Crew member at ship's wheel of LORD WOLSELEY

Photographer Samuel J Hood Studio (Australian, 1899 - 1953)

Datec 1910

Object number00023159

NameNitrate negative

MediumEmulsion on nitrate film.

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

Sydney

DescriptionThis photograph depicts a crew member at the ship's wheel on board E R STERLING. The bell in the background is inscribed with 'LORD WOLSELEY BELFAST'. E R STERLING was originally built in Belfast in 1883 as four-masted iron ship LORD WOLSELEY. In 1904 it was renamed EVERETT G GRIGGS and modified into a six-masted barquentine. It was sold and renamed E R STERLING in 1910, and was broken up in 1927.HistoryThe six-masted barquentine E R STERLING was initially named LORD WOLSELEY and built as a four-masted vessel in Belfast, Ireland in 1883. In 1904, it was renamed EVERETT G GRIGGS and modified to a six-masted barquentine. It was then sold to the American shipowner and sea captain, Edward Robert Sterling, in around 1910 before being renamed E R STERLING. The barquentine became the pride of the Sterling Line. It became famous for its state-of-the-art saloon which, according to the ‘Cairns Post’, moved beyond ‘cramped quarters’ and ‘hurricane lamps’ to a player piano and a gramophone, which Sterling had concealed in the room’s centre table, an ‘ingenious combination’ of music and dining table. On 16 April 1927, the ship left Port Adelaide for London with a cargo of between 40,000 and 50,000 bags of wheat. All was going well until it rounded Cape Horn and encountered icebergs stretching for 500 miles (800 km). After navigating through those, the crew faced a heavy gale north of the Falkland Islands on 4 July and the barquentine was partially dismasted. With only four masts remaining, Captain E R Sterling made the fateful decision to sail on and forgo refuge at the port of Montevideo. After crossing the equator at 4 am on 4 September near the Cape Verde Islands, E R STERLING was hit by a hurricane. Four gruelling hours later, the foremast was lost and Chief Officer Roderick Mackenzie was fatally injured as he attempted to rescue the rigging. There was no doctor on board and Captain Sterling tended to the wounded man in his quarters. Two hours later, the captain read the committal sentences as the chief officer’s body was lowered over the ship into his watery grave. SS Norman Monarch eventually answered their SOS calls, offering to tow the vessel into port; however, Captain Sterling declined the offer. Instead, he and the crew made their way to Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, in the West Indies. According to the captain’s report, they sailed 2,212 miles (3,560 km) in poor weather and vessel conditions before arriving in port on 15 October. The cargo was transferred to a steamer, then on 15 December E R STERLING was towed 4,000 miles (6,430 km) to London, arriving in the Thames in a shambles on 28 January 1928. It had been a horror voyage that took a total of nine months. On 24 March 1928, E R STERLING made its last voyage to Sunderland, where it met its end at the hands of shipbreakers.SignificanceThis image is part of a series of photographs by Samuel J Hood that relates to American shipowner Captain Edward Robert Sterling and his fleet of sailing ships. The photographs depict family, friends and crew on board the American vessels and contrast with the sad fate that befell the Sterling Line. The images demonstrate a time when ships’ portraits were popular among crew members, before steam superseded sail and the demand for Hood’s portraiture declined.