MANLY FERRY "SOUTH STEYNE" "Sunday Excursion" depicts a regular scene from the 1960s.  The Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company's steam-powered ferry South Steyne, with Barrenjoey Light and the entrance to Broken Bay astern, is heading back to Port Jackson to complete her day's excursion from Circular Quay to Broken Bay and return to Circular Quay.  These regular excursions were very popular with Sydney-siders, some having their first experience of the open ocean and for many their first glimpses of the northern beaches and coastline from the sea.  A little rough weather made the trip all the more exciting for some while others no doubt wished they were doing something elsewhere.  The South Steyne was well able to handle the conditions as she had sailed out from Scotland under her own power.

"RUNNING DOWN HER EASTING"  The clipper barque Brierholme crossing the southern ocean on one of her many voyages to Australia is met by two black-browed Albatrosses.  She had run down her easting on a voyage towards Hobart and arrived in the vicinity of South West Cape, Tasmania at dusk in thick stormy weather where she hove to waiting for daylight.  Being to the north of the fairway she was driven on to the rocks and soon broke up. The term "running down her easting" was a common expression among seamen and related to ships leaving England, travelling down the Atlantic Ocean and around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, picking up the predominantly westerly winds at about latitude 44 degrees S for a fast easterly trip across the bottom of the world until reaching Tasmania where they could turn north and proceed to the appropriate port.

YACHT Zeppelin This painting of the yacht Zeppelin was commissioned by its owners. Zeppelin is pictured running towards Sydney Harbour.

Polly Woodside is a 3-masted barque built in 1885 for the South American run - out with coal and back with  nitrate and sometimes with wheat - a round voyage taking a year with two roundings of Cape Horn.  She did this until the beginning of the 19th century when she made two tramping voyages around the world, picking up cargoes as she could with each voyage taking about two years.  During her life she had a number of owners. In 1905 she was re-named Rona and until 1916 she then voyaged backwards and forwards across the Tasman between Australia and New Zealand.  From 1916 to 1920 she ran between New Zealand and California with occasional trips to Australia and the Islands before returning to the Australia-New Zealand run for a few years.  Time was running out for sailing ships and she became a coal hulk in Melbourne for the next 40 years with a brief respite during World War II when she was towed to New Guinea as a barge. Today she has been restored and is on permanent display in her dock in Melbourne.

Kathleen Gillett APPROACHES CAPE PILLAR This gaff-rigged ketch was a Bicentennial gift to Australia from Norway.  Based on the seaworthy fishing, pilot and rescue boats of Norway's most famous designer, Colin Archer, she was built for the marine artist Jack Earl in Sydney in the 1930s.  Jack was one of the founders of the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race, sailing Kathleen in the first race in 1945.  In 1947 Kathleen Gillett (named after Earl's wife) became the second Australian yacht to circumnavigate the globe.