lifeasdaddy

Powerhouse Museum Favourites - Part 3: Exploring naval history.

One of my specialist areas of interest is naval history, and particularly that of the Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy.

Preparing for our Talks Afternoon presentation I thought I could prove my proposition that the Powerhouse Museum can be all things to all people by checking some of their naval history holdings.

There are some real gems there.

There's  the Sydney-Emden medal, which commemorates the naval surface battle of 9 November 1914 during which HMAS Sydney (I) sank the German warship SMS Emden.This was a tremendously significant naval victory in a year which had seen precious few victories for the "allied" powers.  It was also celebrated as the first naval victory by a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship, after the navy had been formed in 1911.  Previously it had run as a colonial outpost of the Royal Navy.  So there it was significant as one more step towards national maturity - having our own capable naval force. Cutting the colonial apron strings and all that.  The online collection detail at the PHM perversely only shows the reverse of the medal, the obverse almost certainly looks like this one.

My friend Mac Gregory recently received a query about a similar medal too.

Sidebar: In the symbiosis between the City of Sydney and her namesake ships HMAS Sydney (I), HMAS Sydney (II) and HMAS Sydney (III), the City of Sydney was selected to be the recipient of one of the major prizes from the Emden, a 4-inch naval gun.

Turning our attention to the flagship of the RAN in World War One, HMAS Australia (I) there are a number of relics from the ship in the PHM collection, and a connection to one of the world's first arms limitation treaties - The Washington treaty of 1922 on the limitation of armament agreed between the United States of America, the British Empire (of which Australia was a part), France, Italy and Japan.

Flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Australia, Sydney Harbour, between 1913-1924 / unknown photographer, originally uploaded by State Library of New South Wales collection.

The Washington Treaty dictated that certain countries would be permitted to have a limited number of warships, classified by displacement tonnage and armament; and additionally would agree to build only limited types of warships in the future.

HMAS Australia (I) was in excess of the treaty limits, so she had to be deliberately rendered unusable, as did her armament of 12-inch naval guns.  The ship was scuttled 23 miles off Sydney Heads in 1924.

Before the ship was scuttled, much of of the usable material was salvaged such as copper piping, and significantly  " £35,000 worth of fittings was removed and allocated to the Universities and Technical Colleges of the various states. At least some of these items remained in regular use as teaching aids for over fifty years." (ref. Sea Power Australia )

Sidebar: Documents at the National Archives of Australia detail much of the discussion about salvaging items from the HMAS Australia (I) and what was to be done with them, including the teak decking.  The teak decking was used to make special frames for photographs of the ship which were subsequently distributed to 1061 local government, city and shire councils around our great nation.  Some of these photographs must still be out there somewhere.  I wonder if the holders know what they've got!

Many of these salvaged and souvenired  items appear in the collection of the PHM, such as the muzzle end of a 12-inch gun barrel, part of a capstan bar,  a raising block, engine room phone,  a couple of breech openers, projectile hoist indicator,  action stations klaxon, and steam engines here, here and here, and a swash plate engine. Mostly items of use in technical and engineering trade education of the day.  They are the real nitty gritty of ship operations. Although now of little interest in themselves as museum pieces, but their very acquisition represents a time when governments of several countries were trying to limit the arms race during the economic hardships of the 1920s and making a failed attempt to prevent the next world war.

A reasonably good overview of the Washington Naval Treaty, although mainly from a US perspective is on wikipedia here.

My favourite naval history item in the collection though is the medal presented to Captain John Collins by the City of Sydney in 1941.  And that's the topic of my next blog post in this series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Australian boy's contribution to the space race. Update added at end.

1957 was a big year.

The Cold War was nearing its height and on October 4 fear of the Soviet Bear was pushed along when the first artificial satellite Sputnik-1  was launched.

One night in October 1957 Denis Cox and Brian Ball were on their way to their local band hall in Mordialloc, Victoria.  They gazed up trying to spot Earth's only artifical satellite,  imagining what it meant for them and their nation.   Then Denis and Brian got on with what they set out to do that night, and joined the Mordialloc Brass Band.

