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City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum)
Manufactured Glass, bottle cream 1/4 pint, 20thC
General use of milk bottles is usually associated with the 20th century , with occasional late 19th century. Initially, milk was delivered in cans stacked upright in a wagon At each stop, someone, usually the wife of the house, would bring a pitcher or a pail to the wagon, and the milk man would ladle out the desired amount of milk. Needless to say, this practice was hazardous and unhealthy. The New York State Tuberculosis Association condemned the practice of selling “loose milk,” still being conducted in New York City in 1922, as a major cause for the spread of tuberculosis (Glass Container1922:8). It is probable that the delivery of milk in glass containers became universal shortly thereafter. General use of milk bottles is usually associated with the 20th century , with occasional late 19th century. Initially, milk was delivered in cans stacked upright in a wagon. At each stop, someone, usually the wife of the house, would bring a pitcher or a pail to the wagon, and the milk man would ladle out the desired amount of milk. Needless to say, this practice was hazardous and unhealthy. The New York State Tuberculosis Association condemned the practice of selling “loose milk,” still being conducted in New York City in 1922, as a major cause for the spread of tuberculosis (Glass Container1922:8). It is probable that the delivery of milk in glass containers became universal shortly thereafter. Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Spotswood 1880 - 1990. made bottles for various companies. Milk cartons first came to Australia in 1958, when the Model Dairy in Melbourne began packaging milk in 150 ml and 500 ml cartons. At the time, 160,000 new glass bottles were needed in Melbourne alone every week to keep up the delivery of 1.3 million bottles of milk a day. In 1970, the blow-moulded disposable plastic milk bottle was introduced. In 1987, only about 2% of milk was still being sold in glass bottles. Glass milk bottles are now rare. A clear glass milk or cream bottle 'Imperial' 1/4 Pintaround base : IMPERIAL 1/4 PINTmelbourne, early settlers, market gardeners, moorabbin, bentleigh, cheltenham, manufactured glass, milk bottles, dairy farmers, dairies -
City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum)
Manufactured Glass, jar, 'Pickle', mid 20thC
In 1872 Felton and Grimwade established the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works which grew into Australian Consolidated Industries (ACI). .Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Co Pty Ltd (1903 - 1915) Registered in Victoria in 1903 the company amalgamated with the Waterloo Glass Bottle Works Ltd in 1915 to form Australian Glass Manufacturers Company, Limited. Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Spotswood 1872- 1915 The Melbourne Glass Bottle Works (former), comprising a complex of buildings constructed between 1880 and 1940, at Booker Street, Douglas Parade, 2-38 Hudson Road, Raleigh Street and Simcock Avenue, Spotswood. The former glassworks was established in 1890 and originally made bottles for pharmacists Felton Grimwade before it was sold to the State Government by US multinational, OI glass manufacturers. Australian Consolidated Industries Ltd was formed in 1939 when Australian Glass Manufacturers Co Ltd changed it's name to reflect diversification into building products. 1982 a new holding company was formed and the company's name was changed to A.C.I. International Ltd. A clear glass jar made for the Australian Pickle Co. Pty. Ltd.Around base; THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PICKLE CO. PTY. LTD. Base; (makers mark) / IS 1279 / 3 melbourne, early settlers, market gardeners, moorabbin, bentleigh, cheltenham, manufactured glass, austalian pickle co.pty.ltd, australian glass manufacturing company ltd, felton grimwade pty ltd, pharmacists, bottles, melbourne glass bottle works, -
City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum)
Equipment - Selley's Waterproof Glue, Selley's Chemical Manufacturing Co. Pty Ltd, 20thC
Selley's is an Australian company which produces household 'do it yourself' and cleaning products. Martin Selley, who fled Germany in 1939, prior to the start of WWII, established the Selleys Chemical Company - selling wood putty.Selley's is an Australian company which produces household 'do it yourself' and cleaning products that were used by residents of City of Moorabbin in 20thC3 oz Glass bottle with screw on metal lid, painted blue - with a blue and white labelFRONT: Selley's Waterproof glue - (Clear) Manufactured by Selley's Chemical Manufacturing Co. Pty Ltd - SYDNEY - MELBOURNE 3 ozs. Net. BACK: Instructions for use. Selley's Waterproof Glue is a unique material which can be used for almost any type of joint. When used for wood to wood it gives excellent results, comparing favourably with all other types of wood glues, but in addition has the advantage that it is applied cold, and further, when set, is completely water-proof. It does not require any catalyst or hardening agent to set, but dries by evaporation of the solvent, leaving a tough, hard film. The glue contains thinners. Do not use near a naked flame, but after it has dried it is no more inflammable than dry timber. If glue too stiff, add acetone. glue, selley's, waterproof glue, bottle -
City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum)
Domestic object - Manufactured Glass, bottle tomato sauce c 1910, Very early 20th Century
From the 1860s, colonists in the Moorabbin district discovered tomato growing was very successful. Tomatoes and tomato products from the Moorabbin District won prizes as far afield as NZ., London, Philadelphia, Amsterdam, India as well as in Melbourne. Two particularly successful growers were Henry Comport of Cheltenham, and Edward Zorn at Clayton. As a result of this extensive tomato growing many factories 'sprang up' in the Moorabbin district to process the produce, one of which was the "Tom Smith Pty Ltd" factory. An Advertisement on the 29th August c1912, in the Brighton Southern Cross newspaper for Tom Smith's Tomato Sauce states that it is - "Superior. From absolutely Pure Locally Grown Tomatoes. Put up in our own bottles. A High-Grade Article. Manufactured at Highett Railway Station. Smith & Lambert Manufacturers" Phone Cheltenham 206.This item is significant because it relates to the prize-winning major industry of tomato growing that the Moorabbin colonist market gardeners commenced in the 1860s. Many tomato processing factories also sprang up in the district at that time. Because the tomato industry was virtually wiped out by a virus that attacked the plants in the very early 1900s very few tangible artefacts now remain that relate to what was once an important industry.A clear glass machine-made tomato sauce bottle. The neck of the bottle indicates that the contents were originally sealed with a cork at the top. The glass appears to be of poor quality as air bubbles are evident and was moulded, not hand-blown. The bottle is embossed on the front with the manufacturer's name, and location. The glass embossing on the bottle reads Tom Smith Pty Ltd, Highett Railway Station, Moorabbin, Victoria.tomato, market gardeners, pioneers, early settlers, henry comport, edward zorn, colonists, industry, prize winning, 1860s, moorabbin district, cheltenham, clayton, glass sauce bottle, manufactured glass, bottles -
City of Moorabbin Historical Society (Operating the Box Cottage Museum)
Container - Manufactured glass, Codd bottle, c1888
The Codd Bottle was first invented by English manufacturer, Hiram Codd at Barnsley in 1870. The groove inside the top of the bottle held a rubber ring. A small glass balll was held against this ring by the pressure of the 'pop' or 'fizzy' carbonated drink inside the bottle. This style of bottle was widely manufactured and used in the production of mineral waters and lemonade. The glass has a slight green tint, known as aqua glass, and is what the Victorian era produced as 'clear glass'This glass Codd bottle with glass ball and partial rubber ring was probably imported from England by Bennetts Pty. Ltd of Richmond, Victoria for their Lemonade and sold as refreshment to early settlers of Moorabbin Shire c1880A slightly green tinted, glass bottle with a groove inside the top which held a rubber ring, against which, the small glass ball inside the bottle was held by the pressure of the 'fizzy' drink inside.BENNETTS / LEMONADE diagonally across bottlecodd hiram, glass manufacture, glass bottles, moorabbin, brighton, barnsley england, carbonated water, soft drink, mineral water, bennetts lemonade maker, richmond, early settlers, market gardeners, melbourne -
Greensborough Historical Society
Bottle, Unknown, Glass milk jug, 1950c
... Plenty Lower Plenty melbourne Bottle Glass milk jug Clear glass ...Of type used by customers of Coles Cafeteria Melbourne circa 1940-1970. Displays mold marks on base, Mold G22M. Irregular glass thickness on base. Indent in rim to assist pouring. Evidence of two-piece mold seams.Clear glass milk jug (vial). Displays mold marks on base, evidence of two-piece mold seams.Mold G22Mmilk jug, coles cafeteria, glass bottle -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Furniture - Door, 1871 or earlier
The wooden door was salvaged from the wreck of the sailing ship Eric the Red, which was a wooden, three masted clipper ship. Eric the Red was the largest full-rigged ship built at Bath, Maine, USA in 1871, having had a 1,580 tons register. She was built and registered by Arthur Sewall, later to become the partnership E. & A. Sewall, the 51st ship built by this company. The annually-published List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. shows Bath was still the home port of Eric the Red in 1880. The vessel was named after the Viking discoverer, Eric the Red, who was the first European to reach the shores of North America (in 980AD). The ship Eric the Red at first traded in coal between America and Britain, and later traded in guano nitrates from South America. In 1879 she was re-metalled and was in first class condition. On 10th June 1880 (some records say 12th June) Eric the Red departed New York for Melbourne and then Sydney. She had been commissioned by American trade representatives to carry a special cargo of 500 exhibits (1400 tons) – about a quarter to a third of America’s total exhibits - from America for the U.S.A. pavilion at Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The exhibits included furniture, ironmongery, wines, chemicals, dental and surgical instruments, paper, cages, bronze lamp trimmings, axles, stamped ware, astronomical and time globes, samples of corn and the choicest of leaf tobacco. Other general cargo included merchandise such as cases of kerosene and turpentine, brooms, Bristol's Sarsaparilla, Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, Wheeler’s thresher machine, axe handles and tools, cases of silver plate, toys, pianos and organs, carriages and Yankee notions. The Eric the Red left New York under the command of Captain Z. Allen (or some records say Captain Jacques Allen) and 24 other crew including the owner’s son third mate Ned Sewall. There were 2 saloon passengers also. The ship had been sailing for an uneventful 85 days and the voyage was almost at its end. On 4th September 1880 the Eric the Red approached Cape Otway with a moderate north-west wind and hazy and overcast atmosphere. Around 1:30am Captain Allen sighted the Cape Otway light and was keeping the ship 5-6 miles offshore to stay clear of the hazardous Otway Reef. However he had badly misjudged his position. The ship hit the Otway Reef about 2 miles out to sea, south west of the Cape Otway light station. He ordered the wheel to be put ‘hard up’ thinking that she might float off the reef. A heavy sea knocked the man away from the wheel, broke the wheel ropes and carried away the rudder. The sea swamped the lifeboats. The mizzenmast fell, with all of its rigging, then the mainmast also fell and the ship broke in two. Some said that the passenger Vaughan, who was travelling for his health and not very strong, was washed overboard and never seen again. The ship started breaking up. The forward house came adrift with three of the crew on it as well as a longboat, which the men succeeded in launching and keeping afloat by continually bailing with their sea boots. The captain, the third mate (the owner’s son) and others clung to the mizzenmast in the sea. Then the owner’s son was washed away off the mast. Within 10 minutes the rest of the ship was in pieces, completely wrecked, with cargo and wreckage floating in the sea. The captain encouraged the second mate to swim with him to the deckhouse where there were other crew but the second mate wouldn’t go with him. Eventually the Captain made it to the deckhouse and the men pulled him up. At about 4:30am the group of men on the deckhouse saw the lights of a steamer and called for help. At the same time they noticed the second mate and the other man had drifted nearby, still on the spur, and pulled them both onto the wreck. The coastal steamer Dawn was returning to Warrnambool from Melbourne, its sailing time different to its usual schedule. Captain Jones sent out two life boats, and fired off rockets and blue lights to illuminate the area. They picked up the three survivors who were in the long boat from Eric the Red. Two men were picked up out of the water, one being the owner’s son who was clinging to floating kerosene boxes. At daylight the Dawn then rescued the 18 men from the floating portion of the deckhouse, which had drifted about 4 miles from where they’d struck the reef. Shortly after the rescue the deckhouse drifted onto breakers and was thrown onto rocks at Point Franklin, about 2 miles east of Cape Otway. Captain Jones had signalled to Cape Otway lighthouse the number of the Eric the Red and later signalled that there was a wreck at Otway Reef but there was no response from the lighthouse. The captain and crew of the Dawn spent several more hours searching unsuccessfully for more survivors, even going back as far as Apollo Bay. On board the Dawn the exhausted men received care and attention to their needs and wants, including