- Author
- Lind, L.J.
- Subjects
- History - general
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 1990 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Bequests
The Society and the Garden Island Museum have benefitted over the years from bequests from former members. A particularly interesting selection of books and papers were received by the Museum under the terms of the will of the late Lieutenant Commander N.W. Waterhouse, RANVR. Commander Waterhouse joined the Naval Brigade in 1914 as a Boy and was discharged in 1918 as a Chief Petty Officer. He later qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and joined the newly created RANVR as a lieutenant in the early 1920s. On discharge in 1926 he joined Alcan and with that company transferred to the United States. Commander Waterhouse became an American citizen and rose to President of Alcan International. He died in Hawaii in 1983.
This interesting collection contained rare photographs of the RAN in the period 1918-1926 and a wealth of information on engineering aspects of turbines and engines in HMAS PLATYPUS. The books received in the bequest were a fine collection of naval and engineering publications.
It has always been difficult to judge the merit of addresses presented to the Society because of the high standards set by the speakers. However, two addresses in 1987 impressed me greatly. They were ‘The Royal Navy Attack on Leningrad’ by Mr S. Head of the Historical Department of Riverview College and ‘The French-Australian Bond’ by Captain Ian Watson, RAN who was a former Defence Attache in France.
The South Australian Chapter which had been reformed by Messrs Alex Marcus and John Sullivan, the former Secretary of the Society, made significant progress in 1987 and the membership exceeded the highest level of the original Chapter. Realistically, the Committee held their meetings at HMAS ENCOUNTER and so developed a close bond with that establishment.
1987
Our Committee for 1987 was: President L.J. Lind, BEM, FAIR, Dip.J; Vice Presidents Captain L.M. Hinchliffe, DSC, RAN (Ret.) and Mr John Date; Committeemen, Messrs N. Russell, G. Crombie, E. Tree, Phillip Thane, Norman Bate and Lieutenant V. Fazio, RAN (Ret.). The positions of Secretary and Treasurer were not filled at the elections but Mr G. Crombie acted as Secretary and Lieutenant Fazio as Treasurer.
Boat Building and Diversity
During the eighteen years in which I served as President of the Society I was involved on two occasions in the building of replica boats.
The first was in 1969-1970 on the occasion of the Captain Cook Bicentennial. A feature of the commemoration ceremonies was a re-enactment of the landing at La Perouse. This called for the building of a launch and a gig and a fleet of bark canoes. Plans for the launch and the gig were obtained from Greenwich Naval Museum in the United Kingdom and HMAS NIRIMBA undertook to build them. The Apprentices and Instructors at this establishment made an excellent job of the boats and they passed all tests in a demonstration off Garden Island.
However, the bark canoes proved a much more difficult proposition. In two weeks I covered the outskirts of the metropolitan area in a search for trees large enough to provide the slabs of bark required for a canoe hull. Surprisingly, I found a tree adjacent to my home at Northwood which filled the bill. The art of making bark canoes had been lost and none of the first models built would support an adult. NIRIMBA provided the solution to the problem by moulding fibreglass liners for the canoes. On the day, apart from a number of capsizes, the canoes served their purposes. The boats and canoes are today on display at the Naval Repository at Spectacle Island.
During 1986-1987 I became involved in a second naval historical project. This was a re-enactment of the landing of Lieutenant Ralph Clark, Royal Marines at Woodford Bay in 1790. On this occasion a navy jolly boat was required. Plans for the boat were again obtained from Greenwich and member, General Manager of Cockatoo Dockyard came to the rescue. The boat was built in the dockyard by apprentices under the supervision of their senior shipwright boatbuilder.
The product of these efforts was a handsome jolly boat which carried out the re-enactment in magnificent style. This boat is now held in custody by the Sydney Maritime Museum.
Although these projects were not entirely Society they attracted a number of requests for information on this type of activity particularly in the run-up for the 1988 Bicentenary Celebrations. Two which come to mind were the full size replica of the paddlewheel barque WILLIAM THE FOURTH and the TOM THUMB. In both cases we were able to lend assistance and advice.