Sputnik, and the threat the Soviet space program imposed on Australia was not lost on the Denis Cox, then a student at Mordialloc High School.  He put his ideas for a  rocket ship design down on paper and forwarded it to Australia's premier space weapons research facility, the Woomera Weapons Research Establishment, directed to the attention of the top scientist.

Denis' letter was carefully filed, and was brought to light recently by the National Archives of Australia in their Find Of The Month feature.

 

[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

 

Denis supplied an elaborate design finely sketched in blue ball point ink, including important featrues such as four Rolls-Royce jet engines and guided missile armament.  An obvious patriot, and in accordance with the rules of war, his design included Australian markings on the rocket ship.  Realising that at such a tender age he did not yet have a definitive design, he invited the Top Scientist at Woomera to " ... put in other details.".

  

[ NAA: D 250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

[ NAA: D250, 56/486 Part 1 ]

Denis requested a letter in return, but he tells me he is still waiting.  The wait for a response has not embittered him, and here is a photograph of Denis at last year's office Christmas party.  He's the one not wearing a red suit:

Although the images of the Denis's letter have been downloaded from the National Archives of Australia website, the NAA has not asserted copyright over use of the images, and instead advised me that copyright of the letter from Denis Cox to Woomera's Top Scientist rests with Mr. Cox. 

Denis Cox has generously granted me permission to reprint his letter here, and kindly supplied the recent photograph of him.

As a boy, I too was fascinated by space, rockets and astronauts.  I'll write more on that when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing nears.

 

UPDATE ADDED September 28, 2009:  Last week the Australian nationally broadcast radio current affiars program ABC PM did a brief feel-good piece about this, including an interview with Denis Cox.

Transcript is here.  MP3 audio is here.

Looks like Denis is going to get his letter - 52 years after the fact.

UPDATE ADDED December, 2009: Denis Cox gets his replay from a top rocket scientist.

Oskar Schindler's list is in Sydney.

Last week I saw a piece of history.

In the midst of the Nazi steamroller, and himself a Nazi, Oskar Schindler showed that true heroes do exist. 

Schindler sheltered more than 1000 Jews via the cover of his factory in Poland between 1939 and 1945; using bribery and contacts in the Nazi regieme - he saved their lives.  To be on his list of enamel factory workers was to be given a chance at life when the alternative was likely death in a camp.

Light first shone on the story of Oskar Schindler and the list of his factory workers when Thomas Keneally wrote his book Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List in the USA market) which won the Booker Prize in 1982 and gained a much broader audience via the 1993 film Schindler's List.

In early 1945, as the Soviet Army began to edge across Poland, the Nazis permitted  Schindler to move his factory workers to Brněnec (then Brünnlitz) in what is now the Czech Republic.  He compiled a list of his workers who were required to transfer to the new location for submission to the government in 1945.

 

The original lists were submitted to the government as required, and no originals have been discovered since.  A few carbon copies of the list are believed to exist in the world, and one was recently rediscovered by Dr. Olwen Pryke amongst Tom Keneally's literary papers at the State Librry of New South Wales.  It was found by Dr. Pryke whilst she was examining six boxes of papers relating to Keneally's book.  The papers were acquired by the library in 1996, but nobody had recognised the significance of the flimsy pices of yellowing paper.

Tom Keneally was reunited once again with his manuscript and papers relating to his book at the State Libraryof New South Wales, and is shown here with the rediscoverer, Dr. Olwen Pryke.

 

(above) Dr. Olwen Pryke and Thomas Keneally discuss the copy of Schindler's List arrayed on the table in front of them.  ML MSS 6154/6

(photograph courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales)

The  List is on display at the Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection in the State Library of New South Wales. It is accompanied in the display by the original manuscript of Keneally's book.  Until November 2009.

You can also see it online here.

 

Mac Gregory to lead Melbourne's ANZAC Day march tomorrow.

