Museum artefacts reveal more of the proud story of Nelson's Merchant Navy.
Sunday September 3, 2023 marked Merchant Navy Day, which commemorates the role of civilian seafaring crew during periods of armed conflict.
In both world wars, as well as in smaller conflicts, the crews of cargo and passenger ships often encountered peril, unlike any other group of civilians.
The Nelson Provincial Museum’s Regional Heritage Collection includes several items donated by the late Pat Win, which provide insight into the dangers faced by the crews of merchant ships during wartime: a bell from SS Regulus, a Merchant Navy uniform, and a lifeboat pannikin.
As an island nation, New Zealand has long been dependent on shipping for trade. Even following the advent of commercial air travel, most of our imports and exports still arrive by sea.
These days, those who are interested in our shipping industry at Port Nelson must watch afar or from behind security fences. During World War I, despite wartime censorship and secrecy, shipping activities were more visible and attracted more interest from the public.
The SS Regulus enters port Nelson with survivors from the SS Port Kembla in 1917.
Nelson Provincial Museum, Stewart Collection: 316886
On watch
A ship’s bell was historically used to signal the time to the crew as they went about the 24 hour a day business of keeping lookout as ships travelled along their course from port to port.
The bell from S.S. Regulus– is a reminder of when the dangers of World War I came right into the waters off Te Tauihu.
In September 1917, the S.S. Regulus had only recently departed Nelson and was steaming towards Westport when the lookout discovered 60 men stranded in lifeboats, off Farewell Spit.
Ahead of the Regulus’s arrival back in Nelson on September 18, towing the two lifeboats, more than 1000 Nelsonians began gathering on the main dock in the port.
As the large crowd assembled at the wharf to find out what had happened – journalist Gerard Hindmarsh describes it as Nelson’s first-ever flash mob – rumours quickly spread about the explosion that had sunk the ship.
The bell belonging to the SS Regulus was used by teachers and pupils at Nelson College for years.
Nelson Provincial Museum Collection: NPM999.63.1
Due to wartime secrecy, speculation continued for some time, until it was finally revealed that the crew were from S.S. Port Kembla.
At first, there were claims – later confirmed by an official inquiry in Wellington – that a bomb had been planted on board by a Russian seaman while the Port Kembla was docked in Australia. However, over time, officials acknowledged, that the Port Kembla was instead almost certainly sunk by one of the mines laid by the German raider SMS Wolf off Farewell Spit in June 1917.
Well before any of this was known however, the Regulus had set off back into that verysame area to resume their part in the everyday business of the merchant fleet of moving cargo up and down the coast and across oceans.
Fortunately, the Port Kembla remained that minefield’s only victim and Regulus continued in service until 1936. After the ship was dismantled the bell was given to Rutherford House at Nelson College where it was used for many years.
While researching the Regulus’s bell, Nelson Provincial Museum Senior Collections Technician Michael Davies also became curious about the Port Kembla’s bell. He found that it was recovered from the wreck by technical divers in 2007 after 90 years on the seabed. The bell is assumed to be in private ownership.
Recognition for Sailors
When the war ended, the risks faced by merchant ships and their civilian crews finally began to be recognised. In 1919, regulations for a standardised uniform were published.
The uniform was intended to offer some protection to sailors, both from any negative public opinion about those who had stayed in their civilian careers, rather than “joining up” and those captured in a recognised uniform were supposed to be entitled to more protection as prisoners of war.
During WWI, civilian sailors on merchant ships sometimes faced accusations of espionage. This includes Captain Charles Fryatt, who was executed in 1916.
Then, in 1922, King George V gifted the name ‘Merchant Navy’ to the merchant fleet in recognition of the service and sacrifice of officers and crew during World War I.
Yet, even with a uniform and an official collective name, the experience of being a merchant seafarer varied greatly depending on the conditions offered by employers, and the facilities aboard each ship.
Risky work continues into WWII
It took two more decades for other employment conditions to improve. Until May 1941, sailors stopped being paid from the day that their ship sank.
Around this time, there is other evidence of more official control over private shipping companies, in response to the need to coordinate the “war effort”.
A pannikin found on a lifeboat would have been used to ration out fresh water and bail out sea water.
Nelson Provincial Museum Collection: NPM995.59.2
This extended down to minute details like government-issued lifeboat equipment, such as the dipper donated by Win, which he described as a lifeboat pannikin. It would have been used to ration out the fresh water supplies in a lifeboat, and possibly also to bail out seawater from inside the lifeboat if needed.
The pannikin is stamped ‘Jury 1941’ with the ‘Broad Arrow’ mark. Both the broad arrow and the date indicate that the dipper was made for a British Government order in 1941. It also tells us Jury Holloware (Stevens) Ltd from Quarry Bank (now on the outskirts of Birmingham) made the pannikin.
Nelson Provincial Museum Senior Collection Technician Michael Davies notes that it can be difficult to find out much more about everyday mundane items like the dipper/pannikin. In this case the name of the manufacturer makes online research more complicated.
Incidentally, there was a competitor to the firm ‘Jury’ called ‘Judge’, which also made similar products nearby and owned by none other than the brother of the maker of this item.
The late Pat Win’s Merchant Navy Uniform Jacket from his time spent as a chief engineer with Anchor Line.
Nelson Provincial Museum Collection: NPM997.109.1
Win’s legacy
The bell, uniform and pannikin were part of larger donations from the late Pat Win. His 20-year marine engineering career started and ended with Nelson’s Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company Limited.
However, his interest in local maritime history continued far longer. In an introduction to his 2009 history of the Anchor Foundry, he recounts being told, ‘Pat, if you don’t write a history of the Anchor Foundry, who will?’
Win also donated his own uniform jacket from his time as a chief engineer with Anchor Line to the museum.
This jacket can tell something of a career at sea. The brass buttons with an anchor and Naval Crown tell of the service given by the shipping industry in both peace and war. The cuffs with the gold braid and purple backing tell of a senior marine engineer with experience and knowledge. But the formal cut tells little of the tough conditions living and working at sea in a ship’s engine room.
For that, it is better to look to the stories recorded in oral histories, memoirs, and shared at events such as Merchant Navy Day services around the country
September 3 was chosen as the date for Merchant Navy Day because it observes the sinking of the first British merchant ship on September 3, 1939, just hours after WWII was declared.
A commemorative service was held on September 2nd 2023 in Nelson at Anzac Park at 11am.
Article prepared by Nelson Provincial Museum Senior Collection Technician Michael Davies, with additional reporting and editing by Kerry Sunderland.
This article was originally published in The Nelson Mail on Saturday 2nd September 2023. To view the story - click here