Signals, Issue 84

Page iSIGNALS 84 September–November 2008

SignalsNumber 84 September–November 2008

SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008Page ii Page 1SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008

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Australian National Maritime Museum’s quarterly magazine Number 84 September–November 2008Signals

COVER:The Charlotte Medal, a rare and immensely valuable record of the arrival of the First Fleet, was purchased recently at auction by the museum. It shows the convict transport Charlotte at anchor in Botany Bay on the day of her arrival in 1788. See the essay on page 10. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM

ABOVE: Untitled oil painting attributed to Rupert Bunny (1864–1947) shows the Great White Fleet entering Sydney Harbour on 20 August 1908. The steamer accompanying them is believed to be Lady Hopetoun, the VIP launch of the NSW State Government named after the wife of Australia’s first Governor-General (now operated by Sydney Heritage Fleet). The painting has been lent to the museum from a private collection and is on display in the USA Gallery exhibition Great White Fleet – US sea power on parade 1908.

Contents2 Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of travel

Celebrating the fascination of souvenirs, from snow domes to dragon robes

10 The Charlotte MedalStory behind museum’s latest acquisition, a rare First Fleet relic

16 The boys from CockatooPaintings by Bill Nix depict the working life of Sydney’s famous shipyard

21 Members message, events and activitiesTalks, tours, previews, cruises, seminars … Members’ spring calendar

26 What’s on at the museumSpring exhibitions, events and activities for visitors, schools programs

30 Voyages of discoveryAuthor Anthony Hill recalls his life-changing voyage on Endeavour replica

35 Have some madeira m’dearA centuries-old wine-making tradition is re-enacted on Endeavour replica

37 Mystic: the mariner’s Mecca Staff shipwright reports on his US study tour of the famous Mystic Seaport

40 Outreach – a national conversationThe museum director considers the ways in which we lend a hand

42 Tales from the Welcome WallFamily’s flight from Iran

44 Currents & Sponsors1000 naval college visits; models; James Squire; Defence Maritime Services

48 From the directorMeeting the minister

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WHAT DO an ashtray from the Gold Coast, a centuries-old pilgrim badge from Germany, a miniature stuffed-leather camel from Egypt, a shell from the Philippines inscribed ‘HMAS Vendetta’ and a powder compact depicting Bondi Beach have in common? Their design, size and method of manufacture differ dramatically, but each one is a souvenir specifically produced to represent a particular place, and they are all on display in our new exhibition Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of travel.

When mentioning to friends, colleagues and family that I was working on a project focused on the history of souvenirs, discussion generally turned to snow domes, teaspoons, little furry toy kangaroos and other items that could be described as kitsch. Souvenirs are often associated with cheap mass consumerism and the contemporary global tourism industry. Yet the production and acquisition of souvenirs is not a recent phenomenon. Travellers have been collecting objects produced specifically as mementos of a particular place for hundreds of years.

A souvenir of travel can be purchased on a whim, or be the result of an elusive search, or it can be an unexpected discovery. They can generally be divided into a variety of categories. They can be everyday items associated with the process of travel, such as tickets, maps or brochures. They can be objects deliberately made to represent a particular place or culture, sold to the traveller. They can even be found natural objects such as stones, pebbles and shells. An item given to a traveller as a gift could also be categorised as a souvenir.

This exhibition has been a great opportunity to display some of the souvenirs that have now become museum objects and are held in our collection. Many were obtained by their original owners during the long sea journey to their new country, or during service in the Royal Australian Navy, or on a cruising holiday or beach holiday. We have also

borrowed an eclectic range of travel mementos from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Australian War Memorial, the Australian Museum, the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, the Macleay Museum at Sydney University and a number of private lenders.

The oldest souvenir on display is a miniature model of a Buddhist temple at Bodhgaya in the Indian state of Bihar, the place where Buddha achieved enlightenment. Dating from the 10th or 11th century, it features fine carvings that depict scenes from the life of Buddha. Pilgrims took home temples like this one to place on their home altar. It was lent to us by the Art Gallery of NSW.

In Europe in the Middle Ages, undertaking a pilgrimage was one of the primary reasons for travel. Pilgrims wanted to return home with a holy relic or a tangible part of a sacred site such as oil, earth, dust or water. In Jerusalem or Europe visitors collected oil from lamps burning in holy places such as shrines and catacombs. The oil was often collected in a lead or pewter container called an ampulla and was worn around the neck.

Following the brutal and infamous murder of English Archbishop Thomas à Becket at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 – after which he was canonised as a martyr, and the cathedral became a shrine – monks collected his blood and mixed it with water. Pilgrims began flocking to Canterbury to collect the water that was believed to bring about miraculous cures. To meet the demand the monks also began producing badges made of pewter or tin, featuring Thomas Becket. Such purpose-made souvenirs depicting Christian saints were soon being sold at sites of pilgrimage all over Europe.

Pilgrim badges were produced in their thousands from the 12th to the 15th centuries, and served numerous purposes. They deterred pilgrims from attempting to take away pieces of a holy site; their sale raised money for church authorities; and they served as a promotional tool, leading to additional visitors. Pilgrims wore the

Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs are mementos of places and occasions and, though often regarded as ephemeral, may be counted among the most valued items acquired by travellers. Curator Michelle Linder’s research into museum and gallery collections has borne fruit in our latest exhibition.

Travellers have been collecting objects produced specifically as mementos of a particular place for hundreds of years

Souvenirs of travel

TOP: Carved chlorite stone model (10th–11th century) of a temple at Bodhgaya, India, site of the Buddha’s enlightenment c. 500 BC. Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales

ABOVE: Mass-produced St Cornelius pilgrim badge (15th–16th century). Lent by Doug and Amy Strong

OPPOSITE TOP: Orient Line fan from France, gift from P&O Cruises. ANMM collection

OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Powder compact, 1940s, shows Bondi Beach and Ben Buckler headland. ANMM collection

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badges to demonstrate piety and as proof they had visited a holy site. Some viewed the badges as secondary holy relics that would gain them, a family member or friend the protection of a particular saint. For others, buying a pilgrim badge may just have been a part of the pilgrimage process, like visiting the duty-free shop today.

Doug Strong, a mediaeval enthusiast from the United States, has kindly lent the museum two ampullae and six pilgrim badges dating from the Middle Ages, from his private collection. They contrast with more recent pilgrim merchandise on display, bought in the lead-up to the recent World Youth Day and Papal visit to Sydney.

And we have more Indian works lent by the Art Gallery of NSW, since India is the home of so many pilgrimage places thronged by countless Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Muslim and Christian devotees. One loan item depicts a Hindu god in the incarnation of a fish. It was painted on paper in the late 19th century by an artist who was part of a group creating affordable, quickly-produced souvenirs to sell in the streets surrounding the Kalighat temple in Calcutta. The advent of cheap commercial linocuts, printing and photography made the paintings virtually obsolete by 1930, and today a vast and colourful array of souvenirs are available to Indian pilgrims. And for those who are physically unable to go on a pilgrimage, the internet and a credit card provide easy access to religious souvenirs from all over the world.

The ‘Grand Tour’ was the 17th–19th century practice of sending well-heeled young Englishmen to France and Italy, accompanied by their tutors, to study literature and art at the classical sites, archaeological ruins and cities of Europe. This was seen as the ideal way to impart knowledge and a sense of discernment. Many returned home with carved wooden furniture, portraits, oil paintings, sculptures and other goods to furnish and decorate their homes or country estates.

Australians who travelled for leisure to Europe during the 19th century were generally well-heeled too, since they needed the time and money to undertake a

lengthy sea voyage across the world before commencing their own grand tours. Hannah Rouse from Sydney travelled with members of her family to Europe on three separate journeys between 1868 and 1888. They didn’t return with enough to furnish their entire home but they keenly collected mementos from Italy, France, Switzerland, England and Scotland. They included alabaster sculptures of lions, mythic gods and painted reproductions of famous works by old masters.

One of my favourites is an intricately carved alabaster model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa made by Guiseppe Andreoni in the 1870s. The sculptor even incorporated the bells at the top of the

tower into the model, in miniature. The custom of designing and manufacturing miniature models of key historical or architectural monuments continues, though most are now produced in mass quantities, made from plastic and frequently surrounded by swirling snow!

Some of the more modest mementos collected by the Rouse family are very similar to the postcards, teaspoons and ornaments collected by tourists today. The invention of photography in the mid-19th century coincided with a boom in travel and organised tourism. Professional photographers used large-view cameras to record celebrated architecture, well-

Australians who travelled to Europe during the 19th century needed the time and money to undertake a lengthy sea voyage

known vistas and landscapes. These photographs were generally mounted on card and placed in racks for sale. The Rouse family purchased large numbers of view photographs from Italy and England.

Visitors can discover more of their souvenirs in an interactive virtual tour of the drawing room at Rouse Hill House in the exhibition. Or you could visit Rouse Hill House and Farm, operated by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW to find out more about the family.

Nelson Graburn is an anthropologist who has written numerous articles focused on tourist art and souvenirs. He suggests that souvenirs should be cheap, portable, dustable, understandable, and it helps if

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The Trash or Treasure? exhibition team brought along their favourite souvenirs: Amanda, fan from Vietnam; Dallas, vest and ornament from Guatemala; Niki, Frida Kahlo top from Mexico; Ally, hand-painted papyrus from Egypt; Rosie, cat and mobile from Japan; Daniel, kilt from Scotland. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM

BELOW: Egyptian teaspoon sent home by an Australian soldier in 1915. A hinged sarcophagus on the handle contains a gold mummy. Collection Australian War Memorial

RIGHT: Between-the-wars tourist photograph somewhere in Queensland, showing a holiday activity that would not be accepted today. Photographer unknown, gift from McIlwraith McEacharn Pty Ltd. ANMM collection

FAR RIGHT: Miniature camel bought in 1952 at Port Said, Egypt, by Australia-bound migrant transiting the Suez Canal. ANMM collection

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they are useful. Nearly every ashtray, key ring, matchbox, bag, paperweight, pen and T-shirt sold on cruise ships meets his criteria. Emblazoned across the front is either the name or an image of the vessel that the passenger temporarily calls home, and it can be immediately understood.

The most common type of souvenir collected by passengers when they travel on a passenger liner or on a cruising holiday is the shipboard menu. Socialising with fellow passengers at the evening meal in the dining room is an integral part of the experience. We have large numbers of menus in the museum collection dating from the 1890s. They generally feature an illustration,

photograph or design reflecting the key attributes of the ship, the ports or countries visited during the journey.

Many postwar immigrants travelling to Australia bought souvenirs from traders plying their goods from bumboats – small oared lighters – in the Suez Canal. Placing their trust in the vendor below, the customer sent down their money in a basket lowered on a string from the deck of their ship. Their Egyptian memento came back in the same basket. In 1952 Guiditta Fabbro bargained for two miniature camels, a wallet and a scarf from Port Said on her way from Italy to Australia, where she was to meet her husband who was living and working on the Snowy Mountains Scheme at Cabramurra in southern NSW. To an observer a small camel is simply a souvenir, but to its owner it may stir up all sorts of memories associated with a

long sea journey to an uncertain future in a new country.

Capitalising on the increasing popularity of travel for leisure, learning and cultural experience, craftspeople may deliberately use styles of art that are considered to be traditional, authentic or primitive to meet the needs of their customers. This reinforces tourists’ belief that they are undertaking an adventurous and unusual holiday. A fine example of this may be a storyboard depicting a mythological narrative made in Kambot village in Papua New Guinea, lent to us by the Australian Museum. Local craftspeople started making them in the late 1960s to sell to the increasing numbers of tourists

visiting the Sepik River. The wood used is particularly soft and light, making it easy to carve and easy to carry home. They enable local people to tell stories about their culture and allow the tourists to display the board not just as an artwork but as physical evidence of their journey, and to enhance travel stories told to friends and family.

Some of the more intriguing mementos in the exhibition were collected or made by Australian sailors and soldiers during service overseas. Looting has been a common practice during wartime. What some view as stealing, others see as merely taking an object they have found and keeping it, giving rise to the euphemism ‘souveniring’. An informal Chinese court robe held in our collection is alleged to have been looted by W H Stevens who served in the Victorian Naval Brigade – a small colonial naval

force preceding the Royal Australian Navy – when it was deployed to China shortly after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900–01.

Dragon robes were worn in China from the 17th to 19th centuries as a hierarchical garment for male bearers of rank in the Chinese bureaucracy. They were also worn by bridegrooms on their wedding day. Prominent and common features are the hem design of stripes representing water with waves above, mountain peaks rising from the water and symmetrically placed dragons covering the body of the garment. Some westerners working in China were given special permission to wear the robes. Many visiting westerners purchased them as a fancy-dress item from the exotic east. There are numerous dragon robes in museum collections. Some are genuine antiquities worn by members of the Chinese Imperial court, but many were simply collected as souvenirs by wealthy westerners and later sold or donated to museums. We do not know for sure if our dragon robe was looted, but it certainly would have been a special souvenir for an Australian sailor from Victoria at the beginning of the last century.

Military souvenirs devised from the materials at hand in remote locations are often described as trench art. One that’s on loan from the Australian War Memorial is an intriguing belt made from butterfly wings entwined with the cellophane from cigarette packets. It was made by Lachlan McLennan when he was serving in Papua New Guinea during World War II. He sold the belts for high prices to American servicemen to send home to their loved ones. Another is a picture frame containing an image of palm trees, flanked by two upright .50-calibre rounds on a base made from a Bofors gun shell case. It was made by

To an observer it is simply a souvenir, but to its owner it may stir up memories of a long sea journey to an uncertain future

LEFT: Military souvenirs classed as ‘trench art’: romantic pin-cushion love token crafted in 1915, featuring a postcard of HMAS Sydney, sequins and beads; picture frame made from a Bofors shell case (the base) and 50-calibre cartridges by an RAN sailor serving in Indonesia during World War II. ANMM collection

RIGHT: Carved wooden storyboard from Sepik River region in Papua New Guinea, made for the tourist market. Collection Australian Museum

BOTTOM RIGHT: Chinese informal court robe, brought home from China after the Boxer Rebellion (1900–01) by a member of the Victorian Naval Brigade. ANMM collection


Lewis Florrie when he was serving in Indonesia during World War II. The reverse side depicts the crest of his ship HMAS Westralia. Combining a reference to the exotic local landscape and his ship’s crest reflects the personal importance the maker placed on his naval service.

Two ink-on-silk drawings depicting a Japanese geisha girl in a local setting were made by a Japanese prisoner of war held in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, in 1946. A party of POWs went aboard HMAS Cowra to clean out the corvette’s boilers, and exchanged their artworks for cigarettes. Peter Horne, serving in HMAS Cowra at the time, recently donated the drawings to the museum. The artist may have drawn the geisha girls to symbolise Japanese culture, or he could have been representing his loved ones and the familiarity of home. They are beautiful souvenirs of the immediate postwar period and provide some insight into the lives of prisoners of war and their relationships with their captors.

Paintings and other artworks made specifically for sale to tourists are often categorised as tourist art. In the museum collection are two paintings of its Daring

class destroyer HMAS Vampire in Hong Kong harbour, made in the 1960s. A helmet shell sold in the Philippines in the 1970s features a painting of Vampire’s sister ship HMAS Vendetta. They may not be accurate technical depictions of the ships, but we value them as souvenirs made specifically for Australian naval personnel to keep as personal mementos.

An album dating from the 1920s contains photographs, postcards, ticket stubs, train tickets and small paintings from China, Japan, Singapore, Kuala-Lumpur, Tokyo

and Hong Kong. They were collected by an unknown crew member from HMAS Brisbane on a tour of Asia in 1925. Snapshots of sailors posing in front of Japanese temples have been carefully pasted into the album, along with disturbing postcards depicting beheadings in Canton and the devastation wrought by the Yokohama earthquake in 1923. This album was found in a rubbish bin at Garden Island naval base and donated to

the museum in 1994. Somebody obviously believed the album was trash, but thankfully a naval officer saw it as a historical treasure.

