City of Port Adelaide Enfield photos

Sama Reid from the City of Port Adelaide Enfield took some brilliant images of our ANZAC Light on the Water Tribute to the 645 lost crew of HMAS Sydney.

ANZAC photos by David Mearny and Jenny Fitzpatrick

From the Portside Messenger community newspaper and website came the the Messenger Shot of the Week.
ABOUT 60 relatives of HMAS Sydney sailors gathered on the Port waterfront for an emotional tribute on Anzac Eve (April 24). Port school children including Daniel Adie of Rosewater released 3000 candlelit replica lifeboats into the Port River.

Stunning new ANZAC images

Photographs by Jan Bransbury

The ANZAC Light on the Water tribute to the 645 lost crew of HMAS Sydney provided stunning new ANZAC images for Australia.

Television coverage was extensive with a brilliant feature story leading the Ten Network’s morning show across Australia at 9am on ANZAC morning.

Among a multitude of top news stories including the controversial Olympic torch relay on Thursday and a host of ANZAC events from Gallipoli to Villers Bretonneaux, Dawn Services and Marches here and around the world, the Port Adelaide commemoration was highly visible.

Channel Ten national coverage included interviews with Le Fevre Primary School students and their rendition of the national anthem over footage from the night including the candle-lit boats and floating of wreaths.

There was continuing coverage throughout the day and night on Ten, Nine, Seven and the ABC.

Indigenous and Navy ceremonial spectacles added to the poignant sight of school students, naval cadets and North Haven Surf Lifesavers launching the candle-lit boats on the dark waters of the Port River.

Earlier the SA Pipes and Drums had presented a one hour Ceildhi Music Concert in Black Diamond Square.



Portside Messenger supports local commemoration.



The Portside Messenger community newspaper, journalist Adam Todd and photographers gave front page coverage to our commemoration.

Channels 7 and 10 gave our commemoration extensive coverage and our photos show them getting video footage before ANZAC Eve.

Candle-lit lifeboats in church

Students at Star of the Sea Primary School invited local RSL veterans to a special church service they conducted themselves and took their ANZAC Eve HMAS Sydney replica candle-lit lifeboats and placed them in front of the altar.

Channel Seven filmed the moving and poignant service as children and veterans paid tribute
to the lost crew of HMAS Sydney and all Australians who have served their country.

A number of the students will take part in the launching of 3000 cardboard candle-lit lifeboats with many bearing the names of HMAS Sydney crew on the Port River on ANZAC Eve.

Organisers of this major Tribute to the 645 lost crew of HMAS Sydney have found students at some Adelaide Primary schools who are related to crew members and they
will launch the lifeboats bearing their lost relative’s name.

Adult Peter Laffer who was named after his relative Peter Laffer Ordinary Seaman on HMAS Sydney is flying from Queensland to launch the lifeboat bearing that name.

Several thousand people are expected to attend the Port Adelaide commemoration that will run from 6 pm to 9.30 on April 24.

More information on semaphoresa.com
vindicatrixboy.com

Teacher praises value of ANZAC project

Students at the Adelaide Star of the Sea Primary School have a great connect with HMAS Sydney currently a media star.

The school, a Marine Discovery Centre on Seaview Road with initials SOS, is one of the schools producing 3000 cardboard lifeboats for ANZAC Eve.

Star of the Sea teacher Toby Moulton has sent us the following email.

“The kids had a great experience at the RSL the other day and with the first pictures of the Sydney a couple of days ago its brilliant.
“Kids are getting a real sense of the sacrifice made by many
and are learning so much its awesome.
“Will be a great way to finish the term.”
Three thousand South Australian school students are busily constructing and decorating replica cardboard lifeboats from special templates for a major ANZAC Eve tribute to the lost 645 crew of HMAS Sydney.
Sixty Adelaide school students will represent the 60 South Australian sailors lost in the HMAS Sydney tragedy in 1941 during the ANZAC Eve commemoration on the Port River on April 24.
The focus of ANZAC Light on the Water 2008 will be on the 645 lost crew of the Sydney when more than 3000 cardboard lifeboats bearing lighted candles are launched on the river from the Birkenhead pontoons.
Adelaide and regional schools students and a number of war veterans are making all of the lifeboats.
The names of the 60 lost South Australian sailors will be on the sides of the lifeboats to be launched by the sixty school students.
A special March and Salute by the RAN Ceremonial Unit will be a Dedication to the 645 officers and men of Sydney.
Photos of wreck of HMAS Sydney from Finding Sydney Foundation
http://www.findingsydney.com/

Pay your respects to these fine young men

Sixty Adelaide school students will represent the 60 South Australian sailors lost in the HMAS Sydney tragedy in 1941 during an ANZAC Eve commemoration on the Port River on April 24.

