ice?
The third German Antarctic mission, 1938–39
In the late 1930s, Germany mounted a secretive expedition to Antarctica. The Third Reich hoped both to annex parts of the continent and, prosaically, to satisfy the German appetite for margarine. Dr Roland Leikauf explains.
IT WAS AN INSATIABLE HUNGER FOR FAT that brought the Nazis to Antarctica, and this hunger was intimately connected with their plans to expand the German Reich. Gaining new territory by conquering the lands of people defined by Nazi ideology as inferior (primarily in Eastern Europe) was a key part of Hitler’s plan for expansion. Germany’s rapid rearmament made the country extremely hungry for resources, some of which could supposedly be found in Antarctica.
Earlier German exploration of the polar regions had been motivated by a desire to beat others to prestigious achievements. Polar exploration was expensive, however. Appealing to patriotic feelings was essential to get an expedition funded, even for those who were well-connected and respected, and it could take decades for plans to be realised.
Voyages to the southern ice lands were proposed long before the end of the 18th century. Australia was a natural staging point for them, and later, the founding of the first German geomagnetic observatory in Melbourne in 1858 coincided with escalating calls for exploration down south.
The third German Antarctic mission identified as a scientific endeavour, but was dominated by political considerations. Putting the swastika flag on the ice was more important than discoveries and experiments. © akg-images/Ullstein Bild
Germany was hungry for resources, some of which could supposedly be found in Antarctica
Gauss would spend the winter encased in ice as a base for exploration and scientific experiments
The first attempts to conquer Antarctica
When the ship Gauss left northern Germany on 11 August 1901 for Antarctica, a scientist led the exhibition. Erich von Drygalski (1865–1949) had a clear vision for this important voyage. The ship would travel south and spend the winter encased in ice as a base for exploration and scientific experiments. Its hull was specifically designed to resist being crushed.
Gauss spent its time in Antarctic in exploration and scientific discovery, but the mild spring of 1903 did not free the vessel for the journey home. The crew had to get crafty: black ashes were spread around the hull to warm the ice beyond its melting point. This finally allowed the ship to leave the icy wastes and safely return to Germany.
The expedition had survived the inhumane conditions of the Antarctic and brought a plethora of scientific material and new knowledge back home, but its failure to penetrate deeply into unknown polar reaches left the audience, including the German emperor, unsatisfied, and the thirst for more discovery unquenched.
The second German Antarctic expedition on the ship Deutschland (Germany) started ten years later. It was well provisioned and had an ambitious program,
but is mainly remembered as an example of how psychological factors can ruin a well-planned project. A clash between the captain of the ship and the scientific head of the expedition split the group into two separate factions. An officer committed suicide, and the construction of a permanent station on the ice ended in catastrophe: the ice separated, and the wooden building was irreparably damaged. Relationships among the crew worsened, and some later reported that they had feared for their lives. The situation led to the premature end of the expedition in 1912, under circumstances not unlike the beginning of a mutiny. World War I then wiped any discussion about another expedition off the shelf.
Hitler, Nazi Germany, the war in the east and a hunger for fat
For decades, neither scientific desire nor national ideals could motivate enough sponsors to support another expedition. It was the scarcity of fat sources in the 1930s, combined with the Nazis’ plan for conquering lands in the east, which made the third German voyage to Antarctica a possibility. Nazi Germany was racing against time to build up enough arms to overwhelm its neighbours before they could catch up.
Germany’s resources were limited. The country didn’t have colonies to exploit to obtain fuel, rubber or fat, and foreign currency for buying goods abroad was scarce. An important goal for the Nazi administration was to curb consumer spending on imports – such as fat of a grade that could be used in margarine – so that more money could be spent on buying resources for the war machine. Self-sufficiency became a key goal.
One effective solution was the slow construction and expansion of Germany’s own whaling fleet. Could new hunting grounds in Antarctica help to expand it even further? Considerations like these could have been one reason Hermann Göring (1893–1946) approved the third German Antarctic expedition in 1938. This decision was a great opportunity for those researchers and explorers who had been waiting decades to revisit Antarctica, but the hope of acquiring territory also played a role. One of their destinations, Queen Maud Land, had been claimed by Norwegian voyagers but the Norwegian parliament had never ratified the claim. The Germans might acquire it through occupation, but secrecy would be essential for success. Norway could not be alerted to possible German ambitions.
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Erich von Drygalski, expedition leader on Gauss , was no adventurer, but rather a career academic and expert in geography and geophysics. Image Library of Congress
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Gauss fast in the ice. Letting the ice encase you for the winter was a bold way to create a polar dwelling. If the ship was crushed, the crews rarely survived. This shot, taken from a balloon or blimp in 1901, was one of the earliest aerial photographs taken in Antarctica. Image US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ Department of Commerce
The goals set for this expedition were streamlined and limited. Instead of exploring by ship or sled, they would rely on surveying the territory from the air, using seaplanes. State-of-the-art photographic gear allowed them to create overlapping images that could be turned into detailed maps. To support German territorial demands, the planes carried large aluminium darts emblazoned with the swastika. The air crews were to drop these at regular intervals to mark the route of their exploration. A swastika flag would be dropped at the farthest point before the plane returned to the ship. The chosen vessel, Schwabenland (Swabia), could carry two 10-tonne floatplanes and act as a travelling catapult launch. The modern techniques of exploration, a lack of extensive outward research teams and clearly defined goals ensured a modest budget of ‘only’ 2.4 million Reichsmark – equivalent to about AUD 21 million today.1
The crew chosen for the expedition was a strange mix of individuals, selected for their polar experience. The captain was Alfred Ritscher (1879–1963). He had experience as both a ship’s captain and a pilot, and was named expedition leader. Ritscher had divorced his Jewish wife to continue his successful career. Political adherence to Nazi principles on board was ensured by Karl-Heinz Röbke (born 1909),2 who was both the ship’s second officer and a party member representing Nazi interests.
To support German territorial demands, the planes carried large aluminium darts emblazoned with the swastika
01 Overview map of the working area of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39. It shows the advantage of aerial exploration employed by the expedition: planes could reach areas that were completely off-limits for standard expeditions that used sleds and land vehicles. From the American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries
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Schwabenland was a new, modern type of exploration vessel, but compared to Gauss , its nature as a moving aircraft launch vastly limited its protections from the crushing grip of the ice. The oncoming winter would have doomed the ship had circumstances delayed its departure. Image Heinrich Hoffmann/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
The voyage
Schwabenland left Hamburg on 17 December 1938, and scientific experimentation began almost immediately. The ship carried a blimp with a onekilogram instrument set that could analyse different layers of the atmosphere, and an echo-sounding machine to record the shape of the seabed.
An essential task was to ready the planes and pilots for flying in extremely low temperatures. The nightmare scenario was an emergency landing at maximum range (500 kilometres). The emergency kits were optimised to ensure the pilot’s chance of survival (not forgetting to include six cigarettes per person per day), and the planes were continuously maintained and tested while the vessel steamed south.
While the journey itself was without incident, loose lips in Germany disturbed well-set plans. An indiscretion by an expedition member’s relative raised Norwegian suspicions. Was a German expedition going south that could interfere with Norway’s claim to Antarctic territory? Schwabenland hadn’t even reached its first anchorage in its area of operation when Norway’s parliament hastily recognised Queen Maud Land. The expedition’s first goal had failed before exploration had even begun. The dream of German annexation was dead.
Flying over eternal ice
When Schwabenland reached its operational territory, seaplane Boreas was prepared for its first surveying flight, on 20 January 1939. It carried a pilot, mechanic, radio operator and photographer. Its only lifeline to the ship was a radio using Morse code. Long Distance Flight 1 was launched from the ship at 4.38 in the morning. The other plane, Passat, stood ready in case of an emergency. While the plane was flying at an effective height of 2,300 metres, the surface was only a little more than a kilometre below. The cameras captured endless icy wastes, but also the rocky ridges of a mountain range. Sharp peaks ripped through the snow and ice. The ground rose continuously until there was only 100 metres clearance below the plane, and the crew had to turn north and then finally return to the ship. The flight was a resounding success, but the carefully prepared metal swastika darts fell prey to the challenges of the mission. When the plane tried to edge closer to the mountains, it needed to reduce weight, so the darts were unceremoniously dumped.
The most impressive discovery of the voyage was made during another flight: ice-free lakes, now called the Schirmacher Oasis, that would later house several Antarctic stations. The painstaking preparation and testing turned out to be the right approach, and when the last of seven flights took place on 4 February, the expedition could return north without suffering any major accidents.
Aftermath
When news of the expedition broke, the international echo was confused. What did Nazi Germany want in Antarctica? Would Germany challenge Norway’s claim to the region? What other, more sinister reasons could there be for this voyage? War was on the horizon, but the German government was not prepared to risk international incidents over this journey. Names for features that could have created international consternation were dropped (no Hermann Göring Land), and no official claims to the land were attempted.
Scientifically, the expedition had been a profound success, but economically it failed. The German ‘fat plan’ did not profit from it, due to the disappointing number of whales in the region. Many hopes were put on a followup expedition, but these were dashed when Germany attacked Poland on 1 September 1939. Still, the visionaries remained hopeful; the war might be short, and surely the situation would change in a year or two. But when nothing happened until 1941, the expedition’s office closed, and many expedition members would fall in battle during the war. Schwabenland was requisitioned, and after being torpedoed in 1944 it never functioned as a seagoing vessel again. War had won out.