Our exhibition also tells stories of artists and craftspeople who have designed and made souvenirs representing Australian places and people. The Timbery family has been producing shell work, boomerangs and shields to sell to tourists visiting the Sydney suburb of La Perouse, on the shores of Botany Bay, since the late 19th century. Indigenous artists living

Studio Anna was the most prolific of all souvenir pottery manufacturers in the 1950s and 60s. The hand-painted souvenir ware is now highly collectible. Lent by Donna Braye and Steven Miller

OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Speakers at the museum’s popular Trash or Treasure? Seminar held in July. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM:

Daryl Mills, specialist collector of vintage luggage and travel accoutrements.

Travel and tourism historian and author Richard White (University of Sydney); ANMM exhibition curator Michelle Linder; collector and historian Professor Peter Spearritt, University of Queensland.

Snowdome collector Denis Gojak with the sample of his collection that he lent for display.

Tony Wheeler, traveller extraordinaire and founder of the Lonely Planet tourist guidebook empire, with an example of Hindu pilgrim art from Orissa, India, lent by the Art Gallery of NSW.

No exhibition of travel souvenirs would be complete without that quintessential item, the snow dome

on missions in the 1950s produced paintings and carved sculptures. Often they received no payment for items sold at government-run shops. More recent examples of clothing, jewellery and sculptures made by Indigenous artists from the Torres Strait, Tasmania and Western Australia are on display. Copying Indigenous designs without permission and selling products falsely described as made by Indigenous artists remain significant problems today.

The coast has always enticed Australians, but in the 1950s high employment and an increase in car ownership saw people taking to the road for beach holidays in larger numbers. Souvenirs from holiday towns around the country were in demand, and factories began producing ceramics featuring Australian people and places. Companies included Vande, Rose Noble, Diana, Martin Boyd and Studio Anna. Operated by postwar migrants Karel Jungvirt and Toni Coles, the prolific Studio Anna became well-known for its hand-painted ceramic souvenir ware featuring Australian towns, landmarks or Aboriginal motifs. Produced in their thousands and sold for relatively low prices, Studio Anna plates, dishes and bowls have become highly-sought collectibles.

No exhibition of travel souvenirs would be complete without that quintessential item – the snow dome. We were fortunate that snow dome collector Denis Gojak agreed to lend a selection from his extensive collection. The paradox of snow falling on a beach at Hayman Island, the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour or the waters of the Murray River has not detracted from their appeal to travellers and snow dome collectors alike.


IN EARLY July 2008 the Australian National Maritime Museum became aware of the imminent auction of one of the rarest, and at the same time one of the least-known, items of Australiana, The Charlotte Medal. This 74-millimetre-wide silver medallion depicting the First Fleet convict transport Charlotte at anchor in Botany Bay on the day of her arrival, 20 January 1788, is believed to have been

engraved there sometime between 20–26 January by one of the ship’s convicts, the thief, mutineer and forger Thomas Barrett. It’s thought that it was made for John White, the Surgeon-General of the First Fleet, who also sailed on Charlotte.

The medal was being auctioned by Noble Numismatics for its owner, the Melbourne dentist Dr John Chapman, along with 700 other rare and important Australian, New Zealand and British coins and medals from his collection. The estimate provided by the auction house – in reality a guesstimate because The Charlotte Medal was a one-off and

The Charlotte Medal

appears to have been sold only four times during its 220-year existence – was a figure that would normally have been out of our reach. However concerns about such a rare item associated with the First Fleet being sold and then sent overseas spurred the museum to dig deep. Topping up our budget with a generous contribution from the National Cultural Heritage Account, we acquired the medal

after some tension-filled bidding by our assistant director (collections and exhibitions), Michael Crayford. The winning bid was $750,000.

The Charlotte Medal is an immensely exciting acquisition. Material of any sort from the First Fleet is extremely rare and this piece is a graphic record of the fleet’s arrival, providing us with a unique portrait of one of the First Fleet vessels. It may be the first art work made in the Australian colony. It is associated with important historical figures, both the principal surgeon of the First Fleet and colony, and the convict who – as we shall

soon see – made a sorrowful mark on Australian history just a few weeks later. As well as that, the story of The Charlotte Medal unfolds as part of a larger historical saga as British power, influence and systems of justice were played out on a global stage.

Since the early 1600s European societies had used the overseas transportation of criminals as a form of punishment. When in 18th-century Britain the death penalty came to be regarded as too severe for crimes such as robbery and larceny, which were previously capital offences, transportation to North America became a common sentence. The American War of Independence (1776–1781) put an end to this mass export of convicts to America, and many of the convicts in Britain’s jails were instead housed in the hulks of decommissioned naval vessels on the River Thames and at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Cork and Dublin.

Convicts were first transported to New South Wales under the Transportation Act of 1784. Between 1788 and 1868 over 162,000 men, women and children were sent to Australia as convicts on board more than 1,000 modified merchant ships that had been converted into convict transports. The first such fleet of convict transports bound for the east coast of Australia set sail from Spithead on 13 May 1787 and comprised two Royal Navy ships, HMS Sirius and HMS Supply, three store ships, Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove and six convict transports, Alexander, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Scarborough, Prince of Wales and Charlotte.

The museum was the successful bidder for this important piece of our history, acclaimed as Australia’s first colonial work of art and providing a unique record of the arrival of the First Fleet. Curator Kieran Hosty takes us back to the colony’s turbulent birth to tell the story of The Charlotte Medal.

Material of any sort from the First Fleet is extremely rare and this piece is a graphic record of the fleet’s arrival

OPPOSITE: The Charlotte Medal, obverse and reverse, shown at 120% of actual size. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM

LEFT: First Fleet storeship Borrowdale, by Francis Holman, UK c. 1786. Oil on canvas, ANMM collection. This formal ship portrait shows the ship from three different angles, and is the only such record of a First Fleet vessel know to exist.

SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008Page 10


For the First Fleet and for all subsequent convict voyages to the Australian colonies the British Government did not build specialised convict transports, instead chartering suitable ships from private ship owners. The three-masted, two-decked, wooden ship Charlotte was built on the Thames in 1784. It’s recorded as 105 feet long (32 metres), with a breadth of 28 feet 2½ inches (8.59 metres) and a registered tonnage of 338 tons.

Charlotte, along with the other eight privately-owned ships destined to become First Fleet transports, was chartered by the Admiralty late in 1786 from its owner, Mr Matthews, and was fitted out at Deptford, one of the royal dockyards established to build, repair and victual ships of the Royal Navy. After sailing to Plymouth in January 1787, Charlotte embarked its complement of crew, marines (one captain, two lieutenants, two sergeants, three corporals, one drummer and 35 privates) and convicts (89 male and 20 female).

Among those who set sail on 13 May 1787 was John White, the Surgeon-General of the First Fleet, and the convicted thief and mutineer Thomas Barrett.

Surgeon John White had joined the Navy in 1780 and in 1786 was surgeon on board HMS Irresistible, one of the many commands of the influential and well-connected Sir Andrew Snape Hamond. Hamond had been Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia for three years, was a friend of William Pitt and Horatio Nelson and had won the king’s favour on account of his ‘many creditable exploits’ in the American War of Independence. It is believed to have been Hamond’s influence that saw White appointed as Surgeon-General to the First Fleet.

Upon White’s arrival in Botany Bay Governor Phillip appointed him first Surgeon-General of New South Wales. He accompanied Phillip on several journeys of exploration during which he collected scores of specimens of the colony’s unique flora and fauna. He sent some of these specimens, along with notes, drawings and the manuscript of his journal, back to England on one of the returning First Fleet ships, addressed to his friend Thomas Wilson who edited

Barrett, said to be a ringleader of the mutiny, was quickly recaptured with his fellow mutineers and again appeared before the Old Bailey on the charge of being criminally at large in England. Again he was sentenced to death, and again he was reprieved, this time because his intervention had saved the life of the Mercury’s steward, and he had prevented another mutineer from cutting off the captain’s ear with scissors. He was held in the hulk Dunkirk where he was reported to be ‘tolerably well behaved but troublesome at times’. In March 1887 he was sent on board Charlotte for transport to Botany Bay.

a process, gave me a high opinion of their ingenuity, cunning, caution, and address; and I could not help wishing that these qualities had been employed to more laudable purposes.

After an arduous voyage of between 250 and 252 days, 68 days of which were spent at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town resupplying the fleet and resting the crew, HMS Supply arrived at Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 and Captain Arthur Phillip and some of his men came ashore at Yarra Bay at 3.00 pm that afternoon. The other ships arrived over the following two days, with the Charlotte arriving on the 20th. Most of the First Fleet remained in Botany Bay until 26 January when Phillip, unimpressed with the location’s suitability for a settlement, moved the Fleet to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson to establish the first European settlement on the Australian continent.

Knowing very well the extent of Barrett’s skill with metal, it is highly likely that Surgeon White commissioned Barrett to make him a memento of the arrival of the First Fleet at Botany Bay, and that this would have taken place during the six days that Charlotte remained in Botany Bay. White would have provided Barrett

with the necessary silver (the medal appears to be made out of a piece of a surgeon’s silver kidney dish) and tools. He would also have provided the details and statistics of the voyage that are engraved on the medal’s reverse:

it into White’s Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, published in London in 1790.

Containing 65 very fine engravings of plants, birds and animals by the artist T Debrett, based on White’s specimens and drawings, this volume is considered the earliest book of Australian natural history and one of the first detailed accounts of the voyage of the First Fleet. It reveals White as intelligent, humane and diligent in his work of caring for the convicts, soldiers and sailors of the First Fleet and the colony – not to mention extremely well-organised, since getting this work into publication so soon after

the First Fleet’s arrival, and while he remained in the colony, was an extraordinary achievement.

From a totally different social setting came the convict Thomas Barrett. He had been tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr Justice Ashhurst at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey on 11 September 1782 for stealing one silver watch (value three pounds), a steel chain, one watch key, one hook, two shirts and one shift from Ann Milton on 20 July 1782, and was subsequently found guilty of theft and sentenced to death. Shortly afterwards Barrett’s sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

Although the former American colonies had firmly opposed receiving further convicts, in January 1783 the Lordships of the Treasury declared that transportation overseas to the Americas

would re-commence, after an eight-year interlude caused by the American War of Independence. So in March 1784 Thomas Barrett, along with 142 other convicts, found himself on board the convict transport Mercury bound for North America where they could expect to be assigned to planters to labour alongside slaves. Off the Devon coast some of the convicts including Thomas Barrett mutinied, overpowered the crew and fled after putting the ship in at Torbay.

White was intelligent, humane and diligent in his work of caring for the convicts, soldiers and sailors of the First Fleet and colony

Off the Devon coast some of the convicts including Thomas Barrett mutinied, overpowered the crew and fled

Captains Hunter, Collins and Johnston, with Governor Phillip, Surgeon White ect. visiting a distressed female native of New South Wales, at a hut near Port Jackson. Copper engraving by Alexr Hogg after J Hunter, published London 1793. This art work was an early addition to the ANMM collection.

The ship is a fair representation of its type, although several details suggest a landsman’s and not a sailor’s eye. It’s unlikely, for example, that a sailor would depict the anchor line defying gravity by arching upward. With similar artistic licence the line attaching the anchor to the anchor buoy is shown arching out of the water. The ship rides to a considerable swell, which is also a little surprising for

Sailed the Charlotte of London from Spit Head the 13 of May 1787. Bound for Botany Bay in the Island of New Holland arriv’d at Teneriff the 4th June in Lat 28.13N Long 42.38 W depart’d it 10 arriv’d at Rio Janeiro 6 of Aug in Lat 22.54 S Long 42.38 W depart’d it the 5 Sept arriv’d at the Cape of Good Hope the 14 Octr in Lat 34.29 Lon S 18.29 E depart’d it th 13 of Novr and made the South Cape of New Holland the 8 of Jany 1788 in Lat 43.32 S Long 146.56E arrived Botany Bay the 20 of Jany the Charlotte in Co in Lat 34.00 South Long 151.00 East distance from Great Britain miles 13106.

On the obverse side is engraved a fully-rigged ship at anchor. The sun is near the horizon line on the lower left while the moon and some stars are inscribed above the ship. Above the sun in the upper left field are inscribed the words:

The CHARLOTTE at anchor in Botany Bay Jany. th 20, 1788.

During his time imprisoned on hulks, Thomas Barrett would no doubt have observed, and possibly taken part in, the manufacture of a category of convict mementos that have come to be known as ‘love tokens’. These were metal discs or medals, usually made out of salvaged copper alloy or low-denomination copper coins that were sanded down and then inscribed with poems and statements of affection by convict forgers or metal workers. Such love tokens, examples of which appear in the museum’s collection, were sold to fellow convicts who gave them to loved ones, families or friends as a memento of the soon-to-be transported convict.

Although Thomas Barrett was sentenced for theft and does not appear to have been trained as a metal worker or jeweller, Surgeon White’s journal records that he was in fact a gifted and talented forger. In Rio de Janeiro Barrett had been caught trying to pass some counterfeit quarter dollars that he had managed to forge out of pewter spoons, old buttons and brass buckles obtained from the marines. With a couple of accomplices, he achieved this at sea between Teneriffe and Rio, without access to tools, a forge or dies and under the constant surveillance of the guards. White was clearly impressed, and wrote:

The impression, milling, character, in a word, the whole was so inimitably executed that had their metal been a little better the fraud, I am convinced, would have passed undetected … The adroitness, therefore, with which they must have managed, in order to complete a business that required so complicated

SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008Page 14 Page 15SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008 Page 15

so well-sheltered an anchorage as Botany Bay. In a simplified composition of the sky, no constellation is identifiable.

The depiction of both sun and moon together is intriguing. If we interpret the moon as a waxing new crescent moon high in the western sky as the sun sets, we are looking at the sky as it would have appeared at sunset about 12 January, a good week before the voyage’s end. Alternatively, if we interpret the dark crescent that the artist depicts as representing the occulted portion of the moon, then we have the waxing gibbous moon that occurred on 20 January 1788 – although its position in the sky and its orientation are inaccurate. Not that one would expect that degree of accuracy in such a depiction, worked, perhaps, from memory on the following days.

Whether Thomas Barrett was that artist we can probably never be entirely sure. A leading authority on Australian medals – Leslie J Carlisle of the Australiana Society, author of Australian Historical Medals 1788–1988 and Australian Commemorative Medals and Medalets from 1788 – has attributed the medal to Barrett since he was the only known forger on Charlotte, with the skills to produce such a beautiful work of art using the minimal resources available.

Unfortunately for everyone, circumstances at Sydney Cove when the First Fleet relocated there were far from desirable. They had arrived during the

heat of summer after a lengthy voyage and food, along with all other supplies, was scarce and rationed from the start. The threats of starvation, illness, rebellion or attack, in an unknown and unfamiliar environment, created a situation that called on all of Governor Arthur Phillip’s

considerable abilities as an administrator. To meet these challenges he had been delegated powers that were close to absolute, with complete authority over all in his charge.

On 27 February 1788, only one month after arriving at Port Jackson, Thomas Barrett was arrested, charged, tried and convicted on the clearest evidence of

stealing pease and beef from the public store. With two accomplices, Henry Lovell (or Lavell) and Joseph Hall, he was sentenced to death – for the third time in his life. But for Thomas Barrett, there would be no new reprieve. As Surgeon White relates:

They were, about six o’clock the same evening, taken to the fatal tree, where Barrett was launched into eternity, after having confessed to the Rev. Mr. Johnson, who attended him, that he was guilty of the crime, and had long merited the ignominious death which he was about to suffer, and to which he said he had been brought by bad company and evil example. Lovel and Hall were respited until six o’clock the next evening. When that awful hour arrived, they were led to the place of execution, and, just as they were on the point of ascending the ladder, the judge advocate arrived with the governor’s pardon, on condition of their being banished to some uninhabited place.

