Like Poncho, Like Pimple

 After watching the rebellion of James T. Kirk in the recently released epic film Star Trek I got to thinking about the pressure of following in the footsteps of one’s parents, especially a parent like George Kirk, who in an alternate reality, served as captain of the Kelvin for a mere 12 minutes yet saved over 800 souls. Don’t stop reading- I promise to not reference Star Trek again in this blog. The idea I am trying to introduce here is the desire to continue one’s family legacy and birthright through an occupation. Consider this; a legitimate reason for enlisting in the armed services today is to consolidate and continue the family tradition. Like father, like son, as the old adage goes.  Wandering around the Australian National Maritime Museum I saw this paradigm play out in front of my eyes via an exhibit on display. Yes, that’s right. You’ve guessed it. Sons and grandsons carrying on the naval tradition as clown entertainers onboard passenger liners.

Doubling as a theatre duo and husband and wife, Harold Tanner and Marcelle Rose boarded ships using the stage names of Poncho and Bubbles.  The exhibit label informs the audience that Poncho was always interested in clowns and magic and his father performed as a clown under the nom de plume Poncho also. The exhibit included an array of paraphernalia such as posters and performance memorablia, not limited to a rubber chicken. 

In 1961 the couple bore a son, Clive, and at six years of age he developed an alter ego; Pimple. We have all heard of stage parents, but isn’t this taking it a little too far? At the age of fifteen Cli…ergh Pimple began to perform on passenger ships with his parents. The tradition did not stop with that little facial spot; Poncho and Bubbles also have two performing grandchildren- Freckle and Dimple. 

Sadly Poncho passed away in April of 2000 but Bubbles still performs. I decided to test this out and to my surprise I found a website offering the services of the novelty clowns Poncho, Bubbles and Pimple.   This is indicative of a successful career spanning over fifty years.

Krusty the Klown eat your heart out.

 

The Maritime as a collection of curiosities

As a volunteer intern at the Australian National Maritime Museum it has come to my attention that museum personnel are inherently just as fascinating and enigmatic as the objects which are kept and displayed in the exhibits.   In my quest to find a suitable artifact in the Maritime to be the focus of this blog, I encountered an entertaining and unsuspecting specimen in the form of a security guard. He has often regaled me with comical anecdotes as I’ve passed him on my way to lunch from time to time and as such I was pleasantly surprised to find a familiar face wandering around the galleries. My questions about any ‘curious’ objects left him pondering for a moment or two before he proceeded to detail to me a rumour he had heard concerning a display statue outside the ‘Passengers’ exhibit. The statue is a depiction of a young boy seated amongst travel baggage grasping a teddy bear.   

Museum labels inform me that children were commonly passengers on sea vessels. They travelled via ship to Australia with their families, at times to grasp the new working opportunities the country had to offer, other times to seek refuge. Children were also known to travel on their own, as part of the British scheme to populate the newly colonized country.    

 The security guard divulges to me that two former security guards of the museum swore they saw the spirit of the child walking along the platform adjacent to where the statue is situated. Night at the Museum eat your heart out. They have not since returned to the museum, he adds for further emphasis. Distinctive of many urban legends, a precise date is not specified and the witnesses of the specter are not identified by name.

 He does not cease there. On his first 3am shift following the revelation of what transpired in the after hours of the museum, the elevator proceeded to run on its own. No buttons were pressed and no one else was in the building. Upon being asked if he was ‘spooked out’ he chuckled and reported the elevator had been known for working in mysterious ways for some time.

 Thanking him for his input and preparing to move on he appeared to have had an epiphany; his eyes became focused as he insisted that he show me the wild animals that secretly frequent the museum. He explained that he is about to tell me the story he tells the adolescent patrons of the museum. I am led to a gallery with a large, wharf crane holding wooden crates in suspension by a roped net. This crane is characteristic of the ones used to move catches of fish along the Victorian coastline during the early 20^th century. I am instructed to stand directly beneath it.  I do as I am told.

 “Now look to your left.”

Adjacent to the crane, atop more wooden crates and ropes is a small rat. The guard explains that once a person is standing right underneath the target, Mr. Rat gnaws at the rope in the hope of breaking free the cargo. However this is not a one rat job. He has an accomplice, in the form of a small pigeon that is perched on the other side of the exhibit, a la Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. He acts as a scout and helps finish off the job by flying about the undoubtedly dazed victim.

