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Ships On Stamps and other
matters.
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| SHIPS FORM A POPULAR STAMP COLLECTING
THEME, RANGING FROM THE SAILING VESSELS OF A BYGONE ERA, TO WARSHIPS, TO THE MERCHANT MARINE OF TODAY. |
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Among the engraved examples is a stamp showing the Ocean at anchor in Sullivan's Cove, Hobart, in February 1804, part of an issue commemorating the 150th anniversary of the European settlement of Tasmania.
The 1963-1964 Navigators series is widely regarded as one of Australia's classic stamp issues. |
| Several of the stamps, which were reissued in decimal denominations in 1966, feature sailing ships, two of which are shown here.
As no contemporary depiction of Tasman's ship could be found, the vessel in the background of the 40c stamp was adopted from a pen and ink drawing by Mr. R. Serle of the Ship Modelling Society of Victoria.
Matthew Flinders charted the southern coastline of Australia and circumnavigated the continent in the Investigator, shown in the background of the $1 stamp.
This representation was based on an etching by Mr G. C. Ingleton, who also constructed the models shown on the 1983 Australia Day stamps.
A busy Melbourne harbour scene, with merchant ships and attendant tugboat, was depicted on a stamp released in 1969 to commemorate the International Ports and Harbors Conference. |
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| A more abstract
design featuring shipping formed part of the National Development definitives issued in 1973. |
| Cook's ship, the Endeavour, was shown several times in the 1970 stamp issue celebrating the bicentenary of the charting of the east coast of Australia. Robert Ingpen, the stamp designer, explained that he was commissioned "to represent the Endeavour symbolically connecting landfall with landing, the landing with recording and mapping, and so on until the Endeavour left the scene..." |
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A rather different view of a ship was shown in the $10 stamp issued in 1977, which reproduced Tom Roberts' famous painting Coming South, based on sketches made during Roberts' voyage back to Australia in 1885 aboard the S.S. Lusitania, the first mail steamer of the Orient Line.
The Sydney Opera House provided a dramatic backdrop for the Royal Yacht Britannia, featured on the 1983 Queen's Birthday stamp.
Britannia 's chief function is to serve as both an official and private residence for members of the Royal Family.
Outstanding examples of the vessels which plied the England-Australia sea route in the second half of the 19th century were featured in the 1984 Clipper Ships issue. The Sobraon, shown here, was built in Scotland and launched in 1866, the largest ship of her type ever constructed and a challenger to the giant American clippers.
Th e f our cl ippers d epicted on the stamps recall a time when the tall-masted and rakish sailing ships dominated the sea lanes of the
w orld. |
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In 1985 the second stamp issue of the Australian Bicentennial Collection featured Navigators once again.
Dirk Hartog's ship, the Eendracht, was the focus of one of the four stamps, based on a detail from an oil painting by Aert Anthonisz, Het schip De Eendragbt voor iisselmonde, painted in 1618.
H.M.S. Buffalo, which carried Governor Hindmarsh and his family to South Australia, was shown on one of the two stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of South Australia.
The Buffalo was drawn by Robert Sexton. |
| Australia Day is celebrated on 26 January, the day in 1788 when the first fleet arrived at Sydney Cove. |
| For the 1983 Australia Day issue a se-tenant pair of stamps featured models of the two naval vessels of the first fleet, HMS Sirius and HM Brig Supply.
The models were made in Sydney by G. C. Ingleton for the 1937-1938 sesquicentenary celebrations, on a scale of one twenty-fourth of the original size from contemporary dockyard plans preserved at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. |
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The biggest stamp design venture ever undertaken by Australia Post was the series commemorating the bicentenary of the voyage of the first fleet.
A total of 21 stamps was released over a nine-month period, tracing the route followed by the eleven ships which departed from Portsmouth in 1787.
Sue Passmore's illustrations for the Departure set were based on contemporary drawings, engravings, paintings and Admiralty plans.
With the advent of significant war anniversaries in the 1990s, warships have begun to feature regularly on Australian stamps.
The first was a distant view of a departing troopship in the 1990 Anzac Tradition issue. The stamps paid tribute to the experience of war for the whole community. |
In 1992 stamps commemorating the 50th anniversaries of the bombing of Darwin and the battle of the Coral Sea featured naval vessels under fire.