Barrett had the dubious honour of being the first person in the colony to be executed, and indeed was the first European hung on Australia’s east coast (the Dutch having executed some of the Batavia mutineers on the Abroholos Islands off Western Australia in 1629). The execution took place in front of all 750 convicts, attended by the entire garrison with bayonets fixed. Without doubt Governor Phillip intended to send

the strongest message – and, having made an example of Barrett, was then able to exercise his humanity and spare the other accomplices the noose.

There seems little doubt that Barrett was singled out as a persistent troublemaker. We can only speculate what kind of colonist such an independent and proactive spirit would have made had he survived. A plaque commemorating his execution stands on the north-eastern corner of the junction of Harrington and

Essex Streets in Sydney. Now, if we’re right to ascribe The Charlotte Medal to Thomas Barrett, he has a far more original and interesting memorial to his troubled life and times, which will go on display shortly here at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Surgeon John White remained in New South Wales until 1794, attending to the health of the convicts, guards and government establishment, when he received permission to return home temporarily to England on account of his ill health. White’s publication Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales had become a noted success and copies were presented to Sir Joseph Banks, The Earl of Donegal, the Earl of Inchiquin,

Viscount Lewisham, the Lord Bishop of London, the Earl of Oxford, Sir William Molesworth, Sir Mathew White Ridley and the Second Earl Spencer – The First Lord of the Admiralty, later Home Secretary – along with notable academics, botanical collectors, members of parliament, the Royal Society and aristocracy.

White also sent additional specimens, drawings and field notes to prominent botanists including Thomas Wilson,

James Edward Smith and Aylmer Bourke Lambert. His extensive collection of New South Wales plant specimens eventually found their way into various institutions around the world including the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, J E Smith Herbarium of the Linnean Society of London, and the Delssert Herbarium, Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques in Geneva, Switzerland.

It is not known if White presented his medal, along with his specimens and notes, to one of these individuals or societies, or if the medal remained in his family’s possession until after his death in 1832. What is known is that some time prior to 1919 The Charlotte Medal came

into the collection of Princess Victoria (daughter of Queen Victoria) and her husband Prince Louis of Battenberg, later Admiral Louis Alexander Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven and First Sea Lord of the Admiralty.

The Charlotte Medal was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in 1919, on behalf of the Marquess, to Albert Henry Baldwin, a well-known British numismatist who operated the firm Baldwin and Sons in London up until 1967. It was later sold to John J Ford, one of America’s best-known coin and numismatic dealers, before being sold in turn to Dr John Chapman in 1981.

Dr Chapman’s research, published as ‘The solution of the Charlotte enigma’ in the Journal of the Numismatics Association of Australia, Vol 9, pages 28–33, has thrown further light on Surgeon-General John White’s connection with The Charlotte Medal. In part this comes through the existence of a smaller copper medallion, held in a private collection, that also commemorates Charlotte’s arival in Botany Bay. Evidently based on The Charlotte Medal, it includes an abridged inscription, sun, moon and stars, but no ship. It bears the stamped initials WB and was found at the site of the homestead of William Broughton, storekeeper, magistrate and former servant to John White while on board the convict transport Charlotte in January 1788.

Phillip had been delegated powers that were close to absolute, with complete authority over all in his charge

LEFT: Sketch of Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, in the County of Cumberland, New South Wales July 1788. Coastline by W Dawes; soundings by Capt Hunter. Published by I Stockdale, London 1789. ANMM collection

RIGHT: View of the settlement on Sydney Cove, Port Jackson 20th August, 1788, engraving by E Dayes from a sketch by T Hunter, published by I Stockdale, London 1792. ANMM collection

BELOW: Arthur Phillip Esq. Captain General and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Territory of New South Wales. Stipple engraving by W Sherwin engraver, after F Wheatley Engraving, 1789. Publisher I Stockdale, London. ANMM collection


COCKATOO ISLAND holds a very special place in artist Bill Nix’s heart. Having worked there from 1963 until the mid-1970s, the lively sights and sounds on the island and the colourful characters of his co-workers made a strong impression on him and continue to feature in his memory – and now under the stroke of his paintbrush.

Nix began work on the island as an office boy, running messages and errands, before undertaking an apprenticeship as a fitter and machinist, as did thousands of young men under Cockatoo’s apprenticeship scheme. He finished up in the engine drawing office, where he stayed and became a draftsman. Though Nix moved on from Cockatoo after a

decade, he believes he experienced life on the shipyard as it was over a much wider period, as the character of the island remained essentially the same from the 1950s right up to the early 1980s.

Cockatoo is in the Nix family blood. His uncle was a carpenter who worked on replacing one of the wings of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s Southern Cross, and his cousin, who worked on the island as an electrical fitter, still talks about Daring Class destroyer HMAS Voyager, sister ship of the museum’s HMAS Vampire, and laying the cable runs. Nix’s first Cockatoo painting, The boys from Cockatoo, which was exhibited in the Mosman Art Prize in 2004, inspired him to paint the series from which this exhibition has been selected.

The boys from Cockatoo

Still a Sydney-sider, Nix has always sketched, painted and sculpted, and his work has appeared in the Blake Prize, Gallipoli Art Prize and the North Sydney Art Show, among others. For this exhibition he uses a surreal colour scheme to convey his unique take on the workings, and especially the characters, of Cockatoo. His subjects are portrayed with larger-than-life, somewhat cartoon-like features, in bustling and dynamic mixed-media compositions on large canvases.

There are surprises in store for those who may expect shipbuilders and engineers – the archetypal ‘boys’ of Cockatoo – to form the focus of Nix’s attention. White-collar workers, canteen ladies and even

ghostly apparitions appear under his artistic gaze. The canteen shows the canteen ladies – curried egg sandwiches their specialty – hard at work preparing for the lunchtime rush. In Jack and the lunch truck Nix introduces us to the jovial Jack who, even in the later years of his working life, always had a smile as he blazed a trail around the island in an old Ford truck with a tray back and dirty old tarpaulin for a canopy. Jack never hesitated to sound his horn at blind spots as he zipped around making his very important deliveries.

In the humorously-titled Haircut and shave, Nix shows a seemingly undisciplined crew of painters and dockers hard at work removing barnacles and weed from below the waterline of a

Rarely did they miss a safe landing, but for those who did, it was into the drink

A lively new exhibition of paintings by artist Bill Nix depicts working life on Cockatoo Island in the 1960s and 70s. His light-hearted approach brings to life a unique cast of characters going about their daily lives in the dockyards. Sally Denmead introduces us to the exhibition.

OPPOSITE: The boys from Cockatoo, the painting that was the inspiration for the entire series.

ABOVE: Greek Gods. The mighty floating crane Titan was a feature of the island from 1919 until the island closed in 1991. It was lost at sea while being towed to Singapore in 1991.


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Lecture – The Boys from Cockatoo10 am–12.30 pm Wednesday 15 October

Artist Bill Nix depicts the life and times of Cockatoo Island shipyard 1950–80 in a series of paintings focusing on the shipyard workers performing their daily duties. Bill will talk to us about the genesis of his paintings. Naval architect John Jeremy, the last CEO of Cockatoo Dockyard, will outline the history of this unique maritime establishment and John Corry, an engineer on the island for 30 years, will describe the training undertaken by tradesmen working on naval and other vessels, in particular HMAS Vampire (now at the museum). View the exhibition with Bill, take a tour of Vampire with the two Johns, and view the documentary Welcome to Cockatoo.Cost $37 includes morning tea. Bookings WEA 02 9264 2781, enquiries 9298 3655

dry-docked ship – a thankless task. The camaraderie of these bedraggled workers is illuminated in this atmospheric composition.

The dunking reveals, again with humour, the minor tragedy that would sometimes befall impatient or dare-devil workers who, rather than using the gangplank to alight the ferry, would jump from the gunwhale or railing. Rarely did they miss a safe landing, but for those who did it was into the drink.

Cockatoo Island has had a varied life, serving as the site of a convict gaol not long after penal settlement and as a natural resource, with sandstone extracted to provide for building works, especially at Circular Quay. Located where the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers meet, in the busy port of Sydney, it was also the site for an industrial school for girls and reformatory before maritime industry was well and truly established as its core focus in the 20th century.

At peak times, especially during wartime, there were thousands of workers attending to naval shipbuilding and repairs, or converting boats to troopships. Though shipbuilding activities ebbed and flowed, in the year in which Nix began work on the island the government

re-established its submarine service in the Royal Australian Navy, and the dockyard undertook major refits of its Oberon Class submarines, including the museum’s HMAS Onslow.

Though a larrikin streak runs through Nix’s artistic vision, he has the utmost respect for the technical skills of shipyard workers. There is plenty in the exhibition for those interested in the detail of dockyard work, such as the depiction

of blacksmiths forging a steel shaft in the The smithy’s shop and coppersmiths in The artisans, hard at work on a pipe, probably for a sea valve/condenser connection, which has been formed in a bending jig. The connection is slightly out, and the coppersmiths know just where to stretch the pipes for a perfect fit.

In a workforce of this size, some regimentation and even some tensions were inevitable. The muster shows tradesmen taking the numbered brass disks that kept tabs on who was in and who was on a ‘sickie’. In Boys town a

couple of apprentices are scrapping, but Nix assures us they would have been mates again the next day. The office fraternity has white-collar workers filing up to their workplaces. The small flock of sheep that they pass along the way is no comment on the lot of wage-slaves; Nix is simply documenting the lawn-mowers!

Greek gods features the famous floating crane Titan, once a dominant fixture in the waters around Cockatoo. In use from

1919 until the dockyard’s closure in 1991, the Titan was capable of lifting up to 150 tons – whether of tug boat, part of the Spit Bridge or power station equipment – and stood 60 metres tall at full extent. Unfortunately this mighty machine sunk off the north coast of NSW in 1992 while in transit to Singapore.

Though Cockatoo Island finally closed as an operational dockyard in 1992, it lives on in the hearts of those who worked there. Nix’s strong sense of belonging to the island and distinct vision is showcased in this special and colourful exhibition.

White-collar workers, canteen ladies and even ghostly apparitions appear under his artistic gaze

TOP TO BOTTOM: Down in the dock. The floor of the dock was often cold and wet with seepage, making it unpleasant for the workmen. The men are shown working on a ship’s propeller shaft bearing.

The artisans. The coppersmiths know how to stretch or twist a pipe for a perfect fit.

Custodian of the pattern. Skilled craftsmen made wooden patterns of parts that would be cast in sand moulds, impressed with the pattern’s shape.

The drawing office holds memories for the artist, who finished his time on the island working there as a draftsmen.

Boys town is what the artist calls the Apprentice Training School where countless youngsters learned practical trades. A squabble among the boys was not unknown.

A constant stream of ferries carried workers to and from their shifts; The dunking shows the consequences for one who jumped instead of using the gangplank.

The women of The canteen worked hard in preparation for the morning tea and lunchtime rush.

The office fraternity. Office workers take the path to the top of the island. A small flock of sheep kept the grass down.

The muster tag. Each worker had a unique number and brass tags would record their presence for the timekeeper.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Launch of the Empress shows the moment that is the culmination of the island’s work – a scene, the artist thinks, that Sydney may not see again.


Message to Members

From Members manager Adrian Adam

Page 20

MANY OF YOU would have seen media reports in July about the museum’s purchase of The Charlotte Medal, a treasure of Australia’s maritime heritage depicting the First Fleet transport Charlotte in Botany Bay on January 1788. The little hand-engraved disc was secured at auction in Melbourne. Read more about it in the article on page 14 but better still enjoy an exclusive viewing of this treasure with ANMM curator Kieran Hosty on 12 September, details overleaf on page 23.

HM Bark Endeavour replica left on August 16 to voyage to Brisbane, and on her return leg will stop at the ports of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Newcastle. You can follow the voyage at www.anmm.gov.au/endeavour by reading the Captain’s Log which will be posted most days. Endeavour is back and open again for visitors on Thursday 23 October.

Meanwhile there will be a visiting vessel berthed in her place – the research vessel Southern Surveyor, open to the public from 2 September until 21 September. RV Southern Surveyor is owned and managed by CSIRO and used by marine scientists to explore and study Australia’s oceans. Join a guided tour of the ship or just have a look around at your own pace.

Another vessel visiting Sydney will be the 1914-vintage MV Doulos, said to be the world’s oldest ocean-going passenger vessel. On her last-ever visit to Sydney she will be moored until 7 September at Darling Harbour Wharf 8, next to King Street Wharf across the water from the museum. You can hear her Master, Captain Ashley McDonald, explaining why the ship has become the globe’s largest floating bookshop on Sunday 7 September – see page 23.

While on the events pages, check out the lecture on the search for HMAS Sydney II by Ted Graham, chairman of The Finding Sydney Foundation and the driving force behind the project to find the ship. He’s joined by noted maritime archaeologist Dr Mike McCarthy of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, responsible for that museum’s Sydney–Kormoran program since 1981. Book early as this will be popular.

There are a host of other Members events to keep you busy, including harbour cruises, lectures and tours, and I encourage you to join in. Why not tell us what you think of our events and activities? Feel free to drop us a line, call or email on any issue you might like to raise. If you are online, there is a survey that you can fill out anytime to give us feedback on the things we do – visit www.anmm.gov.au/members.

I hope you get a chance to spend some time in the Members Lounge when you visit. Put your feet up, browse our reading material, chat to our friendly volunteers over a free coffee, tea or a cold drink for the kids. We’re often on the look out for additional volunteers for the Members Lounge, or to help at some of our Members events, so if you’d like to get to know the museum better and can spare a day or so a month, why not let us know?

Many of you have met the friendly and efficient Claire Palmer, our Members Services coordinator. I am sure you will join me in wishing her well as she embarks on an Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Project in Vietnam which will see her working with underprivileged Vietnamese youth. She will, we hope, return to the museum in mid-2009.

Marcus Blackmore AM and Kay Cottee ao, guests of honour at the special anniversary dinner held at the museum last June, marking the 20th anniversary of Kay’s record-breaking yacht circumnavigation, which made her the first woman to complete a solo, non-stop and unassisted voyage around the world under sail. Kay was awarded the Order of Australia and was named Australian of the Year after sailing more than 22,000 nautical miles in her 11.2 metre yacht Blackmores First Lady, stepping ashore on 5 June in the bicentennial year 1988. She was appointed a member of council of the Australian National Maritime Museum and, when it opened in 1991, she became the patron of the museum’s Members program. Kay later served as chairman of the museum from 1995 to 2001. Sailor and businessman Marcus Blackmore was Kay’s original sponsor for the circumnavigation. He subsequently became a member of the museum’s council and a generous sponsor of the museum’s Watermarks exhibition, in which Kay’s yacht is a centrepiece. Photographer J Mellefont


How to book It’s easy to book for the Members events on the next pages … it only takes a phone call and if you have a credit card ready we can take care of payments on the spot.

• To reserve tickets for events call the Members Office on 02 9298 3644 (business hours) or email [email protected]. Bookings strictly in order of receipt.

• Ifpayingbyphone,havecreditcarddetailsathand.

• Ifpayingbymailaftermakingareservation,pleaseincludeacompleted booking form with a cheque made out to the Australian National Maritime Museum.

• The booking form is on reverse of the address sheet with your Signals mailout.

• Ifpaymentforaneventisnotreceivedseven (7) days before the function your booking may be cancelled.

Booked out?We always try to repeat the event in another program.

CancellationsIfyoucan’tattendabookedevent,pleasenotifyusatleastfive (5) daysbeforethefunctionforarefund.Otherwise,weregretarefund cannot be made. Events and dates are correct at the time of printingbutthesemayvary…ifso,we’llbesuretoinformyou.

Parking near museumWilson Parking offers Members discount parking at nearby HarboursideCarpark,MurrayStreet,DarlingHarbour. To obtain a discount, you must have your ticket validated at the museum ticket desk.

