Thank you and welcome to Richard de Grijs, who is newly joining us. Richard is an astrophysicist and maritime historian at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). He holds professional appointments as both professor of astrophysics at Macquarie University and Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute–Beijing, a 25% secondment. He recently published the first detailed biography of William Dawes, the astronomer assigned to the “First Fleet” from England to Australia (1787–1788), his second history of science book following the publication of Time and Time Again: Determination of Longitude at Sea in the 17th Century (2017). Richard spends his weekends as volunteer guide on the Australian National Maritime Museum’s historical (replica) tall ships. He is the current chair of the Maritime Museum’s Speakers’ group, a role in which he coordinates public talks by a dozen dedicated, expert volunteer speakers.
In addition to numerous academic accolades, in 2022 Richard was awarded the Blacktown Mayoral History Prize (Sydney). That year, he also received the Hella Mannheimer Award from the Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities. In addition to his astrophysics pursuits, Richard’s historical interests relate to the history of maritime navigation, with particular emphasis on the perennial “longitude problem”. His current main maritime history project is a biography of Samuel Ward Flinders, Matthew Flinders’ youngest brother, who doubled as the dedicated astronomer on HMS Investigator during the vessel’s first circumnavigation of Australia in 1801–1803.
The cessation of World War II hostilities motivated the Australian Federal Government to assert sovereignty and establish a permanent base in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The subsequent search to acquire a suitable expedition vessel resulted in a complete refit of an old polar favourite, Lincoln Ellsworth’s reliable and trustworthy M/V Wyatt Earp. Plagued by a litany of problems during the 1947–1948 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, its 37-strong crew showed commendable resilience, turning a potential disaster-in-the-making into the Australian navy’s first and only successful polar research mission.
Wyatt Earp in pack ice during one of the Ellsworth Antarctic expeditions. from https://seapower.navy.gov.au/hmas-wyatt-earp
AN UNEXPECTED CHOICE
The choice of vessel was extraordinary. Underpowered, badly leaking and astonishingly unstable, the now celebrated voyage to the world’s most hostile waters appeared a disaster waiting to happen. Yet, despite all odds, the improbably named HMAS Wyatt Earp’s 1947–1948 Antarctic research expedition was remarkably successful, a clear testimony to the crew’s formidable resilience.
Launched as a cargo ship in 1919, the Norwegian-built ‘motorskip’ M/S Fanefjord was converted to an Antarctic expedition vessel in 1933. The ship was refurbished to comfortably accommodate the 17 members of Lincoln Ellsworth’s legendary voyages to the southern continent. By November 1947, the RAN, the Royal Australian Navy, commissioned the ‘Twerp’ as its first—and so far only—Antarctic research vessel. An almost complete rebuild at Torrens Dock in Port Adelaide, South Australia, created accommodation for 37 crew members—although clearly at the expense of significant personal space.
STRUCTURAL ISSUES
The ship had served Ellsworth’s four polar expeditions of 1933–1939 exceptionally well. However, a decade later, during the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, ANARE, the vessel was considered small for the size of its crew, equipment and stores. In fact, space on board became a serious challenge, given that they also carried a Vought–Sikorsky OS2U—‘Old, Slow and Ugly’—Kingfisher floatplane for reconnaissance missions.
The crew’s discomfort was made worse by the shape of the vessel’s superstructure: round bilged, but without bilge keels to slow down the often violent rolling motion. With a draught of just 14 feet (4.4 metres), rolls exceeding 40 degrees were reportedly common, with 55-degree rolls not exceptional in the frequently rough seas typical of Antarctic voyages.
She was the ‘stiffest’ ship I have ever known, with a period (for a double roll) of 4½ seconds. This was reassuring in one sense, for she was unlikely to capsize, but the angular accelerations generated as she moved through 100 degrees or more and back again in 4½ seconds had to be experienced to be believed. In a heavy sea, objects not securely fastened would be hurled horizontally against the bulkheads, while objects carelessly lashed would tear loose and follow the same trajectory.1
Not even its modest engine power could do much to stabilise the ship’s incessant rolling motion. Despite the installation of a new 8-cylinder, 400 horse-power Crossley diesel engine, the vessel remained seriously underpowered for its 408 tons. Under engine power alone, a top speed of 8½ knots (15.7 k.p.h.) could be reached; hoisting the sails might increase that to 10 or 10½ knots (18.5–19.5 k.p.h.), hardly enough to make any headway in heavy polar seas, buffeted by gale-force winds.2
TheWyatt Earp’s limited power would eventually prevent the 1947–1948 expedition from making its way through the Antarctic’s pack ice. That should not have come as a surprise, however: the first and last Ellsworth expeditions had also been impeded by the floating ice fields. Ultimately, the Wyatt Earp’s inability to break through the ice led to the involuntary suspension of ANARE’s main goal, the establishment of a permanent Australian presence on the Antarctic continent.