On a more peaceful note, the 1992 Australia Day stamps highlighted Australia's maritime heritage by featuring three ships from the collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum and Australia's national sail training ship, Young Endeavour. |
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Acknowledgements |
- AUSTRALIA POST WISHES TO THANK CHRIS AND TINA COULTHARD-CLARK AND THE STAFF OF ALL
THE INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS LISTED BELOW FOR THEIR CO-OPERATION AND ASSISTANCE. PHOTOGRAPHS,
PAINTINGS AND OBJECTS HAVE BEEN REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF THE FOLLOWING:
- Australian War Memorial (AWM)
- Navy Photographic Unit, Sydney
(NPU)
- Cover and title page: Dennis Adams, HMAS Perth 1942 oil on canvas 50.4 x 61.2 cm (AWM 26927)
- p.2 Signalling on HMAS Castlemaine (Maritime Trust of Australia)
- p.4-5 Frank Norton, First Convoy in the Indian Ocean, 20 January 1940, (Departure of HMA Ships Australia and Canberra) 1960 oil on canvas 174 x 315 cm AWM (27542); HMAS Canberra (AWM 44097); Stained-glass window, HMAS Perth, Garden Island Naval Dockyard Chapel
(NPU)
- p.6-7 Men of HMAS Hobart and HMAS Arunta talking (AWM 112235); Crew of HMAS Hobart swim at Suez, July 1941 (AWM 300762)
- p.8-9 HMAS Shropshire bombarding Red Beach, Morotai, September 1944 (AWM 301104); WRANS marching (AWM P1262/308/307)
- p.10-11 Phil Belbin, HMAS Australia under Kamikaze attack, at Leyte Gulf, 21 October 1944, oil on canvas (HMAS Penguin/Marinart Productions); Crew of HMAS
Australia-showing damage (AWM Y013/017/10)
- p.12-13 HMAS Canberra sinking (AWM 137295); Stained-glass window, HMAS Sydney, Garden Island Naval Dockyard Chapel
(NPU)
- p.14-15 Frank Norton, Sydney-Bartolomeo Colleoni action, 19 July 1940 1961 oil on canvas 91.7 x 122.6 cm AWM (28486); Captain J A Collins (AWM 2447) The Carley float (AWM)
- p.16-17 The Perth bell (AWM); Damage to HMAS Hobart, July 1943 (AWM 101164); Dennis Adams, HMAS Perth in the battle of Sunda Strait, 28 February 1942 1964 oil on canvas 147.4 x 266
cm AWM (27557)
- p.18-19 HMAS Nestor sinking (AWM 106670); Frank Norton, HMAS Stuart in the battle of Matapan 1941 1968-69 oil on canvas 101.6 x 2286 cm AWM (2723); HMAS Voyager aground (AWM 157242)
- p.20-21 HMAS Arunta, 1942 (AWM 13650); HMAS Shropshire and HMAS Arunta, 1944 (AWM 111877); HMAS Nizam at Alexandria 1941 (AWM 61018)
- p.22-23 HMAS Warrego at Port Moresby (AWM 26608);
Lt. Comm. Robert Rankin (AWM P871/11/04);
- p.24-25 HMAS Vendetta at Madang (AWM 30212/3);
Odgers, George Ross Shardlow, HMAS Arunta
- p.26-27 First rivet of HMAS Bathurst (Imperial War Museum); Depth-charges on HMAS Castlemaine (Maritime Trust of Australia); HMAS Bathurst launch (AWM 004269)
- p.28-29 Troops on HMAS Ballarat (AWM 300427); HMAS Deloraine at Darwin (AWM 128108); Lt.Comm. D A Menlove (Private Collection); Dale Marsh, Ordinary seaman E Sheean, HMAS Armidale 1978 oil on hardboard 49.5 x 64.8 cm AWM (28160)
- p.30-31 Stained-glass window for the corvettes Garden Island Naval Dockyard Chapel (NPU); HMAS Broome in heavy weather (AWM 41291); Surrender on HMAS Kapunda (AWM Y13/17/14)
- p.32-33 Kanimbla and Manoora (AWM 106684); Ward on Manunda (AWM 2520); Frank Norton, HMAS Manoora sinks the scuttled Italian ship Romolo 1942 oil on canvas 55.9 x 71.1 cin AWM (22328)
- p.34-35 Injured on Wanganella (AWM 432460); Sister Savage (AWM 44428); Bungaree (AWM 128095);
Stained glass window, Centaur (Concord Repatriation Hospital)
- p.36-37 Kuttabul sunk (AWM 42975); Kralt (National Maritime Museum)
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| OFFICIAL WAR HISTORIES |
| Gill, G. Hermon |
Royal Australian Navy 1939-1942,
Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1957. |
| Gill, G. Hermon |
Royal Australian Navy 1942-1945,Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1968. |
| Mellor, D. P. |
The Role of Science and Industry,
Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1958. |
| GENERAL BOOKS |
| Evans, Alun |
Royal Australian Navy, Sydney, Time-Life Books, 1988. |
| Gillett, Ross |
Warships of Australia, Adelaide, Rigby, 1977. |
| Goodman, Rupert |
Hospital Ships,
Brisbane, Boolarong, 1992. |
| Jenkins, David |
Battle
Surface! Sydney, Random House, 1992. |
| Nesdale, Iris |
The Corvettes, Adelaide, author, 1982. |
| Nesdale, Iris |
Action Stations, Adelaide, HMAS Warramunga Veterans' Association, 1989. |
| ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY |
| Odgers,
George |
The Royal Australian Navy, Sydney, Child & Henry, 1982. |
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