Events for Members

Members Events Calendar

September

Wed 3 Talk & tour: MV Southern Surveyor

Sun 7 Talk: MV Doulos, a captain’s story

Wed 10 Movies by moonlight: on HMAS Vampire

Thu 11 Movies by moonlight: on HMAS Vampire

Fri 12 Talk: The story of The Charlotte Medal

Tue 16 Tour: CLS 4 Carpentaria

October

Wed 1 Talk: The Irish Islands

Wed 8 Talk & view: Classic craft of Wharf 7

Sat 11 Special: Finding HMAS Sydney

Thu 16 Tour: Garden Island heritage tour

Sun 19 Talk: A history of the British canals

Thu 23 Talk: Titanic – The Ship Magnificent

Sun 26 On the water: Jacaranda cruise

November

Wed 5 Talk: HMAS Sydney II: making the film

Sun 9 Talk: The Sydney Project – deep-sea wrecks

Sun 16 Talk: The Dutch immigrants

Sun 30 Special: Members lunch

December

Tue 9 Talk & view: Vaka Moana – Voyages of the Ancestors

Lectures and talksMV Doulos: a captain’s story2–3.30 pm Sunday 7 September at the museum

Originallybuiltin1914totransportfruit,MVDoulos continues tosailthesevenseasbringingknowledge,helpandhopetomorethan100countries.Theworld’soldestocean-goingpassengervesselservesastheglobe’slargestfloatingbookshop,maintainingaselectionof6,000titles.Afternearlyadecade,this grand old lady and her international crew return for her final Aussie tour. Hear more about the ship from Captain Ashley McDonaldwhohasspentsixyearsontheship.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Lunchtime talk: The story of The Charlotte Medal12–1.30 pm Friday 12 September at the museum

The museum has just acquired one of the acknowledged treasuresofAustralia’smaritimeheritage:thesilvermedaldepicting the First Fleet transport Charlotte anchored in Botany Bay,January1788,attheendofthevoyagefromEngland. It’sbelievedthatthe74-mmdiscwasengravedbyconvictThomasBarrettforthefleet’sPrincipalSurgeonJohnWhite, astheyawaitedGovernorPhillip’sdecisiontomovenorthtoPortJackson.HearANMMcuratorKieranHostyrelatethestory,andbeamongthefirsttoviewthishistoricaltreasure.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Titanic – The Ship Magnificent6.15–8 pm Thursday 23 October at the museum

Therecenttwo-volumeTitanic – The Ship Magnificent comprehensivelycoverseveryaspectofthevessel’sstructure.Volume1detailsherconstruction,fittingsandspecificareaswhileVolume2coversthelayoutoftheshipdeckbydeck. Itfeatures37chaptersandover1,550drawings,plans,builder’sphotographsandotherimages.HeartheAustralian-basedTitanicexpertsDanielKlistornerandSteveHall,whocontributedtothismagnificentwork,speakaboutthebook andtheirongoingresearchintooneoftheworld’smost famous ships.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine cheese and James Squire beer

Irish archaeology – County Galway and the Port of Aran6.15–8 pm Wednesday 1 October at the museum

IrisharchaeologistMichaelGibbonsdiscussesthemaritimehistoryandarchaeologyofCountyGalwayand9th–11th-centuryVikingsettlementinIreland.HewillalsodiscusshisworkonthehistoryanddevelopmentofKilleany,theportofAran.MichaelhaslecturedonarchaeologythroughoutIreland,atOxford,Cambridge,theUniversityofPennsylvania,theNationalGeographicSocietyandtheSmithsonianInstitute.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Special – Finding HMAS Sydney2–5 pm Saturday 11 October at the museum

HMASSydney(II)wastragicallylostwithitsentirecrewinNovember1941offWesternAustralia,followingafierceengagementwiththeGermanraiderHSKKormoran. After years of effort the two wrecks were discovered in March 2008 in 2,470metresofwater.HearthefullstoryofthesearchforSydney by chairman of the Finding Sydney Foundation Ted Graham. He will be joined by celebrated maritime archaeologist DrMikeMcCarthy,curatorattheWAMaritimeMuseum.Members $25 guests $35. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Lecture: The history of British canals2–4 pm Sunday 19 October at the museum

HearabouttheoriginsanddevelopmentofBritain’samazingcanalsystemfrom1750uptothecurrentday.Welearnabouttheroutes,constructionofthelocksandbridges,andthefamilies who worked the barges. Harry Hignett is visiting from EnglandtobringusthispictorialexplorationoftheBritishcanalsystem.HewasanofficerinShawSavill&Albion1948–1955,visitingAustralianportsabout25times,andaManchestercanalpilot for 33 years before retiring in 1988.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Members toured Garden Island dockyard to view the mighty Manly ferry South Steyne in for a shave and a haircut. Photographer A Adam/ANMM

BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES Booking form on reverse of mailing address sheet. Phone 02 9298 3644 or fax 02 9298 3660, unless otherwise indicated. All details are correct at publication but subject to change.


EMAIL BULLETINS Have you subscribed to our email bulletins yet? Email your address to [email protected] to ensure that you’ll always be advised of activities organised at short notice in reponse to special opportunities.

Events for Members

Behind the scenes: the hunt for HMAS Sydney6.30–8 pm Wednesday 5 November at the museum

RobMacauly,thesupervisingdirectorandwriteroftherecentlytelevisedHMASSydneydocumentary,willprovidetantalisingglimpsesofhisfive-yearresearchthattookhimtopreviouslyundiscovered sources in Germany and Britain and finally culminatedintheABC’smagnificentdocumentaryThe hunt for HMAS Sydney. Presentation includes footage previously unseen bythepublic.HeldinassociationwithSydneyHeritageFleet.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Deep-sea wrecks of NSW – The Sydney Project2–4.30 pm Sunday 9 November at the museum

TheSydneyProjectteamarededicateddeep-seadiverswithapassionforadventureandunderwaterexploration.TheirprojectistoextendtheboundariesofdivingexplorationanddocumenttheuniqueunderwaterheritageinSydneyandsurroundingareasusingadvancedtechnical-divingtechnology.Theyhavedivedonmanynewly-discovereddeep-seawrecksincludingthesteamers Bega,Iron Knight,Keilawarra,Cumberland,libertyship William Dawes and many more. Team members tell their divestories,showamazingfootageandsharetheirmostrecentshipwreck discoveries.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Postwar Dutch emigration – ships and people 2–5 pm Sunday 16 November at the museum

WithpooreconomicprospectsafterWWIIboostingemigrationtoAustralia,theDutchgovernmentconvertedtrooptransportsinto passenger ships holding 800 emigrants. Maritime historian and author Peter Plowman speaks about the challenges faced by postwarDutchemigrants.HethenexploresapictorialrecordofDutchmigrantshipssuchasVolendam,Johan de Witt,Waterman,Zuiderkruis,Groote Beertrio,Oranje,Willem Ruys and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt,whichbroughtthousandsofDutchmigrantstoAustralia.Members $20 guests $25. Includes afternoon tea, Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Talk & view: Vaka Moana – Voyages of the Ancestors6.15–8 pm Tuesday 9 December at the museum

The discovery and settlement of the vast Pacific Ocean covering a third of the earth is the greatest story of human migration. Thedaringexplorerswhoventuredintoitweretheworld’sfirstdeep-seasailorsandnavigators.Rarecarvingsandcanoesareamong 200 artefacts displayed from the unsurpassed Maori and PacificcollectionsofAucklandMuseum,whiletheexhibitionincorporatesthemostrecentscientificresearchingenetics,linguisticsandcomputermodelling.JoinAucklandMuseumstaffforthisspecialtalkandexhibitionviewingofVaka Moana –itmeans‘oceancanoe’.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer

Tours and walksCommonwealth Lightship 4, Carpentaria10–11.30 am Tuesday 16 September at the museum

The unmanned CommonwealthLightship4,now called Carpentaria,wasone of four built at Cockatoo IslandDockyard,Sydney,in1916–17.Withanautomaticacetylene light that turned on andoffusingasunlight-operatedvalve,CLS4haswarnedofhazardsintheGulfofCarpentaria,BreakseaSpitnearSandyCape,Queensland,andinBassStrait.ANMMfleetmanagerStevenAdamstalksaboutthevessel,presentsashortfilm,The Gathering Flame,onAustralian lightships and leads us on board for a closer look.

Members only $15. Includes morning tea. Numbers strictly limited – must be reasonably fit and agile due to the nature of the vessel. Meet Wharf 7 foyer

A history of Sydney Harbour wooden boats5.30–7.30 pm Wednesday 8 October in Wharf 7

OurcolleaguesfromSydneyHeritageFleetpresentatreasuretroveofSydneyHarbourhistorythroughtheclassiccraftdisplayedinWharf7.Thediversecollectionrangesfromjollyboatsliketheonesusedintheearlydaysofthecolony,torecentracingskiffs.ThetourincludesSydneyHeritageFleet’slargecollectionof‘ironmainsails’(engines)datingfromtheearly1920s.WegobehindthescenestotheWharf7workshopwheretraditional boat building practices still occur.Members $15 guests $20. Includes Ensign wine, cheese and James Squire beer. Meet Wharf 7 near James Craig gangway

Tour: Garden Island Heritage Tour10 am–1.30 pm Thursday 16 October at Garden Island

Enjoyabehind-the-scenesguidedtourofGardenIslandheritageprecinctwithrepresentativesofTheNavalHistoricalSocietyofAustralia. The tour includes areas within the secure precinct including the KuttabulMemorial,theChapel,heritagebuildingsincludingtheoriginalboatshed,andthetopoftheCaptainCookDock.Youcanthendoaself-guidedtouroftheRoyalAustralian Navy Heritage Centre. Members $25 guests $30. Includes guided tour, entry to RAN Heritage Centre, morning tea. Some walking and stair climbing. Catch the 10.10 am Watson Bay ferry from Circular Quay to Garden Island

On the waterSpring, spray and jacarandas10 am–1.30 pm Sunday 26 October, Lane Cove River

The spring garden holds many delights including jacaranda trees inbloom.There’snobetterwaytoseethemthanonaleisurelycruise up the Lane Cove River aboard historic ferry Sydney Princess.Award-winninggardenerAdamWoodhams,assistantgardening editor with Better Homes and Gardensmagazine,providesexpertbotanicandhistoricalcommentary.Oneofourmost popular annual events – book early!Members $45 guests $55. Brunch on board. Meet at the Festival Pontoon next to submarine Onslow

Special events16th Members anniversary lunch11.30 am–2.30 pm Sunday 30 November in the Terrace Room

The anniversary lunch is a fine tradition and gastronomic event nottobemissed!BookearlyforournextonewithANMMdirectorMary-LouiseWilliams,chairmanofthemuseum’sCouncil,PeterSinclairRAN(RTD)AMCSC,andaguestspeaker (TBA). Enjoy the good company of fellow Members andadeliciousthree-courselunchfromBayleaf,themuseum’saward-winningcaterer,accompaniedbyEnsignwineandJamesSquirewineandbeer.Members $75 guests $85. Meet in the museum foyer

Special: Movies by moonlight on HMAS Vampire6.15 pm–8 pm Wednesday 10 & Thursday 11 September

Theheli-deckonHMASVampire will be turned into an alfresco filmtheatreaswescreenfilmsontheX-gunturret.Strictly limited places per screening. Members $20 guests $25 per film. Includes refreshments and popcorn on arrival. Subject to weather conditions; bring warm clothing

Wednesday 10 – We Dive at Dawn (1943)The British submarine Sea Tiger docks after a long voyage and thecrewhaveaweek’sleave–buttheirarrangementsarecancelledastheyarerecalledtofindanddestroytheNazibattleship Brandenburg.

Thursday 11 – They’re a Weird Mob (1966)ItaliansportsjournalistNinoCulotta(WalterChiari)arrivesinAustraliatofindhisuncle’snewmagazinehasfolded.Heworksasabuilder’slabourer,learnstotalkanddrinklikeanAussie,andfallsinlovewithanAustralian(ClareDunne).


Movies on Sundays1.30 pm every school term SundaySeptember – Anchors Aweigh19 October–16 November – The Castle

AFREEfilmtocomplementthetemporaryexhibitionprogram.Visitwww.anmm.gov.auforfullfilmprogram.

Evening on Endeavour6–8 pm Saturday 15 November

ExperienceafamilyeveningaboardourbeautifulreplicaofCaptainCook’sshipofdiscovery,HMBEndeavour. Have a frolickingadventureforthewholefamilywithour18th-centurysailors.Asausagesizzleonthemuseum’swharfisincluded.$20 per person $45 family (2 adults, 2 children). $15 per Member $35 Member family (2 adults, 2 children). Suitable for children 7 years and over. Bookings essential 02 9298 3655

Spring 2008 program

Program times and venues are correct at time of going to press. To check programs before your museum visit call 02 9298 3777.

What’s on at the museum

Spring school holidays 28 September–12 October 2008

FREE ACTIVITIESDymocks Golden Paw Award27 September–12 October 2008, Top Deck

To raise awareness of threatened Australian native animals of theoceansandcoasts,riversandwetlands,theFoundationof National Parks and Wildlife invitedNSWchildrenaged4–12 years to participate in this drawingcompetition.View600ofthebestentriesinthisyear’s

award,selectedbyrepresentativesfromNationalParksandWildlifeServiceandtheArtGalleryofNSW.

FAMILY FILM: Toy Story1.30 pm daily

Afreefilmtocomplementthetemporaryexhibitionprogram.

SPECIAL GROUP RATES Forgroupsof10childrenormore.$7perchildforafullyorganisedprogramofactivitiesthatincludes:•allmuseumexhibitions•allchildren’sactivities•entrytothedestroyerVampire and the submarine Onslow •FREEentryfor2adultsper10children•FREEbusparkingNB $4 extra per child for the 1874 tall ship JamesCraig. Bookings essential to ensure your space! Phone 02 9298 3777 Fax 02 9298 3660 Email: [email protected]

Mini Mariners 10–10.45 am every Tuesday during term Children 2–5 years + carers

September – Under the seaLet’ssingasongaboutwibblywobbly jellyfish and learn about what lives beneath the sea. Then you can make your own jellyfish to take home. Come dressed as your favourite sea creature or mermaid.

October – Tall shipsLet’sunfurlthesailsonarollicking high-seasadventure.Climbtheriggingandperformtheduties ofan18th-centurysailor.Youcanevenpaintyourowntallshipto take home.

November – Boats in the harbourJointhecrewaswerowthroughstormyseas,singingsongsaswegomerrilyalong.

Cost $7 per child. Members/adults FREE. Booked playgroups are welcome. Please call 02 9298 3655. Please note that this program is not offered during the school holidays and for safety reasons is held inside the museum. For more information please visit our website at www.anmm.gov.au

Special eventsResearch vessel Southern SurveyorTuesday 2–Saturday 20 September

TheCSIROMarineNationalFacilityresearchvesselSouthern Surveyor will be visiting the museum for a limited time. Getanexclusivebehind-the-scenestourofthisfascinatingmulti-capableblue-waterresearchvessel,whichisequippedwithstate-of-the-artfacilitiesforoceanography,environmentalscience,biophysics,geoscience,meteorologyandclimatology.

Solo: film premiere1.30 pm Saturday 6 September

OnFriday9February,theNewZealandcoastguardreceivedanalmost indecipherable transmission from a vessel identifying itself as Kayak 1intheFiordlandofSouthIsland.AndrewMcAuley was within sight of land after attempting to kayak aloneacrosstheTasmanSea.Whennothingmorewasheard,afull-scaleaerialsearchlocatedMcAuley’scapsizedkayaksome30nauticalmilesoffthecoastofNewZealand.Andrewwasnotfound,buthisadventurousspiritisnotforgotten.Thisheart-wrenchingdocumentaryexploresthelifeofadventurerAndrewMcAuley and the quest that ultimately took his life.