My friend Mackenzie Gregory has been accorded the honour of leading the march in Melbourne tomorrow.

News stories here and here.

Mac blogs here.

USS Franklin - 19 March, 1945. The ship is 50 miles off the coast of Japan.

Read more here about what happened when the aircraft carrier was hit by two bombs from a Japanese aircraft.

803 men died.  710 others remained to save the ship.  Two men displayed such bravery they were awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island - Part Seven

See previous parts in this feature series here under my blog category "The Unknown Sailor".

The body of the Unknown Sailor of Christmas Island was retrieved from a life raft near Christmas Island on 7 February 1942.  The Sailor is thought to be the only known body anywhere from the 645 crew who perished with the ship HMAS Sydney (II) during World War II.

The body was buried shortly after that in the cemetery on Christmas Island, and was retrieved by a Royal Australian Navy led expedition in 2006.

Since then a number of means of trying to identify the body have been followed, finally centering around DNA testing of surviving relatives. 

As I have said before, the identification team, based upon supposed testing at the Australian War Memorial which suggested that the Sailor was wearing a WHITE boiler suit seems to have ignored eyewitness acounts from the time which stated the sailor was wearing a BLUE boilersuit.  Thus, I proprosed that the identification team concentrated their efforts in gaining DNA matches from survising relatives on the wrong group within the crew.

The fate of the HMAS Sydney (II) and her crew, which was Australia's greatest wartime loss is presently the topic of investigation by the Australian Government through a Commission of Inquiry, led by The Honourable Terence Cole, AO, RFD, QC

Well, guess what?

Turns out I was right.

Further testing by the Australian Federal Police has indicated that the press studs found with the corpse contained BLUE material, not WHITE material.

This, from the transcript of testimony before the Commission of Inquiry today, on page 32:

THE PRESIDENT: CMDR Rush, there is one other matter that

I should have asked Mr Bailey about. My understanding is

that the most recent investigation of the press studs

indicated that they had fragments of material attached to

them, and that whilst in the past it was thought that the

textiles were white and may have been dyed, the view of the

Federal Police was that it was likely that the textiles

were in fact blue, and not white. That may affect

Ms Challenor's evidence. I don't know.

CMDR RUSH: I might start with Ms Challenor and see if we

can deal with it through her, and, if not, I will recall

Mr Bailey, sir.

Q. Ms Challenor, you heard the comment of the

Commissioner as to an understanding that has been given to

the Commission of Inquiry as to the actual colour of the

overalls as a consequence of the further testing that has

been done. What is the position in relation to whether

they were white originally, or blue and have faded?

A. In my original report, I said that there were

definitely fragments of the cloth that appeared to be

undyed; however, I could not positively say that it had

been dyed or undyed. The evidence that I had in front of

me at the time, which came from the - when we broke open

one of the press studs, two layers of material came out,

and in that sample - and this is in my report - there were

bands of colour, possibly from corrosion, and I think

I indicated that it may have been dyed at one time, but

there was no very obvious evidence of that.

However, since writing that report two years ago, we

have broken open another stud to take more layers of fabric

out, and those fragments actually revealed a definite blue

colouration. At this stage, it is too early to say that it

is definitely a dye, but it is definitely a blue colour.

Obviously, we've taken images, and the AFP are now

following on from that to see if they can identify dye from

that.

THE PRESIDENT: Q. That means that the investigation

which has been progressing on the basis that it may have

been undyed or white, and thus may have been the boilersuit

of an officer, may have been misconceived, if this material

is blue.

A. Yes.

[ Department of Defence photograph, copyright expired ]

Joe Galloway, UPI correspondent, Vietnam.

Awarded Bronze Star, with "V" device.

[ Not safe for children ]

Krupp guns of the Boer War.

As I mentioned, Observatory Park contains the South African War Memorial to those people and animals from the Colony of New South Wales who served in the Boer War (1899 - 1902)

It has a Krupp field artillery piece mounted on blocks behind it.  It seems to have orignally had wheels on either side, implying that it was designed to be horse drawn.