much needed clothing. Captain Allen was amongst the 23 battered and injured men who were rescued and later taken to Warrnambool for care. Warrnambool’s mayor and town clerk offered them all hospitality, the three badly injured men going to the hospital for care and others to the Olive Branch Hotel, then on to Melbourne. Captain Allen’s leg injury prevented him from going ashore so he and three other men travelled on the Dawn to Portland. They were met by the mayor who also treated them all with great kindness. Captain Allen took the train back to Melbourne then returned to America. Those saved were Captain Z. Allen (or Jacques Allen), J. Darcy chief mate, James F. Lawrence second mate, Ned Sewall third mate and owner’s son, John French the cook, C. Nelson sail maker, Clarence W. New passenger, and the able seamen Dickenson, J. Black, Denis White, C. Herbert, C. Thompson, A. Brooks, D. Wilson, J. Ellis, Q. Thompson, C. Newman, W. Paul, J. Davis, M. Horenleng, J. Ogduff, T. W. Drew, R. Richardson. Four men had lost their lives; three of them were crew (Gus Dahlgreen ship’s carpenter, H. Ackman steward, who drowned in his cabin, and George Silver seaman) and one a passenger (J. B. Vaughan). The body of one of them had been found washed up at Cape Otway and was later buried in the lighthouse cemetery; another body was seen on an inaccessible ledge. Twelve months later the second mate James F. Lawrence, from Nova Scotia, passed away in the Warrnambool district; an obituary was displayed in the local paper. The captain and crew of the Dawn were recognised by the United States Government in July 1881 for their humane efforts, being thanked and presented with substantial monetary rewards, medals and gifts. Neither the ship, nor its cargo, was insured. The ship was worth about £15,000 and the cargo was reportedly worth £40,000; only about £2,000 worth had been recovered. Cargo and wreckage washed up at Apollo Bay, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Western Port and according to some reports, even as far away as the beaches of New Zealand. The day after the wreck the government steam ship Pharos was sent from Queenscliff to clear the shipping lanes of debris that could be a danger to ships. The large midship deckhouse of the ship was found floating in a calm sea near Henty Reef. Items such as an American chair, a ladder and a nest of boxes were all on top of the deckhouse. As it was so large and could cause danger to passing ships, Captain Payne had the deckhouse towed towards the shore just beyond Apollo Bay. Between Apollo Bay and Blanket Bay the captain and crew of Pharos collected Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, nests of boxes, bottles of Bristol’s sarsaparilla, pieces of common American chairs, axe handles, a Wheelers’ Patent thresher and a sailor’s trunk with the words “A. James” on the front. A ship’s flag-board bearing the words “Eric the Red” was found on the deckhouse; finally those on board the Pharos had the name of the wrecked vessel. During this operation Pharos came across the government steamer Victoria and also a steamer S.S. Otway, both of which were picking up flotsam and wreckage. A whole side of the hull and three large pieces of the other side of the hull, with some of the copper sheathing stripped off, had floated on to Point Franklin. Some of the vessels yards and portions of her masts were on shore. The pieces of canvas attached to the yards and masts confirmed that the vessel had been under sail. The beach there was piled with debris several feet high. There were many cases of Diamond Oil kerosene, labelled R. W. Cameron and Company, New York. There were also many large planks of red pine, portions of a small white boat and a large, well-used oar. Other items found ashore included sewing machines (some consigned to ‘Long and Co.”) and notions, axe and scythe handles, hay forks, wooden pegs, rolls of wire (some branded “T.S” and Co, Melbourne”), kegs of nails branded “A.T. and Co.” from the factory of A. Field and Son, Taunton, Massachusetts, croquet balls and mallets, buggy fittings, rat traps, perfumery, cutlery and Douay Bibles, clocks, bicycles, chairs, a fly wheel, a cooking stove, timber, boxes, pianos, organs and a ladder. (Wooden clothes pegs drifted in for many years). There seemed to be no personal luggage or clothing. The Pharos encountered a long line, about one and a half miles, of floating wreckage about 10 miles off land, south east of Cape Otway, and in some places about 40 feet wide. It seemed that more than half of it was from Eric the Red. The ship’s crew rescued 3 cases that were for the Melbourne Exhibition and other items from amongst the debris. There were also chairs, doors, musical instruments, washing boards, nests of trunks and fly catchers floating in the sea. Most of the goods were saturated and smelt of kerosene. A section of the hull lies buried in the sand at Parker River Beach. An anchor with chain is embedded in the rocks east of Point Franklin and a second anchor, thought to be from Eric the Red, is on display at the Cape Otway light station. (There is a photograph of a life belt on the verandah of Rivernook Guest House in Princetown with the words “ERIC THE RED / BOSTON”. This is rather a mystery as the ship was registered in Bath, Maine, USA.) Parts of the ship are on display at Bimbi Park Caravan Park and at Apollo Bay Museum. Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village also has part of the helm (steering wheel), a carved wooden sword (said to be the only remaining portion of the ship’s figurehead; further research is currently being carried out), a door, a metal rod and samples of wood. Much of the wreckage was recovered by the local residents before police and other authorities arrived at the scene. Looters went to great effort to salvage goods, being lowered down the high cliff faces to areas with little or no beach to collect items from the wreckage, their mates above watching out for dangerous waves. A Tasmanian newspaper reports on a court case in Stawell, Victoria, noting a man who was caught 2 months later selling tobacco from the wreckage of Eric the Red. Some of the silverware is still treasured by descendants of Mr Mackenzie who was given these items by officials for his help in securing the cargo. The gifts included silver coffee and tea pots, half a dozen silver serviette rings and two sewing machines. The wreck and cargo were sold to a Melbourne man who salvaged a quantity of high quality tobacco and dental and surgical instruments. Timbers from the ship were salvaged and used in the construction of houses and sheds around Apollo Bay, including a guest house, Milford House (since burnt down in bushfires), which had furniture, fittings and timber on the dining room floor from the ship. A 39.7 foot long trading ketch, the Apollo, was also built from its timbers by Mr Burgess in 1883 and subsequently used in Tasmanian waters. It was the first attempt at ship building in Apollo bay. In 1881 a red light was installed about 300 feet above sea level at the base of the Cape Otway lighthouse to warn ships when they were too close to shore; It would not be visible unless a ship came within 3 miles from it. This has proved to be an effective warning. The State Library of Victoria has a lithograph in its collection depicting the steamer Dawn and the shipwrecked men, titled. "Wreck of the ship Eric the Red, Cape Otway: rescue of the crew by the Dawn". “The Eric the Red is historically significant as one of Victoria's major 19th century shipwrecks. (Heritage Victoria Eric the Red; HV ID 239) The wreck led to the provision of an additional warning light placed below the Cape Otway lighthouse to alert mariners to the location of Otway Reef. The site is archaeologically significant for its remains of a large and varied cargo and ship's fittings being scattered over a wide area. The site is recreationally and aesthetically significant as it is one of the few sites along this coast where tourists can visit identifiable remains of a large wooden shipwreck, and for its location set against the background of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, and the Cape Otway lighthouse.“ (Victorian Heritage Database Registration Number S239, Official Number 8745 USA) Door from the wreck of the ship Eric the Red. The wooden singular rectangular door includes three insert panel sections. The top section is square shaped and is missing its panel or glass. The centre timber panel is about a third of the height of the top panel and the bottom timber panel is approximately equal in height to the total height of the two upper panels. The door fastenings include both a metal door latch and traditional door bolt. They are both attached to the front right hand side of the door. The bolt is just below the top panel, and the door latch is in approximately the centre of that side. The door latch has a round mark where a handle could have been attached. The wood of the door has scraping marks in a semi-circle around the door latch where the latch has swung around on its one remaining fastening and grazed the surface. There is a metal hinge at the top section of the door on the opposite side to the latch. The painted surface has been scraped back to expose the wood. The door is shorter than the average height of a person. On the reverse of the door there are lines on the panels, just inside their edges, is what appears to be pencil. The door is not aligned straight but is skew to centre.warrnambool, flagstaff hill, flagstaff hill maritime village, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, great ocean road, shipwreck artefact, eric the red, jaques allen, sewall, 1880, melbourne exhibition 1880, cape otway, otway reef, victorian shipwreck, bass strait, eric-the-red, door -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Wood Sample, about 1871
This piece of timber from the ship Eric the Red has been eaten through by the marine animals called Teredo Worms, sometimes called sea worms or ‘termites of the sea’. The worms bore holes into wood that is immersed in sea water and bacteria inside the worms digest the wood. Shipbuilders tried to prevent this problem by using coatings of tar, wax, lead or pitch. In the 18th and 19th centuries the outside of their ships were sheathed in copper or a combination of copper and zinc (called Muntz metal) and would be re-metalled periodically to ensure the sheathing would remain effective. In more recent times the ships are protected with a toxic coating. The American ship Eric the Red was a wooden, three masted clipper ship. She had 1,580 tons register and was the largest full-rigged ship built at Bath, Maine, USA in 1871. She was built and registered by Arthur Sewall, later to become the partnership E. & A. Sewall, the 51st ship built by this company. The annually-published List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. shows Bath was still the home port of Eric the Red in 1880. The vessel was named after the Viking discoverer, Eric ‘the Red-haired’ Thorvaldsson , who was the first European to reach the shores of North America (in 980AD). The ship Eric the Red at first traded in coal between America and Britain, and later traded in guano nitrates from South America. In 1879 she was re-metalled and was in first class condition. On 10th June 1880 (some records say 12th June) Eric the Red departed New York for Melbourne and then Sydney. She had been commissioned by American trade representatives to carry a special cargo of 500 exhibits (1400 tons) – about a quarter to a third of America’s total exhibits - for the U.S.A. pavilion at Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The exhibits included furniture, ironmongery, wines, chemicals, dental and surgical instruments, paper, cages, bronze lamp trimmings, axles, stamped ware, astronomical and time globes, samples of corn and the choicest of leaf tobacco. Other general cargo included merchandise such as cases of kerosene and turpentine, brooms, Bristol's Sarsaparilla, Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, Wheeler’s thresher machine, axe handles and tools, cases of silver plate, toys, pianos and organs, carriages and Yankee notions. The Eric the Red left New York under the command of Captain Zaccheus Allen (or some records say Captain Jacques Allen) and 24 other crew including the owner’s son third mate Ned Sewall. There were also 2 saloon passengers on board. The ship had been sailing for an uneventful 85 days and the voyage was almost at its end. As Eric the Red approached Cape Otway there was a moderate north-west wind and hazy and overcast atmosphere. On 4th September 1880 at about 1:30am Captain Allen sighted the Cape Otway light and was keeping the ship 5-6 miles offshore to stay clear of the hazardous Otway Reef. However he had badly misjudged his position. The ship hit the Otway Reef about 2 miles out to sea, south west of the Cape Otway light station. Captain Allen ordered the wheel to be put ‘hard up’ thinking that she might float off the reef. The sea knocked the helmsman away from the wheel, broke the wheel ropes and carried away the rudder. The lifeboats were swamped, the mizzenmast fell, with all of its rigging, then the mainmast also fell and the ship broke in two. Some said that the passenger Vaughan, who was travelling for his health and not very strong, was washed overboard and never seen again. The ship started breaking up. The forward house came adrift with three of the crew on it as well as a longboat, which the men succeeded in launching and keeping afloat by continually bailing with their sea boots. The captain, the third mate (the owner’s son) and others clung to the mizzenmast in the sea. Then the owner’s son was washed away off the mast. Within 10 minutes the rest of the ship was in pieces, completely wrecked, with cargo and wreckage floating in the sea. The captain encouraged the second mate to swim with him to the deckhouse where there were other crew but the second mate wouldn’t go with him. Eventually the Captain made it to the deckhouse and the men pulled him up. At about 4:30am the group of men on the deckhouse saw the lights of a steamer and called for help. At the same time they noticed the second mate and the other man had drifted nearby, still on the spur, and pulled them both onto the wreck. The coastal steamer