Cruise Forum 3 Krait and Operation Jaywick 10 am–2 pm Thursday 25 September

In1943thewoodenfishingvesselKrait was sailed from AustraliathroughJapanese-occupiedwaterstoSingapore,wherecommandos in folding canoes used limpet mines to sink two enemyshipsanddamageanotherfive.SeniorcuratorLindseyShawpresentsanillustratedtalkaboutthiscelebratedfeatofarms.BarryGrant,President1CommandoAssociationInc,willdescribetheill-fatedRimauRaidthefollowingyear.Cruiseonaheritage ferry to the Royal Australian Navy Heritage Centre at GardenIsland,andpicniconsite.Onreturn,viewKrait and the documentary The Story of the Krait: Tigers and Snakes.

$60 (concession $55) includes morning tea and lunch. Bookings essential WEA 02 9264 2781

Trash or Treasure collectors Sunday11 am–3 pm Sunday 28 September

Amustforcollectorsandenthusiasts!Buy,sellordisplayyourcollectionsatthemuseuminthisspecialone-dayevent.Featuringon-the-spotappraisalsandadviceonhowtoconserveyourtreasures,plusliveentertainmentandchildren’sactivities.

FREE. Display space bookings essential, phone 02 9298 3654

Cruise Forum 4 Sydney hosts the Great White Fleet10 am–2 pm Thursday 16 October

OnFriday20August1908TeddyRoosevelt’sGreatWhiteFleetof16battleships,underthecommandofRearAdmiralCharlesSSperry,enteredSydneyHarbourtotumultuousacclaim.PaulHundley,seniorcuratoroftheUSAGallery,explainsthehistoricalbackgroundofthisevent,andhistorianBobIrvingdescribesSydneyasitwas100yearsago.We’llthenfollowthefleet’sroutethroughtheharbour,viewingSydney’scentury-oldstructures,anddisembarkatFarmCoveinAdmiralSperry’sfootsteps. After a picnic in the Botanic Gardens we walk around CircularQuayviewingtheprecinct’sgrandoldbuildings.

$60 (concession $55) includes morning tea and lunch. Bookings essential WEA 02 9264 2781

KIDS DECK Hourly sessions 10 am–4 pm daily

InspiredbytheexhibitionTrash or Treasure? Souvenirs of travel,childrencanlearnaboutplacesnearandfar.Theycanplaywithgamesfromothercountries,dressupinclothesfromaround the world and make their own souvenir to take home.For children aged 5–12. $7 per child or FREE with any purchased ticket. Adults/Members FREE

You got it where?Interactive family theatre performance11 am, 12 pm and 1 pm Monday–Friday only

Discovertherealstorybehindyourseeminglyinnocuoustravelsouvenirs:wasyoursnowdomeactuallyasecretlisteningdevicefromtheSpanishCivilWar?WasyourcuteteddybearreallyanancientEgyptianidol?Bringalongyourholidaymementostothisinteractivetheatreperformance,andourmysticalchannelerswillre-enactthetruelivesofyourtrashy treasures. Included in the price of entry to Kids Deck

During termFun family Sundays11 am–3 pm every Sunday

InspiredbytheexhibitionTrash or Treasure? Souvenirs of travel,childrencanlearnaboutplacesnearandfar.Theycanplaywithgamesfromothercountries,dressupinclothesfromaround the world and make their own souvenir to take home.For children 5–12. $7 per child or FREE with any purchased ticket. Adults/Members FREE

Night in the navy6 pm–8 pm Saturday 25 October

A family evening of adventure aboard the museum destroyer HMASVampire.JoinoursaltyseadogJackBlutoTaraswecheck out Vampire’sgunturretanduncoverthetruthabouttheship’sghost,lurkinginthesurgery.Useyourpowersofdeduction to uncover the secret semaphore message and enjoy asausagesizzleonthemuseum’swharf.$16 per person $54 family (2 adults, 2 children). $12 per Member $48 Member family (2 adults, 2 children). Suitable for children 7 years and over. Bookings essential 02 9298 3655

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For schoolsSpring 2008 exhibitions

Bateaux Jouets – toy boats from Paris 1850–1950 Years K–2 HSIE, Science

Primary school programs revolve around subjects suchastransport,simplemachines and the science of toys,coveringareassuchpropulsion,designandtoysof the past. Relates to primary units The Way We WereandToyWorld,andCOGSunitSimpleMachines. Optional craft workshop where students can design their own boat

andmakeanorigamiboat-hattowear.Secondaryprogramsincludescience(propulsion),design&technologyandChildreninHistoryelectiveforStage4history.Frenchlanguagetoursavailableforallages.Optional3-courseFrenchlunchatLittleSnailrestaurant,Pyrmont.$6 per student (workshop $2 extra; French lunch $20 extra)

Transport Years K–2 HSIE, Science

Studentstourthemuseumidentifyingvariousformsoftransportconnectedwithwater–sailingships,row-boats,ferries,tugs,aNavydestroyer,watertrafficandevenahelicopter!Anoptionalcruisebyheritageferrytakesinindustrial,commercialandpassenger transport systems on the harbour. $6 per student (cruise extra)

Navigators Years 3–6 HSIE

This program investigates early contact withtheAustraliancontinent.Studentsencounternon-Europeantraders,traditionalnavigationtechniques,andearlyEuropeanexplorers.Theyviewconstellations in the night sky used for navigation,andlookattheinfluenceofEuropeanexplorersintheAgeofSail.Itemsondisplayincludeartefactsfrom

ships such as Endeavour and Batavia,andmaterialfromDutch,English,French,TorresStraitIslanderandMakassanexplorers.$6 per student

Pyrmont walkYears 9–12 History, Geography

Explorethisinner-citysuburbfromtheperspectiveofchangingdemographics,construction,planninganddevelopment.Ledbyateacher-guide,studentswalkthestreetsofPyrmontand

examinechanges.TheprogramissuitableasasitestudyforHistoryandGeography.Aharbourcruiseexaminingchangeanddevelopment along the waterfront is also available.From $12 per student. Cruise extra

Shipwrecks, corrosion and conservation Year 12 HSC Chemistry

RelatingtotheNSWStage6ChemistrysyllabusoptionShipwrecks,Corrosion&Conservation,thisprogramincludesatalkonmetalsconservation,anexperiment-basedworkshopandatourofrelatedshipwreckmaterialinthemuseum’sgalleries.Studentsmayalsovisitourex-RANdestroyerVampire and submarine Onslow,andviewthetallshipJames Craig from the wharf.$20 per student (minimum numbers apply)

Pirate school Years K–4 English, Maths, HSIE, Creative Arts

Jointhepirateschoolforlessonsintreasurecounting,speakinglikeapirate,mapreadingandmore!Thenjoinatreasurehuntthroughthemuseumandboardthetallship,James Craig. $10 per student (JamesCraig $2 extra per student)

Splash! Years K–2 HSIE, PD, PE & Health, Creative Arts

Splash!isahands-onprogramwhereyoungervisitorsexploreleisurein,on,underandnearthewaterthroughmovement,dress-ups,gamesandstories.Theprogramincludesaguidedtour of the Watermarks and Jellyfishexhibitionsandstudentsmake their own jellyfish craftwork to take home. $8 per student

Science and the seaYears 6–8 Science

This program demonstrates key scientific principles that relate to a maritime environment. Working through a series of experimentstations,studentscoverareassuchasbuoyancy,corrosion,navigation,communicationandanimalclassification.A tour of the museum allows students to see these scientific principles in action.$12 per student, includes submarine tour

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Over 30 programs for students K–12, across a range of syllabus areas. Options include extension workshops, hands-on sessions, theatre, tours with museum teacher-guides and harbour cruises. Programs link to both core museum and special temporary exhibitions. Bookings essential: telephone 02 9298 3655 fax 02 9298 3660 email [email protected] or visit our website: www.anmm.gov.au

In our galleries

Bateaux Jouets – toy boats from Paris 1850–1950Until 12 October 2008 Gallery One

Over 200 toy boats from the MuséenationaldelaMarine,Paris,showcasedreamsofchildhood adventures on the high seas. These mechanical marvels were inspired by a centuryofsteamnavigation,transatlanticliners,battleshipsandspeedboats.Children,adultsand collectors will enjoy this stunning collection on show for the first time in Australia.

Trash or Treasure? Souvenirs of travelUntil 17 May 2009 South Gallery

Discoveradiversearrayof souvenirs collected by pilgrims,sailors,soldiers,cruisepassengersandtourists.It’saritual travellers have performed forcenturies.Quaint,cheap,stylishorprecious,asouvenirembodies just a little of our irreplaceabletravelexperiences.

Great White Fleet – US sea power on parade 1908 From 14 August 2008 USA Gallery

It’s100yearssincetheUSA’s‘GreatWhiteFleet’visitedAustralia,despatchedby President Roosevelt to demonstrate American naval capability to the world. Australiansgreetedits16white-painted battleships and their escorts with huge enthusiasm.

Kathleen darling … Jack Earl’s voyage around the world 1947–4827 September 2008– 22 February 2009 Tasman Light

In1947SydneyartistJackEarlpursued his romantic dream to sailtheworld,settingoutwithfive crew in his ketch Kathleen Gillett – named after his beloved wife who had to stay behind. After18monthsinexoticplacestheyreturnedtoSydney60yearsagoon7December,andKathleen Gillett is now part of ourhistoricfleet.

The boys from Cockatoo – paintings by Bill Nix17 September–2 November 2008 North Gallery

Paintings by Bill Nix depicting the life and times of Cockatoo Island shipyard in the post-World War 2 period, focusing on the work and the characters of the famous Sydney shipyard. The artist worked there during the 1960s and 70s.

Tall ship adventure: a young man’s journey New York to Fremantle 1905Until late July 2009 USA Gallery

Thisisthestoryof19-year-oldFredTaylor’sadventureundersail aboard the barque Queen MargaretfromNewYorktoFremantle,toldthroughhisjournalandphotographs.ThecollectioncomesfromtheSmithsonianInstitution,NationalMuseum of American History.

On the water

Replica of James Cook’s EndeavourReturns Thursday 23 October open daily 10 am–4 pm

VisitthemagnificentAustralian-builtreplicaofCaptainJamesCook’sship,in which he circumnavigated theworld(1768–71),chartedAustralia’seastcoast and claimed it for Britain.Members FREE. Adult $15, child/concession $8, family $30. Other ticket combinations available. Enquiries 02 9298 3777

Barque James Craig (1874)Daily Wharf 7 (except when sailing)

SydneyHeritageFleet’smagnificentiron-hulledshipistheresultofanaward-winning30-yearrestoration.Tourtheshipwith various museum ticket packages (discount for Members).

ANMM travelling exhibitions

The River – Life on the Murray-Darling6 September–19 October 2008 Library/Museum, Albury

Great White Fleet – US sea power on parade 190820 August–29 October 2008 Melbourne Museum

Antarctic Views by Hurley and Ponting19 September–10 November 2008 Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum, Bathurst

Currach Folk – Photographs by Bill Doyle5 July–2 November 2008 Public Records Office Victoria, Melbourne

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The museum’s Endeavour replica has inspired and enthralled thousands of people from all walks of life who have experienced life on board as voyage crew. For author Anthony Hill it was more than just research for a historical novel set during Cook’s first circumnavigation – it was a life-changing experience.

Voyages of discovery

THE PUBLICATION of my novel Captain Cook’s Apprentice – a mess-deck view of the Endeavour voyage through the eyes of its youngest crewmember, 13-year-old officer’s servant Isaac George Manley – brings me safely into port after the most exhilarating research journey I’ve undertaken for any book. It was one that took me from New Zealand to sensuous Tahiti … from crocodiles basking on Queensland river mud, to the Royal Observatory overlooking the Thames at Greenwich.

Above all, it took me for a magical voyage on board the Endeavour replica from Melbourne back to her home berth at the Australian National Maritime Museum. And during those eight days every salt-encrusted sound, smell, and sensation of life on an 18th-century ship came to seep through the words and shape the sentences of my story the the moment that I wrote them down.

The idea for the book arose from a passing reference in J C Beaglehole’s Life of Captain Cook, about a boy named

Isaac George Manley. He joined Endeavour aged 13 as a servant to the master Robert Molyneux, was appointed a midshipman on the return voyage, rose to become an admiral, and when he died at 82 Isaac was the last survivor of the Endeavour crew (see box ‘Isaac Manley’s fortunate life’).

‘Now there’s an idea,’ I said to myself. ‘What a way to tell the story of the great

adventure for young teenage readers, through the eyes of one of their own!’

In all my books I try to make the external facts as accurate and ‘real’ as possible, however much the novelist must imagine the internals of character, thought and speech. It’s a matter of finding what Patrick O’Brian in the preface to his

wonderful Master and Commander books calls the ‘jewel’ of authenticity.

I came across one such gem very early in the research when Graeme Powell, then manuscript librarian at the National Library of Australia, allowed me to sit for four hours with Cook’s handwritten Endeavour journal. Isaac’s name doesn’t appear in its pages, although he is mentioned in the muster book and in

Cook’s letter recommending him to the Admiralty when they returned to England.

But reading Cook’s clear, sepia-stained words I was in immediate contact with the voyage, as day by day it unfolded with all of his idiosyncratic spelling on the ‘high rowling sea’. I could see the transformation of the Aboriginal name

Every salt-encrusted sound, smell, and sensation of life on an 18th-century ship came to shape the sentences of my story

ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT: Life on board the replica between Melbourne and Sydney: spit and polish keeps the ship shipshape; bound for the galley. Photographer Anthony Hill


OPPOSITE: The author takes his turn at the wheel, a task always shared by two of the watch at a time. Photograph courtesy of Anthony Hill.


such words had to become objects. And objects had to come to life and have meaning.

Even in those early days I realised that Endeavour was only half-alive at her berth: bare masts and spars stretching to the sky, straining at her hawsers like a tethered creature yearning to be free. And free she was as we went down Port Phillip Bay, the wind in her sails, timbers creaking with pleasure, and her shrouds thrumming This is what I was made for.

Almost too free as we entered Bass Strait and hit a storm. I lay on the deck, clipped to a safety line, pouring my heart overboard and wondering when I would die. But that, too, is part of the

experience. It took its place in my story; and without it those other times when you glimpse the poetry of the sea would not have meant nearly as much.

I went as one of four full-fare paying supernumeraries, unsure how much a 64-year-old could manage as a part of the working ‘voyage crew’ as they call those who pay for their berths (somewhat less than we supernumeraries) but stand watch, climb the rigging and work the ship. In fact I did most of what I wanted, and served with my watch (although I was allowed to lie abed some early

Gamay to Stingray Harbour then Botanist Harbour and finally to Botany Bay.

Among the erasures and second thoughts was a much later insertion whereby Cook claimed the east coast of New Holland for King George ‘by the name of New South Wales’… Thus did another few words redolent with their later histories enter the language, and the idea of my book began to turn into reality. I could even feel Isaac’s unseen presence slipping between the inky lines.

Very little about Isaac Manley had been written. He doesn’t appear in many books about the voyage, and his brief mentions in others often turned out to be wrong. A lot of digging was needed in manuscripts and old naval volumes to discover his true story, and here I received much help from the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Dr Nigel Erskine, curator of exploration, and the staff of the museum’s invaluable public research facility the Vaughan Evans Library, named after an early museum supporter.

It is one thing to read and quite another to experience. Hence the importance of my Endeavour voyage under Captain Ross Mattson and his crew in April 2006 – another jewel of authenticity. I’d visited the ship several times at Darling Harbour, walking crabwise through the mess deck with the volunteer guides, or just sitting to let unfamiliar shipboard names become part of my landlubberly imagination … capstan ... ratlines ... fighting tops ... catheads ... seats of ease ... man-rope ... scuttlebutt ... hammock-space ... starboard ... larboard ... binnacle ... rudder-arm …

mornings). I climbed 30 feet up the foremast to the futtock shrouds, getting the ‘feel’ of the ratlines on my feet, looking down on the strange perspective of the deck like a seabird from the tops. I stood my ‘trick’ at the wheel, hauled lines, swabbed the deck, cleaned the heads, and listened as the navigator, Captain Jim Cottee, explained the mysteries of the sextant.

