Model Boat Mayhem

Mess Deck: General Section => Full Scale Ships => Topic started by: Peter Fitness on November 09, 2009, 07:45:59 am

Title: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: Peter Fitness on November 09, 2009, 07:45:59 am
My wife and I currently in Sydney, visiting our middle son's family (and helping our daughter-in-law with the 3 boys) while our son is in the USA on business. This morning I jumped on a train and went into the city for a look round, it's about 5 years since I have been in the CBD, so I thought it was time to go again.

I went down to the maritime museum and took some photos of the various ships on outside display, some of which are below. The destroyer is HMAS Vampire, a Daring class, the submarine is HMAS Onslow, an Oberon class, the patrol boat is an Attack class, HMAS Advance, and the small boat is the Krait. The Krait, a humble fishing trawler led a double life during World War II. In 1941, in Singapore, it evacuated people to Sumatra during the Japanese advance. Renamed Krait (after a deadly Indian snake), the boat was fitted out in Australia for Operation Jaywick in 1943. Perfectly disguised as a local fishing vessel, Krait sailed boldly into Japanese-occupied waters with a team of Z Special Unit commandos whose mines blew up and severely damaged seven enemy ships in Singapore harbour.

The replica Endeavour is also part of the museum fleet, and was being berthed by 2 tugs while I was there. I also saw and photographed Endeavour in 1997 at Greenwich, London, when it was on a world tour. The 3 masted steel hulled barque James Craig was built in 1874, has been fully restored and regularly sails on passenger carrying voyages.

The S.S. South Steyne is a 224' (70 metre) long steamship making it the world's largest operational steam ferry. Built in Leith, Scotland for the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company, the South Steyne was launched on April 1st, 1938 and on July 7th 1938, it steamed the 22,000 kilometres to Australia arriving on September 19th the same year.

The South Steyne has been an icon of Sydney since 1938. As the famous Manly ferry, it crossed between Circular Quay and Manly over 100,000 times over its 36 years, carrying well in excess of 92 million passengers. It was retired from service in 1974, and after a chequered post ferry career, is now a floating restaurant.

I hope the above is of some interest.

Peter.
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: barryfoote on November 09, 2009, 08:15:45 am
Peter,

Superb and what a lot of history is depicted in those few photos.  :-)) :-)) :-)) :-)) :-))

It looks a great place to visit. Thanks very much for sharing your day with us.

Barry
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: DickyD on November 09, 2009, 08:23:00 am
Great museum Peter.

I remember The Krait from the film The Heroes.
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: Colin Bishop on November 09, 2009, 08:48:28 am
Thanks for sharing that Peter, I must admid that I was unaware that Oz has a National Maritime Museum - great photos.

There is an Oberon class sub over here at Chatham in dry dock , Ocelot, which I visited last year, along with the destroyer H.M.S. Cavalier  which is around 10 years earlier than Vampire.

Colin
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: Martin (Admin) on November 09, 2009, 08:56:39 am

Great Photos Peter.... looks like a hard life living 'down under'!   :-))
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: chingdevil on November 09, 2009, 10:50:32 am
I went there in 2005, excellent place to visit. I did a tour of HMAS Onslow, I knew submarines were tight on space but not that tight, one of the people on the sub was telling me that the last captian was bigger than me, he must have walked around with a crash hat on :o :o.
Peter is Bereki still there, I did not see her  in any of your photos?


Brian
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: oldiron on November 09, 2009, 11:00:02 am
Great shots Peter. Looks like a good museum with well cared for vessels.
I think there's another ferry that is steam powered (a pair of Skinner Uniflows) still earning her keep that comes in a little larger than the one in your picture. Its the SS Badger in the US. It makes daily crossings of Lake Michigan with both vehicles and passengers. She comes in at 410 feet long:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Badger

http://www.ssbadger.com/home.aspx

John
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: derekwarner on November 09, 2009, 12:02:27 pm
Sorry chingdevi....... "he must have walked around with a crash hat on"........ %% NO NO NO

Sub mariners do not present dressed with .....crash hats   nor snorkels  >>:-(  for their daily existence under the sea........Derek
Title: Re: Australian National Maritime Museum
Post by: Peter Fitness on November 09, 2009, 09:38:52 pm

Peter is Bareki still there, I did not see her  in any of your photos?


Brian, Bareki is stiil part of the collection, although I did not see her yesterday.

A link to the museum's website is here http://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1398 (http://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1398)

John (oldiron), the info I have on South Steyne is a "copy and paste" from its website, so I can't vouch for its accuracy. It may have been the largest steam ferry at the time it was built. Its website here http://www.southsteyne.com.au/history.htm (http://www.southsteyne.com.au/history.htm)

Incidentally, South Steyne is not part of the Museum's collection, but is moored only a short distance away and is, as I said, a popular floating restaurant. It also has a connection to our local area, as it was refurbished, following a fire, in the Richmond River at Ballina, where our model club is based.

Peter.