I am told that in the beginning there was also a mouse involved. Must’ve been quite a trick- some trio. I suggest possibly it was the mouse that enticed the unsuspecting victim under the trap. My input delighted the security guard and he agreed that it was indeed plausible. Unfortunately however the mouse went missing, although I promised to keep an eye out for him during my wanderings through the museum.

 The exchange ended with him recounting a talk he had in 2008 with young pilgrims who were visitors to the museum during World Youth Week. Seeing the Southern Cross portrayed on the ceiling along with the other constellations they exclaimed that they were in a blessed place. I put it to you that they were quite correct. The Australian National Maritime Museum is indeed fortunate to employ such animated staff, like my friend the security guard, with a fervency to evoke the imaginations of the patrons with the products and the vividness of his own. He, and others like him, are valuable contributions to the aura of the museum.

 

Walking back to the office in Wharf7 I glance at the artefacts on exhibit in the Sydney Heritage Fleet Artefact Store, opposite the Conservatory Laboratory. What do you know? There is a little mouse in the display. 

 

Funny that. I’ve never taken much notice of him before.

Melissa Grima

 

On and off the HMVS Cerberus

My name’s Dave Earl and, as reported in my last post, I’ve been busy researching the museum’s collection of naval small arms.

One of the attractions of this project has been following the lives and careers of the seamen who owned used the objects I’ve been examining. Scattered amongst drier details of calibres, dates, and manufacturers are stories, details of past lives.
One interesting example is found in the service records of Lieutenant Commander Thomas Edward Mullins. Mullins served as a Sick Berth Steward on the HMAS Sydney (I) when it engaged with the German light cruiser SMS Emden in November 1914. During and after this battle, Australia’s first as a federated nation, Mullins “constantly attended [the] sick and wounded uninterruptedly for 6 days, including terribly severe cases which were received from SMS Emden.” As a result of his actions, Mullins was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for , one of only 17 issued to Australians during the First World War.

Crew From the HMAS Sydney celebrating on the Cocos Islands. Australian War Memorial P00565.018.

Eight years later, in July 1922, Mullins was promoted to the rank of Warrant Wardmaster. It is likely that a sword held by the museum, engraved with the text “THOMAS E MULLINS” and “PRESENTED BY S. B. STAFF / ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY / 1922″ commemorates his promotion. Eventually, in 1957, Mullins achieved the rank of Wardmaster Lieutenant Commander on the retired list.

Naval officer's sword presented to Thomas Mullins on his promotion in 1922. ANMM 00031676

Known to me as Lieutenant Commander Mullins D. S. O. through the museums records, I had imagined him as being a stately sort of naval gentleman. It was something of a surprise, when, browsing through his service records, I found that, when Mullins first enlisted in 1912 he was described as having “coiled snakes [tattooed] round neck—various figures and floral designs on arms R + L, butterfly on left leg, [butterfly on] each shoulder”

Thomas Edward Mullin's tattoos, as described on his service record, held at the National Archives of Australia.

The service records of the sailors I have encountered reveal that many would have crossed paths during their duties. Mullins is one of several sidearm-owners who served on or were associated with the pride of the Victorian Colonial Navy, the HMVS (later HMAS) Cerberus. The Cerberus was launched in 1868 at the Chatham Dockyards in Kent before making an arduous journey to the Colony. She was the first entirely steam-powered ship in the British Navy, inspired by ironclad riverboats such as the USS Monitor, which had seen service in the American Civil War of 1861 – 65.

Wood engraving of the HMVS Cerberus in dock, 1874. From the State Library of Victoria, IAN18/05/74/73.

The Cerberus remained under Victorian control until 1901, when the Australian Commonwealth Government assumed control of defence, and she was absorbed into the Royal Australian Navy after its formation in 1911. By this stage she was dilapidated and out of date. Fifteen years later, having been sold as scrap to a private firm, she was scuttled in Half Moon Bay, Victoria, where she can still be seen. A group of enthusiasts, the Friends of the Cerberus, have campaigned for several years to have the ship preserved.

View Larger Map

Next time you’re in the museum, be sure to take a look at the scale model of the Cerberus in the Navy Gallery.

