Barque RAUPO as a coal hulk at Lyttelton, New Zealand

Date1922-1930

Object number00050297

NameNegative

MediumCellulose (nitrate or acetate) negative

DimensionsOverall: 83 x 57 x 5 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Margaret Royds

Terms

DescriptionThis black and white negative depicts a starboard view of a three-masted ship moored at a wharf.HistoryRenamed RAUPO in 1916 it was used for trade between New Zealand, USA and Australia until 1921. From 1922 it was a coal hulk in Lyttelton until the late 1930s. Basil Moffitt de Bohun Helm (1903-1996) was born in Sydney and went to sea at the age of 15, in 1919. He served his-four year apprenticeship with Burns Philp on the auxiliary sailing ship MAKOA, trading to Tonga and the west coast of America. As a junior officer he served in sailing ships in the Pacific Island region until 1925, when he went into steam ships. He served in various Australian coastal ships with Howard Smith Company until 1928 when he went back to Burns Philp. He served on several well known ships in their Main Line fleet, on the services between Australia and Papua, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. At some point he gained his foreign-going square-rigged Master's Certificate (ie for sail and steam), No 0066, Commonwealth of Australia, issued in Sydney. (This certificate is not in the collection, but is referred to in a letter, without date.) In 1938 Burns Philp sent him to Scotland to attend the fitting out of their new liner M V BULOLO, and to return on the commissioning voyage as Chief Officer. His first command was MV MAIWARA in 1939, back in the Pacific Island routes. He brought his wife and two children from Sydney to live in Rabaul. SignificanceThis photograph is part of the Basil Helm collection, which has considerable significance in documenting Australia's maritime commerce history. It gives a detailed picture of the life of a merchant shipmaster in the first half of the twentieth century, not only of the sea-going aspects but also of his personal and family life and the way it was affected by his seafaring career.

The collection is particularly interesting in the picture it gives of the World War II years, when Helm and other seamen like him were vital to the Allied operations in the region, which has never been well known or recorded. Objects such as a letter of appreciation signed by a large number of expatriate refugees he rescued from the advancing Japanese in his ship MULIAMA, and a letter from his eight-year old daughter Margaret (in which she had drawn pictures of her father on his ship firing at a Japanese plane) which he carried in his wallet throughout the war, give insight into these experiences.

The collection is also significant in representing Burns Philp, a unique and important company in Australian maritime history. Burns Philp's inter-island shipmasters were known for their eccentricity and colourful reputation. Finally, the collection contains a superb record of the celebrated Queensland Coast and Torres Strait Pilot Service. This organisation was closely connected to Burns Philp, from which several of its pilots, including Helm, came. The documents, dockets, accounts and correspondence kept by Helm constitute an archive of the way this important organisation operated.