The focus of ANZAC Light on the Water 2008 will be on the 645 lost crew of the Sydney when up to 3000 cardboard lifeboats bearing lighted candles are launched on the river from the Birkenhead pontoons.

Adelaide and regional schools students and their families and war veterans make all of the lifeboats.

The names of the 60 lost South Australian sailors will be on the sides of the lifeboats to be launched by the sixty school students.

A special March and Salute by the RAN Ceremonial Unit will be a Dedication to the 645 officers and men of Sydney.

And a one-hour Ceilidh Music Concert by the SA Pipes and Drums will include a special Ode to the Finding Sydney Foundation search team.

The SA Pipes and Drums won international acclaim for their Ceilidh Music at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, the Merchant Navy Association SA and the Vindicatrix Association SA staged the first ANZAC Light on the Water on ANZAC Eve 2007 during the first Port Festival.

Work on the 2008 commemoration has been underway since late last year and indications that HMAS Sydney might be found early this year prompted organisers to put plans in place for that.

The overall focus in 2007 was on the merchant seamen who rowed our troops ashore at Gallipoli in 1915.

Event Director John Williams said while the Gallipoli lifeboats had inspired the creation of the event in 2007, each year the commemoration would focus on a significant chapter in the history of Australians at war.

“It is appropriate that this year we should focus on the loss of the Sydney and its 645 crew and in particular the South Australians who were lost in the tragedy.”

“Students related to any of the HMAS Sydney sailors will be the first to be invited to launch the lifeboats.

“All surviving relatives of the 60 sailors and the Finding Sydney Foundation search team leader David Mearns will be invited as guests of honour at this unique Port Adelaide commemoration.

“Relatives, if they wish, will also have the opportunity to float flowers from a vessel on the river during the ANZAC Eve commemoration.

“It is to be hoped that the commemoration will help to bring final closure to the relatives.”

“This year we are breaking with tradition and having a female Minister, Ali Wurm from St Bede's Semaphore who will pay tribute to the HMAS Sydney crew, their relatives and the Finding Sydney Foundation search team.

“This will be the first time a female Minister has officiated at a public ANZAC Eve commemoration.

“The new Federal Labor MP Mark Butler and Port Adelaide Mayor Gary Johanson will be among guest speakers.

“It is planned that the new Port Adelaide Seafarers Memorial will incorporate a Tribute to the HMAS Sydney Crew and the discovery by the Finding Sydney Foundation.”

The sinking of the Sydney on November 19, 1941 with the loss of all 645 crew devastated many Port Adelaide families.

The wreck was found on Sunday March 16 by at a depth of almost 2.5km about 100 nautical miles off the West Australian coast.

Four days earlier, the Finding Sydney Foundation search team Geosounder found Kormoran, the German raider responsible for sinking the Sydney in 1941.

The search area of 1500 square nautical miles was 10 times greater than that for the Titanic.


The City of Port Adelaide Enfield, Department of Education SA, Port Centre
Co-ordination Group, Naval Association SA, South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Royal Australian Navy, North Haven Surf Lifesaving Club, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, Port Adelaide Caledonian Society, Department of Transport SA, Port Adelaide Historical Society, Port Adelaide National Trust Branch, Maritime Union of Australia and a team of dedicated volunteers from Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, Merchant Navy Association SA, Vindicatrix Association SA and local residents all support ANZAC Light on the Water.

Finding Sydney Foundation:
www.findingsydney.com/

View a video tribute to HMAS Sydney and crew at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgtMaZVDcL4

New poster in The Port

Thanks to the Andre Stuyt at Port Centre Co-ordination Group and Sama Reid at City of Port Adelaide Enfield Publications there's a new poster in Black Diamond Square for
ANZAC Light on the Water 2008.

New lifeboat passes Sea Trials test

The prototype of the new Visy Board cardboard lifeboats for ANZAC Light on Water successfully underwent Sea Trials on the Port River on Friday March 14.
Our photo shows the lifeboat near one of the pontoons where up to 3000 will be launched in the commemoration event on April 24.