‘You have to bring the sun down to the horizon,’ he instructed.

‘What could he mean?’ I thought, trying to manipulate the unfamiliar instrument … until at last I saw the glowing orange ball in the shaded mirror, and by turning a calibrated knob slowly brought the reflected disc down to the line where sea and sky meet. I hate to think, though, where my bearings would actually have placed us!

I also had the only solid bunk on board, in Mr Banks’s cabin. It was wonderful for seasickness, but as my young subject Isaac had slept in a hammock in the section of the mess deck with only 4 ft 6 in (136 cm) headroom, I swapped one night with a crew member. One night was enough. I felt like a sausage distended in its skin: slung on a hook, swinging supine on my back, and utterly restless. They say it takes three nights to sleep in a hammock, after which you’re so exhausted you’d flake anywhere! I took their word for it.

I sailed two stages of the voyage that was bringing the replica back from her visit to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games – Melbourne to Eden, Eden to Sydney – believing I’d be seasick on the first leg, but hopefully come good on the second stage. So it transpired. After the rigours of Bass Strait, I got my reward as I went on deck at dawn on the fourth day, and Captain Mattson pointed to a smudge on the grey horizon.

‘That’s Point Hicks,’ he said. And I had one of those rare moments of epiphany. For me and my family, I thought, this is

where it all began: with Zachary Hicks sighting Endeavour’s first landfall in New Holland on such another April morning in 1770.

This was the sense that I wanted to convey with Captain Cook’s Apprentice. The Endeavour story is so overlaid with its subsequent histories, that the sheer adventure of it has become rather obscured, like an old painting hidden under layers of varnish. I’ve tried respectfully to peel those layers away and reveal the colours of the original: to tell the tale with all the freshness and excitement it had when first heard.

Now my part of the journey is over. Yet the end of every voyage marks the beginning of another, as Captain Cook well knew, and it’s for readers to judge if my book will go on to prosper and travel the world with fair seas and a following wind. But it does have one more jewel of authenticity to help guide it. We’ve used a number of engravings from a copy of Falconer’s 1769 Dictionary of the Marine, held at the National Library of Australia, which was used on Cook’s third Pacific voyage. At the head of every chapter of Captain Cook’s Apprentice, as if showing the way, is a compass rose from this very book the great navigator himself knew.

Life on board the replica between Melbourne and Sydney: view from the quarterdeck in favouring wind and seas. Photographer Anthony Hill

ISAAC MANLEY was born in London in 1755, the second son of a wealthy lawyer. He was 13 when he joined James Cook’s Endeavour as an officer’s servant – which was quite a common way for the younger sons of 18th-century gentlemen to begin a career in the Royal Navy.

The boy did well. After two midshipmen died of dysentery on the return voyage, Captain Cook promoted Isaac in their place. On Endeavour’s return, he wrote to the Admiralty saying Isaac’s behaviour ‘merits the best recommendation’. When Resolution was commissioned for Cook’s second voyage in November 1771 Isaac was in the muster book – but he didn’t sail on her. He transferred instead to the regular navy as a midshipman on the guard ship HMS Terrible at Spithead. Two years later, Isaac went to the Jamaica Station where he was promoted lieutenant in May 1777.

Following the outbreak of the American War of Independence, Isaac served with the British fleet in North America, taking part in the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782 on the squadron flagship Prince George, performing well enough to be promoted Master and Commander with his own ship at the end of that year.

In 1786 Isaac took command of the sloop Fairy, patrolling home waters and the West African coast. After an attack of fever he stood down ‘as it was utterly

impossible for me to do the duty of the ship’. Still, the Admiralty appointed Isaac post-captain in November 1790. He went on half pay the same day, and although he lived for another 47 years Isaac never held another command. Marshall’s Naval Biography of 1823 wrongly says Isaac commanded the Apollo in 1796 and captured a French corvette, but it confused him with a Captain John Manley (who was no immediate relation).

Fortune continued to smile on Isaac. He married an heiress; fathered two children; built a gothic mansion in Oxfordshire; survived his elder brother and went on to inherit the bulk of the family estate. He also outlived most of his contemporaries. As promotion in the Royal Navy was based on seniority, Isaac kept rising in the ranks: Rear Admiral 1809, Vice Admiral 1814, Admiral of the White 1830, Admiral of the Red 1837.

When Isaac died at 82 in October 1837, there were only 14 men ahead of him in the Navy List. Yet the first thing said of him on the memorial at Checkendon Church and in his obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine was this: ‘He was the last survivor of the crew who sailed with Captain Cook during his first voyage around the world.’

It was the pivotal event of Isaac Manley’s long and fortunate life.

Portrait of Admiral Isaac Manley in later life, watercolour by Richard Dighton; collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Reproduced courtesy of the museum

Endeavour was only half-alive at her berth: bare masts and spars stretching to the sky, straining at her hawsers

Isaac Manley’s fortunate life

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Anthony Hill is a Canberra writer who has published 16 books for children and young adults. Among them are Soldier Boy, The Burnt Stick, Young Digger and Animal Heroes. Captain Cook’s Apprentice is being published in September 2008 by Penguin Books (RRP $19.95) and is available from The Store or signed copies from Anthony Hill [email protected]


We had yet some Madeira Wine left, which was the only Article of our provisions that was mended by keeping; so that our friends in England did not perhaps, celebrate Christmas more cheerfully than we did. Our Soup was made of geese, we had Geese, boiled, roasted, & in Pyes, & plenty of fine Sellery in the Soup & for Sallad. All went on with a great deal of mirth & Glee & we went to bed at 3 o’clock in the morning at broad daylight. We found that we could hardly shut our Eyes, or have the least comfortable nap, for the noise of the drunken Ships-Crew, who were continually fighting ... The Captain sent all drunken noisy fellows a shore, to take there an airing & get sober again.

George Forster’s account of Christmas at Christmas Sound, Terra del Fuego, on Cook’s Resolution, December 1774

SINCE THE 17th century, the Portuguese island of Madeira has produced some of the world’s most famous fortified wines, and ‘madeira’ is how these wines are known commercially all over the world. Both the island itself and the wine it produces are an integral part of the story of Europe’s great age of maritime expansion, commerce and conquest.

Madeira, part of an isolated and previously unoccupied archipelago well off the Atlantic coast of Africa, was discovered by João Gonçalvez Zarco who was leading a Portuguese exploration of the north-west coast of Africa on behalf of Prince Henry The Navigator. He first found, named and claimed the island of Porto Santo in July 1419. Returning a year later, he claimed an island they had seen in the distance and named it Madeira (wood) after its many trees. At Prince Henry’s direction, the islands were quickly settled by Portuguese colonists.

The archipelago is located 980 km south-west of Lisbon and some 600 km due west of the Moroccan coast. Madeira itself, with its capital Funchal, is actually the peak of a 4000-metre underwater volcano, 1861 metres above sea level at it highest point, 55 km long and 22 km wide. Porto Santo is also inhabited, and there are two uninhabited islands in the group.

Madeira’s economy was defined by the introduction of grape vines from Crete and sugarcane from Sicily. Sugarcane

quickly dominated the economy and by the end of the 15th century Madeira was the biggest sugar producer in Europe, attracting merchants from all over the continent. Christopher Columbus visited the islands and married the daughter of the first governor of Porto Santo.

Madeira wine flourished throughout the 17th century and it was at this time that the English presence on the island began to increase, particularly with the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II of England. As a result of this alliance, Madeira was excluded from the

protectionist ban on products exported from Europe to the British colonies. This loophole led to many British merchants settling in Madeira so they could export wine from the island to America.

The early American colonies soon became a favourite trading partner for madeira wine and it was en route from Madeira to the Americas – a trade-winds passage that took ships through the tropics – that the positive effect of the long voyage was discovered. A clue to this process can be found in the quote at the start of this article: madeira wine ‘was the only Article of our provisions that was mended by keeping’.

Have some madeira m’dear

Few wines can claim a place in maritime history to rival that of the marvellous madeira. Assistant director Max Dingle explains how the Endeavour replica re-enacted an old wine-making tradition … and how you can sample the result for yourself.

A long sea voyage through tropical climates subjected the barrels of fortified wine to high temperatures and the constant movement of the vessel. Much of the characteristic flavour of madeira was due to these circumstances, which hasten the mellowing of the wine and tended to slow, if not stop, secondary fermentation – in effect, a mild kind of pasteurisation. In addition it was exposed to air, causing it to oxidise. The resulting wine had a colour similar to a tawny port, and the baked, oxidised taste was to the liking of a growing number of people.

Madeira was originally unfortified, but the addition of grape brandy increased its ability to survive long voyages. Properly sealed in bottles, madeira is one of the longest-lasting wines and has been known to survive over 150 years in excellent condition.

In the 18th century Madeira was strategically placed at the centre of the most important trade routes. The English fleets sailed in on their way to the West Indies, carrying many European scientists and explorers. Lieutenant James Cook arrived on 12 September 1768 at the beginning of his first great circumnavigation, to take on fresh stores and 3023 gallons of madeira wine. In 1772 Charles Darwin visited the island several times, where he catalogued more animal species than he did in the Galapagos Islands.

During the Napoleonic wars, Madeira twice endured a benevolent occupation

The island and the wine it produces are part of the story of Europe’s great age of maritime expansion

OPPOSITE: Endeavour madeira, aged on board during tropical voyages, aged again and bottled in Madeira. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM

LEFT: Câmara de Lobos fishing harbour, Madeira island. Photographer R P C Silva, 2004



by British forces. The aim was to protect the island from French attacks, since it was a vital port for the English navy. The occupying force arrived in 1801, followed by a second occupation in 1807 that lasted until the end of the war with France.

In the 19th century Madeira was the leading market for madeira wine. However, after a double attack of mildew (Oidium tuckeri) in the 1850s and vine louse (Phylloxera vastatrix) during the 1870s, most of the wine firms went out

of business and madeira wine very nearly disappeared altogether. Fortunately during the next decade the pest problem was controlled, but port and sherry had already overtaken madeira in the wine market.

From the mid-19th century a process was developed that aimed to duplicate conditions on long sea voyages, and virtually all madeira wine since has been produced using this simulated process. Today four major types of Madeira are recognised, named according to the grape variety used. Ranging from the sweetest to the driest style they are: Malvasia (also known as Malmsey), Boal, Verdelho and Sercial.

Since James Cook had re-stocked his ships at Madeira at the start of his

voyages, the island was always going to be an important destination for the Endeavour replica during the years in which it voyaged the world, often retracing Cook’s steps. Under the command of Captain Chris Blake the Endeavour replica called into Madeira in December 2003. A cask of new madeira wine was taken on board to act as ballast … and to be heated as the ship crossed the equator.

Endeavour sailed around the Atlantic for almost 12 months, before returning the

cask to its island of origin for further storage and ageing in November 2004. This was at the beginning of the ship’s voyage back to Australia to be based at, and operated by, the Australian National Maritime Museum. At this time a second cask was taken on board. This second barrel stayed on board Endeavour until March this year when we shipped it back to Madeira, where it too will be aged and bottled at a future date.

The five-year-old wine from the first cask was recently bottled and sixty numbered bottles, with certificates, have now been forwarded to us in Sydney.

A comparative tasting of this first bottling of a very rare wine was held recently at the museum, attended by some serious wine enthusiasts including our wine

adviser and madeira expert Jon Osbeiston, director of Ultimo Wine Centre. The aim was to see whether the re-creation of the original ageing process of madeira wine, not used for over 150 years, had produced similar or better results than the simulated ageing process.

The result? We are convinced that we have produced a very fine and complex madeira that will give very great satisfaction. It’s not cheap, but a significant proportion of our first bottling was purchased immediately by our guests. Stand by for the announcement of our next Endeavour madeira tasting which we plan to hold later this year. If you can’t wait for that, we’ll sell you one of our handsome boxed bottles any time at all – price on application!

The time, the motion and the heat had turned the wine into something completely different, mellower and much more interesting

Assistant director Max Dingle (left) hosts guests at the museum’s first Endeavour madeira winetasting, in the Members lounge. Jon Obeiston of the Ultimo Wine Centre is at right. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM

Have some madeira, m’dearYou really have nothing to fearI’m not trying to tempt you, that wouldn’t be rightYou shouldn’t drink spirits at this time of nightHave some madeira, m’dearIt’s really much nicer than beerI don’t care for sherry, one cannot drink stoutAnd port is a wine I can well do withoutIt’s simply a case of chacun a son goutHave some madeira, m’dear

Have Some Madeira M’dear by M Flanders and D Swann

own skills base and bring valuable insight and knowledge to my work in the Fleet section at the Australian National Maritime Museum, which looks after the needs of the vessels in our historic fleet. In May 2008 I embarked on the journey that would take me to the USA’s leading maritime museum, prominent New England shipyards and renowned east-coast educational institutions.

My first port of call was the famous Mystic Seaport, also known by its trademark title of The Museum of America and the Sea. Set in the small Connecticut town of Mystic and founded in 1930, it is a living history museum consisting of a village, numerous historical vessels and 17 acres of exhibitions depicting coastal life in 19th-century New England. Mystic Seaport is

home to a collection of over 500 vessels ranging from rowboats and kayaks to schooners and tall ships. Here I would be working for a period of three weeks with a team of shipwrights on the restoration of the 1947 New England eastern-rig dragger, Roann.

Roann is one of the last surviving examples of the motorised trawling fishing vessels that replaced the great sailing schooners from which dorymen used to hand-line for cod and haddock. Started in 2004, this extensive restoration project is nearing completion. The vessel is now berthed alongside the museum’s Henry B DuPont Preservation Shipyard with only 25% of its original fabric remaining. I was quickly put to work assisting with the construction of the bulwark cap and fish rails. An essential

ANMM staff shipwright Matthew Dunn reports on his working and study tour to the heartland of heritage boating – Mystic Seaport and other key facilities of the US north-east coast – after winning a fellowship from the International Specialised Skills Institute.

Mysticthe mariner’s Mecca

IN JUNE 2007 I was awarded an International Specialised Skills Institute (ISS) fellowship funded by the Pratt Foundation, to study the conservation and restoration of timber vessels in the United States of America. The Melbourne-based Pratt Foundation is a well-known philanthropic organisation founded by Richard and Jean Pratt in 1978. The International Specialised Skills Institute is an independent national organisation that has, since 1989, provided opportunities for Australian industry and commerce to gain world-class skills and experience both in traditional and leading-edge technology, design, innovation and management.

By investigating the policy and practice of maritime conservation in the US context, it was my aim to enhance my

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, seen under the bows of its most famous heritage vessel, the 1841 whaling ship Charles W Morgan. Photography Matthew Dunn/Amanda King/ANMM

Page 37SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008


indulge in a spot of retail therapy at the numerous tool vendors.

My journey then took me an hour and a half north to the summer resort town of Newport, Rhode Island. Rhode Island is an area rich in boating history, and is home to some of the most highly-acclaimed boat yards and boatbuilders in New England. It is also home to the International Yacht Restoration School (IYRS). This not-for-profit institution prepares students for careers in the maritime industry and offers intensive programs in traditional boatbuilding and marine systems. As there are no formal apprenticeship programs in the United States for the boatbuilding industry, students rely on schools such as IYRS to

provide them with the necessary skills in order to enter the workforce as professional boatbuilders or shipwrights. Others gain expertise and life skills that serve them well in any profession.

The boatbuilding and restoration certificate is a 20-month program that covers subjects such as woodworking, hull shaping, lofting, joinery, spar making, historical documentation, surveying and assessment, drafting, project management, sailing and boat handling. Located on a 2.5-acre historic waterfront site in downtown Newport, the school allows students to learn their craft by restoring and returning historically

important vessels to the water. Part of my tour included a display of restored Beetle Cat dinghies that students were required to complete in their first year of study.