A LITANY OF PROBLEMS
The polar battler’s major refit of 1947 extended the vessel’s superstructure upward and forward, now reaching a length of 135 feet (41.3 metres). This refurbishment had allowed for the construction of more accommodation, a higher bridge, a new chartroom and a cosmic-ray laboratory. Gaps between the extended outside planking had, however, been caulked poorly. And apparently nothing could be done to alleviate the resulting leakage of sea water into the crew’s living areas.
When the ship rolled enough to immerse these parts of the hull, sea water would be forced through the gaps [between the planks]. For much of the voyage, the cabins on each side of the main deck had three inches of icy water sloshing around on their decks.3
If these structural issues on their own were not enough to deter any aspiring crew member from signing on, the Wyatt Earp was also troubled by periodic breakages of its gyro compass, echo sounder, steering gear and propeller glands. To add insult to injury, the refurbished exploration vessel did not carry a fresh-water generator. This prompted strict rationing of drinking water, except when the ship was alongside an ice floe where ice blocks could be cut, melted and tanked.
Yet, despite this slew of minor and major inconveniences, on 19 December 1947 the Wyatt Earp set off from Melbourne’s Port Phillip to Hobart, Tasmania, and the Antarctic’s icy wilderness on a voyage that was challenging from the outset:
During the afternoon [of 20 December] the wind veered to E.S.E. with gusts up to 55 m.p.h. [90 k.p.h.] accompanied by driving rain and spray. Ship’s way was almost stopped and due to fully loaded condition the ship’s movement was extremely violent and uncomfortable. Water poured into the ship’s side into after accommodation, through fore decking into accommodation for’ard and through bridge structure into Chart Room and C[ommanding] O[fficer]’s cabin.4
The ship was hastily re-caulked while alongside Hobart’s Elizabeth Street Pier to mitigate the most serious leakage, but trouble set upon the expedition almost immediately following their departure on Christmas Day. A jammed main engine made the ship difficult to control, causing it to ram the pier—although without inflicting damage on either pier or ship.
Because of the compressed timeline imposed by the Wyatt Earp’s re-commissioning into the RAN on 17 November 1947, the major refit and the need to take advantage of ice-free waters during the southern summer, there had been insufficient time for adequate sea trials. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in further problems down the line. Engine trouble and flooding continued to plague the voyage, and so, on 1 January 1948 the Wyatt Earp was ordered back “forthwith” to Williamstown’s Alfred Graving dry dock in Greater Melbourne for repairs.
Yet again, the ship’s reconditioning was rushed, although this time the newly repaired expedition vessel was actually subjected to a number of speed and anchoring trials in Port Phillip Bay. The expedition eventually departed Melbourne (again) on 8 February 1948.
STAKING AUSTRALIA’S CLAIM
Given the myriad problems the vessel had encountered in preparation for the expedition season, one might rightly wonder why the Wyatt Earp had been selected as ANARE’s vessel of choice. By 1946, it had become clear that rival polar powers—in particular Norway and the United States—were interested in exploitation of Antarctic resources and strategic expansion into the polar regions.
These developments were not new, nor were they unexpected. After all, during Ellsworth’s fourth Antarctic expedition of 1938–1939, both the American explorer and his Australian right-hand man, Hubert Wilkins, had claimed large swathes of the Antarctic continent for their respective countries—claims that were, however, immediately disputed by the other nation’s government.
Meanwhile, the Great Depression and World War II had pushed the pursuit of Antarctic territorial claims firmly onto the backburner. But with the cessation of hostilities, the Allied nations were once again keen to proclaim Antarctic sovereignty. It was felt that any new or existing territorial claims ought to be backed up by an actual physical presence on the continent. And so, on 2 December 1946 Dr. Herbert (Bert) Evatt, Australian Commonwealth (Federal) Attorney General and Minister for External Affairs, convened an interdepartmental committee to explore the options.