SS Dawn was returning to Warrnambool from Melbourne, its sailing time different to its usual schedule. She was built in 1876 and bought by the Portland and Belfast Steam Navigation Co. in 1877. At the time of this journey she was commanded by Captain Jones, and was sailing between Melbourne and Portland via Warrnambool. The provedore of the Dawn, Benjamin Lear, heard cries of distress coming through the portholes of the saloon. He gave the alarm and the engines were stopped. Cries could be heard clearly, coming from the land. Captain Jones sent out crew in two boats, and fired off rockets and blue lights to illuminate the area. They picked up the three survivors who were in the long boat from Eric the Red. Two men were picked up out of the water, one being the owner’s son who was clinging to floating kerosene boxes. At daylight the Dawn then rescued the 18 men from the floating portion of the deckhouse, which had drifted about 4 miles from where they’d struck the reef. Shortly after the rescue the deckhouse drifted onto breakers and was thrown onto rocks at Point Franklin, about 2 miles east of Cape Otway. Captain Jones had signalled to Cape Otway lighthouse the number of the Eric the Red and later signalled that there was a wreck at Otway Reef but there was no response from the lighthouse. The captain and crew of the Dawn spent several more hours searching unsuccessfully for more survivors, even going back as far as Apollo Bay. On board the Dawn the exhausted men received care and attention to their needs and wants, including much needed clothing. Captain Allen was amongst the 23 battered and injured men who were rescued and later taken to Warrnambool for care. Warrnambool’s mayor and town clerk offered them all hospitality, the three badly injured men going to the hospital for care and others to the Olive Branch Hotel, then on to Melbourne. Captain Allen’s leg injury prevented him from going ashore so he and three other men travelled on the Dawn to Portland. They were met by the mayor who also treated them all with great kindness. Captain Allen took the train back to Melbourne then returned to America. Those saved were Captain Zaccheus Allen (or Jacques Allen), J. Darcy chief mate, James F. Lawrence second mate, Ned Sewall third mate and owner’s son, John French the cook, C. Nelson sail maker, Clarence W. New passenger, and the able seamen Dickenson, J. Black, Denis White, C. Herbert, C. Thompson, A. Brooks, D. Wilson, J. Ellis, Q. Thompson, C. Newman, W. Paul, J. Davis, M. Horenleng, J. Ogduff, T. W. Drew, R. Richardson. Four men had lost their lives; three of them were crew (Gus Dahlgreen ship’s carpenter, H. Ackman steward, who drowned in his cabin, and George Silver seaman) and one a passenger (J. B. Vaughan). The body of one of them had been found washed up at Cape Otway and was later buried in the lighthouse cemetery; another body was seen on an inaccessible ledge. Twelve months later the second mate James F. Lawrence, from Nova Scotia, passed away in the Warrnambool district; an obituary was displayed in the local paper. Neither the ship, nor its cargo, was insured. The ship was worth about £15,000 and the cargo was reportedly worth £40,000; only about £2,000 worth had been recovered. Cargo and wreckage washed up at Apollo Bay, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Western Port and according to some reports, even as far away as the beaches of New Zealand. The day after the wreck the government steam ship Pharos was sent from Queenscliff to clear the shipping lanes of debris that could be a danger to ships. The large midship deckhouse of the ship was found floating in a calm sea near Henty Reef. Items such as an American chair, a ladder and a nest of boxes were all on top of the deckhouse. As it was so large and could cause danger to passing ships, Captain Payne had the deckhouse towed towards the shore just beyond Apollo Bay. Between Apollo Bay and Blanket Bay the captain and crew of Pharos collected Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, nests of boxes, bottles of Bristol’s sarsaparilla, pieces of common American chairs, axe handles, a Wheelers’ Patent thresher and a sailor’s trunk with the words “A. James” on the front. A ship’s flag-board bearing the words “Eric the Red” was found on the deckhouse; finally those on board the Pharos had the name of the wrecked vessel. During this operation Pharos came across the government steamer Victoria and also a steamer S.S. Otway, both of which were picking up flotsam and wreckage. A whole side of the hull and three large pieces of the other side of the hull, with some of the copper sheathing stripped off, had floated on to Point Franklin. Some of the vessels yards and portions of her masts were on shore. The pieces of canvas attached to the yards and masts confirmed that the vessel had been under sail. The beach there was piled with debris several feet high. There were many cases of Diamond Oil kerosene, labelled R. W. Cameron and Company, New York. There were also many large planks of red pine, portions of a small white boat and a large, well-used oar. Other items found ashore included sewing machines (some consigned to ‘Long and Co.”) and notions, axe and scythe handles, hay forks, wooden pegs, rolls of wire (some branded “T.S” and Co, Melbourne”), kegs of nails branded “A.T. and Co.” from the factory of A. Field and Son, Taunton, Massachusetts, croquet balls and mallets, buggy fittings, rat traps, perfumery, cutlery and Douay Bibles, clocks, bicycles, chairs, a fly wheel, a cooking stove, timber, boxes, pianos, organs and a ladder. (Wooden clothes pegs drifted in for many years). There seemed to be no personal luggage or clothing. The Pharos encountered a long line, about one and a half miles, of floating wreckage about 10 miles off land, south east of Cape Otway, and in some places about 40 feet wide. It seemed that more than half of it was from Eric the Red. The ship’s crew rescued 3 cases that were for the Melbourne Exhibition and other items from amongst the debris. There were also chairs, doors, musical instruments, washing boards, nests of trunks and fly catchers floating in the sea. Most of the goods were saturated and smelt of kerosene. A section of the hull lies buried in the sand at Parker River Beach. An anchor with chain is embedded in the rocks east of Point Franklin and a second anchor, thought to be from Eric the Red, is on display at the Cape Otway light station. (There is a photograph of a life belt on the verandah of Rivernook Guest House in Princetown with the words “ERIC THE RED / BOSTON”. This is rather a mystery as the ship was registered in Bath, Maine, USA.) Parts of the ship are on display at Bimbi Park Caravan Park and at Apollo Bay Museum. Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village also has part of the helm (steering wheel), a carved wooden sword (said to be the only remaining portion of the ship’s figurehead; further research is currently being carried out), a door, a metal rod, several samples of wood and a medal for bravery, awarded to Nelson Johnson, a crew member of the S.S. Dawn by the U.S. President, for the rescue of the crew. Much of the wreckage was recovered by the local residents before police and other authorities arrived at the scene. Looters went to great effort to salvage goods, being lowered down the high cliff faces to areas with little or no beach to collect items from the wreckage, their mates above watching out for dangerous waves. A Tasmanian newspaper reports on a court case in Stawell, Victoria, noting a man who was caught 2 months later selling tobacco from the wreckage of Eric the Red. Some of the silverware is still treasured by descendants of Mr Mackenzie who was given these items by officials for his help in securing the cargo. The gifts included silver coffee and tea pots, half a dozen silver serviette rings and two sewing machines. A Mr G.W. Black has in his possession a medal and a purse that were awarded to his father, another Dawn crew member who was part of the rescue team. The medal is inscribed and named “To John Black ….” (from “Shipwrecks” by Margaret E. Mackenzie, 3rd edition, published 1964). The wreck and cargo were sold to a Melbourne man who salvaged a quantity of high quality tobacco and dental and surgical instruments. Timbers from the ship were salvaged and used in the construction of houses and sheds around Apollo Bay, including a guest house, Milford House (since burnt down in bushfires), which had furniture, fittings and timber on the dining room floor from the ship. A 39.7 foot long trading ketch, the Apollo, was also built from its timbers by Mr Burgess in 1883 and subsequently used in Tasmanian waters. It was the first attempt at ship building in Apollo bay. In 1881 a red light was installed about 300 feet above sea level at the base of the Cape Otway lighthouse to warn ships when they were too close to shore; It would not be visible unless a ship came within 3 miles from it. This has proved to be an effective warning. Nelson Johnson, recipient of the medal for bravery, married Elizabeth Howard in 1881 and they had 10 children. They lived in South Melbourne, Victoria. Nelson died in 1922 in Fitzroy Victoria, age 66. In 1895 the owners of the S.S. Dawn, the Portland and Belfast Steam Navigation Co., wound up and sold out to the Belfast Company who took over the Dawn for one year before selling her to Howard Smith. She was condemned and sunk in Suva in 1928. The State Library of Victoria has a lithograph in its collection depicting the steamer Dawn and the shipwrecked men, titled. "Wreck of the ship Eric the Red, Cape Otway: rescue of the crew by the Dawn".The wood (timber) sample is listed on the Collections Australia Database, Heritage Victoria, number 239 00010 A “The Eric the Red is historically significant as one of Victoria's major 19th century shipwrecks. (Heritage Victoria Eric the Red; HV ID 239) The wreck led to the provision of an additional warning light placed below the Cape Otway lighthouse to alert mariners to the location of Otway Reef. The site is archaeologically significant for its remains of a large and varied cargo and ship's fittings being scattered over a wide area. The site is recreationally and aesthetically significant as it is one of the few sites along this coast where tourists can visit identifiable remains of a large wooden shipwreck, and for its location set against the background of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, and the Cape Otway lighthouse.“ (Victorian Heritage Database Registration Number S239, Official Number 8745 USA) Wood sample from the wreck of the ship Eric the Red. Triangular shaped, full of sea worm (Teredo worm) holes. The wood is dark in colour and is very light in weight.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, shipwreck-artefact, eric-the-red, zaccheus-allen, sewall, 1880, melbourne-exhibition, cape-otway, otway-reef, wood-sample, s.s.-dawn -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Wood Sample, About 1871
This piece of timber from the ship Eric the Red has been eaten through by the marine animals called Teredo Worms, sometimes called sea worms or ‘termites of the sea’. The worms bore holes into wood that is immersed in sea water and bacteria inside the worms digest the wood. Shipbuilders tried to prevent this problem by using coatings of tar, wax, lead or pitch. In the 18th and 19th centuries the outside of their ships were sheathed in copper or a combination of copper and zinc (called Muntz metal) and would be re-metalled periodically to ensure the sheathing would remain effective. In more recent times the ships are protected with a toxic coating. The American ship Eric the Red was a wooden, three masted clipper ship. She had 1,580 tons register and was the largest full-rigged ship built at Bath, Maine, USA in 1871. She was built and registered by Arthur Sewall, later to become the partnership E. & A. Sewall, the 51st ship built by this company. The annually-published List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. shows Bath was still the home port of Eric the Red in 1880. The vessel was named after the Viking discoverer, Eric ‘the Red-haired’ Thorvaldsson , who was the first European to reach the shores of North America (in 980AD). The ship Eric the Red at first traded in coal between America and Britain, and later traded in guano nitrates from South America. In 1879 she was re-metalled and was in first class condition. On 10th June 1880 (some records say 12th June) Eric the Red departed New York for Melbourne and then Sydney. She had been commissioned by American trade representatives to carry a special cargo of 500 exhibits (1400 tons) – about a quarter to a third of America’s total exhibits - for the U.S.A. pavilion at Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The exhibits included furniture, ironmongery, wines, chemicals, dental and surgical instruments, paper, cages, bronze lamp trimmings, axles, stamped ware, astronomical and time globes, samples of corn and the choicest of leaf tobacco. Other general cargo included merchandise such as cases of kerosene and turpentine, brooms, Bristol's Sarsaparilla, Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, Wheeler’s thresher machine, axe handles and tools, cases of silver plate, toys, pianos and organs, carriages and Yankee notions. The Eric the Red left New York under the command of Captain Zaccheus Allen (or some records say Captain Jacques Allen) and 24 other crew including the owner’s son third mate Ned Sewall. There were also 2 saloon passengers on board. The ship had been sailing for an uneventful 85 days and the voyage was almost at its end. As Eric the Red approached Cape Otway there was a moderate north-west wind and hazy and overcast atmosphere. On 4th September 1880 at about 1:30am Captain Allen sighted the Cape Otway light and was keeping the ship 5-6 miles offshore to stay clear of the hazardous Otway Reef. However he had badly misjudged his position. The ship hit the Otway Reef about 2 miles out to sea, south west of the Cape Otway light station. Captain Allen ordered the wheel to be put ‘hard up’ thinking that she might float off the reef. The sea knocked the helmsman away from the wheel, broke the wheel ropes and carried away the rudder. The lifeboats were swamped, the mizzenmast fell, with all of its