New templates for Gallipoli lifeboats

Our photos show the prototype cardboard template and the mock-up lifeboat we are working on with Visy Board in Wingfield.

Three thousand lifeboat templates will be delivered to schools in Adelaide and some regional centres in special packs with instructions and information about ANZAC Light on the Water on April 24.

Students will make their own boats for the ANZAC Eve tribute to the merchant seamen who rowed out troops ashore at Gallipoli in 1915.

Thousands of families are expected to pack Queens Wharf in Port Adelaide for the event which will open with a one hour Ceilidh Music Concert by SA Pipes and Drums.


An Indigenous Welcome will then herald the start of ANZAC Light on the Water with a Royal Australian Navy Ceremonial Unit parade and Salute.

A large fleet of the lifeboats containing lighted candles will be launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons in a moving salute to all war veterans.

Those who wish to design their own lifeboats are encouraged to do so as long as basic principles are followed.

The boats must be watertight and have a small wooden strip on the bottom so that they cannot sink.

Anyone wanting to use the cardboard template when they are available should email John Williams.

The City of Port Adelaide Enfield is funding and supporting the event which involves many organisations including the Merchant Navy Association SA, Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, Vindicatrix Association, Department of Education, Naval Association SA, Port Adelaide Sailing Club and Port Centre Co-ordination Group.

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A woman's touch for ANZAC event

The Reverend Ali Wurm who will officiate at the 2008 ANZAC Light on the Water commemoration on the Port River is the Parish Priest of a Semaphore church that was built 35 years before the Gallipoli campaign.

There is an unusual link to the Gallipoli lifeboats landing because many parishioners say the wooden ceiling of St Bede’s reminds them of being in a boat.

School students and families will launch several hundred candle-lit cardboard lifeboats from the Queens Wharf pontoons in a moving tribute to the merchant seamen who rowed our troops ashore in ship’s lifeboats on April 25 in 1915.

St Bede’s is active and engaged in the local area and strives to make a difference.

“We relate as a lively, nurturing and supportive community of faith, Rev Wurm says.

ANZAC Light on the Water information kits and cardboard templates will be distributed to schools in March so students can make their own lifeboats for the commemoration on the evening of Thursday April 24.

Some students at Our Lady of Visitation are already looking at some of their own designs for replica lifeboats and we encourage such individual efforts.

Our photo shows Semaphore and Port Adelaide families along with others from as far away as Leigh Creek at the inaugural ANZAC Light on the Water last April 24.


No cross marks the place where now we lie
What happened is known but to us
You asked, and we gave our lives to protect
Our land from the enemy curse
No Flanders Field where poppies blow;
No Gleaming Crosses, row on row;
No Unnamed Tomb for all to see
And pause—and wonder who we might be
The Sailors’ Valhalla is where we lie
On the ocean bed, watching ships pass by
Sailing in safety now through the waves
Often right over our sea-locked graves
We ask you just to remember us.

Pipes and drums on ANZAC Eve

To mark the start of ANZAC Light on the Water 2008 the South Australian Pipes and Drums band will present a one-hour concert in Lighthouse Square Port Adelaide at 6 pm on April 24.

Without a doubt they are South Australia’s most versatile and sought after pipe band.

The South Australian Pipes and Drums came into being in April 2003 in response to an invitation from the Director of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to perform at the Tattoo in August of that year.

The band was formed from very experienced pipers and drummers who accepted the invitation and embarked on the rather daunting challenge of training and equipping for the task ahead.

As a brand new band with no uniforms, the opportunity was taken to design a new tartan that incorporated the colours of the State of South Australia.

This has been registered as The South Australian Pipes and Drums Tartan and the band’s kilts and plaids are made of this distinctive design.

After a hectic period of fund raising, the South Australian Pipes and Drums, with some borrowed equipment, appeared at the 2003 Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The band recently made a successful visit to Moscow for public performances.

The band has been in constant demand to perform at concerts and street parades with their distinctive style of ceilidh music that they performed in November at the Semaphore Street Fair.

ANZAC Eve 2008

More schools and families from across Adelaide and as far away as Leigh Creek are expected to participate in a poignant and moving event on the Port River on ANZAC Eve.

Thanks to a $3000 grant from Port Adelaide Enfield Council to the Merchant Navy Association South Australia, the Gallipoli tribute ANZAC Light on the Water will be staged at the Queens Wharf pontoons on the night of April 24.

The success of ANZAC Light on the Water last year has led to it becoming an annual ANZAC event.