The committee recommended that the departments concerned [including the Departments of the Navy, Civil Aviation and External Affairs] should develop concrete plans for an expedition to Australian Antarctic Territory, using a naval ship equipped with a suitable aircraft. The object was to find an ice-free area on that continent that could be used as the site for a permanent base. [Sir Douglas] Mawson suggested that the ship H.M.A.S. Wyatt Earp, owned by the [Royal Australian] Navy but lying uncommissioned in the Torrens River at Port Adelaide, be refitted for use by the expedition.5
A SECOND LEASE OF LIFE
There was no time or budget to search for suitable vessels in overseas ports. However, Sir Douglas Mawson—the celebrated Australian Antarctic explorer—recalled that following Ellsworth’s last expedition, the Australian Federal Government had acquired the Wyatt Earp, its floatplane and equipment for a bargain price, reportedly £4,400—almost $150,000 in today’s currency. The ship, re-commissioned as HMAS Wongala, had meanwhile seen war service as examination and guard ship in the Port of Whyalla, South Australia. In 1946 the ship was on loan as a Sea Scout Training Ship, SSTSWongala, in Port Adelaide. (‘Wongala’ means ‘boomerang’ in the Yuwibara Aboriginal language of Queensland’s Port Mackay region.)
The RAN, supported by the Federal Government, committed £150,000 to undertake refitting of the vessel, while the RAAF, the Royal Australian Air Force, was to provide the expedition’s aircraft. The Navy also provided an LST, a ‘Landing Ship, Tanks’, to establish a research station on subantarctic Macquarie Island for what was to become the Australian Antarctic Division.
Meanwhile, the country’s Naval Board was tasked with naming the ship while the vessel was in ANARE’s care. Group Captain Stuart ‘Stuey’ Campbell, ‘The Grouper’ (RAAF Retd), advised the Board’s Director of Planning
… that he consider[ed] that the name [Wyatt Earp] is Internationally famous in Polar circles and, consequently, despite any effort on our part to re-name her she would still be known in these circles by that name.6
Asked for his opinion on the proposed name change back to that used during Ellsworth’s time in command, soon-to-be-Captain Karl E. Oom sent a terse telegraphic message, responding ‘SUPPORTING WONGALA BACK TO WYATT EARP’.7
IN SEARCH OF THE COAST
And so, despite a false start in December 1947, the vessel’s 8 February 1948 departure from Port Phillip received the Government’s full blessing. The expedition was issued with orders to assert sovereignty over the Australian Antarctic Territory. However, fate intervened once again.
On 13th February (53°16 S., 144°10 E.), good progress was maintained with assistance of sails to steady the ship against the wind which continued at full gale force, however at 2200, after two violent rolls of 60° or more, course was altered to W.S.W. and speed reduced. Heavy rolling increases the leaks into after accommodation.8
Sleeping—and life on board in general—was uncomfortable and a trial for all. We learn from the personal diary of Dr. Phillip Law, the expedition’s chief scientist, that
… in bed at night in such waves the bunk falls away from beneath one’s body and one catches up with it with a jolt at the bottom of the drop.9
No doubt, restful sleep was often hard to come by, so it is not surprising that tempers were frayed at times.
The expedition sighted its first icebergs on 18 February 1948, and soon progress was seriously hampered by the increasingly dense pack ice. Over the course of the next nine days, Captain Oom and his crew attempted to find a passage to the Antarctic coast. Yet, despite the Wyatt Earp’s wooden hull—considered more suitable to push through dense pack ice than a steel-hulled ship—they never approached dry land any closer than the 30 miles (48 km) they had reached already on 21 February in the Bay of Whales.
ANTARCTIC ISLANDS
On 27 February 1948 Oom therefore decided to sail for the Balleny Islands, a rarely visited, remote New Zealand territory named after its 1839 discoverer, Captain John Balleny. The party arrived off Young Island, the chain’s northernmost main island, on leap day, 28 February, still at risk of becoming trapped in the nearby pack ice.
The coast was forbidding in the extreme. The highest point on the island (Borradaile), halfway along the western coast, was later estimated from the ship to be 1,250 feet [380 m] high. Most of the rest of the island was found to be 500 to 1,000 feet [150–300 m], and along the entire coastline, apart from the north-western tip, high ice cliffs plunged vertically into the sea.10
Oom’s report of the voyage vividly recounts the challenges encountered during a second attempt to reach the Antarctic continent, at Commonwealth Bay. The attempt was once again blocked by a “… solid wall of pack ice stretching indefinitely Southward and to the East and West …”, some 40 miles (64 km) from dry land. A number of reconnaissance flights with the expedition’s hastily assembled floatplane did not reveal any clear passage either.
By noon on 20 March, the ship reached Buckles Bay at Macquarie Island. Lieutenant-Commander George Dixon, Commanding Officer of HMA LST 3501, and his crew were busily landing stores, equipment, and building and construction materials, in addition to the scientific party that would comprise the first winter-over crew at the newly established Macquarie Island Station. TheWyatt Earp’s exhausted men gratefully took advantage of Dixon’s offer of hot showers, the first since their departure from Melbourne.