rigging, then the mainmast also fell and the ship broke in two. Some said that the passenger Vaughan, who was travelling for his health and not very strong, was washed overboard and never seen again. The ship started breaking up. The forward house came adrift with three of the crew on it as well as a longboat, which the men succeeded in launching and keeping afloat by continually bailing with their sea boots. The captain, the third mate (the owner’s son) and others clung to the mizzenmast in the sea. Then the owner’s son was washed away off the mast. Within 10 minutes the rest of the ship was in pieces, completely wrecked, with cargo and wreckage floating in the sea. The captain encouraged the second mate to swim with him to the deckhouse where there were other crew but the second mate wouldn’t go with him. Eventually the Captain made it to the deckhouse and the men pulled him up. At about 4:30am the group of men on the deckhouse saw the lights of a steamer and called for help. At the same time they noticed the second mate and the other man had drifted nearby, still on the spur, and pulled them both onto the wreck. The coastal steamer SS Dawn was returning to Warrnambool from Melbourne, its sailing time different to its usual schedule. She was built in 1876 and bought by the Portland and Belfast Steam Navigation Co. in 1877. At the time of this journey she was commanded by Captain Jones, and was sailing between Melbourne and Portland via Warrnambool. The provedore of the Dawn, Benjamin Lear, heard cries of distress coming through the portholes of the saloon. He gave the alarm and the engines were stopped. Cries could be heard clearly, coming from the land. Captain Jones sent out crew in two boats, and fired off rockets and blue lights to illuminate the area. They picked up the three survivors who were in the long boat from Eric the Red. Two men were picked up out of the water, one being the owner’s son who was clinging to floating kerosene boxes. At daylight the Dawn then rescued the 18 men from the floating portion of the deckhouse, which had drifted about 4 miles from where they’d struck the reef. Shortly after the rescue the deckhouse drifted onto breakers and was thrown onto rocks at Point Franklin, about 2 miles east of Cape Otway. Captain Jones had signalled to Cape Otway lighthouse the number of the Eric the Red and later signalled that there was a wreck at Otway Reef but there was no response from the lighthouse. The captain and crew of the Dawn spent several more hours searching unsuccessfully for more survivors, even going back as far as Apollo Bay. On board the Dawn the exhausted men received care and attention to their needs and wants, including much needed clothing. Captain Allen was amongst the 23 battered and injured men who were rescued and later taken to Warrnambool for care. Warrnambool’s mayor and town clerk offered them all hospitality, the three badly injured men going to the hospital for care and others to the Olive Branch Hotel, then on to Melbourne. Captain Allen’s leg injury prevented him from going ashore so he and three other men travelled on the Dawn to Portland. They were met by the mayor who also treated them all with great kindness. Captain Allen took the train back to Melbourne then returned to America. Those saved were Captain Zaccheus Allen (or Jacques Allen), J. Darcy chief mate, James F. Lawrence second mate, Ned Sewall third mate and owner’s son, John French the cook, C. Nelson sail maker, Clarence W. New passenger, and the able seamen Dickenson, J. Black, Denis White, C. Herbert, C. Thompson, A. Brooks, D. Wilson, J. Ellis, Q. Thompson, C. Newman, W. Paul, J. Davis, M. Horenleng, J. Ogduff, T. W. Drew, R. Richardson. Four men had lost their lives; three of them were crew (Gus Dahlgreen ship’s carpenter, H. Ackman steward, who drowned in his cabin, and George Silver seaman) and one a passenger (J. B. Vaughan). The body of one of them had been found washed up at Cape Otway and was later buried in the lighthouse cemetery; another body was seen on an inaccessible ledge. Twelve months later the second mate James F. Lawrence, from Nova Scotia, passed away in the Warrnambool district; an obituary was displayed in the local paper. Neither the ship, nor its cargo, was insured. The ship was worth about £15,000 and the cargo was reportedly worth £40,000; only about £2,000 worth had been recovered. Cargo and wreckage washed up at Apollo Bay, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Western Port and according to some reports, even as far away as the beaches of New Zealand. The day after the wreck the government steam ship Pharos was sent from Queenscliff to clear the shipping lanes of debris that could be a danger to ships. The large midship deckhouse of the ship was found floating in a calm sea near Henty Reef. Items such as an American chair, a ladder and a nest of boxes were all on top of the deckhouse. As it was so large and could cause danger to passing ships, Captain Payne had the deckhouse towed towards the shore just beyond Apollo Bay. Between Apollo Bay and Blanket Bay the captain and crew of Pharos collected Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, nests of boxes, bottles of Bristol’s sarsaparilla, pieces of common American chairs, axe handles, a Wheelers’ Patent thresher and a sailor’s trunk with the words “A. James” on the front. A ship’s flag-board bearing the words “Eric the Red” was found on the deckhouse; finally those on board the Pharos had the name of the wrecked vessel. During this operation Pharos came across the government steamer Victoria and also a steamer S.S. Otway, both of which were picking up flotsam and wreckage. A whole side of the hull and three large pieces of the other side of the hull, with some of the copper sheathing stripped off, had floated on to Point Franklin. Some of the vessels yards and portions of her masts were on shore. The pieces of canvas attached to the yards and masts confirmed that the vessel had been under sail. The beach there was piled with debris several feet high. There were many cases of Diamond Oil kerosene, labelled R. W. Cameron and Company, New York. There were also many large planks of red pine, portions of a small white boat and a large, well-used oar. Other items found ashore included sewing machines (some consigned to ‘Long and Co.”) and notions, axe and scythe handles, hay forks, wooden pegs, rolls of wire (some branded “T.S” and Co, Melbourne”), kegs of nails branded “A.T. and Co.” from the factory of A. Field and Son, Taunton, Massachusetts, croquet balls and mallets, buggy fittings, rat traps, perfumery, cutlery and Douay Bibles, clocks, bicycles, chairs, a fly wheel, a cooking stove, timber, boxes, pianos, organs and a ladder. (Wooden clothes pegs drifted in for many years). There seemed to be no personal luggage or clothing. The Pharos encountered a long line, about one and a half miles, of floating wreckage about 10 miles off land, south east of Cape Otway, and in some places about 40 feet wide. It seemed that more than half of it was from Eric the Red. The ship’s crew rescued 3 cases that were for the Melbourne Exhibition and other items from amongst the debris. There were also chairs, doors, musical instruments, washing boards, nests of trunks and fly catchers floating in the sea. Most of the goods were saturated and smelt of kerosene. A section of the hull lies buried in the sand at Parker River Beach. An anchor with chain is embedded in the rocks east of Point Franklin and a second anchor, thought to be from Eric the Red, is on display at the Cape Otway light station. (There is a photograph of a life belt on the verandah of Rivernook Guest House in Princetown with the words “ERIC THE RED / BOSTON”. This is rather a mystery as the ship was registered in Bath, Maine, USA.) Parts of the ship are on display at Bimbi Park Caravan Park and at Apollo Bay Museum. Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village also has part of the helm (steering wheel), a carved wooden sword (said to be the only remaining portion of the ship’s figurehead; further research is currently being carried out), a door, a metal rod, several samples of wood and a medal for bravery, awarded to Nelson Johnson, a crew member of the S.S. Dawn by the U.S. President, for the rescue of the crew. Much of the wreckage was recovered by the local residents before police and other authorities arrived at the scene. Looters went to great effort to salvage goods, being lowered down the high cliff faces to areas with little or no beach to collect items from the wreckage, their mates above watching out for dangerous waves. A Tasmanian newspaper reports on a court case in Stawell, Victoria, noting a man who was caught 2 months later selling tobacco from the wreckage of Eric the Red. Some of the silverware is still treasured by descendants of Mr Mackenzie who was given these items by officials for his help in securing the cargo. The gifts included silver coffee and tea pots, half a dozen silver serviette rings and two sewing machines. A Mr G.W. Black has in his possession a medal and a purse that were awarded to his father, another Dawn crew member who was part of the rescue team. The medal is inscribed and named “To John Black ….” (from “Shipwrecks” by Margaret E. Mackenzie, 3rd edition, published 1964). The wreck and cargo were sold to a Melbourne man who salvaged a quantity of high quality tobacco and dental and surgical instruments. Timbers from the ship were salvaged and used in the construction of houses and sheds around Apollo Bay, including a guest house, Milford House (since burnt down in bushfires), which had furniture, fittings and timber on the dining room floor from the ship. A 39.7 foot long trading ketch, the Apollo, was also built from its timbers by Mr Burgess in 1883 and subsequently used in Tasmanian waters. It was the first attempt at ship building in Apollo bay. In 1881 a red light was installed about 300 feet above sea level at the base of the Cape Otway lighthouse to warn ships when they were too close to shore; It would not be visible unless a ship came within 3 miles from it. This has proved to be an effective warning. Nelson Johnson, recipient of the medal for bravery, married Elizabeth Howard in 1881 and they had 10 children. They lived in South Melbourne, Victoria. Nelson died in 1922 in Fitzroy Victoria, age 66. In 1895 the owners of the S.S. Dawn, the Portland and Belfast Steam Navigation Co., wound up and sold out to the Belfast Company who took over the Dawn for one year before selling her to Howard Smith. She was condemned and sunk in Suva in 1928. The State Library of Victoria has a lithograph in its collection depicting the steamer Dawn and the shipwrecked men, titled. "Wreck of the ship Eric the Red, Cape Otway: rescue of the crew by the Dawn".The wood (timber) sample is listed on the Collections Australia Database, Heritage Victoria, number 239 00010 A “The Eric the Red is historically significant as one of Victoria's major 19th century shipwrecks. (Heritage Victoria Eric the Red; HV ID 239) The wreck led to the provision of an additional warning light placed below the Cape Otway lighthouse to alert mariners to the location of Otway Reef. The site is archaeologically significant for its remains of a large and varied cargo and ship's fittings being scattered over a wide area. The site is recreationally and aesthetically significant as it is one of the few sites along this coast where tourists can visit identifiable remains of a large wooden shipwreck, and for its location set against the background of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, and the Cape Otway lighthouse.“ (Victorian Heritage Database Registration Number S239, Official Number 8745 USA) Wood sample from the wreck of the ship Eric the Red. Oblong shaped, full of sea worm (Teredo worm) holes. The wood is dark in colour and is very light in weight. flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, shipwreck-artefact, eric-the-red, zaccheus-allen, sewall, 1880, melbourne-exhibition, cape-otway, otway-reef, wood-sample, s.s.-dawn -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Functional object - Ship's Wheel, 1871 or earlier
The ship building company E. & A. Sewall, from Bath, Maine, USA, built many ships that had wheels with the same decorative, starburst pattern on them as this particular wheel segment, including the Eric the Red. The wheel was manufactured by their local Bath foundry, Geo. Moulton & Co. and sold to the Sewall yard for $100, according to the construction accounts of the vessel. Eric the Red was a wooden, three masted clipper ship. She had 1,580 tons register and was the largest full-rigged ship built at Bath, Maine, USA in 1871. She was built and registered by Arthur Sewall, later to become the partnership E. & A. Sewall, and was the 51st ship built by this company. The annually-published List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. shows that Bath was still the home port of Eric the Red in 1880. The vessel was named after the Viking discoverer, Eric the Red, who was the first European to reach the shores of North America (in 980AD). The ship Eric the Red at first traded in coal between America and Britain, and later traded in guano nitrates from South America. In 1879 she was re-metalled and was in first class condition. On 10th June 1880 (some records say 12th June) Eric the Red departed New York for Melbourne and then Sydney. She had been commissioned by American trade representatives to carry a special cargo of 500 exhibits (1400 tons) - about a quarter to a third of America’s total exhibits - from America for the U.S.A. pavilion at Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The exhibits included furniture, ironmongery, wines, chemicals, dental and surgical instruments, paper, cages, bronze lamp trimmings, axles, stamped ware, astronomical and time globes, samples of corn and the choicest of leaf tobacco. Other general cargo included merchandise such as cases of kerosene and turpentine, brooms, Bristol's Sarsaparilla, Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, Wheeler’s thresher machine, axe handles and tools, cases of silver plate, toys, pianos and organs, carriages and Yankee notions. The Eric the Red left New York under the command of Captain Z. Allen (or some records say Captain Jacques Allen) and 24 