Additional funding is being sought from the State Government to enable more South Australian schools to take part.

With special emphasis on the merchant seamen who rowed the troops ashore for the 1915 Gallipoli landing, the event involves school students and families in making paper and cardboard lifeboats.

The paper and cardboard lifeboats containing lit candles are launched on the Port River as a symbolic tribute to all who have served in wars down the ages.

More than 500 paper and cardboard lifeboats were launched from the Queens Wharf pontoons by Surf Lifesavers, who manned the pontoons in the inaugural event, and many of them had the names of those who had served at Gallipoli on the sides of them.

Most of the lifeboats were made by students at Peninsular schools, but one of the main contributions was from Pinnaroo Primary School students.

The Port River was one of the main departure ports for merchant navy troopships during World Wars I and II.

Families whose loved ones were lost at Gallipoli brought family albums and other mementos to the first ANZAC Light on the Water to share with other families.

Information kits will shortly be provided for distribution to South Australian schools and they will contain instructions, templates for making cardboard lifeboats and supplies of tea light candles.

Also involved in promoting the ANZAC Eve event are The Merchant Navy Association, Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL, the Vindicatrix Association, Port Adelaide Enfield Council, Education Department, Port Adelaide Visitor Information Centre, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Maritime Museum, Port Centre Co-ordination Group, Land Management Council and Navy South Australia.

Sixty members of the South Australian branches of the Vindicatrix Association of South Australia, the Merchant Navy Association, Naval Associationof Australia, the Armed Merchant Cruisers and Landing Ships Infantry Association and two Vietnam veterans attended a special Sea Sunday celebration on July 8.

Sea Sunday was staged at the Naval Association clubrooms in Quebec Street, Port Adelaide and the officiating Chaplain was Ray Prettejohn.

After the Service, those present enjoyed a late lunch and a few cold ones at the bar in the superbly decorated clubrooms. Nowhere in Australia is there a such a collection of naval memorabilia and it should be heritage listed.

Sea Sunday was organised by Merchant Navy Association President Norm Anderson and Margaret Adair with support from Tony Iles and other members of the Vindicatrix Association and the Naval Association.

Vindicatrix SA Port Festival Events

People came from as far away as Leigh Creek, the desert town 567 kilometres north of Adelaide, to see the first ever Anzac Eve tribute to the merchant navy.
Many of those who were there launched paper lifeboats with the name of their great grandfather or grandfather who served in World War One or World War Two.
A fleet of about 500 paper lifeboats made by schoolchildren were launched on the Port River.

Anzac Eve photos by Sama Reid, Publications Officer Port Adelaide Enfield.

Port Adelaide schools are getting involved in our ANZAC Eve commemoration and the media are beginning to take notice. Here's the coverage from The Advertiser, Adelaide's daily newspaper.

Tribute of candles in the wind

Miniature Navy: North Haven Schools students Meghan and, clockwise from front, David, Thomas, Cheyanne and Chloe with their boats.

Picture: Sarah Reed The Advertiser

By Callie Watson The Advertiser

His great-grandfather fought in World War I and North Haven Schools student Chris plans to remember him in spectacular style.

The 12-year-old is one of hundreds of students in the Port Adelaide area constructing paper boats to commemorate the merchant navy's role at Gallipoli.

A fleet of 1000 paper boats holding candles to represent Australians involved in the famous battle will be launched into the Port River on April 24. It is part of the Light on the Water event at the biennial Port Festival.

Chris will write his great-grandfather's name on the side of his boat. "I think it's a good way to remember him and what he did," he said.

Merchant Navy Association of SA vice-president John Williams helped more than 300 students at North Haven Schools to make the boats yesterday.

"The students are very excited and interested in the history behind the paper boats and what they represent," he said.

Year 1 student Meghan, 6, is looking forward to seeing her boat sail as part of the stunning display. "I think it will be fun," she said.

Port Festival 2007

Merchant Navy Events

Saturday April 21 2007

Seafarers Continental breakfast

Seafarers Centre at 10 am

Merchant Navy Association Meeting

Seafarers Centre at 11.30 am

TALES OF THE SEA

BETWEEN 1 PM AND 3 PM

SUPPORTED BY MACGOWAN’S CAFÉ SEMAPHORE

A PRESENTATION OF SEA STORIES, POETRY, SONGS
AND MUSIC ON THE OPENING DAY OF

PORT FESTIVAL 2007 SATURDAY APRIL 21

IN BLACK DIAMOND SQUARE Near the old lighthouse

Seafarers from the Vindicatrix Association SA, Merchant Navy Association SA and Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL join with performers including Katie Jo from the regular Tuesday night Macgowan’s Café shows to bring you some of the drama and humour from their time at sea and in port.

