The sketchbook of John Schutze
Datec 1910
Object number00003592
NameBook
MediumInk on paper, cloth
DimensionsOverall: 17 x 270 x 188 mm, 0.4 kg
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionSketchbook kept by Captain John Schutze (Frederick Julius George Schutz), Captain of MARY ISABELLE in 1910. Comprising 34 drawings of sailing ships in a Walker's Artist Sketchbook. Schutz sailed on the POLTALLOCH, commanded by Captain Armstrong on the Trans Tasman route from Australia to North America.HistoryJohn Schultz served on a number of international sailing ships in the years 1903 to 1905, he became affectionately known as 'German John' or 'Big John' to his crew. Schultz joined the crew of the POLTALLOCH a fully rigged, four masted ship which sailed regularly between Australia and North America. The ship then was under the command of Captain Armstrong.
John Schultz was a popular member of the crew of the POLTALLOCH, appreciated for his good humour and artstic talents. He was a noted song writer, singer, musician and artist. For a time he left the sea to work on the rail bridge of the Hawkesbry River. Returning to the sea he sailed the Tasman for a time before again joining the larger international sailers where he later studied for command of his own ships. One such ship being MARY ISABELLE.
In that age of steam, the Nineteenth Century, Newcastle was the principal coal port of the Pacific region, supplying fuel for locomotives, steam ships, smelters and gas companies to Asia, Oceania, South America and North America. One third of all coal produced in New South Wales went into its overseas trade and San Francisco took hundreds of thousands of tons from Newcastle between 1850 and 1915.
The collieries of the Hunter River district were insignificant until about 1830 when the development of steam navigation began to create a commercial market for their output. Australian paddle steamers consumed most of their coal but occasional cargoes went overseas and in 1850 the first significant exports went to the United States.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 created a rush to that isolated region of North America and steamships began to ply between Panama and the goldfields. Coal had to be found in the Pacific and in 1850 twenty American ships sailed to Newcastle to pioneer what was to be one of Australia's most important nineteenth century trading links with the United States. A visit or to the port at that time, the Presbyterian clergyman, politician, missionary and author, John Dunmore Lang, was amazed at the change in Newcastle:
"Formerly, like the Dead Sea, no sign of life upon its still waters, except when a solitary steamer was passing to and fro between Hunter's River and the capital now full of life and motion flaunting with stars and stripes."
Recognising the importance of this development, the coal merchants arranged a farewell for the captain, officers and passengers of the first of the American ships, the SACRAMENTO.
This, by far the most important foreign order for Australian coal up to that time, had been arranged by the Australian Agricultural Company, the principal Newcastle coal producer, through its head office in London.SignificanceA skilled artist, John Schutze recorded a number of the vessels working during the time he travelled the trans-Tasman route from Australia to North America. From all over the world and of various types, the sketchbook suggests the large numbers of vessels crossing the globe at the time.