other crew including the owner’s son third mate Ned Sewall. There were 2 saloon passengers also. On 4th September 1880 the ship had been sailing for an uneventful 85 days and the voyage was almost at its end. Eric the Red approached Cape Otway in a moderate north-west wind and hazy and overcast atmosphere. Around 1:30am Captain Allen sighted the Cape Otway light and was keeping the ship 5-6 miles offshore to stay clear of the hazardous Otway Reef. However he had badly misjudged his position. The ship hit the Otway Reef about 2 miles out to sea, south west of the Cape Otway light station. Captain Allen ordered the wheel to be put ‘hard up’ thinking that she might float off the reef. A heavy sea knocked the man away from the wheel, broke the wheel ropes and carried away the rudder. The sea swamped the lifeboats, the mizzenmast fell, with all of its rigging, then the mainmast fell and the ship broke in two. Some said that the passenger Vaughan, who was travelling for his health and not very strong, was washed overboard and never seen again. The ship started breaking up. The forward house came adrift with three of the crew on it as well as a longboat, which the men succeeded in launching and keeping afloat by continually bailing with their sea boots. The captain, the third mate (the owner’s son) and others clung to the mizzenmast in the sea. Then the owner’s son was washed away off the mast. Within 10 minutes the rest of the ship was in pieces, completely wrecked, with cargo and wreckage floating in the sea. The captain encouraged the second mate to swim with him to the deckhouse where there were other crew but the second mate wouldn’t go with him. Eventually the Captain made it to the deckhouse and the men pulled him up. At about 4:30am the group of men on the deckhouse saw the lights of a steamer and called for help. At the same time they noticed the second mate and the other man had drifted nearby, still on the spur, and pulled them both onto the wreck. The coastal steamer Dawn was returning to Warrnambool from Melbourne, its sailing time different to its usual schedule. Cries were heard coming from out of the darkness. Captain Jones sent out two life boats, and fired off rockets and blue lights to illuminate the area. They picked up the three survivors who were in the long boat from Eric the Red. Two men were picked up out of the water, one being the owner’s son who was clinging to floating kerosene boxes. At daylight the Dawn then rescued the 18 men from the floating portion of the deckhouse, which had drifted about 4 miles from where they’d struck the reef. Shortly after the rescue the deckhouse drifted onto breakers and was thrown onto rocks at Point Franklin, about 2 miles east of Cape Otway. Captain Jones had signalled to Cape Otway lighthouse the number of the Eric the Red and later signalled that there was a wreck at Otway Reef but there was no response from the lighthouse. The captain and crew of the Dawn spent several more hours searching unsuccessfully for more survivors, even going back as far as Apollo Bay. On board the Dawn the exhausted men received care and attention to their needs and wants, including much needed clothing. Captain Allen was amongst the 23 battered and injured men who were rescued and later taken to Warrnambool for care. Warrnambool’s mayor and town clerk offered them all hospitality, the three badly injured men going to the hospital and others to the Olive Branch Hotel, then on to Melbourne. Captain Allen’s leg injury prevented him from going ashore so he and three other men travelled on the Dawn to Portland. They were met by the mayor who also treated them all with great kindness. Captain Allen took the train back to Melbourne then returned to America. Those saved were Captain Z. Allen (or Jacques Allen), J. Darcy chief mate, James F. Lawrence second mate, Ned Sewall third mate and owner’s son, John French the cook, C. Nelson sail maker, Clarence W. New passenger, and the able seamen Dickenson, J. Black, Denis White, C. Herbert, C. Thompson, A. Brooks, D. Wilson, J. Ellis, Q. Thompson, C. Newman, W. Paul, J. Davis, M. Horenleng, J. Ogduff, T. W. Drew, R. Richardson. Four men had lost their lives; three of them were crew (Gus Dahlgreen ship’s carpenter, H. Ackman steward, who drowned in his cabin, and George Silver seaman) and one a passenger (J. B. Vaughan). The body of one of them had been found washed up at Cape Otway and was later buried in the lighthouse cemetery; another body was seen on an inaccessible ledge. Twelve months later the second mate James F. Lawrence, from Nova Scotia, passed away in the Warrnambool district; an obituary was displayed in the local paper. The captain and crew of the Dawn were recognised by the United States Government in July 1881 for their humane efforts and bravery, being thanked and presented with substantial monetary rewards, medals and gifts. Neither the ship, nor its cargo, was insured. The ship was worth about £15,000 and the cargo was reportedly worth £40,000; only about £2,000 worth had been recovered. Cargo and wreckage washed up at Apollo Bay, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Western Port and according to some reports, even as far away as the beaches of New Zealand. The day after the wreck the government steam ship Pharos was sent from Queenscliff to clear the shipping lanes of debris that could be a danger to ships. The large midship deckhouse of the ship was found floating in a calm sea near Henty Reef. Items such as an American chair, a ladder and a nest of boxes were all on top of the deckhouse. As it was so large and could cause danger to passing ships, Captain Payne had the deckhouse towed towards the shore just beyond Apollo Bay. Between Apollo Bay and Blanket Bay the captain and crew of Pharos collected Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, nests of boxes, bottles of Bristol’s sarsaparilla, pieces of common American chairs, axe handles, a Wheelers’ Patent thresher and a sailor’s trunk with the words “A. James” on the front. A ship’s flag-board bearing the words “Eric the Red” was found on the deckhouse; finally those on board the Pharos had the name of the wrecked vessel. During this operation Pharos came across the government steamer Victoria and also a steamer S.S. Otway, both of which were picking up flotsam and wreckage. A whole side of the hull and three large pieces of the other side of the hull, with some of the copper sheathing stripped off, had floated on to Point Franklin. Some of the vessels yards and portions of her masts were on shore. The pieces of canvas attached to the yards and masts confirmed that the vessel had been under sail. The beach there was piled with debris several feet high. There were many cases of Diamond Oil kerosene, labelled R. W. Cameron and Company, New York. There were also many large planks of red pine, portions of a small white boat and a large, well-used oar. Other items found ashore included sewing machines (some consigned to ‘Long and Co.”) and notions, axe and scythe handles, hay forks, wooden pegs, rolls of wire (some branded “T.S” and Co, Melbourne”), kegs of nails branded “A.T. and Co.” from the factory of A. Field and Son, Taunton, Massachusetts, croquet balls and mallets, buggy fittings, rat traps, perfumery, cutlery and Douay Bibles, clocks, bicycles, chairs, a fly wheel, a cooking stove, timber, boxes, pianos, organs and a ladder. (Wooden clothes pegs drifted in for many years). There seemed to be no personal luggage or clothing. The Pharos encountered a long line, about one and a half miles, of floating wreckage about 10 miles off land, south east of Cape Otway, and in some places about 40 feet wide. It seemed that more than half of it was from Eric the Red. The ship’s crew rescued 3 cases that were for the Melbourne Exhibition and other items from amongst the debris. There were also chairs, doors, musical instruments, washing boards, nests of trunks and fly catchers floating in the sea. Most of the goods were saturated and smelt of kerosene. A section of the hull lies buried in the sand at Parker River Beach. An anchor with chain is embedded in the rocks east of Point Franklin and a second anchor, thought to be from Eric the Red, is on display at the Cape Otway light station. (There is a photograph of a life belt on the verandah of Rivernook Guest House in Princetown with the words “ERIC THE RED / BOSTON”. This is rather a mystery as the ship was registered in Bath, Maine, USA.) Parts of the ship are on display at Bimbi Park Caravan Park and at Apollo Bay Museum. Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village also has part of the helm (steering wheel), a carved wooden sword (said to be the only remaining portion of the ship’s figurehead; further research is currently being carried out), a door, a metal rod, samples of wood and a medal for bravery. Much of the wreckage was recovered by the local residents before police and other authorities arrived at the scene. Looters went to great effort to salvage goods, being lowered down the high cliff faces to areas with little or no beach to collect items from the wreckage, their mates above watching out for dangerous waves. A Tasmanian newspaper reports on a court case in Stawell, Victoria, noting a man who was caught 2 months later selling tobacco from the wreckage of Eric the Red. Some of the silverware is still treasured by descendants of Mr Mackenzie who was given these items by officials for his help in securing the cargo. The gifts included silver coffee and tea pots, half a dozen silver serviette rings and two sewing machines. The wreck and cargo were sold to a Melbourne man who salvaged a quantity of high quality tobacco and dental and surgical instruments. Timbers from the ship were salvaged and used in the construction of houses and sheds around Apollo Bay, including a guest house, Milford House (since burnt down in bushfires), which had furniture, fittings and timber on the dining room floor from the ship. A 39.7 foot long trading ketch, the Apollo, was also built from its timbers by Mr Burgess in 1883 and subsequently used in Tasmanian waters. It was the first attempt at ship building in Apollo bay. In 1881 a red light was installed about 300 feet above sea level at the base of the Cape Otway lighthouse to warn ships when they were too close to shore; It would not be visible unless a ship came within 3 miles from it. This has proved to be an effective warning. The State Library of Victoria has a lithograph in its collection depicting the steamer Dawn and the shipwrecked men, titled. "Wreck of the ship Eric the Red, Cape Otway: rescue of the crew by the Dawn". “The Eric the Red is historically significant as one of Victoria's major 19th century shipwrecks. (Heritage Victoria Eric the Red; HV ID 239) The wreck led to the provision of an additional warning light placed below the Cape Otway lighthouse to alert mariners to the location of Otway Reef. The site is archaeologically significant for its remains of a large and varied cargo and ship's fittings being scattered over a wide area. The site is recreationally and aesthetically significant as it is one of the few sites along this coast where tourists can visit identifiable remains of a large wooden shipwreck, and for its location set against the background of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, and the Cape Otway lighthouse.“ (Victorian Heritage Database Registration Number S239, Official Number 8745 USA) Segment of a ship's wheel, or helm, from the wreck of the sailing ship Eric the Red. The wheel part is an arc shape from the outer rim of the wheel and is made up of three layers of timber. The centre layer is a dark, dense timber and is wider than the two outer layers, which are less dense and lighter in colour. The wheel segment has a vertically symmetrical, decorative copper plate inlaid on the front. The plate has a starburst pattern; six stars decorate it, each at a point where there is a metal fitting going through the three layers of timber to the rear side of the wheel. On the rear each of the six fittings has an individual copper star around it. The edges of the helm are rounded and bevelled, polished to a shine in a dark stain. Around each of the stars, front and back, the wood is a lighter colour, as though the metal in that area being polished frequently. The length of the segment suggests that it has probably come from a wheel or helm that had ten spokes. (Ref: F.H.M.M. 16th March 1994, 239.6.610.3.7. Artefact Reg No ER/1.)flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, ship's-wheel, eric-the-red, helm, shei's wheel, ship's steering wheel -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Decorative object - Sword, 1871 or earlier