Invincible lies
The only things to not just survive the war, but thrive, were conspiracy theories. Antarctica itself, and a Nazi presence there, worked wonders on imaginations. Had the expedition built a hidden base in Queen Maud Land, concealing terrible secrets? Had the Americans attacked it, only to be driven back by secret weapons?
What did Nazi Germany want in Antarctica? Would Germany challenge Norway’s claim to the region?
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The Schirmacher Oasis is an ice-free area in central Princess Astrid Coast, Queen Maud Land. Image ID 352316976 © Liubov Sharova/Dreamstime.com
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Whalers stand on the back of a huge blue whale caught in the Antarctic, c 1935. As an industrial lubricant, an explosive and a food product, whale fat was in high demand for both Allied and Axis forces in the lead-up to World War II. Image Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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An aerial image from the expedition of 1938–9. The fragile planes captured on film landscapes devoid of life that no human being had ever seen. Image courtesy Pangaea/Creative Commons CC-BY
Why were German submarines sighted in the area? Did they carry Nazi personnel into hiding, or rescue the Führer himself, who now bided his return in the eternal ice?
Schwabenland was far too small to achieve any of these absurd goals, but as with most conspiracy theories, there are kernels of truth hidden in lies. German U-boats fled to the region to find refuge in Argentina, but they didn’t carry Hitler. America did send forces to Antarctica, but for manoeuvres in the escalating Cold War.
But due to a belief that the Nazis wouldn’t have planted their flag in Antarctica for exploration and economy alone, these theories live on, long after Nazi Germany was reduced to history’s most horrific memory.
Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Immigration.
1 The German National Bank states that a 1937 Reichsmark was worth about 5.10 euros in 2024.
2 The author has been unable to determine Karl-Heinz Röbke’s date of death.
Big Blue Ideas
Turn up. Speak out. Dive in.
BIG BLUE IDEAS is a new series of talks from the Australian National Maritime Museum about the future of our ocean.
Forget doom and gloom — this is not your typical climate conversation. Big Blue Ideas is where action meets imagination, where science meets hope. From AI and conservation tech to cultural storytelling and deep-sea discovery, these talks put you in a room with innovators, scientists, artists and disruptors. Join the conversation. Let’s talk about the world we want to have.
Plastic – the final straw?
6.30 pm Thursday 14 August
Our oceans are full of plastic. We eat, drink and breathe tiny plastic particles every day.
Is this the health crisis of our time, or are we overreacting? This session cuts through the noise with real solutions, no empty promises, just the hard truth about what works.
Is the deep sea a wasteland or wonderland?
6.30 pm Thursday 16 October
The deep ocean is Earth’s final frontier – vast and largely unseen by humans. So, what’s really down there?
Is it a mysterious ecosystem full of untapped knowledge and creatures of the abyss, our next gold rush, or even our next home?
Can AI talk whale?
6.30 pm Thursday 22 January
From tracking sharks to scanning the ocean floor, artificial intelligence is already reshaping how we explore, protect and manage the sea – but could it go even further? Like ... decoding whale language?
Prices
General Admission $30
Big Blue Duo – bring a friend 2 Tickets $50
Big Blue Bundle – tickets to all events $90
Concession $25 Concession ID required Members $20 using code MEMBER
For more information and to book: sea.museum/big-blue-ideas
Major Partner
Secret Strike
WAR ON OUR SHORES
Step into history and uncover the covert mission that shook Sydney.
On view at Wharf 7
Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm sea.museum/secret-strike
Speakers talk
The Other Flinders –Australia’s unsung hero
2–3:30 pm Wednesday 11 June
James Cook, Arthur Phillip, Matthew Flinders – we’ve all heard of them. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg of early European explorers of Australia.
Samuel Ward Flinders, youngest brother of Matthew, played a little known but outsized role in shaping the British colony of New South Wales in its early days. Several of his fellow officers on HMS Reliance also made their mark on the development of future generations.
Learn about perilous voyages to increase livestock numbers in the colony, leading to a thriving merino industry; the discovery of Bass Strait and Tasmania as an island; coal deposits at the mouth of the newly explored Hunter River; dangerous seas at Norfolk Island; heart-stopping dashes around Cape Horn; and the Flinders brothers’ adventures on a momentous trip to Moreton Bay.
Presented by Prof Richard de Grijs from the museum’s Speakers Group. Richard is an astrophysicist and popular public speaker. He has recently been exploring New South Wales convict histories, for which he was awarded the 2022 Blacktown Mayoral History Prize.
$10 / Free for Members. Enter promo code MEMBER
Special event
Sensory-friendly days
8.30–11.30 am Sundays 15 June, 20 July, 24 August, 21 September
Enjoy a comfortable environment for kids and adults with a variety of sensory differences.
On sensory-friendly days, our new exhibitions and activity areas open extra early or late for a quieter experience and are modified to suit people on the autism spectrum and visitors with a range of differing abilities.
Our trained staff and volunteers will be on hand to assist with access and to facilitate creative activities.
For our winter sessions, we’re offering early access to the museum galleries, including including the exhibitions Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Journey to the Ultimate Depth exhibition, replica ship Duyfken, an underwater drone workshop (suitable for visitors 7+ years) and our special activity areas for guests with sensory differences.
Adult or child $12 / free for children under 4 and members or companion card holders
A young guest enjoys a specially modified sensory-friendly session. ANMM image
Twilight cruises
Sail on Duyfken
Fridays and Saturdays in June; see website for July and August dates
Experience one of the rarest ships in the world while soaking up some afternoon sun during a sail on Sydney Harbour. Professional and experienced volunteer crew will be on board to operate the ship, so that you are free to sit back and enjoy the experience!
Includes snack box and beer, wine or soft drink. For adults and accompanied children 12 and up.
$120 / Members $108
Image Cassandra Hannagan
Exclusive collection tours
Inside the National Maritime Collection
10.30 am–12.45 pm alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays
Our behind-the-scenes VIP tours are an opportunity to study and hear about objects that are rarely seen by the public. The tours run for about two and a quarter hours and finish with a cup of tea or coffee in our Members Lounge.
Members $30 / non-members $40. Check Eventbrite for dates and booking.
Evening editions
Special talk: Movie ships
5:30–8 pm Thursday 3 July
From the earliest years of cinema, ocean liners have had a starring role on the silver screen. Presenter Phillip Massadd will look at famous ships in movies how they are brought to life. Featured ships include Queen Mary and the tragic Cap Arcona –both of which starred as the Titanic
We will look at the four Poseidon Adventure movies and dismantle the myths surrounding the use of SS Ile de France and its explosive role in The Last Voyage. And many more!
Includes refreshments before the talk.
$40 / Members and their guests $30
Author talk
Annette Kellerman –Grantlee Kieza
2–3.30 pm Tuesday 22 July
Rule breaker, fashion icon, endurance swimmer and Hollywood sex symbol, Annette Kellerman became an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records and astonishing huge crowds by with her high-diving feats.
By 1914 she was a silent film superstar and sex symbol, becoming one of the highestpaid entertainers of her time and a worldwide celebrity. She promoted fitness and independence for women and changed the lives of millions.
Join us as Grantlee Kieza tells us the story of this amazing Australian.
Items from the museum’s collection relating to Annette Kellerman will also be on display. Free for all attendees
Special event
Keiko Ogura in Conversation 2–3.30 pm Sunday 17 August
Keiko Ogura, from Hiroshima, was eight years old and in her second year of elementary school when the atomic bomb was dropped 2.4 kilometres from her home. In 1984, she established Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace (HIP), and by interpreting for foreign researchers and journalists who visit Hiroshima, she has worked to communicate the reality of the atomic bombing to the world.
Ms Ogura will be in conversation with Richard Wood, manager of US Programs at the museum.
Free for all attendees
Author talk
The Last Outlaws –Katherine Biber
2–3.30 pm Thursday 10 July
In 1900, on the cusp of Federation, Wiradjuri brothers Jimmy and Joe Governor murdered nine people across New South Wales, in a rampage triggered by a racist incident. After a vast manhunt, Joe was shot and Jimmy the last man to be outlawed in the colony and the first to hanged in the new nation. Author Professor Katherine Biber will be joined in conversation with the museum’s Manager of Indigenous Programs, Matt Poll.
Copies of the books will be available for purchase and be signed by the author. Free for all attendees
Bookings are essential. Email memberevents@sea.museum and tell us which event you wish to attend, and who is coming. Or book through Eventbrite, phone us on 02 9298 3777, or scan the QR code at right.
Author talk
Australia’s Aviation Heroes –Colin Burgess
2–3.30 pm Wednesday 6 August
Join us as prolific author Colin Burgess talks about his new book, based on personal interviews he conducted over many years. Australia’s Aviation Heroes captures the exploits of extraordinary men who answered the call during desperate times, willingly taking to the dangerous skies in wartime.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase and for signing by the author.
Free for all attendees
Speakers talk
Building the Arch –Sydney Harbour Bridge 1928–30 2–3.30 pm Tuesday 19 August
For two years from late 1929, Sydneysiders found a new fascination: watching the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge being built. The two half arches crept out in mid-air, one from the north side and the other from the south – but would they actually meet?
