Vindicatrix Boy

The Navigator memorial sculptor Karen Genoff, Merchant Navy priest Ray Prettejohn, Port Adelaide chaplain Robin Trebilcock and Keith Ridgeway, Merchant Navy Association, spoke at the 5.30 am commemoration of the departure of SS Admella from Port Adelaide 150 years ago.

Descendants of cabin boy George Ward, who survived the Admella tragedy, and of rescuers, the Portland lifeboat captain James Fawthrop and lighthouse keeper Captain Benjamin Germein, were among the crowd at Port Adelaide commemorations to mark the departure of the vessel on her last fateful voyage on August 5, 1859.

At precisely 5.30 am Keith Ridgeway rang a ship’s bell, candles were lit and a tot of rum was served to more than 30 souls at the Admella memorial, ‘The Navigator’, at the Queens Wharf end of Timpson Street.
Our photos by Cheryll Goodridge.

Semaphore Port Adelaide RSL is staging a 1940s Dance Party at the Waterside Workers Hall in Nile Street Port Adelaide on Saturday April 4 and it promises to be be a memorable night.

It’s not just a touch of nostalgia for the older generation — it’s the latest dance rage around Adelaide. 1940s dancing and hairstyles are back in fashion.
 
Entertainment will include the Bay Big Band and singers Marlene Richards, Terry Brooker, Wally Carr, Jenny Loftes and the Not The Andrews Sisters.. 
 
Young and old will be wearing 1940s fashions and and some locals will be donning their old World War II uniforms.
 
The 1940s Dance Party, which will run from 8 pm till 11 pm,  is a fundraiser for ANZAC Light on the Water 2009. Bring a 1940s Supper Plate; a bar will be open with beer, wine and soft drinks.

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This year, as the world commemorates the 70th Anniversary of the start of World War II, people around Australia will focus on two significant events in Port Adelaide.

On ANZAC Eve, Friday April 24, the third Light on the Water on the Port River will commemorate the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur in a year when Veterans Affairs marks the World War II 70th Anniversary with a major focus on the role of women at war.

Eleven Australian Army nurses were among the 268 Australians who perished when the Centaur was struck by a deadly Japanese torpedo off the coast of Queensland on May 12, 1943.

Australian Merchant Navy crew, medical staff and men of the 2/12th Field Ambulance and 44 others made up the rest of those killed.

Australia’s second Merchant Navy Day march in Port Adelaide on September 3 will be on the very day that World War II started and a large number of veterans are expected to march.

The first casualty of World War Two was the British merchant vessel Athenia on September 3.

German U-boat Commander, Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp  sighted the ship 250 miles off the coast of Ireland. 

He maintained radio silence to achieve surprise and surprise is what happened because the British had just declared war that day of September 3, 1939. 

Just under 12 hours later, Lemp ordered his men to fire on the ship and four torpedoes crashed into the side of the unarmed passenger ship.

The ship exploded immediately killing all but 112 people. 

Lemp later claimed that the sinking of the Athenia was an accident, and that he didn’t know it was unarmed and believed it was an armed merchant ship. 

German command told Lemp to forget about it, and destroy all evidence he had of the sinking including diaries, papers, and any other article mentioning the sinking. 

The Germans were then going to blame Winston Churchill for the sinking of the ship by stating that Churchill had ordered the ship to sink to get the U.S. into the war.

The U.S. and British of course did not believe this story.

The story of the Athenia sinking is from this Battle of the Atlantic page.

And there is a very good account with pictures of Athenia, the U-boat that sank her and contemporary newspaper reports by Mike Kemble.

With its rich maritime history, it is fitting that Port Adelaide will celebrate Australia’s first national Merchant Navy Day on Wednesday September 3 in nautical style.

All local families with links to the sea are being invited to join the Merchant Navy March leaving the Seafarers Centre at 11 am that day to commemorate all seafarers who have served in war and peace.

The march will go through Black Diamond Square and along the wharf to the old Ports Building.

Serving and former merchant seamen, their families and representatives from other maritime groups including the Maritime Union of Australia will head the March.

The march will conclude with a special commemoration at the superb Navigator memorial to Lost Seafarers by local sculptor Karen Genoff.

Karen has many fine works of art in public locations around Australia.

In granite, lyten steel, breakwater rocks and timber, the Navigator memorial stands outside the old Ports building.

It was unveiled in 1992 for the SA Department of Marine and Harbours Port Adelaide.

This sculpture is to be incorporated in a new waterfront Seafarers Memorial for Port Adelaide.

Karen Genoff is working with the Land Management Corporation in the removal, transport and placement of this sculpture at a waterfront site to be selected.

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Port Adelaide is changing fast and for those seafarers who’ve sailed up the Port River many new landmarks are appearing.

The modern Port waterfront and the soon to be completed bridge

The Port River Expressway

The master plan for Port and nearby Semaphore flows from Australia’s biggest residential and commercial development, worth $1.5 billion, along the Port River, and the soon to be completed third river bridge and new access roads. 4,000 jobs to be created during construction of the residential and commercial project with an additional 2,000 permanent jobs following its completion. Port Adelaide and Semaphore will get 4,000 new neighbours occupying over 2,000 new dwellings.

Some things never change