This wooden sword is said to “possibly be the only remaining part of the figurehead from the sailing ship Eric the Red.” It was previously part of the collection of the old Warrnambool Museum and the entry in its inventory says “Wooden sword, portion of the figurehead, held by “Eric the Red” at the bow.” A large part of the ship’s hull was found on the rocks and a figurehead may have been attached or washed up on the shore. The shipping records for E. & A. Sewall, the builders, owners and managers of Eric the Red, are now preserved in the Maine Maritime Museum. There is no photograph on record of Eric the Red but photographs of other ships built around that time by the same company show that these did not have figureheads, and there is no record found of a figurehead for Eric the Red being ordered or paid for. Further research is being carried out. The ship building company E. & A. Sewall, from Bath, Maine, USA, built Eric the Red, a wooden, three masted clipper ship. She had 1,580 tons register and was the largest full-rigged ship built at Bath, Maine, USA in 1871. She was built and registered by Arthur Sewall, later to become the partnership E. & A. Sewall, and was the 51st ship built by this company. The annually-published List of Merchant Vessels of the U.S. shows that Bath was still the home port of Eric the Red in 1880. The vessel was named after the Viking discoverer, Eric the Red, who was the first European to reach the shores of North America (in 980AD). The ship Eric the Red at first traded in coal between America and Britain, and later traded in guano nitrates from South America. In 1879 she was re-metalled and was in first class condition. On 10th June 1880 (some records say 12th June) Eric the Red departed New York for Melbourne and then Sydney. She had been commissioned by American trade representatives to carry a special cargo of 500 exhibits (1400 tons) - about a quarter to a third of America’s total exhibits - from America for the U.S.A. pavilion at Melbourne’s first International Exhibition. The exhibits included furniture, ironmongery, wines, chemicals, dental and surgical instruments, paper, cages, bronze lamp trimmings, axles, stamped ware, astronomical and time globes, samples of corn and the choicest of leaf tobacco. Other general cargo included merchandise such as cases of kerosene and turpentine, brooms, Bristol's Sarsaparilla, Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, Wheeler’s thresher machine, axe handles and tools, cases of silver plate, toys, pianos and organs, carriages and Yankee notions. The Eric the Red left New York under the command of Captain Z. Allen (or some records say Captain Jacques Allen) and 24 other crew including the owner’s son third mate Ned Sewall. There were 2 saloon passengers also. On 4th September 1880 the ship had been sailing for an uneventful 85 days and the voyage was almost at its end. Eric the Red approached Cape Otway in a moderate north-west wind and hazy and overcast atmosphere. Around 1:30am Captain Allen sighted the Cape Otway light and was keeping the ship 5-6 miles offshore to stay clear of the hazardous Otway Reef. However he had badly misjudged his position. The ship hit the Otway Reef about 2 miles out to sea, south west of the Cape Otway light station. Captain Allen ordered the wheel to be put ‘hard up’ thinking that she might float off the reef. A heavy sea knocked the man away from the wheel, broke the wheel ropes and carried away the rudder. The sea swamped the lifeboats, the mizzenmast fell, with all of its rigging, then the mainmast fell and the ship broke in two. Some said that the passenger Vaughan, who was travelling for his health and not very strong, was washed overboard and never seen again. The ship started breaking up. The forward house came adrift with three of the crew on it as well as a longboat, which the men succeeded in launching and keeping afloat by continually bailing with their sea boots. The captain, the third mate (the owner’s son) and others clung to the mizzenmast in the sea. Then the owner’s son was washed away off the mast. Within 10 minutes the rest of the ship was in pieces, completely wrecked, with cargo and wreckage floating in the sea. The captain encouraged the second mate to swim with him to the deckhouse where there were other crew but the second mate wouldn’t go with him. Eventually the Captain made it to the deckhouse and the men pulled him up. At about 4:30am the group of men on the deckhouse saw the lights of a steamer and called for help. At the same time they noticed the second mate and the other man had drifted nearby, still on the spur, and pulled them both onto the wreck. The coastal steamer Dawn was returning to Warrnambool from Melbourne, its sailing time different to its usual schedule. Cries were heard coming from out of the darkness. Captain Jones sent out two life boats, and fired off rockets and blue lights to illuminate the area. They picked up the three survivors who were in the long boat from Eric the Red. Two men were picked up out of the water, one being the owner’s son who was clinging to floating kerosene boxes. At daylight the Dawn then rescued the 18 men from the floating portion of the deckhouse, which had drifted about 4 miles from where they’d struck the reef. Shortly after the rescue the deckhouse drifted onto breakers and was thrown onto rocks at Point Franklin, about 2 miles east of Cape Otway. Captain Jones had signalled to Cape Otway lighthouse the number of the Eric the Red and later signalled that there was a wreck at Otway Reef but there was no response from the lighthouse. The captain and crew of the Dawn spent several more hours searching unsuccessfully for more survivors, even going back as far as Apollo Bay. On board the Dawn the exhausted men received care and attention to their needs and wants, including much needed clothing. Captain Allen was amongst the 23 battered and injured men who were rescued and later taken to Warrnambool for care. Warrnambool’s mayor and town clerk offered them all hospitality, the three badly injured men going to the hospital and others to the Olive Branch Hotel, then on to Melbourne. Captain Allen’s leg injury prevented him from going ashore so he and three other men travelled on the Dawn to Portland. They were met by the mayor who also treated them all with great kindness. Captain Allen took the train back to Melbourne then returned to America. Those saved were Captain Z. Allen (or Jacques Allen), J. Darcy chief mate, James F. Lawrence second mate, Ned Sewall third mate and owner’s son, John French the cook, C. Nelson sail maker, Clarence W. New passenger, and the able seamen Dickenson, J. Black, Denis White, C. Herbert, C. Thompson, A. Brooks, D. Wilson, J. Ellis, Q. Thompson, C. Newman, W. Paul, J. Davis, M. Horenleng, J. Ogduff, T. W. Drew, R. Richardson. Four men had lost their lives; three of them were crew (Gus Dahlgreen ship’s carpenter, H. Ackman steward, who drowned in his cabin, and George Silver seaman) and one a passenger (J. B. Vaughan). The body of one of them had been found washed up at Cape Otway and was later buried in the lighthouse cemetery; another body was seen on an inaccessible ledge. Twelve months later the second mate James F. Lawrence, from Nova Scotia, passed away in the Warrnambool district; an obituary was displayed in the local paper. The captain and crew of the Dawn were recognised by the United States Government in July 1881 for their humane efforts and bravery, being thanked and presented with substantial monetary rewards, medals and gifts. Neither the ship, nor its cargo, was insured. The ship was worth about £15,000 and the cargo was reportedly worth £40,000; only about £2,000 worth had been recovered. Cargo and wreckage washed up at Apollo Bay, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Western Port and according to some reports, even as far away as the beaches of New Zealand. The day after the wreck the government steam ship Pharos was sent from Queenscliff to clear the shipping lanes of debris that could be a danger to ships. The large midship deckhouse of the ship was found floating in a calm sea near Henty Reef. Items such as an American chair, a ladder and a nest of boxes were all on top of the deckhouse. As it was so large and could cause danger to passing ships, Captain Payne had the deckhouse towed towards the shore just beyond Apollo Bay. Between Apollo Bay and Blanket Bay the captain and crew of Pharos collected Wheeler and Wilson sewing machines, nests of boxes, bottles of Bristol’s sarsaparilla, pieces of common American chairs, axe handles, a Wheelers’ Patent thresher and a sailor’s trunk with the words “A. James” on the front. A ship’s flag-board bearing the words “Eric the Red” was found on the deckhouse; finally those on board the Pharos had the name of the wrecked vessel. During this operation Pharos came across the government steamer Victoria and also a steamer S.S. Otway, both of which were picking up flotsam and wreckage. A whole side of the hull and three large pieces of the other side of the hull, with some of the copper sheathing stripped off, had floated on to Point Franklin. Some of the vessels yards and portions of her masts were on shore. The pieces of canvas attached to the yards and masts confirmed that the vessel had been under sail. The beach there was piled with debris several feet high. There were many cases of Diamond Oil kerosene, labelled R. W. Cameron and Company, New York. There were also many large planks of red pine, portions of a small white boat and a large, well-used oar. Other items found ashore included sewing machines (some consigned to ‘Long and Co.”) and notions, axe and scythe handles, hay forks, wooden pegs, rolls of wire (some branded “T.S” and Co, Melbourne”), kegs of nails branded “A.T. and Co.” from the factory of A. Field and Son, Taunton, Massachusetts, croquet balls and mallets, buggy fittings, rat traps, perfumery, cutlery and Douay Bibles, clocks, bicycles, chairs, a fly wheel, a cooking stove, timber, boxes, pianos, organs and a ladder. (Wooden clothes pegs drifted in for many years). There seemed to be no personal luggage or clothing. The Pharos encountered a long line, about one and a half miles, of floating wreckage about 10 miles off land, south east of Cape Otway, and in some places about 40 feet wide. It seemed that more than half of it was from Eric the Red. The ship’s crew rescued 3 cases that were for the Melbourne Exhibition and other items from amongst the debris. There were also chairs, doors, musical instruments, washing boards, nests of trunks and fly catchers floating in the sea. Most of the goods were saturated and smelt of kerosene. A section of the hull lies buried in the sand at Parker River Beach. An anchor with chain is embedded in the rocks east of Point Franklin and a second anchor, thought to be from Eric the Red, is on display at the Cape Otway light station. (There is a photograph of a life belt on the verandah of Rivernook Guest House in Princetown with the words “ERIC THE RED / BOSTON”. This is rather a mystery as the ship was registered in Bath, Maine, USA.) Parts of the ship are on display at Bimbi Park Caravan Park and at Apollo Bay Museum. Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village also has part of the helm (steering wheel), a carved wooden sword (said to be the only remaining portion of the ship’s figurehead; further research is currently being carried out), a door, a metal rod, samples of wood and a medal for bravery. Much of the wreckage was recovered by the local residents before police and other authorities arrived at the scene. Looters went to great effort to salvage goods, being lowered down the high cliff faces to areas with little or no beach to collect items from the wreckage, their mates above watching out for dangerous waves. A Tasmanian newspaper reports on a court case in Stawell, Victoria, noting a man who was caught 2 months later selling tobacco from the wreckage of Eric the Red. Some of the silverware is still treasured by descendants of Mr Mackenzie who was given these items by officials for his help in securing the cargo. The gifts included silver coffee and tea pots, half a dozen silver serviette rings and two sewing machines. The wreck and cargo were sold to a Melbourne man who salvaged a quantity of high quality tobacco and dental and surgical instruments. Timbers from the ship were salvaged and used in the construction of houses and sheds around Apollo Bay, including a guest house, Milford House (since burnt down in bushfires), which had furniture, fittings and timber on the dining room floor from the ship. A 39.7 foot long trading ketch, the Apollo, was also built from its timbers by Mr Burgess in 1883 and subsequently used in Tasmanian waters. It was the first attempt at ship building in Apollo bay. In 1881 a red light was installed about 300 feet above sea level at the base of the Cape Otway lighthouse to warn ships when they were too close to shore; It would not be visible unless a ship came within 3 miles from it. This has proved to be an effective warning. The State Library of Victoria has a lithograph in its collection depicting the steamer Dawn and the shipwrecked men, titled. "Wreck of the ship Eric the Red, Cape Otway: rescue of the crew by the Dawn".The Eric the Red is historically significant as one of Victoria's major 19th century shipwrecks. (Heritage Victoria Eric the Red; HV ID 239) The wreck led to the provision of an additional warning light placed below the Cape Otway lighthouse to alert mariners to the location of Otway Reef. The site is archaeologically significant for its remains of a large and varied cargo and ship's fittings being scattered over a wide area. The site is recreationally and aesthetically significant as it is one of the few sites along this coast where tourists can visit identifiable remains of a large wooden shipwreck, and for its location set against the background of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, and the Cape Otway lighthouse. (Victorian Heritage Database Registration Number S239, Official Number 8745 USA)This carved wooden sword, recovered from the Eric the Red, is possibly the only portion of the figurehead recovered after the wreck. There are spirals carved from the base of the handle to the top of the sword. The hilt of the sword is a lion’s head holding its tail in its mouth, the tail forming the handle. The blade of the sword has engraved patterns on it. Tiny particles of gold leaf and dark blue paint fragments can be seen between the carving marks. There are remnants of yellowish-orange and crimson paint on the handle. At some time after the sword was salvaged the name of the ship was hand painted on the blade in black paint. The tip of the sword has broken or split and the remaining part is charcoal in appearance. On both the tip and the base of the handle are parts made where the sword could have been joined onto the figurehead There is a white coating over some areas of the sword, similar to white lead putty used in traditional shipbuilding. The words “ERIC the RED” have been hand painted on the blade of the sword in black paint sometime after it was salvaged.flagstaff hill, flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, warrnambool, maritime museum, maritime village, great ocean road, shipwreck coast, sword, wooden sword, eric the red, carved sword, figurehead, snake head on sword -
Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and Village
Bottle
Bottle, Large, Indian Bengali Pickles bottle - common on early ships, clear glass, 2 piece moulded, cork and lead paper seal (missing), slight encrustation, c 1860 - 1900. H 28cm x 7.5cm.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, bottle -
Bendigo Military Museum
Equipment - WATER BAG, 1) 1969; .2) 1971