This presentation looks at the process of construction, revealing sophisticated details and safety measures built into the equipment and erection techniques to ensure that the work was completed quickly, safely and on budget.
Presented by Bill Phippen from the museum’s Speakers Group.
$10 / Free for members. Enter promo code MEMBER
For all other events, please see sea.museum/whats-on/events or sea.museum/kids
Online activities for kids
sea.museum/kidscraft
Play, create, experiment! Have fun at home with easy creative activities and printable downloads for children. There are puzzles, colouring, crafts and much more to keep the kids amused.
Annette with Crown by Wendy Sharpe. Study for panel 5 of the Annette Kellerman mural commissioned in 1997 for Cook and Phillip Park Pool, Sydney. ANMM Collection 00032436. Copyright and reproduced courtesy Wendy Sharpe
Foundation update
The museum benefits from your support
THE MUSEUM WISHES TO THANK everyone who supported our 2024 end-of-calendar-year campaign. Your generosity has enabled the museum to purchase traditionally made hemp rope from the 400-year-old Chatham Dockyards in England for Endeavour, and to significantly increase the number of ‘sensory friendly’ Sundays for children and adults with special needs.
In 2023, the generosity of donors to the Foundation raised sufficient funds to support four young people sailing on Endeavour. A need to upgrade the vessel delayed their departure until February this year, when they finally set sail.
Two young women, Dominique and Lily, made the voyage down to Hobart with the vessel and two young men named Thomas and Clancy sailed back. Three of the four had volunteered on other tall ships and all were keen to experience being part of Endeavour ’s crew, particularly setting the sails. Dominique expressed the appreciation of all four when she wrote to thank the Foundation:
The sponsorship of my spot on this voyage from Sydney to Hobart is genuinely incredible and I’m so grateful … Now I am here working towards a maritime career and doing a lot of things I didn’t think possible for myself, like climbing up the rigging.
Thank you to all our supporters who made this lifechanging experience possible for these young people.
The Foundation organises a range of activities for our supporters at the museum and, when possible, elsewhere in Australia. It is a great opportunity to meet our donors and show our appreciation. In recent months we have enjoyed an afternoon sail on the early-20th-century Dutch schooner Oosterschelde, a pre-opening tour of the flotilla of Halvorsens on display at the museum to celebrate the centenary of the family’s arrival in Australia from Norway, and harbour sailings on our 1901 steam yacht, SY Ena. Supporters have also enjoyed curator-led tours of the James Cameron exhibitions, the new exhibition Secret Strike: War on our Shores, and the important World War II vessel MV Krait
In February, some of our Tasmanian-based donors were able to join us at a reception at the Tasmanian Maritime Museum and go on board Endeavour.
Your support makes a real difference to what we can achieve. With the end of the financial year approaching, we are raising funds to support two projects of importance to the museum.
The oldest-known Australian-built vessel, currently known as the Barangaroo Boat, has been comprehensively recorded and recovered in its entirety. We are seeking your support to enable us to reassemble its 300 timber elements, which will become the focus of a major exhibition about colonial Sydney, boatbuilding and the process of recovering and preserving the vessel.
The second project is ‘Museum in a box’ – an outreach program that will see objects and audio from the 1940s to the 1960s being sent to aged care facilities and community organisations. With the theme of Australian beach culture, its objective is to stimulate conversation and provide valuable opportunities for residents to share stories about their own experiences.
Please give generously to this campaign!
Dr Kimberley Webber
There are a number of ways to support our end-of-calendar-year campaign. You can donate:
• online at sea.museum/donate
• by direct deposit: BSB 062 000 Account Number 16169309 with your surname as reference
• or by phone to the Foundation Office on 02 9298 3777.
All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for your support.
01
Sharing stories of beach culture with objects from the museum’s education collection. Image Alicia De Audney/ANMM
02
Recipient of Foundation support Dominique (left), with shipmates, aboard Endeavour on its way to Hobart in February his year. Image Tracey Gottliebsen
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 60
Now showing
This world-renowned exhibition, on loan from the Natural History Museum in London, is now in its 60th year and features exceptional images of fascinating animal behaviour, spectacular species and the breathtaking diversity of the natural world. 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 some of the best photography talent from around the world. Launched in 1965, today the competition receives entries from 117 countries and territories all over the world, highlighting its enduring appeal. sea.museum/wildlife-photographer
Among the Trees depicts a boto, or Amazon River dolphin.
© Thomas Peschak/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Ultimate Depth
Now showing
There is only one world ocean, and it covers 70 per cent of the planet. Ultimate Depth: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea invites you to experience and understand our ocean, so together we can help to protect it. Join us as we dive in to experience each zone, encounter extraordinary creatures, and uncover the cutting-edge technologies that reveal their secrets and their hidden world.
Make your own deep-sea creature and release it into the midnight zone, then end your adventure in the deepest reaches of our ocean, the hadal zone, where you can investigate the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER , the submersible that took James Cameron to these extreme depths in 2012. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ ultimate-depth
Secret Strike: War on our shores
Now showing
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. To commemorate this historic milestone, a new temporary exhibition focuses on the 1942 Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour. Secret Strike: War on our shores features the stern section of the midget submarine M22 and voice pipes from HMAS Kuttabul. The exhibition explores the raid and includes historic images of the aftermath of the attack and first-hand accounts of the impact it had on ordinary people’s lives.
*Please note, Secret Strike: War on our shores is located in Wharf 7, adjacent to the main museum building, and is not open on weekends or public holidays.
A Graphic Tale of Shipwreck:
Rediscovering the South Australian Now showing
Australian maritime archaeologists have partnered with German virtual design experts to re-create the 1837 wreck of the barque South Australian as a stunning graphic novel and an immersive diving experience. These depictions, plus artefacts from the shipwreck site, allow visitors to virtually explore the ship and reveal the detective work that uncovered its story.
Artwork by Professor Holger Deuter (University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserlautern, Germany) brings to life the terrifying tale of South Australian ’s loss. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ south-australian
Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM
Chains of Empire Until 29 June
This exhibit explores what happened when former slave owners across the British Empire were compensated to free their enslaved workers. What were the financial, cultural and human consequences when former slave owners arrived in the Australian colonies?
Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM
The
Halvorsen Centenary: crafting a legacy on water
Now showing
The Halvorsen family has shaped Australian boatbuilding since 1924. This display showcases the journey of the Halvorsen family from Norway to Sydney and the evolution of Halvorsen designs, from classic wooden craftsmanship to modern innovations. It offers a rare insight into the artistry and engineering that have endured for 100 years.
Mäna and Bäru: The Sea Country of Guykuda Munuŋgurr
Now showing
An installation of 19 sculptures of fish and other marine creatures by Guykuda Munuŋgurr, representing species found in his Garrthalala homeland in northern Australia. Guykuda crafts his shapes out of the bush timber that surrounds his remote homeland. Many of the species represented in these works are depicted in the museum’s internationally significant Saltwater Bark paintings.
sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ mana-and-baru
Touring exhibitions
Bidhiinja – Restoring our oyster reefs
Touring regional New South Wales venues
Oyster reefs were once abundant along our coastlines, but today only one per cent of reefs remain around Australia. This unique exhibition combines First Nations knowledge and Western science and is a collaboration between the NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries (DPI) and the museum. It explains the forgotten history, benefits and First Nations relationships with oyster reefs in Australia – and why NSW DPI wants to bring them back.
Partner: NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries
Cats
& Dogs All at Sea National Wool Museum, Geelong Until 15 July
In a seafaring life from which families and children are usually missing, and are often very much missed, pets provide a focus for emotions and affection. Sydney photographer Sam Hood went aboard countless ships between 1900 and the 1950s. He took hundreds of photographs of crew members as souvenirs of their visit or to send home to families. This selection of images shows how much pets meant to many seafarers.
HMB Endeavour cannon
Now showing
A small display of artefacts associated with Lieutenant James Cook’s famous HM Bark Endeavour. In June 1770, 48 tonnes of material, including six iron cannons, was jettisoned from Endeavour in a successful attempt to save the ship after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. One of the cannons is on display, along with some of the ballast. Cannon on loan to the museum courtesy of NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service. sea.museum/whats-on/exhibitions/ endeavour-cannon
James Cameron – Challenging the Deep
Queensland Museum Tropics, Townsville
Now showing
Encounter the deep-ocean discoveries, technical innovations and scientific and creative achievements of underwater explorer James Cameron. Created by the Australian National Maritime Museum’s USA Programs and supported by the USA Bicentennial Gift Fund. Produced in association with Avatar Alliance Foundation.
Brickwrecks – sunken ships in LEGO ® bricks
Chatham Historic Dockyard, UK
Now showing
Featuring large-scale LEGO ® models, interactives and audiovisuals, Brickwrecks explores some of the world’s most famous shipwrecks, including Vasa, Batavia, Titanic, Terror and Erebus
Developed and designed by the Western Australian Museum in partnership with the Australian National Maritime Museum and Ryan McNaught.
For information regarding all touring exhibitions please see: sea.museum/en/about/ touring-exhibitions
Brickwrecks on display at Chatham Dock, UK. Image Oliver Dixon
01 Teruko Morito, from Hiroshima, and Warrant Officer Bill Blair in Kure, Japan. Defying a ban on fraternisation between Japanese citizens and the Allied forces who occupied Japan after the war, they began a relationship and later married. ANMM Collection IR4631_002
02 Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese government, on board USS Missouri, 2 September 1945. Lieutenant General Richard K Sutherland, US Army, watches on. Image Naval Historical Center (USA) Photo # SC 213700
The World Remade
Marking 80 years since World War II ended
The world as we know it started 80 years ago this year, in the aftermath of World War II. In commemoration, the museum will deliver a series of programs, events and exhibitions under the banner The World Remade.
