Essential Service Ship

by John Downton

Dimensions:

91.4 cm x 61 cm

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Setting:

Peace time operations

Courtesy of the Australian Society of Marine Artists

This painting shows sailors at work loading the Essential Service Ship with the required supplies for the ships next tour of duty. Beached in the background is a Balikpapan Class Landing Craft Heavy (LCH) vessels. Six of these vessels formed the RAN’s first dedicated Landing Craft Squadron.

About John Downton
Born in Sydney in 1939, John Downton (OAM) is one of Australia's finest international landscape and navy artists. He was awarded the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to visual arts as a landscape and maritime artist and for services to the community in 2017.

He initially trained and worked in watchmaking but realised his dream later to become a professional artist. He attended classes at the Royal Art Society of NSW and private lessons with George Duncan.

He is passionate about the sea, and he travelled to East Timor in 2000 as an official Navy artist and documented naval and peacekeeping activities in paintings. He continues to paint historical and present-day naval activities, and a gallery has been named after him at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross.

John Downton has held exhibitions in Sydney, Eden, Canberra, and internationally. Companies and public institutions have used John's work on calendars and cards. If you want to know more about John’s life he has published a 338 page autobiography, The Dirty Big Red Book: Downton, An Artist on the Move, which includes colour photographs of many of John's works.

More paintings by John Downton
About Sailors at work
Since entering World War 1 in 1914 with 16 ships, two submarines and 3800 RAN personnel (including 850 from the Royal Navy) the number of serving personnel in the Royal Australian Navy has fluctuated depending on the strategic and shifting financial environment. Over more than a century, the RAN’s and people have seen action in every ocean of the world.

Of the tens of thousands who have served, 2658 members have made the ultimate sacrifice defending Australia’s interests in warlike and peacetime operations across the globe.

Fortunately, for the vast majority who served in periods of peace or survived periods of hostilities the experience was positive.

In addition to their service in a particular category which involved specific duties, they also participated in communal duties such as coaling ship. Thus, the artworks included in this section relate to a mix of specialist and communal activities.