A bayonet held by the museum is believed to have been used aboard the Cerberus by James Conder, a seaman who had a lengthy career on several significant Victorian and Australian vessels, including the HMAS Katoomba, HMAS Challenger, and HMAS Psyche. It is an unusual sword-style bayonet which would have fitted an 1855 model Lancaster (Sappers & Miners) Carbine, a rifle popular with the Volunteer and Rifle Club movement in the nineteenth. There is some evidence that Victorian volunteer defence forces were issued with these guns, and one firearms authority considers it likely that this (by then) obsolete small arm was carried on the Cerberus in the 1890s.

Bayonet for Lancaster (Sappers & Miners) Carbine, ANMM 00005671.

A final object with a Cerberus association is a double-barrelled flintlock pistol. It is yet another souvenir from the Boxer Uprising, this time believed to have collected by Walter Underwood. Described as a 5 foot 9 inch tall Protestant with black hair and hazel eyes, Underwood was a bandmaster with the Williamstown Division of the Victorian Naval Brigade. He served upon the Cerberus until his retirement in 1922. Underwood is pictured in a group portrait of the Victorian Navy Band photographed in 1898, holding his baton and leaning against the bass drum.

The HMVS Cerberus band in 1898. Underwood is moustached, leaning on the bass drum near the centre-right. Australian War Memorial 305343.

The pistol was produced by the firm Kynock & Co., which is known to have operated a plant in Warwickshire producing percussion sporting guns in the 1860s. This particular example is marked “Kynock & Co, Birmingham,” and stamped “TOWER 1867,” which roughly correlates with the estimated date of the pistol’s manufacture. It is further stamped “W U C E F 1901,” which I’m taking to stand for “Walter Underwood, China Expeditionary Force.” The question remains whether Underwood acquired the pistol from locals in China, or whether he obtained it from a British soldier, or perhaps even from the stores of the Naval Brigade, another antiquated relic like Conder’s bayonet. While in China, Underwood wrote letters home, and six of them are held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Next time I head in that direction, I’ll be sure to stop by and take a look—they might shed some light on the mystery.

Double-barrelled flintlock pistol, marked "WUCEF", ANMM 00033858.

 

Titanic anniversary

This week marks the 97th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on the night of the 14th April1912 on it’s maiden voyage to New York.

A subject of great fascination for many people in Australia and overseas this recent news item from the National Archives in the UK  highlights some interesting and important records  in their collection to explore online.

If you’re luck enough to be going to the UK for holidays you might want to catch the Titanic honor and glory exhibition the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Or check out some Titanic books available from our Museum Store.

 

Join us on Endeavour

Do you dream to follow in the wake of Captain Cook, sailing the Endeavour along Australia’s coast? Well, now you can! Your ocean adventure begins when you board the world-recognised Endeavour replica and set sail for Cooktown. On your voyage leg, you will learn to sail, live and sleep like an 18th-century seafarer.

Check the HMB Endeavour 2009 voyage itinerary and costs, find a voyage that suits you and register now to join the crew.

Email your completed application form to endeavour@anmm.gov.au,  or fax it to  + 61 29298 3670 or post it to PO Box 5131, Sydney NSW 2000.

 

Frame restoration for the portrait of Sir John Franklin: part 2

Once the object was cleaned every little crack and loss area was stabilized with a consolidant mixture of Plextol B500 water and ethanol. Plextol is an acrylic emulsion and in this mix it is dilute enough to seep into the fragile areas to protect them and prevent any further losses or flaking of the gesso and gold. Once this was completed the loss areas of ornament and uneven surfaces were built up and modeled with gesso putty, smoothed with sandpaper and a damp cloth.

The old restorations of the running flower and bead ornament at the outside of the frame were removed. Many of these were done very crudely and did not correspond to the surrounding decoration. A cast was then taken of the original area with a laboratory polysiloxan, a material commonly used by dentists.

Detail of areas where old restorations have been removed.

Area of frame ornament being cast with dental putty.

Composition putty was made using the same ingredients that would have been used originally. Composition is made from chalk, rabbit skin glue, hide glue, rosin, glycerol and linseed oil. The mix is then kneaded like dough and then pressed into the mould to form the replacement areas. They were then carved down to fix into the frame, like a jigsaw puzzle.

Deatil or corner showing my new compo restorations and gesso build ups.

Frame overview with all the new fills and mouldings.

All the new gesso and compo areas were then coated with an isolation layer of B-72 in toluene.B-72 is an acrylic resin which can be used as an adhesive or coating material and is commonly used in conservation due to its excellent ageing properties. Once dry the replacement areas along with the gesso fills were painted with gouache to imitate the original bole colour used on the frame. Traditional Bole is natural clay, usually an earth red or ochre yellow. Other colour varieties include grey and black. Traditional bole, as opposed to gouache, was used for its fineness which is easily burnished (polished) it provides a smooth surface for gilding and the colour will impart on the tone of the gold leaf .