TODAY’S GLOBAL ORDER is underpinned by rules and organisations formed after the tumultuous events of the Second World War.
In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, the leaders of the USA, UK and Soviet Union carved up the postwar world, extending the Soviet sphere of influence in the east – and inadvertently sowing the seeds for the ensuing Cold War. Six months later, Japan surrendered. With war at an end, the world dreamt of peace and a new global order, reflected in the creation of the United Nations.
The USA rapidly emerged as the guarantor of Western stability in Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Western alliances – such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security (ANZUS) Treaty – sought to cement key principles around free trade, democracy and law.
In the years after 1945, American influence extended to virtually every aspect of our society, from mass media, advertising and consumerism to notions of immigration, societal integration and trade.
No matter what global power dynamic next emerges in this increasingly unpredictable world, there is no denying that the waves caused by World War II still lap these shores. War remade the world.
Moments in time
On 8 December 1941, Australian PM John Curtin solemnly announced: ‘men and women of Australia, we are at war with Japan’. In August it will be 80 years since World War II in the Pacific ended. This conflict had galvanised the 7 million people of Australia to a common purpose and changed the world – and particularly the Pacific region – in ways that are still felt today.
It’s also 80 years since one million members of the United States armed forces stayed in or passed though Australia on their way to war. They were not only critical to defeating the enemy, but also had a direct influence on Australian society.
Stories of World War II have been passed down through generations. One million Australians joined the armed forces during the war; their stories have flowed to their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, who may now number 6 million.
To these can be added the stories of those who served on the home front or came to Australia as post-war immigrants – so it’s fair to say that World War II is part of the collective memory of nearly all Australians.
After
the bomb, new beginnings
The catastrophic atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which effectively ended the war, heralded new beginnings for individuals and nations.
Japan’s occupation of various Asian and Pacific nations ended, giving rise to popular and political campaigns –many of them successful – seeking independence from pre-war imperialism and colonisation.
Post-war Allied occupation revolutionised the social and political structure of Japan under a constitution – written by America – that enforced parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.
Australia and New Zealand now turned directly to the USA for their defence, culminating in the ANZUS security treaty of 1951. This ended Australia’s historical reliance on the UK for defence, and paved the way for AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership established between Australia, the UK and the USA in 2021.
Australia – the land of tomorrow, under US influence
Some 15,000 Australian women who married American men left home and travelled across the Pacific on Matson ocean liners in ‘Operation War Brides’ to begin a new but not always happy life in the USA. A much smaller number of American ‘war grooms’ travelled in the opposite direction to Australia.
More than one million Americans came to Australia during the war, bringing their mores and popular culture and influencing our social outlook, language and lifestyle towards an American ideal.
For many Europeans, the lives they had known ended with World War II, forcing them to seek new futures elsewhere. ‘Australia – land of tomorrow’ was the government slogan used to entice and welcome waves of new immigrants.
01 Atomic-bombed dress worn by three-year-old Shoji Kubo on 6 August 1945. Image courtesy Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
02 World War II propaganda poster. ANMM Collection 00009077
03
Secret Strike – War on our Shores. Image Jasmine Poole/ANMM
The World Remade at the museum
As this issue of Signals goes to press, some details of the following programs and exhibitions are yet to be confirmed; please check our website for updates.
Exhibitions
Secret Strike – War on our Shores features the propellor of one of the Japanese midget submarines that raided Sydney in 1942. It is now open in the museum’s Wharf 7 building (7 am–7 pm, Monday–Friday only). An ongoing, online high school learning resource, ‘War in the Pacific – secret strike on Sydney Harbour’ is available at https:// www.sea.museum/en/learn/resource/war-in-thepacific-secret-strike
War Brides, Grooms and Babies exhibits items from the museum’s collection relating to war brides and US influence on Australia. It is scheduled to open in the main museum building from 23 October.
Also in the main museum, from 29 June, is Persuasion, a selection of World War II propaganda posters.
The Bomb and its Aftermath will feature a small number of artefacts from Hiroshima Memorial Museum. This exhibit is due to open on 11 July.
Events
The museum will host a talk by Keiko Ogura, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, from 2–3.30 pm on Sunday 17 August. Eight-year-old Keiko was in her second year of elementary school when the bomb fell about 2.4 kilometres from her home. In 1984, Ms Oguro established Hiroshima Interpreters for Peace (HIP), and by interpreting for foreign researchers and journalists who visit Hiroshima, she has worked to communicate the reality of the atomic bombing to the world.
Ms Ogura has shared her story with some 2,000 people annually across more than 50 countries and regions. This event is free for all attendees; book via Eventbrite.
Coming soon
The museum’s events team is planning a weekend event on 18–19 October featuring 1940s dancing, music and fashion. Keep an eye out for further details.
Special guided tours of MV Krait
We have recently commenced guided tours of MV Krait From this unassuming vessel, commandos launched Operation Jaywick, a daring and successful covert raid on Japanese ships in Singapore Harbour in 1943. See our website for tour dates and times.
Travelling exhibitions, Australia and overseas
The Battle of the Coral Sea banner exhibition and film are on display at Townsville Maritime Museum. In this battle, fought on 4–8 May 1942, Australian and Allied naval forces successfully stopped a Japanese seaborne invasion of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
Dark Victory – Operation Jaywick is showing from 26 September at the National Museum of Singapore and the Changi Chapel & Museum. The film tells the story of the 1943 raid on Singapore Harbour undertaken by 14 men of Z Special Unit aboard MV Krait
The graphic exhibition Guardians of the Sunda Strait is on display at the Battleship New Jersey Museum, Camden, USA, and at the Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle. It tells the story of the Battle of the Sunda Strait, in which HMAS Perth and USS Houston faced the Japanese fleet invading Java in 1942, resulting in the loss of both ships and the deaths of 1,046 crew members.
The War and Peace in the Pacific banner exhibition continues its display at Jackson Barracks Military Museum, Louisiana, USA.
Two other travelling exhibitions are available for display at regional and interstate venues. Mission X relates the role of Australia’s small ships flotilla during World War II, while Capturing the Home Front features photographs of wartime life in Australia. To discuss exhibition hire, please contact touringexhibitions@sea.museum
Library show
In June, the Vaughan Evans Library in Wharf 7 will open a display of 20th-century Japanese maritime postcards, connecting with the tragic story of the prisoner-of-war transport Montevideo Maru
Southern sojourns
The Thorpe Collection: Lyttelton and Antarctic exploration
Lyttelton, on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s South Island, was a regular port of call for ships during the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration. Over the years, close ties developed between the town’s citizens and their visitors, writes Assistant Curator Inger Sheil.
Thorpe would serve the Harbour Board for the next 21 years, first as assistant pilot, then head pilot and finally harbourmaster. His skill in assuring the safe passage of vessels won him respect and accolades –when HRH Edward Prince of Wales visited New Zealand in 1920 aboard HMS Renown, it was Thorpe who piloted the 30,750-ton battlecruiser into Lyttelton.
WHEN ALFRED THORPE was appointed assistant pilot in Lyttelton, New Zealand, he was a seasoned and experienced mariner who had travelled the world in sail and steam. Born in Derby, England, in 1852, he served his four-year apprenticeship in the full-rigged sailing ships. After obtaining his second mate’s certificate at the age of 17, he served in steamships on the China–New Zealand trade before joining the Australasian Steam Navigation Company and later Huddart Parker, where he spent 16 years. A notable command was Westralia, in which he frequently crossed between Sydney and New Zealand. When the position of assistant pilot arose in Lyttelton, New Zealand, at the end of 1900, Thorpe was selected above 25 other candidates.
Lyttelton Harbour, or Whakaraupō, is on the east coast of the South Island. From the mid-19th century, the building of tracks, roads and finally a railway made the harbour an important transport hub for the city of Christchurch and the Canterbury region.
As one of the last ports of call for vessels of exploration travelling to Antarctica, Lyttelton was well positioned to offer them logistical support. Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton selected it for their expeditions in Discovery (1901–04), Nimrod (1907–09) and Terra Nova (1910–13), and SY Aurora of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, under Douglas Mawson, called at the port in 1912.
Scott recorded the warmth and hospitality that met the crew of Discovery on their arrival on 29 November 1901:1
The general kindness and hospitality of New Zealanders are well known to every stranger who has visited the country, but in our case there was added a keen and intelligent interest in all that concerned the expedition, and a whole-hearted desire to further its aims.
The Discovery expedition was operating on a narrow budget and constantly seeking ways to either cuts costs or fundraise, and New Zealand rallied to its cause:2
All charges for harbour dues, docking, wharfage, &c, were remitted to us by the Lyttelton Harbour Board … On every side we were accorded the most generous terms by firms or individuals with whom we had to deal in business.
Thorpe’s skill in assuring the safe passage of vessels in Lyttelton Harbour won him respect and accolades
01
Alfred Thorpe in sub-lieutenant’s uniform, Royal Naval Reserve.