The water bag was designed to hold approximately the equivalent of 3 water bottles as in Cat No No 3006. Item issued to Peter Ball 3796117, refer Cat No 4704.1) Water bag outer, camouflage greens, water proof material, has webbing adjustable strap for attachment to basic kit. .2) Water bag inner, clear plastic with screw top lid..1) 8465 - 66 - 1969 - AGM (the remainder unreadable) Written: Peter BALL .2) 8465 - 66 - 024 - 4020 - CANTHS - P/L 1971 [up arrow]military, equipment, water container -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle Milk, early 1900's
This glass milk bottle was manufactured and used mid to late 1900's (1834 Victorian dairy industry was founded) up to the time that a cheaper container was invented(plastic bottles and polyethylene plastic lined cardboard cartons) and produced. In 1909 the supply of pure bottled milk was required for babies to overcome infant mortality due to unhygienic milk sources (unclean containers and unpasteurized milk). Due to the volume of milk being processed and hand milking could not keep up with demand, dairy farms introduced milking machines in the late 1930's. The great increases in dairy herds from the average of 18 cows per heard in 1950's to 142 cows per herd in 1996 required milk tankers to pick up the regions milk supply. This bottle was so constructed to be easily moved within the milk processing plants from the delivery vats/holding tanks to the final corking/sealing of the bottles for eventual distribution. From 1958 the milk bottle slowly became phased out of production. At this point in time Melbourne was drawing 160,000 bottles per week from the two major glass bottle works companies, e.g. Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Co. Victoria was the major state supplier of cows milk in the history of Australian milk production from the early 1800's. The Kiewa Valley and its region was a major contributor to meet that demand. Each bottle was "branded" during manufacturing to show the contents (pasteurized milk) and where it originated from (region and supplier). This method of recycling the bottles back to specific dairy farms was a good control method but an uneconomical "on cost" which was replaced by the "throw away" less costly plastic and cardboard containers. Kiewa Valley dairy herds had marked bottles bearing "90/9", "6/18", "6/33", "6/35" and "6/36" This heavy gauged glass milk bottle has a rim and a distinctive head at the top. This head has been manufactured to facilitate the movement of the bottled along the milk production line. The method of pouring milk into the bottle has been part of the "production line". This bottle has a one pint capacity and is made from "clear" glass. There are other milk bottles that have a "green" tint in them.Around the bottom side of the bottle and blown into the glass "ONE PINT" and on the opposite side "MILK". Below these markings is "This BOTTLE BELONGS TO MILK BOTTLES RECOVERY LTD" below this "AND CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION. On the base of the bottle is molded a big "M". An identification mark of "90" over "9" is beneath the "M". glass bottles, commercial milk containers, domestic milk bottles, pasteurized milk bottles, milk, dairy, farms, kiewa valley -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle Milk, mid to late 1900's
This glass milk bottle was manufactured and used mid to late 1900's (1834 Victorian dairy industry was founded) up until the time that a cheaper container was invented(plastic bottles and polyethylene plastic lined cardboard cartons). In 1909 the supply of pure bottled milk was required for babies to overcome infant mortality due to unhygienic milk sources (unclean containers and unpasteurized milk). Due to the volume of milk being processed and hand milking could not keep up with demand, dairy farms introduced milking machines in the late 1930's. The great increases in dairy herds from the average of 18 cows per heard in 1950's to 142 cows per herd in 1996 required milk tankers to pick up the regions milk supply. This bottle was so constructed to be easily moved within the milk processing plants from the delivery vats/holding tanks to the final corking/sealing of the bottles for eventual distribution. From 1958 the milk bottle slowly became phased out of production. At this point in time Melbourne was drawing 160,000 bottles per week from the two major glass bottle works companies, e.g. Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Co.Victoria was the major state supplier of cows milk in the history of Australian milk production from the early 1800's. The Kiewa Valley and its region was a major contributor to meet that demand. Each bottle was "branded" during manufacturing to show the contents (pasteurized milk) and where it originated from (region and supplier). This method of recycling the bottles back to specific dairy farms was a good control method but an uneconomical "on cost" which was replaced by the "throw away" less costly plastic and cardboard containers. Kiewa Valley dairy herds had marked bottles bearing "90/9", "6/18", "6/33", "6/35" and "6/36" Found under the house at 1 Beauty Ave., Mt BeautyThis heavy gauged glass milk bottle has a rim and a distinctive head at the top. This head has been manufactured to facilitate the movement of the bottle along the milk production line. The method of pouring milk into the bottle has been part of the "production line". This bottle has a half pint capacity and is made from "clear" glass. There are other milk bottles that have a "green" tint in them and this tint was to protect the contents from sun damage. This thick glass bottle to contain milk required its thickness because of the extensive handling before final consumption. Milk was delivered by the "milk man" direct to the homes of consumers. During this period delivery to homes in cities and towns was made initially by horse and cart and later by truck.On the top half of this bottle is "MILK" and opposite "HALF PINT". Below this "THIS BOTTLE BELONGS TO MILK BOTTLE RECOVERY LTD" and below this "AND CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION" on the base is "2 M" underneath this "8/11" and underneath is "ISM -169"glass bottles, commercial milk containers, domestic milk bottles, pasteurized milk bottles -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle Milk, Circa mid to late 1900's
This glass milk bottle was manufactured and used mid to late 1900's (1834 Victorian dairy industry was founded) up to the time that a cheaper container was invented(plastic bottles and polyethylene plastic lined cardboard cartons) and produced. In 1909 the supply of pure bottled milk was required for babies to overcome infant mortality due to unhygienic milk sources (unclean containers and unpasteurized milk). Due to the volume of milk being processed and hand milking could not keep up with demand, dairy farms introduced milking machines in the late 1930's. The great increases in dairy herds from the average of 18 cows per heard in 1950's to 142 cows per herd in 1996 required milk tankers to pick up the regions milk supply. This bottle was so constructed to be easily moved within the milk processing plants from the delivery vats/holding tanks to the final corking/sealing of the bottles for eventual distribution. From 1958 the milk bottle slowly became phased out of production. At this point in time Melbourne was drawing 160,000 bottles per week from the two major glass bottle works companies, e.g. Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Co. Victoria was the major state supplier of cows milk in the history of Australian milk production from the early 1800's. The Kiewa Valley and its region was a major contributor to meet that demand. Each bottle was "branded" during manufacturing to show the contents (pasteurized milk) and where it originated from (region and supplier). This method of recycling the bottles back to specific dairy farms was a good control method but an uneconomical "on cost" which was replaced by the "throw away" less costly plastic and cardboard containers. Kiewa Valley dairy herds had marked bottles bearing "90/9", "6/18", "6/33", "6/35" and "6/36" This particular one has "7/14".This heavy gauged glass milk bottle has a rim and a distinctive head at the top. This head has been manufactured to facilitate the movement of the bottled along the milk production line. The method of pouring milk into the bottle has been part of the "production line". This bottle has a one Imperial pint capacity and is made from "clear" glass. There are other milk bottles that have a "green" tint in them. Around the bottom side of the bottle and blown into the glass "ONE IMPERIAL PINT". Below these markings and stenciled is "KIEWA" (in freehand style and underlined) underneath is "PASTEURISED FULL CREAM MILK" underneath this ,in freehand stiyle is "USE" next to this in block style "KIEWA BUTTER, CREAM, AND ICE CREAM MIX" to the left of this ,and barely readable is stenciled "THIS BOTTLE ALWAYS REMAINS/ THE PROPERTY OF/ NORTH EASTERN DAIRY Co. Ltd". On the base of the bottle is molded a big "2". with a smaller "m". An identification mark of "7" over "14" is within a circled boundary. Below this is moulded "RM - 15". glass bottles, commercial milk containers, domestic milk bottles, pasteurized milk bottles -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle Ginger Beer, circa mid to late 1900's
This glass ginger beer bottle was manufactured and used early to late 1900's, until the time that cheaper containers were invented(plastic bottles). This bottle was so constructed to be easily moved within the ginger beer processing plants from the brewing vats/holding tanks to the final corking/sealing of the bottles for eventual distribution. From 1990s the bottle slowly became phased out of production however boutique suppliers still preferred thick glass to contain any explosive action. Two major glass bottle works companies, e.g. Australian Glass Manufacturers and the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works Co. were the main suppliers for the Victorian State.In the period when this bottle was manufactured and used the major ginger beer brewing plants for the whole of Victoria were located in Melbourne because this was where its greatest consumer base was there and most rural areas were supplied by domestic sources (mother brewing ginger beer for the children). The Kiewa Valley and its region was one rural area which until road invrastructure was enhance covered the ginger beer thirst by local family production. As the population expanded considerably in the late 1940's (SECV Hydro Scheme) with a greater demand for "soft" drinks" being established supplies from larger towns and cities were call for. Each bottle was "branded" during manufacturing to show the contents were from a reputable supplier (PHIBBS Bros) and where it originated from. These bottles were recycled by the manufacturer as a way to cut production costs. This method of recycling the bottles back to the specific manufacturer has (except for South Australia)been overtaken by a no cost recycling collection by councils (funded by their communities). This method by passes the user cost principle as the bottles are processed as non generic. The uneconomical "on cost" which was replaced by the "throw away" less costly plastic containers however did not provide the keen domestic brewer of the "beer" with a reusable bottle.This heavy gauged glass bottle (Ginger Beer) has a rim and a distinctive head at the top. This head has been manufactured to facilitate the movement of the bottled along the production line. The method of pouring ginger beer into the bottle has been part of the "production line" process of automation. This bottle has a capacity to hold 250ml of ginger beer and is made from "clear" glass. The marority of ginger beer bottles produced in this time frame where made with a "green" tint in them.This tinting helped reduce the sunlight effecting the contentsAround the bottom side of the bottle and blown into the glass is "THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF PHIBBS BROS, ALBURY" above this, in "running script" and sloping up from left to right is "Phibbs Bros" and underneath parallel to it "ALBURY". On the base of the bottle is molded a big "L 289" underneath this "M" and below this "AGM".ginger beer bottle, soft drink bottles, cordial bottles -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Ink Well Desk Set, circa mid to late 1900's
The "nib" pen was the preferred scribe method up until the "fountain" pen was produced (1940's), both could use specific inks that had longer life periods on paper surfaces. Ink wells such as those incorporated in this desk set allowed the user to select the colour and "type of ink" required. The nib pen was the only writing pen that could tolerate "Iron gall" ink. Legal documents were at the start of the mid 1980's required by law(in Australia) to be signed by "well" filled pens. The inks used were either "indian" or "iron/oak gall" because their infusion into paper could not be erased and they had a longer "paper" life and were harder to forge. Bottled ink was superior to that supplied in fountain pens or "biro pens" because the user's choice to a greater range of inks covered a variety of scenarios. Forging a nib signature is extremely hard compared to that of a "biro pen" because a nib settles in to the users particular style of pen movement and arm pressure.This desk writing set was typical of those used by administrators, businesses or quasi legal sectors within the Kiewa Valley, before the lifting of the ban on the use of biros "to sign" legal documents. Fountain pens were used extensively before cheaper biros (throw away) writing implements (1940's) came into the market place.This glass ink well desk set has two circular ink wells connected to their respective nib holders. The nib holders are smaller circular receptacles and feed off the larger ink reservoirs. Between the two larger ink wells is a shallow bottomed elongated "oval" sphere able to contain "slide on" clips, two pronged fasteners (require a hole to be punched in papers) or small "bulldog" clips. At the front edge is an elongated and grooved (two) place for writing nibs. The grooves keep each nib or fountain pen separated.The glass structure is made from clear glass and only the outside "boxed" walls of the desk set make contact with the desk surface. The ink wells can also securely accommodate small bottles of ink. This would have been the case for refillable fountain pens.stationery, fountain pens, nib pens, ink receptors, glass ink wells -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Ginger Beer, mid to late 1900's
