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SS MARIPOSA lighter

Date1959

Object number00054827

NameLighter

MediumAluminium, paint

DimensionsOverall: 50 × 50 × 5 mm, 55 g

ClassificationsTools and equipment

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Jeff Allan

Terms

DescriptionA souvenir lighter from USS MARIPOSA, a Matson Line passenger ship that serviced the Pacific route between the West Coast of the United States and the East Coast of Australia for twenty years. This souvenir lighter of SS MARIPOSA was given to Vanessa Roberson the ships Chief Radio Operator, Peter Garaoeula in 1959. HistoryThe SS MARIPOSA II, C-Class cargo ship, was originally named SS PINE TREE MARINER and launched November 1952 and purchased by Matson Line in 1955. Under Matson the SS MARIPOSA was rebuilt as a luxury first class cruise liner accommodating 365 passengers and operated on the San Francisco to Sydney service between 1956 and 1977. This commemorative lighter for SS MARIPOSA was part of collection belonging to Vanessa Roberson. Her story is told here by her grandson, Jeff Allan: "My grandmother spent her last 10 years in a fog of dementia, but I could still squeeze a memory from her, even a cackle, if I mentioned the navy balls of the '50s. They were the brightest spots in her life. She lived in Sydney's King Cross, just minutes away from where the navy - and visiting navies - used to dock their ships at the city's naval base. The excitement and glamour of an incoming fleet brightened an otherwise poverty stricken life. Vanessa Roberson, known as Zena to her family, Van to her friends, grew up in country New South Wales. Born in 1912, she married early and spent her days cooking for the farm workers on her property. She would rise early, collect eggs and milk, prepare breakfast for 20 men and take it out to the back paddocks, returning only in time to begin the process over again for a cooked lunch. The rest of her time was spent washing, cleaning and looking after her only son. Meanwhile, her husband openly slept around town and had little time for her. At some stage, in her late 30's, Vanessa left. She arrived at Sydney's Central station with a son under one arm and a wooden mantle clock under the other. Cleaning out my father’s flat recently, I came across an old briefcase among a pile of junk headed for the tip. My father, Vanessa's only son, now 80, was doing a big-out and had no t8ime for "sentimental crap". My brother and I made five trips to the tip that day, and I hoarded anything that looked like it might have belonged to my grandmother, shoving it under the seat of my car. back home that night, I opened the briefcase and found my Nan's life inside: American Zippo lighters from the 1950's and 1960's, some in their original boxes, some not, each engraved with the US Navy ship's insignia, all with small notes listing the captain's name, the ship and the date. (She was an excellent note-keeper. It makes me ponder what our children will find of us? Will we even leave handwritten records? Will a thousand digital photos on a USB contain the same wonder as a single black-and-white photo of my grandmother posing by a train?) A suitcase I managed to salvage contained hundreds of letters, original ship boarding brochures and scallop-edged invitations to the navy ball (God knows what else my father threw out). Names became real people. There was Rocky, a captain who escorted my grandmother on board the USS ARNEB, while engaged in Operation Deep Freeze, the US Navy's mission to Antarctica. He squired Vanessa around town and gave her several lighters, including a beautiful art deco mother-of-pearl version. He pursued her for marriage but she was never to go into that institution again. She would write to these men long after they had sailed away, and they would write back regularly, in warm letters telling of their voyages, of crime-riddled Chicago or tropical Pago Pago, and they would always enclose a ship's lighter, per her request. Whenever I saw my Nan, even as she faded so far that she didn’t know who I was, I could still make her laugh. I only had to mention the Coral Sea Ball. She may have been bed- bound in a nursing home but for Vanessa Roberson, a happy dreamer formerly of Cooma New South Wales, latterly Kings Cross, in her mind it was 1957 and she was dancing with Rocky." Jeff Allan, The Australian Financial Review, 19 December 2015. SS MARIPOSA II, C-Class cargo ship originally named SS PINE TREE MARINER that was launched November 1952, completed in early 1953 and purchased by Matson Line in 1955. Under Matson it was rebuilt as a luxury first class cruise liner accommodating 365 passengers. MARIPOSA operated on the San Francisco to Sydney service between 1956 and 1957. This souvenir is significant in the context of the US-Australian transport route between San Francisco and Sydney and the historical relation to the Matson line and the liner’s namesake, SS MARIPOSA launched in 1931 as part of the “White Fleet”, which included the SS MONTEREY, SS MALOLO and SS LURLINE. The MARIPOSA serviced the Pacific route between the West Coast of the USA and the East Coast of Australia from January 1932 and was drafted into service as a troop carrier during the Second World War. Following World War II the MONTEREY served as a bride ship, transporting Australian women who had married US servicemen during the war to their new homes in the United States. Between February and July 1946 it made three voyages from Brisbane and one from Sydney carrying over 2,600 women in total. SignificanceThis lighter part of an unusual and comprehensive collection of mainly US Navy (but including RCN, RAN, RN and Matson line) ship souvenirs, letters, book matches, badges and invitations documents Navy ship visits to Sydney in the period between 1950 and 1980. The collection includes souvenirs from USN vessels serving in the Vietnam War that visited Sydney for maintenance, repair and rest and recreation.

The preponderance of souvenir cigarette lighters and matches indicate the status of tobacco smoking as an acceptable and even desrirable social habit of this period. Many of the lighters are the American Zippo brand which was used as a marketing device and souvenir by many American companies and entities. They are collectable and are considered to significant in the history of US product design.