ANMM Collection 00056361
Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
02
Morning , Terra Nova and Discovery as depicted on the invitation to farewell Morning in 1903 (image 01, page 67).
ANMM Collection ANMS1475[017]
Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
Substantial work had to be undertaken by the Antarctic explorers before they could resume their voyage south. Discovery ’s rigging was overhauled, the expedition’s scientific equipment was checked and calibrated at the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory, supplies were re-stowed, and the ship was twice docked in an unsuccessful attempt to locate and stem a persistent leak that had plagued the ship on its voyage from Britain.
It was in this atmosphere of friendly collaboration that Thorpe became acquainted with expedition members, including Discovery ’s First Lieutenant, Charles Royds, and Third Officer, Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton would later achieve fame leading his own expeditions, and Royds would win acclaim for both his professionalism and his conviviality.
As Thorpe piloted Discovery from the port on 21 December, the harbourside was packed with spectators. To the sound of brass bands, whistles and cheers, the ship was escorted to open water by two naval vessels and gaily dressed steamers crowded with observers.
Two days later, when Discovery called at Port Chalmers, near Dunedin, Shackleton took the time to pen a note on expedition letterhead to his new friend. Thanking Thorpe for his ‘kindness and good fellowship’, he anticipated the challenges ahead, adding ‘Believe me, I shall be looking forward to seeing your face the first on board again when our southern sojourn is ended.’ 3 From Dunedin they sailed to the Antarctic continent, reaching Cape Adare on 9 January 1902.
The next part Lyttelton and Thorpe would play in the expedition was support for the relief ship Morning , which made two voyages to restock Discovery Morning was an unprepossessing vessel as described by Gerald Doorly, who joined the ship in London as third officer:4
The first sight of the Morning gave me rather a shock. Her prefix, ‘SY’, led me to expect something more toney than that of a small wooden, barque-rigged, Norwegian whaler of about 380 tons, with a crow’s nest like an elongated barrel at the main-mast-head, and a flimsy yellow funnel sticking up near the back of the poop. How small she seemed after the passenger steamer I had just left!
On 16 November 1902, after three and half months at sea, Morning arrived at Lyttelton, departing again on 6 December 1902 to a similar enthusiastic send-off to that given to Discovery. It sailed to where Discovery was locked in the ice, and supplies were sledged across from Morning. Shackleton, suffering from scurvy, joined Morning on its return to New Zealand. In late 1903 Morning travelled again to Antarctica in the company of Terra Nova to resupply and evacuate the expedition. They succeeded in freeing Discovery from the ice in February 1904, and the ships sailed north.
On 1 April, Thorpe boarded a tug with the assistant pilot and an official party to meet the vessels beyond the heads, greeting them by hoisting the signal ‘Welcome’. As the tug passed under Discovery ’s bow they called up the anxious inquiry ‘All well?’, which was met with an emphatic ‘Yes!’. Thorpe took command of Discovery while the assistant pilot took Terra Nova and Morning By the time they reached port, word had spread, and crowds were assembled to meet them.
Scott expressed the emotions of the explorers on their return:5
… as we entered Lyttelton Heads after so long an absence, each one of us felt that we were returning to what was very nearly our home – to a place where we should find peace after our wanderings, and to people who would greet us with sympathetic friendship.
In 1907, Thorpe piloted Shackleton’s Nimrod to a berth at the Gladstone Pier and a similar warm reception. While the Nimrod expedition would not reach the South Pole, a party led by Shackleton did achieve a new record for trekking further south than anyone had gone before. Another party reached the estimated position of the South Magnetic Pole, and Mount Erebus was scaled for the first time.
From the mid-19th century, the building of tracks, roads and finally a railway made Lyttelton Harbour an important transport hub
01
An invitation to join the tug Lyttelton as it farewelled relief ship Morning on 24 October 1903. Morning was heading to Winter Quarter Bay to evacuate the Discovery expedition.
ANMM Collection ANMS1475[017] Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
02
Letter from Ernest Shackleton to Alfred Thorpe thanking him for his ‘kindness and good fellowship’.
ANMM Collection ANMS1475[001] Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
01
Postcard showing the track of Discovery and Morning to the Antarctic, sent by Gerard Doorly to Olive Thorpe. ANMM Collection ANMS1475[016] Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
02
A first edition, published in 1905, of The Voyage of the Discovery by Robert Falcon Scott. It was presented to Alfred Thorpe by Charles Royds, who enclosed his calling card and the message ‘with best wishes from your friend in the old “Discovery”.’ ANMM Collection 00056357 Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
‘as
we entered Lyttelton Heads after so long an absence, each one of us felt that we were returning to what was very nearly our home’
Scott was the next Antarctic explorer to return to Lyttelton. At 5 am on 28 October 1910, a message was received that Terra Nova had been sighted outside the heads, and the tug Canterbury was despatched. Thorpe was now harbourmaster, but he personally undertook this important pilotage job. In heavy fog outside the heads, the tug waited for several hours. Finally, Terra Nova ’s masts could be seen above the fog and Canterbury approached, hoisting the signal ‘Welcome’. As soon as the acting commander of the ship, Lieutenant Edward Evans, had relinquished pilotage of the vessel to Thorpe, he gave an enthusiastic interview to the journalists on board:6
The men who were out here on the Discovery and the Nimrod all look forward keenly to revisiting your shores. The men who have been here with previous expeditions have never forgotten the kindly treatment meted out to them … They have a warmer corner in their hearts for New Zealand than for any other part of the Empire.
Thorpe brought the ship alongside No 5 Wharf, where they were met by officials, members of the expedition joining the ship in New Zealand, and a crowd of sightseers.
It was noted, however, that the explorers no longer caused quite the excitement that previous visits had inspired. The Lyttelton Times reported:7
The fact is, Lyttelton has become so accustomed to receiving Antarctic expeditions, despatching them in a happy manner and overwhelming them with all kinds of favours when they return that she seems to take the arrival of another one as an event which hardly requires her to depart from her busy everyday life.
This did not indicate that the townspeople underrated the expeditions’ importance, the paper mused: ‘it merely means that the novelty of having heroes and famous men and notable vessels in her port has somewhat worn off.’
There was still a proprietorial sense among the local population, however:8
Perhaps [Lyttelton] feels that some of the notability, if not some of the fame, has been imparted to her … and if the Union Jack is flown over the South Pole there will be no doubt in Lyttelton’s mind that the honour and the glory belong to her as much as to anybody.
The fate of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition would jolt the world from any sense of complacency around polar exploration. En route to New Zealand, Scott received a telegram in Melbourne from Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen informing him he was ‘proceeding south’.
The world’s press now framed the Norwegian and British expeditions as a race to the South Pole. After a slow journey south through pack ice, Terra Nova arrived off Ross Island in January 1911. In November 1911 a party led by Scott set out to attempt to reach the Pole.
On 11 February 1913, a Press Association announcement from London broke the news in New Zealand that Scott and four other members of the expedition had reached the South Pole on 18 January 1912, only to find they had been beaten by Amundsen. All five subsequently perished while returning to their base at Cape Evans. The news was met around the world by an outpouring of grief. In Christchurch, the cathedral bell tolled at noon. Word was transmitted that Terra Nova would arrive at Lyttelton on 12 February, and in an atmosphere of speculation about the causes of the tragedy, plans were made for Thorpe to meet the ship. 9
To the sound of brass bands, whistles and cheers, Discovery was escorted to open water by two naval vessels and gaily dressed steamers
01
Alfred Thorpe also collected maritime memorabilia such as this badge from RMS Gothic 00056368 ANMM Collection Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
02
Face and back of a Red Cross Society medal belonging to Olive Thorpe. ANMM Collection 00056371 Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
03
Discovery beset by ice, c 1902–04. Australian National Maritime Museum
ANMS1475[004] Gift of Maggie and Glenn Thorpe
Terra Nova arrived to a town in mourning, with every flag flying at half-mast. On board the tug Lyttelton were Thorpe, expedition members who had returned the previous year, dignitaries and members of the press. Thorpe relinquished the pilotage to a colleague and remained aboard the tug with most of the officials as Terra Nova was guided into port. On its foremast flew the blue ensign presented by the students of Lyttelton District High School before the expedition’s departure, bearing the inscription ‘LDHS to Terra Nova, 1910’ – the expedition had promised the children that it would be flown when the ship returned. As a crowd of 400 people stood by in silent respect, Terra Nova was berthed near Gladstone Pier in an area locals now called the Antarctic Quarter.10 From New Zealand the details of what had happened to Scott and his companions were conveyed to the world.
Thorpe remained as harbourmaster until 1921, when he retired to Melbourne. He maintained an active interest in maritime matters, taking a role in both the Victorian and South Australian branches of the Ship Lovers’ Society, helping set up the latter. He died suddenly on 2 July 1932 at his home in Hawthorne. Predeceased by his wife, he was survived by two daughters and two sons, both sons serving in the merchant marine.
In 2021, the Australian National Maritime Museum was contacted by Glenn and Maggie Thorpe about their family archive. Over the course of his career Alfred Thorpe had collected objects connected with his Antarctic associates, given by figures such as Shackleton, Royds and Doorly. These were bequeathed to his daughter Olive, who in turn passed them to her grand-nephew Glenn while he was quite young. Gradually Glenn came to appreciate the significance of the collection. ‘With that understanding also came the realisation that these items needed to be protected and preserved,’ says Glenn.