SMOOTH SAILING
For all the heavy weather, violent gales and forbidding pack ice they had encountered in Antarctic waters, once the party had cleared the wide, shallow sub-oceanic shelf extending north from Macquarie Island, the return voyage home was unexpectedly smooth:
… at 0438 on 30 March on a beautifully quiet and calm morning Eddystone Light [in northeastern Tasmania, near the entrance to Bass Strait] was sighted and we were ‘bang on’ for a good landfall! … Bass Strait had to be seen to be believed today! Most beautifully calm!! Lovely sun, cloudless sky, no swell at all, and a light breeze from the NNE—ideal conditions.11
The Wyatt Earp returned to Port Phillip Bay on 31 March 1948, having survived some of the most hostile conditions on the planet. Although their main mission goal had not been accomplished, the expedition was generally seen as a success.
From a scientific perspective, however, the voyage’s return was limited. The most significant achievements included an extensive hydrographic survey of the coastlines and echo depths around the Balleny Islands, combined with a large volume of meteorological and cosmic-ray measurements. In hindsight, the vessel’s cramped confines had simply not been suitable for the intense, large-scale scientific operations that had been planned but which were necessarily deprioritised by circumstances outside of the scientists’ control.
The mere fact that the Wyatt Earp’s crew managed to salvage at least some of the expedition’s planned outcomes is indeed testimony to the brilliant seamanship of Captain Oom and his officers, and of the hard physical and taxing mental labour contributed by all on board. Despite the hardships they had endured, most crew members were actually sorry when it all ended.
The upbeat press briefings and formal reports submitted following the Wyatt Earp’s return to port painted a starkly different picture from the men’s personal diaries and journals, however. They were clearly meant for completely different audiences.
LEGACY
Following that heroic 1947–1948 Antarctic voyage, the Wyatt Earp was paid off on 30 June 1948 and laid up at Williamstown Dockyard, Greater Melbourne. Future Antarctic expeditions required larger and more modern ships. Three years after the expedition’s return from the Antarctic, the Australian Commonwealth’s Department of Supply completed the Wyatt Earp’s sale to the Arga Shipping Company of St Helens, Tasmania.
And so the circle closed. Wyatt Earp, now once again flying its flag as Wongala, ended its operational life as a cargo vessel. The ship was renamed a final time, to Natone. The vessel’s luck eventually ran out on 24 January 1959 during a violent cyclone, when it ran aground near Mudlo Rocks at Rainbow Beach (Queensland). The Natone’s shipwrecked remains are still occasionally visible when sea and weather combine forces to expose the skeleton of its battered timber hull.
Yet, the name ‘Wyatt Earp’ continues to play a role of importance in the Australian navy’s Antarctic exploration. The RAN’s Antarctic Survey Vessel, ASV Wyatt Earp proudly honours the achievements of its famous predecessor. ASV Wyatt Earp is equipped with state-of-the-art hydrographic survey instruments, including multi-beam echo sounders, sediment grabs, sub-bottom profilers and underwater cameras. Whereas current RAN Antarctic surveys are aimed at improving maritime safety in poorly known waters, the 1947–1948 ANARE voyage of the HMAS Wyatt Earp remains the RAN’s only dedicated research expedition.
The two-gun-toting US Marshall Wyatt Earp, of ‘O.K. Corral’ fame, has clearly left a lasting, positive legacy in a most improbable environment—thanks to Lincoln Ellsworth’s desire to honour his unlikely hero.
References
- Law, P.G., 1995.The Antarctic Voyage of HMAS Wyatt Earp. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. p. 28.
- Compton, J., 2020. In: HMAS Wyatt Earp & Antarctica. Australian Naval History Podcast, S5E03. https://soundcloud.com/australian-naval-history/s5e03-hmas-wyatt-earp-antarctica (accessed 21 October 2024).
- Law, 1995. p. 21.
- Oom, K.E., 1948. HMAS Wyatt Earp: Report of Proceedings (1 April 1948).National Archives of Australia (P1557, 22/2).
- Law, 1995. p. 6.
- Minute from the Director of Planning, Naval Board, to the DCNS (Deputy Chief of Naval Staff) and the 2NM (Second Naval Member), dated 9 June 1947.
- Burgess, T., 2020.Wyatt Earp. The little ship with many names. Redland Bay, Qld: Connor Court Publishing. p. 63.
- Oom, 1948.
- Law, 1995. p. 120.
- Law, 1995. p. 94.
- Cook, W.F., 1978. HMAS Wyatt Earp – Antarctic Research 1947–1948.Naval Historical Review,2, 9.