The breech block shows the markings of Krupp and that it was manufactured in 1895 at Essen.

The internal diameter of the barrel measured 75mm.

I've been able to find this Order of Dedication Service for the ceremony on Sunday June 2nd, 1940. The official register of War Memorials in New South Wales shows this information but it doesn't say much about the gun.

My friend Nico added a useful piece of information about the stampings on the breech block.  The "Fried." stands for Friedrich, as in Friedrich Krupp.  "Friedrich Krupp" makes up the first part of the name of the manufacturing company.  The three interlocking circles in a triangle pattern were part of the company's mark.

(There is a useful wikipedia article about the Krupp firm here, but itmay be subject to some bias from time to time since it deals with matters pertaining to War Crimes in World War Two.  Such Wikipedia articles are prone to be hacked or subverted from time to time.)

War memorials and ex-service clubs around Australia can be found adorned with various artillery pieces and even naval guns, some formerly used by Australian forces, some used by our wartime enemies.

 So, from where did this artillery piece come?  Was it one of ours, or one of theirs?

I can't find any direct evidence at the moment, but a search of the holdings at the Australian War Memorial reveal just three items relating to Krupp during the Boer War.  They are three photographs, two photograph show Krupp guns captured from the Boers, and the other photograph shows Krupp guns being used by the Boers.

The Australian War Memorial photographs are here,   here,  and  here.

It seems likely then that Krupp supplied the Boer side in that conflict, and therefore the piece shown at the memorial on Observatory Hill was captured.

H.M.A.S. Edward. Australia's newest submarine.

Kids just love playing with cardboard boxes and pretending.

For the past couple of years as my profile photograph in the top right hand corner of this blog I've used a pic of Edward sitting in a cardboard box.  Drawn on the outside is a Big Red Car.

Nowadays Edward is quite interested in submarines, so I thought I would make one for him.

Here's how to make a cardboard submarine.

I used a large cardboard carton which enclosed a table we recently bought.  I slit the carton along one length and folded it to create a flat base.  I drew the rough outline of a cigar shaped submarine  with conning tower on the parts of the cardboard sheet which would become the sides of the vessel. Then cut it out using a small pruning saw.  This is the best tool for cutting through thick cardboard.

Then I folded the sides upwards and secured them with tape across the top and around the nose area.  The back of the submarine was left open to give children easy access to the inside. 

A piece of excess carboard was rolled up to make a tube about 10cm in diameter for the periscope. In turn, the periscope was also taped in place.

Finally came painting.  As you can see, the classical cigar shape was emphasised with a black outline.  The writing is in red colour because that's Ed's favourite colour.  The green, red and yellow splotches are just to create some visual interest and break up the solid surface so it looks a bit less like a cardboard box from the outside.

The submarine was designated number B5 because it will be Ed's fifth birthday.  

H.M.A.S. was used because Edward understands they are the prefixes for all Australian Navy ships and submarines. 

And "Edward" - well all kids love seeing their names written on things.

As well as playing with boxes, kids also like making tunnels out of things, so by leaving the back of the submarine open and having the ceiling of the conning tower arching over the top a bit of a tunnel feel is created too.

A finishing touch is a tin foil cake pan at the top of the periscope to represent the lens.

Kevin Rudd plumbs new depths in oratory.

At 11am today there was a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to commemorate those lost in HMAS Sydney (II) 67 years ago.

Amongst the Prime Minister's remarks were these pearlers:

"What finally would the warriors of Sydney say to us today at this the dawn of our pacific century?

I believe they would also say this, be warriors for peace.

I believe they would cry as one, may there be no more wars.

I will believe they would say to our peoples our diplomats and our statesman, let us strain every sinew, not only to preserve the peace, as if war was somehow our natural human condition, but to build together a new habit, a new culture, a new practice of peace for the future."

What tosh.

 

See the whole catastrophe here.

 

Bring back Don Watson or even Graham Freudenberg as speechwriter.