The fate of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition would jolt the world from any sense of complacency around polar exploration
Now in his 70s, he had to consider how to manage them for posterity:
Passing such items on to family is very risky because as time goes by people change houses and relationships and go through a host of important events and therefore the preservation of these items is not foremost in their minds, and they end up getting lost and forgotten. That is why I decided to gift these items to the National Maritime Museum, and I think that Captain Thorpe would have been very proud to be even a small part of the museum and that both he and Great-aunt Olive would be pleased with my decision.
The collection of photographs, personal correspondence and ephemera illustrates the personal regard these explorers held for Thorpe. It recognises the importance of pilots and harbourmasters, with their specialised knowledge of navigating hazardous waters and their skill in managing port operations. It also testifies to the vital logistical role played by Lyttelton in these expeditions, and the enthusiastic support of its inhabitants. For men heading into harsh and inhospitable places, the farewells at Lyttelton were a last glimpse of the comforts and companionship of home, promising a warm welcome to look forward to on their return from their southern sojourn.
1 Scott, Robert Falcon, The Voyage of the Discovery, Vol II, Macmillan and Co, London, 1905, p 79.
2 Ibid, pp 79–80.
3 ANMM Collection ANMS1475[001].
4 Doorly, Gerald S, In the Wake, Robertson & Mullens Ltd, Melbourne, 1944, p 93.
5 Scott, op cit, p 296.
6 Evans to journalists, Lyttelton Times .
7 Lyttelton Times , 28 October 1910, p 7.
8 ‘Antarctic Exploration’, Lyttelton Times , 28 October 1910, p 7.
9 ‘The Grim Antarctic’, Southland Times , 12 February 1913, p 5.
10 ‘Arrival of Terra Nova ’, Press , 13 February 1913, p 7.
Matchstick models and plankton recorders
Odd objects from our collection
Since the Australian National Maritime Museum began collecting objects in the 1980s, we have accumulated some curious items that connect us with the frozen continent to our south. For this distinctly chilly edition of Signals, Alex MacRitchie showcases several items from the National Maritime Collection that speak to the unique and the weird, including unexpected aspects of whales, art and Antarctic science.
BROWSING THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS of the Antarctic region in our collection, one stands out: two French gentlemen, Marcel Savy and Jean-François Martinat, grinning at the camera and patting a pair of Shetland ponies. But this picture was taken in one of the most remote and desolate places in the world, the subAntarctic Kerguelen Islands. These islands have a polar climate, with an average annual temperature of 4.5°C. They are also more than 3,200 kilometres away from any other inhabited land and, even today, are only accessible by boat from Réunion. Why, then, did these rather lost Shetland ponies end up there?
This picture was taken by crew of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, visiting the isolated islands on return to Australia in 1955. What they saw were French scientists conducting meteorological studies and experimenting with living in that harsh climate. The Kerguelens were made part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in that year and remain under French occupation today. There had been previous attempts to raise sheep, and French scientists grew vegetables in hot-houses, reared chickens in incubating rooms and, yes, cared for a pair of well-travelled Shetland ponies.
Our next item, resembling a model of a plane taking off, was a collection gift from the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). Its purpose? To collect and measure the smallest organisms in our seas: plankton. This item is the ‘body’ section of a continuous plankton recorder (CPR), an object towed behind a survey ship, sometimes for more than 900 kilometres at a time. Plankton are pulled into the recorder, filtered through a sieve and then sent into a storage tank for counting and colour grading.
Counting the number of plankton in your sieve might seem an odd way to pass the time as a scientist, but this is an excellent indicator of the health and quality of our oceans and the effect of pollutants. Zooplankton help regulate carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and are one of the major bases for ocean food chains. Other countries have long histories of measuring zooplankton abundance, information that can determine the effects of climate change, acid levels, microplastics and other stressors in their waters. In Australia, the AusCPR project measures plankton in our seas, and recorders like this one are towed along our east coast and between our continent and Antarctica. You may well see one of these devices attached to the back of a ship if you ever participate in a plankton tow.
01 Marcel Savy and Jean-François Martinat with resident Shetland ponies on the Kerguelen Islands, 1955. ANMM Collection ANMS1452[106]
02
Matchstick-and-cardboard sculptures by Christian den Besten of Titanic , two tugboats and Southampton wharf. ANMM Collection V00040453 © the artist. Image Andrew Frolows/AMNMM
A diorama depicts Titanic, two tugboats and Southampton dock at the start of the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage
01 Continuous plankton recorder. ANMM Collection 00056040 Gift from CSIRO, Oceans and Atmosphere. Image Jasmine Poole/ ANMM
02
Lamp made from the penis of a sperm whale. DNA analysis has revealed that the whale was harvested between the 1950s and 1970s. ANMM Collection 00042380 Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM
Counting plankton is an excellent indicator of the health and quality of our country’s oceans
Turning to the hazards of polar ice, another wonderful item held by the museum is a model of the Titanic ’s departure from Southampton in 1912. This grand sculpture was created by Christian den Besten for a self-curated exhibition on the vessel in 2001. Previously shown in the National Gallery of Australia before arriving here in 2006, this item has only rarely been displayed in the last 20 years. The Titanic is part of a diorama that also comprises two tugboats and the Southampton dock, depicting the start of the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage.
Matchsticks are the basis for the metre-long vessel, held in place by above-deck wiring, to emphasise the fragility of this ‘unsinkable’ ship. The artist watched James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic more than 14 times while making these models. Smoke made of fluffed paper can be seen coming from only three of the liner’s four funnels, as was the case with the original vessel. Even the 16-ton anchor can be seen, in a much lighter variation, on the ship’s bow. Mr Den Besten, who has an intellectual disability, has been featured in inclusive artwork series such as the Geelong West Town Hall I AM sculpture and the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s 2022 exhibition Christian den Besten: An outsider’s view. He is also a founding artist of ArtGusto, an arts studio for people with disabilities. The self-taught artist can seemingly turn his hand to any material, including canvas, balsa wood, pencil and matchsticks.
And of course, in any conversation about the weirdest and wackiest objects in the museum’s collection, the whale penis lamp rises to the top. This lamp, 1.2 metres tall, is a corded electric light bulb covered in the suede skin of a whale’s phallus and would be a unique addition to any bedside table!1
The penis of the whale was an abiding source of interest for the crews of whaling ships. In Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick, Ishmael mentions the sperm whale’s ‘cassock’, which is apparently ‘longer than a Kentuckian is tall’. He also offers a practical use for the whale’s penis skin: turned inside out ‘like a pantaloon leg’, stretched, dried and worn by a luckless sailor as an apron while he boiled blubber in a trypot.
Whale penis skin was known to produce a thin yet sturdy leather, and while a lamp seems like an ostentatious use for the mighty creature’s appendage, it is not without comparison. Upon the opening of the Icelandic Phallological Museum (the world’s largest collection of inter-species penises), its founder was inundated with examples sent from Arctic and Antarctic whaling stations. The current manager kindly told me of objects similar to the museum’s lamp: its collection today includes a flower vase made from a hollowed-out sperm whale penis, and electric lamps covered with bull and ram scrota. Despite this comparison from the other side of the globe, in the National Maritime Collection our whale penis lamp stands alone.
1 For further information about the whale penis lamp and DNA analysis to analyse its age and source, see Signals 133 (December 2022).
Alex MacRitchie is a researcher and volunteer with the museum’s curatorial team.
Antarctic archaeology
Preserving heritage on the white continent
AS SOMEONE who has been privileged to work in Antarctica, I was looking forward to reading this book, and it did not disappoint. We often think of Antarctica as a pristine environment, untouched by humans. However, the continent has a long and sometimes difficult history with humans that goes back more than 200 years. This is the first publication to collect all archaeological work in Antarctica into a single volume.
The authors of Archaeology in Antarctica have compiled the results of 40 years of archaeological and conservation works at a wide variety of sites, drawing on published, unpublished and oral information to succinctly summarise the work. The background section provides an excellent overview of the work that has been undertaken in Antarctica to date, the challenges of working in a remote and sometimes extreme climate and the unique geo-political environment that exists in Antarctica.
The book has a focus on the ongoing and long-term research into sealing shelters and sites in the South Shetland Islands. It also details the archaeological investigations of other sealing, whaling and penguin sites, as well as the historic huts associated with the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration, such as those of Borchgrevink, Shackleton and Mawson. Each site is discussed individually and contains a description of the archaeological investigations and conservation works, including photographs, drawings and site plans. The authors appear to have a good grasp of the subject matter and the ways these places relate to each other in the wider context of the exploration and use of the Antarctic region.
It is refreshing that the publication not only details the results of archaeological and heritage projects but also explores the challenges facing public archaeology and how ‘researchers can make their narratives accessible rather than technical and scientific’. This is explored in the book though the experiences of the ‘Landscape in White’ project in Brazil. The project used a variety of mediums, from a sensory dome to 3D virtual models and even theatrical performance, to disseminate archaeological information to the public.
The format of the book is logical and easy to follow and includes an excellent timeline outlining the history of archaeological investigations, including the year of the investigation, its location and documentary source. The authors have certainly been able to achieve their aim of establishing that:
The archaeology enables new perspectives on the impact of global modernity and empire in the Antarctic and challenges established dominant discourses on the ‘heroic’ nature of interaction with the continent.