Now for the good stuff- the 23 karat gold leaf. In total 6 books of gold were used, there are 25 leaves in a book. After a day of blinding gold sample surveying, the right tone and quality of gold leaf was chosen. The adhesive was painted to the surface. This mixture is the same plextol mixture that was used for consolidating the frame. The gold leaf is transferred from the book onto a suede board and then carefully cut into the desired pieces (no breathing allowed!).

Cutting the gold leaf on the gilder's pad.

Once ready the gold leaf is gently picked up with a gilder’s tip (a flat wide brush made from squirrel hair). The adhesive on the area to be gilded is reactivated by exhalation and then the gold is laid to the surface.

The frame was not completely gilded, only the damaged areas were gilded this is called in-gilding, this minimizes the restoration and provides a more sympathetic and historically authentic result.

Detail of corner ornament with new gilding.

Once this was completed the gold was burnished with a tool made from an agate stone. The in-gilded areas were then de-stressed with light steel wool and cotton as well as an abrasive material called rottenstone (not what its name suggests!).This matches the in-gilded areas with the original damaged gilded surface and unifies the whole frame.

Any areas needing a final touch of gold goodness were painted lightly with mica pigments. Mica pigments do not tarnish or discolour like commercial metallic paints,they are mixed with Plextol and are removable with acetone.

 

Giant guitar boat makes waves during museum visit

The museum was home to a very unique guest for the first two weeks of February… the custom-made guitar boat SS Maton.

Josh Pyke and his guitar boat at the museum

The extraordinary vessel which starred in the music video for ARIA-award winning singer/songwriter Josh Pyke’s hit single ‘Make You Happy’ was on display at the museum while it was being auctioned off for charity.

The SS Maton – named for the brand of guitar Josh Pyke plays – made headlines late last year when Pyke cruised around Sydney Harbour in it for the music video. During filming, images of the boat spread rapidly across the world on the internet. The video clip even became the #1 featured video on YouTube world wide.

The boat was custom-designed and measures an amazing 6.1 metres from the top of the neck to the base, and is just over 2 metres wide. In all it took a week to build at a workshop at Fox Professional Studios in Moore Park. Made from plywood, polystyrene and steel it weighs around 250 kgs. It also features a small outboard motor hooked over the back to propel it across the water and even a giant plectrum (guitar pick)!

The choice of a guitar boat for his music video is not such a strange one for Pyke … he admits to a strong seafaring influence in his song writing.

‘I’ve always been interested in maritime history… my ancestors were all whalers and Navy men, so I feel some kind of pull for that kind of life and history,” Pyke says.

And it’s not such a surprise to see Pyke and the guitar boat at the museum… the song ‘Make You Happy’ is from Josh’s new album ‘Chimney’s Afire’ which has a distinct nautical feel.

“Ever since I was a kid reading adventure books, especially Huckleberry Finn, I’ve always had the desire to jump on a raft and disappear down a river…I relate solid, seafaring adventuring tales as the romantic, alternate universe that I’d want to live in if I was ever to throw it all away and disappear,” he said.

It’s the language of the whaling era which seems to have struck such a chord with Josh and can be heard flowing through the album. ‘Chimney’s Afire’ is the cry whalers of yesteryear made when they harpooned a whale and a plume of blood and water would spurt from its blowhole.

“It’s a horrifying, brutal image, but the actual language is evocative and quite amazing,” says Pyke. Other songs on the album include ‘The Lighthouse Song’, ‘Where Two Oceans Meet’ and the title track ‘Chimney’s Afire’.

The guitar boat was on display at the museum from 2 to 12 February where it attracted a large number of visitors and publicity. The eBay auction was a success with a final winning bid of $7,100. All proceeds raised went to the Indigenous Literacy Project.

Josh Pyke on board the guitar boat

 

Happy Birthday Mr Darwin

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin and five weeks until the grand opening of our forthcoming exhibition Charles Darwin – Voyages and ideas that shook the world.

Around the world there are celebrations, exhibitions, seminars, book launches and other activities during the whole year – not only marking 200 years since Darwin was born but 150 years since he published On the Origin of Species.