No self-respecting shipwright can take a trip to Rhode Island and not visit the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, dedicated to the memory of one of the great names in American yacht design and building, Captain Nathanael Greene Herreshoff. Here I was lucky enough to get a backstage tour of the model workshop that included over 500 half-block models of some of the yacht manufacturer’s most famous designs. Located on the site of the old Herreshoff boat yard, which operated from 1865 until 1945, the museum showcases the history

of the Herreshoff manufacturing company known worldwide for their cutting-edge yacht design. The museum displays a collection of original boats, steam engines, artefacts and photographs related to the Herreshoffs and is a must for anyone wanting to gain a greater appreciation of the company’s contribution to yacht design.

From Rhode Island I continued further north to Maine in order to attend The WoodenBoat School. Set on a 60-acre campus near Brooklyn the school – which is also the publisher of well-known titles such as Professional Boatbuilder and WoodenBoat magazine – offers courses

designed around the art of boatbuilding, seamanship, and related crafts. Hosting over 600 students every summer, the school’s programs range from skiff building and sail making to navigation and marine photography.

I was there to attend a six-day bronze casting course, a valuable skill in the shipwrighting industry and one that I hope I will be able to pass on to others in the profession. The course covered all aspects of pattern making and casting as well as setting up your own small foundry with an efficient but inexpensive propane-powered furnace. Both the facilities and location of the school were exceptional and students were given full use of the school’s fleet of vessels – the perfect way to explore the beautiful bays and inlets of the area. Here I was finally able to sail one of the fine Herreshoff dinghies I had previously admired at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.

My time spent in the north-eastern coastal states of the USA allowed me to form solid friendships and working relationships with my American colleagues. This has allowed me to establish a valuable network of maritime professionals that will result in continued information exchange between our continents. The ISS fellowship can only be described as an amazing opportunity that has enabled me to gain valuable knowledge in my ongoing study of vessel restoration, conservation, shipwrighting and boatbuilding. These are skills that I hope to transfer to other artesans and apprentices at the Australian National Maritime Museum, and to other professionals in the traditional and wooden boat community of Australia.

TOP LEFT: Some of the 500 half-block models at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.

CENTRE LEFT: Display of restored Beetle Cat sailing dinghies at the International Yacht Restoration School, Newport, Rhode Island.

BOTTOM LEFT: Small craft belonging to the Wooden Boat School in picturesque Brooklyn, Maine.

RIGHT: Looking back at the Mystic Seaport workshop facilities from the bow of the classic trawler Roann, undergoing restoration.

FAR RIGHT: The author learns bronze casting at the Wooden Boat School, Brooklyn, Maine

element of a commercial fishing vessel of this type, these rails consist of a large 17-foot (5.18 metre) length of white oak. The project was the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the shipyard’s impressive facilities including the museum’s own onsite mill where I worked on a band saw shaping and sizing the rail timbers.

Restoration on Roann is expected to take another five months before work begins on the museum’s next major restoration project, the Charles W Morgan. This 1841 timber square-rigger is the last remaining whaling ship from the great days of sail. Narrowly avoiding destruction during World War II, the ship arrived at Mystic Seaport in 1941 and is now a national historic landmark. There’s a close connection with it at the Australian National Maritime Museum: the whaleboat on display in our USA Gallery, crewed by those graphic white mannequins, is a replica of one of the Charles W Morgan whaleboats and was provided to us by Mystic Seaport.

Luckily I wasn’t confined to land for my whole stay in Mystic: the museum generously organised for me to sail on Long Island Sound on their famous 62-foot (19 metre) schooner Brilliant. This is an amazingly beautiful vessel well-deserving of its reputation as one of the best maintained classic yachts in the country – if not the world. My visit to Mystic was also timed to coincide with the 17th Annual Wooden Boat Show, held at the seaport. This event provided the perfect opportunity to meet with a large cross-section of the maritime industry, attend various seminars and, as the Australian dollar was so strong,

The journey would take me to the USA’s leading maritime museum, prominent east-coast shipyards and boatbuilding schools

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THIS MUSEUM has always had a strong relationship with regional museums and organisations. We believe that collaboration across Australia is the key to productive programs and better management of maritime historical collections. This has always been the case, even before we opened in 1991. Both the first director, Kevin Fewster, and I had first-hand working ties with regional history communities before coming to the ANMM in the late 1980s. Kevin had founded the South Australian Maritime Museum and I ran a state-wide program of museum advisory services in New South Wales. And there several other staff here who have worked in small communities or with mainly volunteer groups involved in maritime heritage-related research.

Connecting with a range of communities was, in some ways, a natural response to being a new museum with a developing collection. We have needed established interest groups, specialist history communities and museums to help us build the National Maritime Collection. We set out to work in harmony with them, building networks, sharing experiences and collaborating on projects to develop the range of skills that ANMM now has. Before the museum opened we advocated the establishment of an Australian Maritime Museums Council (AMMC) within the national peak body, Museums Australia, to include maritime museums of all sizes, budgets and operations in every state. Together we have discussed issues

of common concern such as the management and care of historic maritime material and vessels.

In the first few years after opening in 1991, our prime focus was settling into the new museum site in Darling Harbour and developing a range of services, exhibitions and public programs. Nevertheless our interstate and regional connections continued to grow in the 1990s. Through discussions with colleagues at AMMC it became apparent that smaller, community-based maritime museums needed access to project funds and to a network of specialists who could help them with their collections. We approached the Commonwealth department that funds national institutions like us and invited them to partner us in setting up a grant program, the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme – better known as MMAPSS. The department – now known as Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts – has maintained the Commonwealth’s commitment to the grant program and it continues to grow.

Since it began in 1995 MMAPSS has funded 162 projects in 72 maritime museums around the entire Australian coastline (and up rivers, and on offshore island territories too!) While the grants primarily focus on the care and interpretation of maritime material this isn’t always the case. One of our early applicants from a remote Bass Strait island said it wasn’t much use looking after museum material if they couldn’t get electricity connected to the building. Fair point, we thought; you can’t work in the

dark! We gave them a grant to help install a generator, happy that one small maritime museum could turn on the lights with our help.

As the MMAPSS programs helped us get to know our regional colleagues better, we learned that one of the things they wanted most was to acquire more skills and get access to trained museum staff. So in 2000 we set up an internship program to help workers travel to Sydney for a two-to-four week stay, meet and work alongside their colleagues, develop skills and extend their network of contacts. So far we’ve had 15 people from all states – including far-flung places like Broome, Cairns, Port Broughton, Flinders and Lord Howe Islands. To extend the reach of the program we’ve also connected communities with their respective state museums. In 2005 we approached the Western Australian Museum to take an intern from Carnarvon to work on education programs. We helped with travel expenses and our colleagues in Perth arranged the training schedule.

The internship program has gone even better than I expected. Through it we’ve developed very good contacts with a wide range of people from small museums and regional areas who normally have little contact with other professionals. They get to know us well enough to get on the phone or contact us by email for advice. Much of the credit for this program really goes to ANMM staff who have given very generously of their time and knowledge and go out of their way to teach, listen and encourage. Visiting interns commonly comment that the relationships they made here were as valuable as the skills they learned.

In the last few years we’ve added considerably to our range of outreach services. We set up a series of travelling exhibitions under the Sail Away banner, and several exhibitions are on the road at any one time. Some are designed to be robust and small enough to travel to places that don’t have a perfect museum environment for displaying sensitive heritage material. We also send out larger shows with more fragile items, often supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Visions of Australia touring exhibitions’ program, usually to regional cities. Some of these travelling exhibitions were developed in collaboration with other museums such as the South Australian Maritime Museum.

Another important link to communities is the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, which we launched in February 2007. Still in its early stages, this online register has attracted

the attention of museums, clubs, associations and individuals throughout the country. Working with colleagues from the Sydney Heritage Fleet, the Western Australian Maritime Museum and museums in other states, we now have over 200 vessels online. The register has a national council comprising respected people from commercial, yachting, naval and museum backgrounds who provide us with advice. It’s already building a vivid, rich picture of heritage vessels of all types in Australia, and collecting stories and histories of the people involved. We’re developing guidelines for the care and maintenance of heritage craft that will become available online.

The flagship of ANMM’s outreach program, and the one with the highest profile outside Sydney, is the replica of James

Outreach a national conversation

Director Mary-Louise Williams has watched this museum grow for 20 years, and has fostered its role of leadership and support for maritime heritage in communities around the nation. She explains the importance of outreach programs.

OPPOSITE: Robyn Williams (centre), director of the Lady Denman Heritage Complex at Huskisson, NSW, studied a number of museum operations during her 2008 internship at ANMM, including merchandising with the staff of the museum’s retail outlet The Store.

BELOW: On-line Australian Register of Historic Vessels.

Smaller, community-based maritime museums need access to project funds and to a network of specialists who can help

Cook’s HMB Endeavour which we took on in 2005. Each year the ship sails to ports around Australia. So far we’ve covered the eastern states, Melbourne, Hobart, Newcastle and Brisbane. Our most ambitious voyage is on the drawing board with a round-Australia trip planned for 2010. The costs involved in long sea voyages are considerable and, although we get strong support from local ports, communities and schools, we need financial help from business and individuals to ensure that even remote places around the coast are reachable.

Our public research facility the Vaughan Evans Library has long been regarded as one of the best sources of information of its type anywhere. Our librarians report an increase in requests for assistance and sustaining this volume of work will be a

challenge for us in the future. But as the librarians continue to get more research resources online, it reminds us that our connections with regional Australia and other countries are also growing dramatically through our website. Since its opening ANMM has responded to

requests for advice and assistance, and has been closely involved with the development of new museums and emerging projects. As online information channels fly ever-faster, these connections are increasing by the day as we respond to more and more requests for help and collaboration.

Building outreach programs, and developing dialogues with regional and international communities, are things that are expected of us as a national, Commonwealth-funded museum. It’s a bigger part of our work than most people would imagine and most of it is not obvious to the average visitor to our Darling Harbour site. The challenge for us is to keep up with new and widening channels of connection, and to make sure that we have the resources and strategies to sustain them.


before she was able to return to Australia. To date Kamal has not gone back, primarily because he was forced to burn a lot of bridges in the country while planning for his family’s escape. However, he recently applied to return for a visit and a court case in Iran will determine whether or not he is allowed into the country.

It is a source of pride to Kamal and Nina that they have been able to give something back to Australia by employing a wide variety of employees in their stores over the last 25 years, and that they ‘haven’t taken a cent from the Australian government’. Their names were engraved on the Welcome Wall at the most recent unveiling ceremony on 18 May, at which Kamal spoke about the incredible journey undertaken by his family in coming to Australia.

Family’s flight from Iran

The museum’s tribute to migrants, The Welcome Wall, encourages people to recall and record their stories of coming to live in Australia.

Twenty-six years ago ‘a chance for a better life’ in Australia inspired Kamal and Nina Dastyari to escape from their homeland Iran, via Turkey, with their two young children. Welcome Wall manager Helen Jones spoke to them about their journey.

ON 8 AUGUST 1982 Kamal and Nina Dastyari and their two children, daughter Banafsheh and son Behzad, landed at Sydney airport having fled their country of origin, Iran. Life in their homeland had become unbearable since the Iranian revolution of 1979, which installed an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini. Despite the great risks they would have to take to plan an escape, and the thought of leaving family and friends weighing heavily upon them, Kamal and Nina finally decided to pursue a better life elsewhere.

But where would they go? Nina didn’t want to move to England, and nor did Kamal want to move to America. By chance a friend of Nina’s saw that the Australian embassy was looking for nurses and, as Nina was a nurse, she decided to apply. It was only when she got a second interview that she and Kamal began to think seriously about moving to Australia. They knew very little about this country on the other side of the world, but in the end it seemed to be a good compromise.

Kamal took numerous risks to secure the documents they would need for their escape, as well as an escort. When the time came, they were led on a journey fraught with danger and stress

through the mountains and into Turkey, where they were held in detention for a time. Finally, though, and with the help of the Australian Embassy in Turkey, the Dastyaris obtained passports to Australia.

On their arrival in Sydney, the Dastyaris faced a swift and surprising education in Australian cultural life. Their first night, on the recommendation of an agent at Sydney airport, was spent in a hotel in Kings Cross, in the heart of the red light district.

The next day, having quickly relocated to Bondi, they were stunned by the sight of masses of people wandering around in singlets and shorts in the middle of winter. As it turned out the City-to-Surf fun run was on! In these first few weeks, Nina also recalls her surprise at the outfits worn by Sydney bus drivers – shorts and long socks was a fashion she had certainly not encountered before!

eventually overcame this hurdle and was employed as a nursing educator at Manly Hospital.

Kamal, however, struggled to find a job within his field of chartered accounting. After three months, a chance meeting with some Iranian entrepreneurs looking to invest in Australian agriculture led him to a job on a farm in Northern Queensland. But eight months later, with floods having destroyed their crop, he returned to Sydney. Kamal then decided to go into business for himself, and took over an Angus and Robertson bookstore franchise in Northpoint Shopping Centre. In another risky move, he took over a second store in a better position in North Sydney. This was to be the start of a very successful enterprise, and within ten years the Dastyaris had created a $3 million business and eventually owned five stores.

The Dastyaris have made the most of life in their new home, but Kamal and Nina are very proud of their Iranian heritage. They still celebrate the Iranian New Year, with all the generations enjoying traditional food, and on the second Friday of every month they host a group of about 30 people at their house to discuss a broad range of topics such as Iranian literature, history, alternative medicine, love, death and current events, all in Farsi.

Though some of the second generation are reluctant to participate in Iranian customs, their daughter, Banafsheh, insisted on having a traditional Iranian wedding.

Taking advantage of the Hawke Labor government’s family reunion policy, Kamal and Nina sponsored their family members to come out to Australia. Kamal’s family decided to stay, but after a short time Nina’s mother, father and sister moved back to Iran. When Nina returned to Iran to visit them about 15 years ago, her passport was confiscated at the airport and she spent four anxious weeks attempting to get it back

When the time came, they were led on a journey fraught with danger and stress through the mountains and into Turkey

Despite these culture shocks, Nina in particular was taken with Sydney’s natural beauty and she and Kamal quickly focused on their priorities – to settle their children, find a place to live and get a job. They found a secure unit in North Sydney and a school for the children, soon discovering that both Behzad and Banafsheh were advanced compared to Australian kids of the same age. Behzad was top of the school in maths at the end of their first year. The matter of finding a job was rather more difficult. Nina’s masters degree in nursing from an American university wasn’t recognised by the Nurses’ Association, but she

It costs just $105 to register a name and honour your family’s arrival in this great country! We’d love to add your family’s name to the Welcome Wall, cast in bronze, and your story to the online database at www.anmm.gov.au/ww. So please don’t hesitate to call Helen Jones during business hours with any enquiries regarding the project on 02 9298 3777.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

The family in Tehran, 1980: Kamal (rear), Behzad, Nina and Banafsheh

Family celebrations safe in Sydney, 1982

Kamal Dastyari speaking at the Welcome Wall unveiling ceremony on 18 May

Daughter Banafsheh’s book Under a Starless Sky (Hachette, Sydney 2008), tells of her family’s escape from Iran


CURRENTS1000 naval college visitsON MONDAY 21 July the Australian National Maritime Museum welcomed its 1000th visitor under a special program designed to give RAN officer trainees insight into naval history and heritage. The buzzer sounded as Bernard Hollis, of Cairns, was recognised as the 1000th Initial Entry Officer through the turnstiles, and he received a commemorative package of museum publications and souvenirs from the museum director, Mary-Louise Williams.

Officer trainees from the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay have been visiting the museum annually since 1991

to board and inspect the museum’s Daring class destroyer HMAS Vampire (served 1959 to 1986), its Oberon class submarine HMAS Onslow (1969–99) and Attack class patrol boat HMAS Advance (1968–88).

