HMAS WYATT EARP
Date1947
Object number00054695
NameCap tally
MediumCotton
DimensionsOverall: 32 × 875 mm
ClassificationsClothing and personal items
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Rhod Cook
DescriptionHMAS WYATT EARP cap tally of William Frank Cook, RAN, who was the ship's First Lieutenant. HMAS WYATT EARP was the primary research vessel for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition of 1947-1948.HistoryHMAS WYATT EARP was originally built as the Norwegian fishing vessel Fanefjord in 1919. In 1933 it was purchased by American Antarctic explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and named Wyatt Earp after the famed American lawman of Dodge City, Kansas and Tombstone, Arizona. The vessel was acquired by the Royal Australian Navy in 1939, renamed HMAS Wongala (an Indigenous Australian word meaning 'Boomerang'), and operated as an examination vessel and guardship in South Australian waters during the Second World War. In 1947 the vessel was renamed HMAS WYATT EARP prior to its involvement in the Australian National Antarctic Resarch Expedition. It was decommissioned and sold in 1951, ultimately renamed M/V Natone, and was wrecked on Queensland's Rainbow Beach in January 1959.SignificanceThe cap tally belonged to Captain William Cook, a Royal Australian Navy officer who served as second-in-command aboard HMAS Wyatt Earp, the first Australian naval vessel to participate in an Antarctic research expedition (the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) in the immediate post-war period.
