In 2020 the AAT Post issued three stamps and a miniature sheet for the WYATT EARP Expedition in 1948. She are given by this stamps:
Departing Melbourne on 8 February 1948, the HMAS WYATT EARP was Australia’s first sea vessel to voyage to Antarctica following World War II. The HMAS WYATT EARP was requisitioned from the Australian Navy to undertake the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE). The key aim of the ANARE expedition was to explore sites for a permanent research base in King George V Land, within the Australian Antarctic Territory, established by the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to the Commonwealth government in 1933. Scientific work would be conducted in several fields, coordinated by Senior Scientific Officer Dr Phillip Law.
While extreme weather and pack ice prevented the WYATT EARP from reaching the Antarctic continent, the Vought Kingfisher floatplane, transported on the deck of the WYATT EARP, undertook aerial surveying. Scientific observations and recordings were made, thereby securing the future of Australia’s research program. However, the 1948 expedition demonstrated that, despite that WYATT EARP’s polar record, the ship was too small and underpowered for its role as an Antarctic research vessel.
The stamps and mini sheet have been illustrated and engraved by Norwegian artist Martin Mörck, and printed using a combination of traditional intaglio techniques and offset printing. Read more on Intaglio and the incredible art of stamp engraving.
$1.10 - HMAS WYATT EARP
Built-in Norway in 1919 and first named the FANEFJORD, the WYATT EARP was purchased by the Australian Navy during World War II and named HMAS WONGALA. The ship was used as an ammunition and stores carrier, and then as a guard support in South Australia. In December 1946, at the urging of Douglas Mawson, the Australian government planned to renew Australian Antarctic exploration and committed to significantly refurbishing the ship. Renaming it HMAS WYATT EARP, the ship was readied for Antarctic service with the newly established Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) during 1947.
$1.10 - RAAF Vought Kingfisher
The RAAF Vought-Sikorsky OS2U Kingfisher was an observation floatplane with a 450hp engine built in the United States and used during the war. Australia purchased 18 such planes in 1942, including the one registered A48-13, which was used on the ANARE expedition. Some 10.31 meters in length, with a wingspan of 10.95 meters, the Kingfisher was painted yellow and an engine pre-heater was installed before it traveled to the frozen south. The small wooden-hulled WYATT EARP carried the plane (with its float dissembled) on its deck, so that it could be used in aerial reconnaissance and surveying work. The Kingfisher made two one-hour reconnaissance flights near the Ninnis and Mertz glaciers, King George V Land, on 13 March 1948, before the expedition headed to the Balleny Islands.
$3.30 - HMAS WYATT EARP & RAAF Vought Kingfisher
This stamp design shows the relationship between the WYATT EARP and the Kingfisher, with the latter suspended before being lowered into the water.
https://australiapostcollectables.com.a ... ition-1948
HMAS WYATT EARP
Built by the shipyard of Bolsones Molde for A/S Romsdal Rederi, Molde, Norway as FANEFJORD, in Norway in 1919, this single decked wooden-hulled motor ship was 135 feet long and when fully loaded drew between 16 to 17 feet, her tonnage just 402 tons.
Dim. 41.3 x 8.9 x 4.4m. (draught)
Her Baltic timbers were 5 feet thick, and her two masts carried fore and aft auxiliary sails, consisting of a jib, staysail, main and mizzen sails.
One auxiliary engine, ?hp.
One tall thin funnel was placed well aft.
September 1919 delivered to owners.
Early life.
Initially she spent 10 years fishing for herring in the North Sea.
1922 Sold to A/S Fanefjord Rederi, Molde,and was then sold in 1923 to O.P. Roal Sonner A/S, Aalesund, not renamed, a sealing company, catching seals around Greenland.
March 1926 sold to John. Paulsen, Alesund not renamed.
March 1927 transferred to A/S M/S Fanefjord Harald Paulsen, Alesund, not renamed.
1930 A new Bolinder engine placed, 320 bhp (89 nhp.), speed 10 knots.
July 1932 sold to Axel Holm, Alesund, not renamed.
August 1933 Sir Hubert Wilkins, the Australian explorer bought the ship, having been commissioned by the American, Lincoln Ellsworth to find and buy a vessel suitable for the Antarctic. As owner given, Wyatt Earp A/S, Aalesund, renamed in WYATT EARP.
Use in Antarctica.
Ellsworth gave her the first name change, to WYATT EARP, after the famous Tombstone Sherriff.