(While the vessels are all decommissioned, the museum still refers to them using the commissioned descriptor ‘Her Majesty’s Australian Ship’ to identify their historical importance as one-time ships of the Royal Australian Navy. The museum also has the dispensation to fly the RAN White Ensign from Vampire, normally a privilege accorded only to commissioned naval vessels.)

COMING SOON to Canberra is a gathering of fine ship models and talented ship modellers, assembling for what has become an annual exposition of the art of ship model making. The Canberra Model Shipwrights Society Inc began holding their Expos shortly after inaugurating in 1988 and the last two years have been regarded as particularly successful. In 2006 over 50 models were exhibited and in 2007 that increased to 75.

Expo 2008 on the weekend of 11–12 October 2008 is expected to be the greatest so far. As that is the last weekend of Floriade, Canberra’s annual spring floral festival,

Commander missing in actionThe caption for the photograph of the museum’s patrol boat HMAS Advance and the line-up of its former commanders on pages 18–19 of the last edition of Signals, in the story ‘Happy birthday Advance’, omitted to name CDRE Brian Robertson am. CDRE Robertson, who commanded HMAS Advance in 1976–77, is second from the right.

Mary Reiby’s Mercury was not the first ship built in Port JacksonThe article ‘The magic of the miniature’ by ANMM volunteer and ship model maker

Richard Keyes (pages 34–37, Signals No 83) contained statements to the effect that the model known as the ‘Schooner for Port Jackson’ was believed to represent the first ship built in the colony, and was named Mercury. This is not correct, as noted by a number of readers; it overlooks the Francis and various other craft. The sentences in question did not appear as they were written by the article’s author, but were the result of sub-editing during production of the article. Readers can look forward to an authoritative account of early shipbuilding in the Australian colony in a future edition of Signals.

Royal Australian Naval College trainees also take a close look at the museum’s Navy exhibition during their visit to the museum. On the same visit to Sydney they inspect the RAN Heritage Centre (Garden Island), the Navy’s historical collection on Spectacle Island and other Navy heritage sites.

The Australian National Maritime Museum inspections have been co-ordinated each year by museum volunteer Alfred Knight. After Ms Williams made her presentation Lieutenant Berandon Ikimau, a divisional officer at the college, presented a college plaque to the museum.

LEFT: RAN officer trainee Bernard Hollis, 1000th to visit Vampire and Onslow. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM

Errata Signals No 83 June–August 2008

there’s added incentive for out-of-town model enthusiasts to make the pilgrimage to the Australian Capital Territory. A number of ship modellers whose work is displayed at the Australian National Maritime Museum are expected to participate, including volunteer Richard Keyes (‘The magic of the miniature’, Signals No 83) and master modeller Wayne Masters, formerly of the Australian War Memorial, who will be giving demonstrations of aspects of model making.

Canberra Model Shipwrights Society Expo 2008 will be held at the Mount Rogers Primary School, Alfred Hill Drive, Melba

ACT, from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Entry is only $2.00 per adult, $1.00 for children over 16 and $5.00 per family. Details of set-up times for exhibitors can be obtained from Expo coordinator Robine Polache on 0410 592 562. Non-members are welcome to exhibit their models and should contact the society’s president Bob Evans (0418 437 793) or vice-president David Peterson (0409 310 452).

LEFT TO RIGHT: Models displayed at Canberra Expo 2007: Flattie, by Arnold Mueller; tug Sanson by Peter Harvey; San Jose by David Perryman. Photograph James Allen.

Even more models – Expo 2008

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The popular ABC TV show The Collectors came to the museum and filmed extensively, using the Tasman Light gallery as the set for its presenters over two evenings of the show’s screening, Friday 4 and Friday 11 July 2008. Ranging widely over a variety of maritime-themed topics, the show was a wonderful promotion for the attractive toy boats of our current exhibition Bateaux Jouets – toy boats from Paris 1850–1950. Shown here (LEFT to RIGHT) are panelists Professor Adrian Franklin, Gordon Brown, Niccole Warren and host Andy Muirhead. Photographer A Frolows/ANMM


AS YOU PEER into your next glass of James Squire Amber Ale – brewed by our sponsor Malt Shovel Brewery – pause for a moment to think about the man behind those flavoursome bubbles. James Squire, former highwayman and innkeeper, was transported in the First Fleet for stealing his neighbour’s poultry. He arrived on the transport Charlotte (depicted on our newest acquisition The Charlotte Medal – story page 10) in company with the medal’s reputed engraver, the ill-fated mutineer and forger Thomas Barrett who was the first man hanged in the colony.

Squire couldn’t keep out of trouble either. A year after his arrival, he was sentenced to 300 lashes for stealing a herb that imitated the bitter flavour of hops – it’s said he got off lightly because he had been supplying beer to senior officers! After he was emancipated he

began brewing beer officially in 1794 on a land grant at Kissing Point (now Ryde), and in 1805 was the first to successfully cultivate hops in Australia. His popular Malting Shovel Tavern opened on the banks of the Parramatta River, serving thirsty river passengers. Squire was also a baker, farmer, a district constable and a popular philanthropist who fathered many children by a number of women. He died in 1822 one of the richest men in Australia.

The Malt Shovel Brewery, based in Camperdown in inner Sydney, was opened in 1998 by the experienced brewer and beer enthusiast Chuck Hahn, to honour and continue the tradition of Australia’s first brewer. Hahn and his team are passionate about what they do and are among Australia’s finest brewers of flavoursome handcrafted beers. Keen to promote their products’ history and educate customers about the flavours, textures and aromas of their beers, Hahn has been a generous sponsor of the museum since

2003. He provides his boutique beers for museum functions and offers museum Members and their guests an annual tour of the Malt Shovel Brewery, with its traditional German copper kettles.

On the tours Members try a spectrum of James Squire ales, pilseners and porters – and the foods that go best with them – while they learn about the differing characteristics and qualities of the range, and the products and processes that go into the fermentation and brewing. It opens drinkers up to a whole new world of food and beer-matching – far beyond the traditional beer and pie at the footy!

The Malt Shovel Brewery is located at 99 Pyrmont Bridge Road, Camperdown NSW 2050. Visit their flash website www.james-squire.com.au and join the James Squire Beer Club for special offers, invitations to beer tastings and a regular newsletter.

Sally Denmead

SPONSORSMuseum sponsorsPrincipal sponsor

ANZAustralianCustomsService StateForestofNSW

Major sponsorsAkzoNobel Blackmores LtdRaytheon Australia Pty LtdTenixPtyLtd

SponsorsAustralianMaritimeSafetyAuthorityAbloySecurityBillandJeanLaneBT AustralasiaCentenary of FederationInstitutionofEngineersAustraliaLouisVuittonSpeedoAustraliaWallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics

Project sponsorsABLOYAustraliaCathay Pacific CargoCSIROForrest TrainingHarboursideDarlingHarbour ‘K’LineLloyd’sRegisterAsia MCSMaritimeUnionofAustraliaMaxwellOpticalIndustries MediterraneanShippingCompanyMercantile Mutual Holdings PatrickPenrithLakesDevelopmentCorpPhilips Electronics AustraliaSBSScandinavianAirlinesShellCompaniesinAustraliaSpecificFreightSydneybySailVisionsofAustralia–CommonwealthGovtVincentFairfaxFamilyFoundation

Founding patronsAlcatel AustraliaANL LimitedAnsett AirfreightBovis Lend LeaseBP AustraliaBruce&JoyReidFoundationDoyle’sSeafoodRestaurantHowardSmithLimitedJamesHardieIndustriesPG,TG&MGKailisNational Australia BankP&ONedlloydTelstraWestpac Banking CorporationWallenius Wilhelmsen LogisticsZimShippingAustralasia

DonorsGrant Pirrie GalleryStateStreetAustralia

Admiral MembershipsAbloySecurityPtyLtd

CHAMP Pty Ltd

Leighton Holdings

Commodore MembershipsHapag Lloyd (Australia) P/L

Trace Personnel

Captain MembershipsArtExhibitionsAustraliaLtd

AsiaworldShippingServicesPtyLtd

AustraliaJapanCableLtd

DSTOAeronautical&ResearchLaboratory

FerrisSkrzynski&AssociatesP/L

HMASAlbatross Welfare Fund

HMASCreswell

HMASKuttabul

HMASNewcastle

HMASVampire Association

HMASWaterhen

HMASWatson Welfare Fund

MaritimeWorkersofAustraliaCreditUnion

MaritimeUnionofAustralia(NSWBranch)

MaruschkaLoupis&Associates

MiddleHarbourYachtClub

Naval Association of Australia

Canterbury-BankstownSubSection

PenrithReturnedServicesLeague

Pivod Technologies Pty Ltd

RoyalCaribbean&CelebrityCruises

SMERegimentalTrustFund

SvitzerAustralasia

SydneyPilotServicePtyLtd

ThalesUnderwaterSystemsP/L

ZimShippingAustralasia

Corporate Members of the museum

James Squire – hops and history Museum vessels to benefit from new sponsorWE ARE delighted to welcome our new sponsorship partner Defence Maritime Services (DMS), incorporated in 1997 and now the largest such company in Australia. Their many areas of outstanding expertise include fleet operations, vessel and port services, marine systems support, vessel building and modification, maritime project management and maritime training.

In the decade since its inception, DMS has cultivated a solid reputation for consistently outstanding service excellence to the maritime industry. It maintains a close working relationship with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Customs Service and is a key partner with the Australian Defence Force. So we are in very good company!

All of this makes DMS a natural, logical and perfect partner for ANMM. DMS has generously agreed to in-kind support for the museum in three main areas: provision of tugs and workboats for moving museum vessels; specialist advice in naval architecture and maritime engineering; and provision of qualified masters and crew (such as tug masters), for museum vessels.

DMS is willing to share with us its substantial knowledge, deep understanding and experience of the naval and commercial maritime industry and has pledged to help the museum at all levels in dealing with both the maritime industry and government.

Museum director Mary-Louise Williams signs the new sponsorship agreement with managing director of Defence Maritime Services Pty Limited, Mr Greg Hodge. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM

Members on tour at the Malt Shovel Brewery. Brewer Chuck Hahn is at centre, in front of the traditional copper kettle. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM


From the director Mary-Louise Williams

ONE OF THE leading essays in this issue of Signals tells the fascinating story of our most recent acquisition, The Charlotte Medal – really one of the most exciting additions to the National Maritime Collection in quite some time. It’s shown on the front cover, with its rare depiction of a First Fleet ship, the transport Charlotte. You can read all about this small but very important piece of Australiana, a relic of the very beginnings of European settlement – and perhaps the earliest art work made in the colony – starting on page 11.

I think it’s fair to say that the museum took a bold and determined stand in successfully bidding for this national treasure at auction in Melbourne in July, at very short notice. It wasn’t easy, and the reason is the ever-escalating prices being paid for important, historically significant artworks and artefacts, especially if compared with the market as it was when the museum first began collecting in the 1980s. With so many calls on finite budgets we manage our collections allocation by putting money aside for high-quality material that comes up from time to time. Even so, we have faced the frustration at times of being outbid by private collectors or indeed by larger institutions. In this case we quickly secured support from our governing council, and successfully applied for additional funding from the Commonwealth’s National Cultural Heritage Account.

It was a nail-biting time but when the hammer fell The Charlotte Medal had been secured for our national collection, publicly

accessible and secure for all time from the threat of disappearing into a private collection or, worse still, overseas. Certainly a win for Australian heritage. In a final fascinating postscript, we learned that a forebear of the museum’s chairman, Peter Sinclair, was on board Charlotte working as an assistant to the First Fleet’s Surgeon-General John White who is believed to have commissioned the medal to record the ship’s arrival in Botany Bay on 20 January 1788.

THE PHOTOGRAPH on this page serves as a reminder that the museum shows a keen commitment to environmental issues affecting the marine world, and to its natural history as well. We were very pleased to host the International Fund for Animal Welfare on National Whale Day,14 June 2008, and to partner them, as we have in the past, in offering whale watching cruises to our Members and visitors. Looking back over the years we’re proud to have imported some very important international exhibitions on environmental and natural history topics. Whales – giants of the deep brought the spectacular, life-sized animatronic display of cetaceans from the Pacific Science Centre, Seattle, and Ocean Planet from the Smithsonian Institution canvassed a whole host of important ecological issues. And last year’s exhibition Jellyfish – nature inspires art developed by our own staff took an unusual slant on an unusual topic.

ON A SAD NOTE we regret the loss Captain Bruce Hitchman, master and first mate on Sydney Heritage Fleet’s restored barque James Craig, after a tragic accident at his home in Fairlight in June. Captain Hitchman was very well respected for his seamanship and his service to maritime heritage. A memorial farewell was held at Manly Yacht Club. Our sympathies are extended to his widow Nanette and daughters Kylie and Sally.

The museum took a bold and determined stand in bidding for this national treasure

The Federal minister with responsibility for the Australian National Maritime Museum, Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett, joined director Mary-Louise Williams at the museum on the occasion of National Whale Day when the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) set up their spectacular inflatable humpbacks on our forecourt. Photographer J Mellefont/ANMM

SIGNALS 84 September–November 2008

Online shopping now available safely and securely atwww.anmm.gov.au ... click on SHOP. Hundreds of books … something for everyone … from key rings to shipmodels and boating clothes … friendly service … mail order … Members discounts!

We’re open 9.30 am to 5.00 pm seven days a week. To contact our helpful staff phone 02 9298 3698 or fax orders to 02 9298 3675 or email [email protected]

Steam tin tug boat $18.90 Members $17.00 Tin toy flying boat $20.00 Members $18.00

Check, mate! Russian navy chess set $120.00 Members $108.00

Great White Fleet can cooler $10, tile $22, mug $15 (Members $9, $19.80,$13.50)

Trash or Treasure? Swedish horse $35 Members $31.50 Viking snow dome $20 Members $18

Tie land – signal flags, map of discovery and Bayeux tapestry. $79.95 Members $71.95

Tin toy duck on trike $25 Members $22.50 Sailor carousel $18 Members $16.20

Boxed brass sextant, 5 ,̋ the perfect corporate gift $99.95 Members $89.95

HMAS Sydney (II) limited edition mini-model $199.95 no discount

Replicas of RAN ships’ badges mounted on wall plaques Vampire or Onslow $69.95 Members $62.95

Esquisite enamelled lighthouse pill box$69.95 Members $62.95

Fly the flag with White Ensign cuff link, tie clip set $49.95 Members $44.95

Monogrammed ANMM leather document satchel $99.95 SPECIAL OFFER Members $60.00


The Museum

Open daily except Christmas Day 9.30 am to 5.00 pm (January to 6.00 pm)Darling Harbour, Sydney NSW Australia Phone 02 9298 3777 Facsimile 02 9298 3780

ANMM Council

Chairman Mr Peter Sinclair am csc

Director Ms Mary-Louise Williams

CouncillorsCdre S Gilmore csc am ran Ms Gaye Hart am Emeritus Professor John Penrose Mr John Rothwell ao Mr Neville Stevens ao Dr Andrew Sutherland Mrs Nerolie Withnall

Signals ISSN1033-4688

Editorial productionEditor Jeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647Assistant editor Sally Denmead

PhotographyStaff photographer Andrew Frolows

Design & productionJeremy Austen, Austen Kaupe

PrinterPrinted in Australia by Blue Star Print group

Advertising enquiriesJeffrey Mellefont 02 9298 3647 Deadline end of January, April, July, October for issues March, June, September, December

Signals back issues

The museum sells a selection of back issues of Signals. Back issues $4.00, 10 back issues $30.00. Extra copies of current issue $4.95. Call Matt Lee at The Store 02 9298 3698

Material from Signals may be reproduced only with the editor’s permission 02 9298 3647.

The Australian National Maritime Museum is a statutory authority of the Commonwealth Government. For more information contact us at:

GPO Box 5131 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia

ANMM on the web www.anmm.gov.au

Signals, Issue 84

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Transcript of Signals, Issue 84