This publication is well put together and will provide an excellent resource for professional archaeologists, researchers and students alike. Its presentation will also appeal to a much wider audience, including anyone with a passing interest in the historical aspects of Antarctica’s past and present. While perhaps not practical in this style of publication, it would have benefited from the inclusion of colour images. Antarctic heritage sites are some of the most spectacular settings in the world, and some of that visual impact is lost with black-and-white photographs.
Reviewer Stirling Smith is the museum’s Curator of Navy. He is also the former archaeologist for the Mawson’s Hut Foundation and expert member of the ICOMOS International Polar Heritage Committee.
01 Stromness whaling station, South Georgia, 2007. Image Jens Bludau, Creative Commons: Wikimedia.org
02
Wreck of Lockheed Constellation aircraft ‘Pegasus’, which ran off an ice runway near Ross Island in 1970 and was irreparably damaged. Image Michael Pearson
Archaeology in Antarctica
By Andrés Zarankin, Michael Pearson and Melisa
A
Salerno,
published by Routledge, Oxford, UK, 2023. Softcover, 278 pages, illustrations, index. ISBN 9780367192386 RRP $76.00. VEL 998.9 ZAR
Early Antarctic voyages
European expeditions to the southern spheres
IN SEARCH OF THE LAST CONTINENT is a book about Antarctic exploration with a focus on Australia, which gives it a unique premise. Australia was an important staging area for conquering the icy regions in the southern seas, long before Australians developed their own Antarctic ambitions. ‘Early’ in the title refers to the time before what the author calls the ‘heroic age of terrestrial discovery from 1901 to 1917’.1 These voyagers came from Russia, Britain, Norway and other European countries. Melbourne, Sydney and other Australian cities were their staging grounds, where they planned, gathered resources, wrote reports or quarrelled with each other. The book also explores the activities of the Australian Antarctic Exploration Committee, which would later seek to support genuinely Australian expeditions. The author seeks to analyse expeditions that were often overshadowed by later achievements, filling a gap in historical writing.
In Search of the Last Continent is a book about sources. It follows the expeditions through the writings of their members as well as contemporary reactions. Many of these sources follow narratives that painted polar exploration as heroic endeavours, and the book
rarely questions this idea. McConville’s history of ‘exploration’ is a traditional one: stories of great men and the many aspects of their personality. Personality traits and dispositions are presented as key factors for expedition successes and failures. The protagonists of these voyages are ‘sympathetic, humane and capable’,2 ‘personable and tough’ 3 or alternatively ‘vain, imperious, highly strung […] but also a poor leader of men’.4
Charles Wilkes (1798–1877) was ‘secretive and sinuously ambiguous’, 5 while Dumont d’Urville (1790–1842) had an ‘austere, prickly but honourable character’.6 The reader will often wonder who described these people in such a way. Is it the opinion of the author that an expedition leader is a ‘good man’ 7 or a ‘radical and an atheist’ 8 , or were these contemporary opinions? Should we question these descriptions, or take them at face value? What exactly does it entail that James Cook (1728–1779) is ‘one of history’s great navigators’? 9 Is this praise for his many voyages, or for his specific skills, or a description of the historical importance that is attributed to him?
Primary sources, especially those created under the immense power imbalance present in expeditions and on ships, emphasise viewpoints of specific protagonists.
The author seeks to analyse expeditions that were often overshadowed by later achievements
In Search of the Last Continent: Australia and early Antarctic exploration
By Andrew McConville, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing Ltd, 2022. Softcover, 227 pages, illustrations, index. ISBN 9781922669940 RRP $44.00 VEL 919.89 MCC
The reader of In Search of the Last Continent may often long for expanded explanations of the contexts in which our knowledge about these expeditions was created. Why was the appointment to Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land ‘thankless’?10 That Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier (1705–1786) ‘proved himself to be an admirable sailor’ is easy to understand, but what exactly does it mean that he was ‘a noble man’?11
In Search of the Last Continent discusses a part of European voyaging to the southern spheres that is often overshadowed by later achievements and journeys. The book offers an impressively comprehensive description of each expedition but doesn’t evaluate them extensively. Were these expeditions worth their weight in loss of lives, material and money? Were individual bravery and the search for adventure real motivators, or are these post-expedition constructions to emphasise successes and hide failures? How big, really, were the ‘great profits’ made by these voyages?12 There is a discrepancy that is never quite resolved between the book’s efforts to ‘discuss how journeys were received by different authors and how the
voyager’s efforts were adjudicated afterwards’, and its inability to declare these to be among ‘history’s great voyages of exploration and discovery’.13 If the book could tackle this challenge in a revision, it would also count among the greatest of Antarctic exploration.
1 Page vii. 2 Page 2. 3 Page 3. 4 Page 45.
Page
Page
Reviewer Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Immigration.
The Midnight Sun – Balleny Island. Illustrated Australian News , 1 April 1895, p 22. Image State Library of Victoria
Recent additions to the Vaughan Evans Library
Each month we add new works to our library across a wide range of topics, including naval history, immigration, diverse local cultures, ocean science, river stories, Australian history, school textbooks and titles for kids. We also offer new magazines and a variety of maritime, genealogical and general research databases. Check our library catalogue, schedule a visit and enjoy our wonderful new books. Visit sea.museum/collections/library
DK Abbass and Kerry Lynch
The Newport transport report: Preliminary study of RI 2394 for 2020–2023 623.822 END
Chris Baker
Swimming Sydney: A tale of 52 swims 797.21099441 BAK
Joan Beaumont
Gull Force
940.547252 BEA
Ian Burnet
Dangerous passage: A maritime history of the Torres Strait 387.5099438 BUR
Bill Ferguson
c/o Cunard House, 88 Leadenhall Street, London EC3
387.50941 FER
Stephen Gapps
Uprising: War in the colony of New South Wales, 1838–1844 994.02 GAP
Sturla Henriksen
The Ocean: How it has formed our world and will shape our destiny
551.46 HEN
Garry Hills
Great at Heart: Gavin Merrick Long, Australia’s official Second World War historian 940.54 HIL
Grantlee Kieza
Mr & Mrs Gould 598.092 KIE
Angus Konstam
Air campaign Sumatra 1944–45: The British Pacific Fleet’s oil campaign in the Dutch East Indies 940.5426 KON
Graeme Lunn
Admiral VAT Smith: The extraordinary life of the father of Australia’s Fleet Air Arm 940.544941 LUN
Julia T Martínez, Claire Lowrie and Gregor Benton (eds) Chinese colonial entanglements: Commodities and traders in the Southern Asia Pacific, 1880–1950 387.50951 CHI
Louis Nowra
Sydney: A biography 994.41 NOW
Patricia Skehan
The Secrets of Anzac Ridge: Flanders 1917 940.540994 SKE
David Wardle
Snapshots of the rivertide: The navigation of the Murray, Darling and Murrumbidgee Rivers 386.30994 WAR
Image Janine Flew/ANMM
John Mullen AM
Outgoing Chair of the museum’s Council
JOHN MULLEN’S HAND – quiet, assured and tempered by his wealth of corporate experience – has been a guiding influence in maritime archaeology and at the Australian National Maritime Museum for more than 15 years.
For almost a decade, he has been intimately involved in the museum’s development, first as Chair of the museum’s Foundation (2016–19) and a member of the museum’s Council, and for the past six years as Chair of the Council. In another capacity, his private Silentworld Foundation has been integral to the discovery and exploration of some of the Australia’s most significant shipwrecks, often in partnership with the museum.
John’s second and final term as Council Chair ended in May 2025, although he has agreed to continue as a director of the Foundation, the museum’s main fundraising arm.
As Daryl Karp, the museum’s Director and CEO notes: John’s passion and deep maritime knowledge, combined with his wisdom and business acumen, have seen the museum go from strength to strength. His contributions to the museum – both intellectually and through his Silentworld Foundation – have ensured a richer appreciation and understanding of our island nation shaped by sea.
During his time as Council Chair, John Mullen helped guide the museum through the Coronavirus pandemic and has overseen a strategy that includes the opening of new permanent galleries, the development of a new website, a program of temporary exhibitions and the redevelopment of the boardwalk.
Since the pandemic, the museum has seen onsite and online visitation reach new heights.
‘The development and growth of the Australian National Maritime Museum have provided me with great personal and professional satisfaction,’ John says. ‘I am happy to have played a part in it and am pleased to continue to do so with the Foundation.’
John’s involvement with the museum began in 2009, when Silentworld and the museum worked together on one of Australia’s most exciting shipwreck discoveries, that of HMCS Mermaid, which sank in 1829.