Our exhibition will be in the North Gallery and Gallery One opening to the public on Friday 20 March with material from our own collection plus The British Museum, National Maritime Museum Greenwich, Oxford University, SLNSW, National Library, Queensland and Tasmania. Some material will be on show for the first time.

We are also holding a symposium on 20 and 21 March in conjunction with the Australian Research Council – In the wake of the Beagle – Science in the southern oceans from the age of Darwin.

Cheers and enjoy the year of Darwin

Lindsey Shaw
Senior Curator Maritime Technology Exploration & Navy

 

New library research guide – HMS Beagle

We all know about Charles Darwin but what about the Beagle we hear you ask..

Most people know the HMS Beagle as the ship on which Charles Darwin’s sailed on his world famous voyage that was a catalyst to developing his theory of evolution.  At the Vaughan Evans Library we thought it was time that the Beagle emerged from Darwin’s shadow.

HMS Beagle is a new library research guide for those who would like to find out more about this small survey vessel which played such an important part in Australian and world history. The guide covers printed and online sources and also includes information on crew,  logs  and accounts of voyages,  Darwin’s voyage  and recent archaeological expeditions to find it’s final resting place.

Find it and other research guides in the Library pages on the Museum’s website.

Making HMS Beagle - see the construction of a model for the Museum here on the Museum blog.

 

End of the trip now lets plan the next one

All good expeditions must come to an end, equipment must be returned to its owners, expedition members returned to their families, friends and employers, charter vessels have to be cleaned, resupplied, the crew changed over and then sent back out to sea with a different set of passengers seeking different diving locations and sites.

The same applied to the Mermaid 2009 expedition. On Thursday morning we had to have everything and everyone of the vessel by 8.15 to allow the crew and the vessel to prepare for its afternoon departure.

After a hasty breakfast the packing of gear continued and cabins, storage areas, the dive deck and saloon were checked for left items, books, electrical cables, cameras, misplaced T Shirts and lost toothbrushes. While all this was going on I organised a vehicle to pick up all the offloaded equipment and arranged accomodation for those expedition members who were staying over nght in Cairns.

Peter Illidge said his goodbys and commenced his drive back to Townsville ferrying equipment we had borrowed from James Cook University and the Museum of Tropical Queensland. We also said our goodbys to Dr. Nigel Erskine and Dr. Lloyd Fletcher who were also leaving us today in Cairns.

Whilst the remaining crew were seeing the sites of Cairns – Paul Hundley, Lee Graham and I were playing material conservators – packing the artefacts recovered from HMCS Mermaid in absorbent gel and protective boxes – before they made their long trip to Sydney and into the care of the conservation section at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

In the evening the remaining crew members got together for a final meal together before flying out to their respective States. Like all good things expeditions must come to an end BUT as the evening meal progressed talk moved onto other wrecks on other reefs off the coast of Australia.

Museum archaeologist Dr. Nigel Erskine dreaming of new shipwrecks on new reefs.

Expeditions such as this one are only as successful as the crew are experienced, innovative and hard working.  A very big thankyou (in no particular order) to Peter Illidge, Warren Delaney, Ed Slaughter, Wayne Morris, Grant Luckman, Lloyd Fletcher, Elaine Cuzens, Alice Lafferty, Megan Blacker, John Mullen, Jacqui Mullen, Jenni Mullen, Stephen Day, Lindsay Birley, Greg Tanner, Scott Northcutt, Anne Northcutt, Christina Koh, Andrew Turner, Grant Bowering, Xanthe Rivett, Nikki McNicole, John McNicole, Lesley Howlett, Laurie Carrico, Mark Stewart, Cathy Stewart, Meyric Slimming, Fred Pakoa, Lee Graham, Paul Hundley and Nigel Erskine.

Mermaid Project 2009 Expedition Team

 

A big hats off to Trevor Jackson, skipper of Spoilsport, Kerrin Jones, Spoilsport Cruise Director and all of the crew at Mike Ball Dive Expeditions including Craig Stevens, Stirling Robertson,Warren Boast James, Richard Kennedy, Alex Michael, Tristan Bright, Bre Jenkins and Katrina along with the crew of Nimrod and Pirate for their hard work, professionalism and sense of humour.

Silentworld Foundation dive vessel Nimrod on station at Flora reef

I would also like to thank the expeditions sponsors Silentworld Foundation without whose assistance this expedition would not have been possible.  

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions vessel Spoilsport off Flora Reef