GALLERY 3 

HMS Beagle APPROACHING SYDNEY COVE 1838

HMS Beagle is depicted heading up Sydney Harbour on 24th July 1838.  She has just passed Garden Island and the small rocky island known as Pinchgut which three years later was levelled to become Fort Denison.  Ahead of Beagle is Fort Macquarie at the entrance to Sydney Cove. 

Most significant to Australia is the third voyage of HMS Beagle (1837-1843) when she carried out surveys which were used to produce Admiralty charts for the use of mariners, of large areas of the Australian coastline including the north western coast, north coast, and the Gulf of Carpentaria.  During these surveys some significant discoveries were made including the Port of Darwin, as well as the Fitzroy, Adelaide, Victoria and Fitzmaurice Rivers.  Another significant area surveyed by the Beagle was Bass Strait including the north coast of Tasmania and the southern coast of Victoria together with the entrance and areas of Port Phillip Bay.

HMAS Sydney" and HSK "Kormoran" - AT DAY'S END November 19th 1941 – the German Raider HSK Kormoran, on sighting the light cruiser HMAS Sydney, turned towards the setting sun in the hope of avoiding contact.  Outrun by Sydney and failing to convince her of the disguise as a Dutch merchantman by not giving secret identification letters, Kormoran was forced to de-camouflage and fight at 1635 hours.    The time of our painting is about 1645 hours.  Both ships are mortally wounded.  Sydney turns to port and crosses Kormoran’s stern.  This brings to bear her undamaged starboard torpedo tubes and she continues to pound Kormoran with shells from X and Y turrets.  Kormoran tries to hole Sydney’s hull at the waterline.  Sydney is already down by the bows from a torpedo hit below A and B turrets.  Both ships are doomed already.   Kormoran was scuttled by her crew and Sydney foundered, probably on the loss of her bow whilst her brave crew tried to save their ship.

The Sydney steam pilot vessel Captain Cook (1939-1960) is about to put a Pilot aboard the Lloyd Triestino liner Paolo Toscanelli in the mid 1950s off The Heads, Port Jackson. The Pilot is standing in the whale boat which has just been lowered with its crew of 2 oarsmen and 1 steersman. The steersman fends off as the two oarsmen prepare to move towards the Paolo Toscanelli where the Pilot will board her from a rope ladder which will have been put over the side for him.  Traditionally the Pilot stands in the boat, holding two rope lanyards attached in the bilge of the boat for support. Over his shoulder is a bag to carry paperwork or instruments he may require and even a few necessities in case he is forced to carry on to the next port should the sea conditions prevent him leaving an outbound ship.

SS Keera was the first iron screw steamer in Australia.  She was built to order for a steam packet service between Sydney and Wollongong.  She was built in north east England at the yard of Thomas Toward on the River Tyne, a few miles downstream from Newcastle.  After launching in April 1851 she sailed from Southampton for Australia on 18th August 1851, taking 137 days under canvas.  She was feted on arrival by the Shipping Gazette as a marvel of comfort and modern marine engineering, berthing at the Phoenix Wharf, Darling Harbour on 3rd January 1852.  After less than 12 months on the Sydney-Wollongong run, she was sold to the Geelong Steam Navigation Company and worked on the Geelong-Port Melbourne run for 14 years.

In 1866 she appeared in New Zealand in the Otago Province area of the South Island.  This painting shows her entering Otago Harbour.  In 1873 SS Keera returned to Sydney where the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd. bought her as their first steamer to ship coal from Newcastle to their sugar mills on the Northern Rivers of New South Wales.