TUESDAY APRIL 24 2007

7 PM TILL 8 PM

Light on the Water-Gallipoli Lifeboats

A special Tribute to the Merchant Navy at Queens Wharf Pontoon-Behind Seafarers Centre

Launching on Port River by school students, veterans and families of a fleet of paper lifeboats with lit candles

Blessing and Prayers by the Rev David Ingleton of the Uniting Church.

Final Lament by lone Piper Don MacAuley from the Caledonian Society Semaphore

UNIQUE EVENT ON ANZAC EVE

Vindicatrix Association SA is involved in organising and staging a unique event marking a major chapter in the history of Port Adelaide will be staged on Anzac Eve April 24 on the Port River during Port Adelaide Festival 2007.

Gallipoli Lifeboats involves the making by school students of individual paper boats which when launched on the Port River near Lighthouse Square will each contain a lighted candle symbolising the Gallipoli landing.

Lighthouse Square at 7 pm: Commentary on the Paper Boats event and its significance and a welcome by the Mayor of Port Adelaide Enfield, Gary Johanson. Introduction of Merchant Navy veterans and dignitaries.

7.30 pm: Local schoolchildren, veterans and familes launch a fleet of paper boats bearing lighted candles on the Port River near Lighthouse Square. The candles will represent all who served at Gallipoli. A short prayer and blessing of the paper boats by the Rev David Ingleton from the Uniting Church followed by a lament by lone piper Don MacAuley.

We in Australia and New Zealand commemorate April 25 as ANZAC Day, setting aside the day to remember and to pay homage to our fallen comrades.

This day was born out of Gallipoli, but how many of us are aware of the involvement of the Merchant Navy in that campaign? Australian merchant ships took all of our troops from Australian ports to Gallipoli, and in many cases landed our troops on the beach at ANZAC Cove in the ships’ lifeboats. These were manned by merchant seamen, who also came under the deadly fire from the Turkish guns.

The great majority of wounded at Gallipoli were taken in the ships’ lifeboats with merchant seamen again manning the oars to hospital ships waiting offshore.

The same merchant ships evacuated most of our troops from Gallipoli to Alexandria, Lemnos and Cyprus and then transported the wounded home to Australia.

http://www.anzacday.org.au/

TROOPS LEAVE FROM PORT ADELAIDE

Many of 134 troopships that transported Australians to the battlefields of World War One embarked from Port Adelaide.

Troop transports were requisitioned by the Australian Government for transporting the AIF overseas but in addition to carrying troops, horses and military stores they also carried wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for Britain and France. The fleet consisted mainly of British steamers and a few captured enemy ships.

MERCHANT NAVY LOSSES

It is not widely known that about 6.5 per cent of all Merchant Navy personnel died on Second World War service, a higher percentage than any other Service, and that during the Allied recapture of the Philippine Islands there were more Merchant Navy casualties than those of all other Services combined.

Of the seventy six merchant ships lost in Australian waters to mines, torpedoes, shelling and bombing, twenty-nine were Australian. The number of Australian merchant seamen lost on all the oceans will probably never be known. There are no war cemeteries to mark the passing of many of them.

http://www.merchant-navy-ships.com/

Norm Anderson, President of the Merchant Navy Association of South Australia and his partner Maggie Adair were guests at the September 24 Vindicatrix Associaton meeting at the Seafarers Centre. The two organisations will be working together on the maritime history theme for Port Adelaide Festival 2007.


Two of the SA Vindi Boys share a few memories at the September 24 meeting


Merchant Navy Veteran badge now available to those who served at sea



You can listen in on Secret Womens Business; I'm keeping my distance!




Members of the South Australian Branch at the 2005 Reunion in the Barossa Valley. The event was voted a huge success by Vindiboys from around the world.



Five South Australian Vindi Boys Jack Nicholls Ralph Cook, Martyn Grimsell, Les Cooke and Graeme Tetlow first met at the Somerset Hotel Bridge Road Para Hills in mid year 1996. “We then met once or twice in my house in Elizabeth after which meetings where held in the Port Dock Hotel Port Adelaide, Jack said. “Our first A.G.M. was held in 1997, “Graeme is missing from the photo.
“I think he must have been behind the camera.”

EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK
THE FORTUNATE LIFE OF A VINDICATRIX BOY
Twelve weeks training at the Vindicatrix Sea Training School enabled over 70,000 teenage boys to go to sea aboard British merchant vessels during war and peace from 1939 to 1966.
Boys who applied to train there had to pass a tough medical and for many the training course was their first time away from home. During wartime the boys were kitted out in navy jerseys and oilskins which were later replaced by two-piece navy serge suits. I joined the ranks of the ‘Vindi boys’ in 1951.
Vindicatrix Deck boys wore blue shirts and as Catering boys we wore white ones; and on their uniform shoulders Deck boys had a red flash with Merchant Navy while we had a blue one. Deck boys trained in boat handling, signalling, compass steering, knotting, splicing, cleaning brass and scrubbing decks. We learnt how to make bunks, clean cabins, prepare vegetables, set tables and serve food. In the shore camp there were wooden accommodation huts, stores, offices, sick bay, parade ground and vegetable garden. These were encircled by a wire fence with guard hut and reception manned 24 hours a day. A nearby Mission to Seamen provided recreation facilities where we could play snooker, darts and table tennis. There were boxing tournaments and monthly dances.

TO THE WRECKERS

The Vindicatrix finally went to the wreckers in January 1967 after proudly living up to her Latin name “She who vindicates herself”. The “ship with three names” has been bobbing up in my life again from the time I set sail on my first voyage on the Coulgarve. The Coulgarve was a tramp steamer of 2946 tons, built by Lithgow Ltd in Glasgow. I was not aware at that time that Lithgow Ltd was a firm founded in 1918 from Russell & Co – builders of the Arranmore in 1893. Russell & Co had a brilliant reputation, constructing no less than 500 square-rigged sailing vessels. W.I.Lithgow became sole partner in Russell & Co in 1912 and after the name changed Lithgow built up its own reputation.
The Arranmore sailed under the Red Ensign for 17 years and when sold and renamed Waltraute flew the German flag for 10 years. Arranmore had been sold to a German shipping line and as the Waltraute saw World War One service as a submarine training base and a POW prison before the British reclaimed her and she became the Vindicatrix.


Photo of the Arranmore courtesy of the State Library of South Australia.

HIT BY A GALE

Six years after Arranmore was launched the vessel was nearly lost in a strong gale in Algoa Bay off Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Algoa Bay records high winds often and today attracts windsurfers from around the globe. Arranmore was riding out the gale, but another Russell& Co vessel the steamer Mashona severed Arranmore’s both anchors and dragged her spare anchor overboard. The gale drove Arranmore onto the beach by midnight, but incredibly all of her crew managed to scramble to safety. At first Arranmore was considered a total loss, but fortunately her hull remained intact and she was eventually salvaged. However 12 years later Mashona was wrecked and the next vessel to carry that name, the Royal Navy Tribal class destroyer HMS Mashona, was sunk by German aircraft off the coast of Ireland in May 1941.
Having the same shipbuilder was not the only thing that Coulgarve and the ship with three names had in common. Arranmore’s maiden voyage in 1893 lasted 18 months and in that time she circumnavigated the globe. My first voyage aboard Coulgarve was meant to be three months, but lasted 14 months. We didn’t circumnavigate the world, but travelled around the same distance in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Caribbean and North Seas.

SAILS TO AUSTRALIA

Arranmore first sailed to Australia in 1904 and as I write this I am only a few yards from the signal station that greeted and farewelled her as she sailed into and out of Port Adelaide. All that remains of the signal station is the time ball tower by which Arranmore would have rated its chronometer. Erected in 1875, the tower was used to signal the time of 1pm each day, but with the advent of time wireless signals in 1932 the practice was discontinued. For nearly three years I had coffee every morning at the Cafe Saltwater in Semaphore next to the time ball tower, unaware of the local connection with the ship with three names.
VIEW FROM THE SALTWATER


It was on Anzac Day April 25, 2004 that I began to make new connections with my past after watching a small group of men parade in the annual Anzac Day march with a banner which read Vindicatrix Association. This prompted me to pop the name into an Internet search engine and discover the extent of the world-wide network of Vindi boys. On June 29, 2005 I finally joined that network when I attended my first meeting of the Vindicatrix Association South Australian branch at the Seafarers Centre in Port Adelaide.

Artwork and photos subject to copyright