Ellsworth was an aviator with a driving ambition to become the first flyer to cross Antarctic by means of an airplane.
He needed the ship to transport both him and his aircraft to a position where he could take off to achieve his aims.
English oak and steel plating were used to sheath WYATT EARP’s hull, so she may be used in an ice-breaking role
In November 1935, the ship transported Ellsworth and his aircraft to Dundee Island, about 500 miles south of Cape Horn, and Ellsworth crossed the 2,000 miles between the Waddell Sea and Little America on the Ross Sea.
From 1934 to 1938, this ship made four more visits to the polar regions of Antarctica.
Bought by the Australian Government.
In February 1939, the ship was sold to the Commonwealth of Australian Government, at Canberra, Australia to be used by Sir Douglas Mawson on an expedition to Antarctica, but WW2 intervened, putting an end to this plan.
WW2 years.
HMAS WYATT EARP in WW2, served as a naval vessel in the Royal Australian Navy, cable laying in Darwin, then a spell at Port Adelaide in South Australia as an examination ship, then as a guard ship at the port of Whyalla.
At that time she was armed with one Oerlikon 20mm cannon.
Post-war.
Under another name, this time as WONGALA, she was loaned by the Commonwealth of Australia over 1946/1948 to the South Australian Scouting Association, and used to train Sea Scouts.
Australian Scientific activities at Macquarie and Heard Islands.
When the Commonwealth Government decided to set up scientific stations at both Macquarie and Heard Islands, WONGALA was selected to transport three groups to their destinations.
The ship now reverted to her WYATT EARP name and was refitted at great cost, being practically rebuilt, a new 450 Horse Power, 8 cylinder Crossley diesel engine was installed, accommodation for 30 people upgraded, radar fitted, and modern equipment to measure cosmic rays and make magnetic observations was installed.
Even a Sikorski-Kingfisher floatplane was put on board.
Notwithstanding spending vast amounts of money, the ship was believed to be too old, too small, and too slow for modern polar exploration, she did deliver scientists to both Heard and Macquarie Islands.
One of my Naval College term, Norman White, as a Lieutenant RAN, was the Navigator onboard WYATT EARP for the trip south with all the Australian scientists, he had survived the sinking of HMAS PERTH by the Japanese in the Battle of Sunda Strait in March 1942, and being a Prisoner of War for over three years, he went on to attain the rank of Commodore in the Royal Australian Navy, and still thrives.
WYATT EARP, when in the southern seas, developed a serious leak, and was forced to return to Melbourne having failed to break through the Antarctic ice.
WYATT EARP sold by the Australian government.
Amidst a furor about the amount of money wasted in refitting the ship, the government offered her for sale, and in 1948, the Argo Shipping Company of St. Helens in Tasmania bought her for coastal tramp duties, and once more she became WONGALA.
For eight years this old vessel roamed the eastern and southern coasts of Australia, carrying a variety of cargo, then in 1956, the Ulverstone Shipping Company bought her for trading around the Queensland coast.
The ship was renamed NATONE, after a potato growing area around Ulverstone, on the 23rd. of January in 1959, she steamed out of Cairns southbound for Brisbane in ballast to load cattle for New Guinea. At that time she was under command of Captain P.H. Gosschalk.
She carried a crew of 6 Europeans and 12 native Papuans, during a cyclone, the ship developed leaks that the pumps could not accommodate, and the engine room soon flooded, the auxiliary sails were hoisted, and NATONE sought to run for shelter.
During the night she ran aground near Mudjow Rocks, 110 miles short of Brisbane, and became a total loss. Her crew of six Australians and 12 Papua New Guineans reached the shore using her hatch covers as rafts. They took refuge in a nearby sand mining hut until rescuers arrived the next day.
Conclusion.
Thus a vessel that had sailed under four different names, in both the northern and southern hemispheres, had been involved in a multitude of shipping activities, including making aviation history in the Antarctic, finally came to a sad end on a dark and stormy night off the coast of Queensland Australia.
She slowly broke up and some people used explosives to salvage brass and copper.
In 2003 a piece of the wreck believed from the NATONE surfaced near Inskip Point and a another piece in 2007 just north of Rainbow Shores which both are believed from the NATONE.
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/WyattEarp.html https://www.sjohistorie.no/en/skip/320622/ https://www.miramarshipindex.nz
Australian Antarctic Territory 2020 $1.10/3.30 sg?, scott? and MS S5.50 sgMS?, scott?