This was the vessel that enabled Lieutenant Phillip Parker King’s remarkable expeditions charting the Australian coastline between 1817 and 1820. On New Year’s Day 2009, a team of researchers, archaeologists, divers and two students from Bega High School left Cairns in search of the wreck. Four days later they found the vessel’s remains on Flora Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
John Mullen’s involvement with the museum began in 2009
01
In 2017, the then Chairman, Peter Dexter AM (left), presented John Mullen with a certificate marking his appointment as an Honorary Fellow in recognition of his significant contributions to the museum. Image Andrew Frolows/ANMM
02
John Mullen (right) with the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett; Senator the Hon Marise Payne, Minister for Defence; the then museum director, Kevin Sumption PSM; and Peter Dexter AM at the December 2017 media briefing to announce that HMAS AE1 had been found. Image Emma Bjorndahl/ANMM
The Silentworld Foundation enabled the successful search for Montevideo Maru, a Japanese prisonerof-war ship
01
The Silentworld Foundation collaborated on the excavation and documentation of the Barangaroo Boat. This early colonial vessel was found during work for the Sydney Metro, and has now been acquired by the museum. Image Kieran Hosty/ ANMM
02
John Mullen (back row, right) and Silentworld Foundation team members aboard Fugro Equator during the successful search for Montevideo Maru. Image Tim Brown/SIlentworld Foundation
Other important discoveries were Cato (wrecked in 1803), Royal Charlotte (1825), South Australian (1837), Delta (1854) and Konig Willem de Tweede (1857). The opportunity to study and comprehensively document these vessels has improved our understanding of 19th-century maritime history and led to significant advances in maritime archaeology practice and research.
John has also taken the lead in the search for two 20th-century vessels. In 2017, the Silentworld Foundation, the Royal Australian Navy and geo-data company Fugro mounted a successful expedition to locate Australia’s first submarine, HMAS AE1, off the coast of Papua New Guinea. It had disappeared 103 years earlier with the loss of all men on board. The vessel was found on 20 December 2017. As the grand-niece of crew member Jack Messenger wrote, this finally brought closure: We felt that our men had been brought home, to be remembered with their ship mates … the men who had established the traditions of RAN submariners.
Six years later, Silentworld Foundation made possible another equally significant expedition: the search for Montevideo Maru, a Japanese prisoner-of-war ship. On board were 1,080 prisoners, including 850 Australian service members from Rabaul. All were killed when the vessel was torpedoed by an American submarine. On 22 April 2023, the Department of Defence announced that their final resting place had been discovered at a depth of 4,000 metres, off the coast of the Philippines.
In 2017, John and Jacqui Mullen donated to the museum steam yacht Ena, designed by Walter Reeks, through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. That same year they generously lent the rare Berthoud Chronometer No 35 for display in the exhibition The Art of Science: Baudin’s Voyages.
A recent collaboration between the museum, the Silentworld Foundation, Sydney Metro and the York Archaeological Trust has resulted in the museum’s acquisition of the earliest colonial-built craft ever to have been comprehensively documented and excavated.
As John has observed, the vessel is ‘an eyewitness to history’, ‘the most significant Australian historical find of this century and among the greatest in modern times’. The conservation and reconstruction of what is currently known as the Barangaroo Boat will be an important feature of the museum in coming years.
Daryl Karp says:
As we begin our major fundraising campaign to enable this important work to be undertaken, we are very appreciative of the commitment that John has made, together with our Foundation Chair, Dan Janes, to be the founding donors.
Peter Fray, Susan Davidson and Dr Kimberley Webber
Acknowledgments
The Australian National Maritime Museum acknowledges the support provided to the museum by all our volunteers, members, sponsors, donors and friends.
The museum particularly acknowledges the following people who have made a significant contribution to the museum in an enduring way or who have made or facilitated significant benefaction to it.
Honorary Fellows
Peter Dexter AM
John Mullen AM
Valerie Taylor AM
Ambassadors
Norman Banham
Christine Sadler
Dr David and Jennie Sutherland
Major Donors
Peter Dexter AM
Daniel Janes
David Mathlin
Honorary Research Associates
RADM Peter Briggs AO
John Dikkenberg
Dr Nigel Erskine
Dr Ian MacLeod
Jeffrey Mellefont
David Payne
Lindsey Shaw
Major Benefactors
Margaret Cusack
Basil Jenkins
Dr Keith Jones
Janette Parkinson
RADM Andrew Robertson AO DSC RAN
Peter Whitsed
Geoff and Beryl Winter
Honorary Life Members
Yvonne Abadee
Dr Kathy Abbass
Bob Allan
VADM Tim Barrett AO CSC RAN
Lyndyl Beard
Maria Bentley
Mark Bethwaite AM
Paul Binsted
David Blackley
Marcus Blackmore AM
John Blanchfield
Alexander Books
Ian Bowie
Colin Boyd
Ron Brown OAM
Paul Bruce
Anthony Buckley AM
Richard Bunting
Kevin Byrne
Sue Calwell
RADM David Campbell AM RAN
Marion Carter
Victor Chiang
Robert Clifford AO
Hon Peter Collins AM QC
Kay Cottee AO
VADM Russell Crane AO CSM RAN
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 RAN
Anthony Gibbs
RADM Stephen Gilmore AM CSC RAN
Paul Gorrick
Lee Graham
VADM Mark Hammond AO RAN
RADM Simon Harrington AM RAN
Jane Harris
Christopher Harry
Gaye Hart AM
Janita Hercus
Robyn Holt
William Hopkins OAM
Julia Horne
Kieran Hosty
Marilyn Jenner
VADM Peter Jones AO DSC RAN
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
VADM Stuart Mayer AO CSC and Bar RAN
Bruce McDonald AM
Lyn McHale
VADM Jonathan Mead AO RAN
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
Dr Sergio Sergi
Ann Sherry AO
Ken Sherwell
Shane Simpson AM
Peter John Sinclair AM CSC
RADM Peter R Sinclair AC KStJ RAN
John Singleton AM
Brian Skingsley
Eva Skira AM
Bruce Stannard AM
J J Stephens OAM
Michael Stevens
Neville Stevens AO
Frank Talbot AM
Mitchell Turner
Adam Watson
Ian Watt AC
Jeanette Wheildon
Hon Margaret White AO
Mary-Louise Williams AM
Nerolie Withnall
Cecilia Woolford
Celebrate a loved one of Vietnamese heritage
The museum is working with the Vietnamese community to honour Vietnamese migration with a dedicated panel on the Welcome Wall, Australia’s National Monument to Migration, to be unveiled late 2025.
This is your chance to honour a parent, grandparent or other loved one with a cherished acknowledgment on our National Monument to Migration.
Register by 30 June to be included on the dedicated Vietnamese panel. For more information sea.museum/vietnamese or call (02) 9298 3777
As a valued supporter of the museum, we’re inviting you to be part of something meaningful.
Your donation to our end-of-financial-year appeal will help bring two vital projects to life:
– The conservation and public display of the vessel currently known as the Barangaroo Boat – the oldest known vessel built during Australia’s colonial era recovered in its entirety
– The expansion of our Museum in a Box program, delivering stories of maritime history to aged care residents across the country
Every gift counts, and all donations are tax deductible. With your support, we can preserve Australia’s maritime heritage and ensure it continues to inspire future generations.
Please give generously.
Nguyen Family at 2024 National Monument to Migration ceremony
Kieran Hosty/Australian National Maritime Museum for Sydney Metro
Signals
ISSN 1033-4688
Editor Janine Flew
Staff photographer Jasmine Poole
Design & production Austen Kaupe
Printed in Australia by Pegasus Media & Logistics
Material from Signals may be reproduced, but only with the editor’s permission.
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Australian National Maritime Museum
2 Murray Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia. Phone 02 9298 3777
Our opening hours are 10 am–4 pm (NSW school holidays 9.30 am–5 pm)
The Australian National Maritime Museum is a statutory authority of the Australian Government
Explore Australia’s stories of the sea by becoming a museum member. Options for individuals, families and people who live interstate or overseas offer a great range of benefits, such as unlimited entry to our museum, vessels and exhibitions, as well as special discounts.
Visit sea.museum/members
@seamuseum_
/sea.museum
#seamuseum/
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ANMM Council
Ms Daryl Karp AM
Councillors
Mr Padraig (Paddy) Crumlin
Dr Bülent (Hass) Dellal AO
Ms Nataliya Dikovskaya
Dr Kevin Fewster CBE AM FRSA
Hon Donald Harwin
Hon Hieu Van Le AC
Hon Leo McLeay
Ms Alison Page
RADM Christopher Smith AM CSM RAN
Australian National Maritime Museum
Foundation Board
Mr Daniel Janes, Chair
Mr John Barbouttis
Mr Simon Chan AM
Mr James Emmett SC
Ms Daryl Karp AM, ex officio
Mr David Mathlin
Mr John Mullen AM
Dr Jeanne-Claude Strong
Ms Arlene Tansey
Ms Grazyna Van Egmond
Mr Nick Wappett
American Friends of the
Australian National Maritime Museum
Mr Robert Moore II
Mr John Mullen AM
Ms Daryl Karp AM
What’s in the shop?
This winter, check out our cosy unisex navy-themed clothing and adorable toy bear. Plus there’s plenty more clothing, gifts, books, toys and games in store and online.
Royal Australian Navy hoodie
Dark blue with gold accents. Polyester/cotton, unisex, sizes XS–XXL.
$79.95 / Members $71.95
Museum logo pompom beanie
Acrylic, one size. Navy and white or black and white.
$29.95 / Members $26.95
Sailor bear
Ready for deployment wherever you need a cute, plush companion! Polyester, length 40 cm.
$45.00 / Members $40.50
Bamboozld bamboo socks
Patterns include sailboats, anchors, Sydney landmarks, animals and sea critters.
$16.95 / Members $15.25
Members receive 10% discount
Open 7 days a week
Email us at theshop@sea.museum Shop online sea.museum/shop
Follow us on Instagram instagram.com/seamuseum_shop
©
Jason Gulley