Capturefile: D:\glass neg raws\Allen C. Green Series\box 254\gr006924.tifCaptureSN: CC001681.074062Software: Capture One PRO for Windows
813. There is something acutely sad and rather intriguing about this photo. There must be a story behind it When we first saw it, posted by on the World Naval Ships Forums website the only information available was that it was the WWI battlecruiser HMS NEW ZEALAND; taken somewhere in Australia ; and the poster – WNSF moderator AlanBenn – noted that the warship’s flags were at half mast. Based on the vaguely familiar navigation beacon on the left, and the flat coastline on the right, we offered the opinion that the photo was taken in Port Phillip Bay , Victoria, off Geelong, in mid-1919 – one of the only two occasions when HMS NEW ZEALAND visited Australia. A ship funded by public subscription in New Zealand as a contribution to Empire defence, she had first steamed into southern waters in April-June 1913 to show the admiring Kiwis the ship they had paid for; and after war service that included a baptism of fire at Jutland, came back again in July-August 1919, bringing Lord Jellicoe on his world tour of the Dominions to report on the future development of their Navies. With the ship’s flags at half-mast, our attention was most drawn here to the sombre tableau of men in the middle of the photograph, both at the head of the warship’s steps, and those standing or seated expectantly in the boats down below. In particular the man in overalls at the head of the steps seems to be holding some kind of small casket, like the coffin of a child. And the body language of everyone in the picture suggests we are dealing here with something of that kind. It’s hard to tell how a Royal Navy flagship carrying the first Sea Lord would be concerned in such a civilian matter, if that’s what it was, but a couple of possibilities do suggest themselves. 1919, of course, was the year of the catastrophic Spanish Influenza pandemic, which claimed somewhere between 40 and 80 million lives worldwide. Lord and Lady Jellicoe had in fact left HMS NEW ZEALAND behind for two months in Australia, while they toured northern Australian ports inside the Great Barrier Reef and the Solomon Islands [ the suggested site for a naval base] on a smaller ship, the specially re-commissioned former RN armed merchant cruiser, HMAS, ex-HMS SUVA. So, its quite possible the battlecruiser was involved in some act of mercy and assistance down South during this period – and one which has clearly had a sad ending. Its all purely conjecture, but we think what we have here is the death of a child, possibly connected with the influenza pandemic. One wonders whether the deceased has come from the ship moored alongside, or maybe the pylon light on the left, from where a third rowboat is just pulling over. A couple of things have since supported at least the location. The photograph turns out to have been taken by Allan C. Green [1878-1954], the great ships photographer and marine artist who worked almost exclusively around Melbourne and Victorian waters for more than half a century; and the beacon on the left is almost certainly Port Phillip Bay’s historic South Channel Pile Light, built in 1875, and in operation off Geelong until 1985. The timber pile structure was dismantled, taken to Melbourne and restored in 1998, and subsequently relocated on the other side of the Port Phillip Bay entrance, off Rye. Traditionally it was occupied by a lightkeeper and his family of up to four people, folks who – in 1919 – would have led very spartan lives. And that’s it. The record for the photograph in the Green Collection at the State Library of Victoria has neither date nor any details of the circumstances seen here. We can only think of one way of possibly finding out, and confirming the details – but it’s an almost hopelessly long shot. In 1972, the diary of one Frank Kelso, a former leading signalman on HMS NEW ZEALAND, was published by NZ Books of Palmerston North , NZ, under the title ‘The Last Voyage of HMS New Zealand.’ It covers the period of Feb 1919 to February 1920, a may quite possibly clarify what has happened here. But the book is rare. There was however a copy being offered for auction on an NZ trading website recently – so, who knows? Maybe NZ’s Navy Museum or some library in the Shakey Isles could clear the story up. Our guess is that the photograph is taken in July-August, 1919, when HMS NEW ZEALAND was here. Meantime, we have a most moody photograph, with the definite air of some long-forgotten tragedy about it. And, come to think of it, maybe that is enough. Phoito: Allan C. Green [1878-1954], State Library of Victoria [La Trobe Library].