This bottle was used in a period when "soft" drink ginger beer was "brewed" not only in homes but also in specific breweries. Most rural areas had families which produced their own ginger beer. Medium to large towns and cities had ginger beer "factories". These factories had large "on bottle" advertising who the producer was. This producer advertising was firmly infused into the bottle and not on removable labels (late 1900's on wards). Regional breweries had a strong following, similar to State beer producing breweries. The competition between breweries of ginger beer was regional and not state or international. Return of bottles was not a sign of saving the environment or becoming eco- friendly but a requirement to keep production costs low. This is highlighted by "This bottle Remains the Property", in other words return when empty. Up to the end of the second World War Australian "soft drink" demand was for local produce. The American invasion of other flavours of "soft drink" came in the 1950's. Multi -Corporations producing non alcoholic beverages at lower production costs reduced local manufacturers considerably. This however had little effect on semi isolated rural areas where home brews flourished.This bottle shows the impact that small regional towns had and still have on semi isolated rural communities(Kiewsa Valley). With better communications (radio/television/newspapers) and a better transport connections specialised breweries such as the Wangaratta Brewery had an extensive customer "hinterland" to serve. The "canny" rural population would be able to reuse this bottle for their own specific purpose. Because of the long distances between Kiewa Valley residences and the major towns available to them, the issue of adaptability of any purchases made was always closely linked to their long term usefulness.This bottle is made from thick clear glass and has a capacity of one and a half pints. It has a flat top with a wooden screw stopper (internal thread). On one side "THIS BOTTLE REMAINS THE PROPERTY OF WANGARATTA BREWERY PTY LTD" On the top rim of bottle on both sides "17". On the bottom of the base are "AGM" AND "346"ginger beer bottle, soft drink bottles, cordial bottles, wangaratta drinks -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Phenyle, Circa 1920
Bottled Phenyle cleaner was used throughout the 1900's in domestic kitchens, toilets and other "clean, germ free" environments. Some of these environments would encompass dairying milk handling rooms and hospital kitchens and ablution areas. It is a product which has resulted in the poisoning of some unwitting users (newspaper accounts of a woman in 1928 who drank some phenyle mistakenly for wine and died). The reliance of effective poisonous cleaning products in kitchens, especially in the 1900's was and is still a very hazardous element that the "most pivotal place in a house" contains. In the era when this particular bottle was used (1920's) the main means where consumed around the kitchen table, and this was especially so in rural areas. Keeping this area "germ" free was a mandatory requirement.This bottle is significant to the Kiewa Valley because this area was mostly rural with "out houses" and milk collection areas that required that "extra attention" of sanitation. Rural areas also where more prone to have the kitchen area as a general meeting place for the family before dinner and other meals. Sanitation was of greater importance in rural areas, due to the greater distances to hospitals and doctors if contamination occurred. City homes at this time frame had lounge rooms for the daily get together of the family unit. This was an era before the television and computer age fragmented and isolated family members from one another. This was a time that family members grouped together in the kitchen to find out "the latest news".This amber glass, diamond shaped bottle with cork stopper once contained Phenyle. Phenyle is a highly poisonous liquid. The amber opaque glass was used and not a clear glass to highlight it's content. It has a cork stopper at the top of a slender neck. All the glass embossed writing is highlighted by a string of crosses. The cross was used to enforce a visual danger sign.On one side "THIS BOTTLE IS THE PROPERTY OF" and in large print underneath "KITCHEN'S" and below this and underlined "POISONOUS". On the next side "NOT TO BE TAKEN" and next side in very large print and surrounded by a border "PHENYLE" with crosses enclosing it. On the bottom of a "blank side is "REGd. No. 2140" On the base is M 959 and Mkitchen cleaners, food preparation area, ablutions -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Photographic Equipment - Developer
The photographic developers were used to develop plates, films and lantern slides. They had to be mixed as per instructions on the bottles. These may have been used by an individual or by a local school or organisation.Wilma Davies, a long term resident of the Kiewa Valley, donated this photographic equipment.1 brownish/black cardboard box with hinged lid at top. Label is black, white & orange on front & across top of lid. This label continues down the sides and was a seal. The box contains: 3 clear glass cylinders with white markings used to measure 1 cc of liquid, showing 5cc and 10cc. Also: 1 brown glass, rectangular shaped bottle "Kodak Amidol" 1 ounce nett. It has a black plastic screw lid, a white label on 3 sides with black & orange print. Also: x2 round brown glass bottles with a sealed orange rubber(?) over tin(?) sealed (screw?) lids. Label "Johnson Colourform Developer "A" solution" all around with white label on the front and "Activol" and 'Caution' on the back all in black and orange print.Johnson Colourform Outfit on box. White marks showing 1cc on glass cylinders and 5cc and 10cc. "Kodak Amidol" etc. on 1 bottle "Johnson Colourform developer "A" Solution on 2 bottles.photographic equipment, photography, chemicals, processing equipment, johnson of hendon, kodak, colourform outfit, photo developer, wilma davies -
Frankston RSL Sub Branch
Implement, Opener, 1998, 2003
A clear plastic pack containing two implements which are a combination can opener, bottle opener and measuring spoon. These implements were included with standard field ration packs and are made of plated metal featuring a small hinged cutter attached to the main body. These were commonly called a Field Ration Opening Device (FRED) by defence personnel.The body is stamped with the standard Department of Defence symbol: "/|\" . -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Folder - Booklets of Interest, Recipes, Mowers, Irons, Bottling fruits and vegetables
Pamphlets enclosed are old eg. when flourless recipes were a novelty, when Victa lawnmowers and steam irons were new and when bottling fruit was done using Fowler's bottling kits. Families in the Kiewa Valley cooked at home as access to eating out wasn't available locally. Items that made living easier were becoming more common.Orange plastic with clear front cover with 7 clear sleeves / pages including books. Includes: Butterless Recipes booklet; Recipe book with missing pages; Cakes, Buns and Biscuits 1956 book; Steam Iron & Victa 2-stroke pamphlets; Gas Home Service Recipes; Victa Mower catalogue; Fowler's method of Bottling Fruits and Vegetables book.kiewa valley, cooking, ironing, mowing -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
First Aid Kit, 1984
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria supplied First Aid Kits to its employees and 'ran' an ambulance during the construction of the Kiewa Hydro Electric Scheme (KHES). The KHES was constructed at the upper end of the Kiewa Valley in the Victorian mountains on the Bogong High Plains. This area is remote with difficult terrain requiring people working and enjoying recreational activities to carry a first aid kit in case of emergency. This First Aid kit is light and portable enabling the user to 'fix' minor injuries and wait for access to medical assistance.This portable first aid kit was owned by a local Mt Beauty resident, Allan S. Clarke who was a long term staff employee for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.First Aid Outfit (Kit), No.20 by "Sanax". Yellow plastic covered cardboard box with lid fastened by a metal swivel clasp. Complete with unused original contents displayed on two levels. On the top level - Absorbent lint in clear plastic bag; roll of Johnson's Cotton Wool in soft plastic; Plastic container of Sanax Aspirin tablets; glass bottle with brown plastic lid of Calamine Lotion; and steel scissors, safety pins and tweezers in small clear plastic bag. On the second/ bottom level - in a brown glass jar with brown plastic lid "Kuraburn for the treatment of Minor burns"; in a brown glass jar with brown plastic lid "Zeptic" (antiseptic); Johnson's Bandaids of varying shapes in a clear plastic bag; in a brown glass bottle with a brown plastic lid "Germistatic" (antiseptic); 2 packets of 4 Gauze bandages in clear plastic bags; and 1 large absorbent Gauze bandage in clear plastic bag.first aid kit; kiewa hydro electric scheme; sandax; medical aids; -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Sauce, Late 1930's
... Medium size sauce bottle made with clear glass. The bottom... - Sauce Medium size sauce bottle made with clear glass. The bottom ...Sauce came in bottles bought at the local grocery store or at a large city store on a shopping expedition. The shape of the bottles changed as did the stopper used to seal it. Bottles were re cycled remaining the property of the manufacturer. History of H.M. Leggo & Co. Ltd. BendigoHistorical: Change of bottles - shape, glass, embossing, use Aesthetic; Display showing, embossing, size, shape.Medium size sauce bottle made with clear glass. The bottom half has 10 equal sides (or panels) going half way up. The sides become round and taper to the opening to a lip and screw top. Heavily embossed on 2 of the side panels with printing in capital letters vertically and the maker's name printed horizontally above the panels directly opposite. Embossed on the base.Manufacturer: 'Leggo" on side. Sides: "This Bottle is the Property / of H. M. Leggo & Co. Ltd Bendigo " Next panel: "Is Lent Only / Must Be Returned" Base: Common Seal - "A' with 'G' inside top half and 'M' inside lower half of A. Underneath this and across the middle is "M154' with 'M' below On the edge: '018'sauce, household, h.m. leggo & co. ltd. bendigo, glass bottle -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle, From 1915 to mid 1920's
... Clear green glass medium sized bottle joined on each side ...Drink came in bottles sold locally or in larger cities visited during shopping expeditions. The shape of bottles varied. History of bottles made in Scotland and sold in Australia c1920's. Possibly brought to Australia as a gift. Contents not known.Historical: Change of bottles - shape, glass, embossing, use Aesthetic; Display showing embossing and shape.Clear green glass medium sized bottle joined on each side longitudinally. Heavy embossing on the base. Straight sides half way up from the base gradual tapering to a lip near the opening.Around the circumference of the base: 'Bottle Made In Scotland' In the centre of the base: 'P' followed by '25'drink, bottle, green glass, scotland bottle -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Spirits
... Centre 31 Bogong High Plains Rd Mt Beauty high-country Bottle ...Spirits came in bottles sold at licensed premises either locally or in larger cities visited during shopping expeditions. The shape, embossing and size of bottles varied. Small bottles of whisky or gin were used as a comforting drink for the sick. The embossed squares pattern was used on bottles containing medicine or poison.Historical: Change of bottles - shape, size, glass, embossing Aesthetic: Display showing embossing, shape and size.Small clear glass with mottled pattern and embossed with 4 rows of small squares around the bottom. On 1 side the glass is clear and shaped as a rectangle joined to a circle sitting on top of the rectangle. The opening is heavily embossed for a screw top. The sides are straight for three quarters of the way up then sharply taper to the neck before the lip and opening. Embossed on the base. The shape of the bottle is rectangular with curved ends. Common seal: 'A' followed by 'GB36' or '6836' followed by 'M'spirits, medicine, whisky, gin -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Medical
... - Medical Small clear brown glass octagonal shaped bottle ...This bottle was used in the Tawonga District General Hospital which was built in the 1950's specifically for the increase in population due to the Kiewa Hydro Scheme.Small clear brown glass octagonal shaped bottle with a black bakelite screw lid.The lid has lines around it for easy moving. Heavily embossed on frontFront: 'Poison' and 4 vertical embossed lines on either side faces.medical, hospital, chemist, poison -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Medical
... - Medical Clear glass Intravenous (IV) fluid bottle with opaque ...This bottle was used in the Tawonga District General Hospital which was built in the 1950's specifically for the increase in population due to the Kiewa Hydro Scheme.Historical: Shows the development of scientific hospital equipment. Provenance: Used in the Tawonga district General Hospital which was remote and therefore required good equipment. Good condition and good interpretation capacity.Clear glass Intravenous (IV) fluid bottle with opaque white plastic holder with rings around the neck and bottle. The wide lower ring has an extension that is oval shaped. The opening has a rubber stopper with 4 holes at the top that don't penetrate the stopper. The bottle is heavily embossed with a measuring gauge one side written for when the bottle is upright and the other side written for when the bottle is upside down. Base is heavily embossed. Straight sides taper gradually to a short neck and opening. Note: Unusual because of plastic holder. IV fluid bottle and drainage bottle or could be Wagenestein - form of suction (no suckers so form a vacuum)Gauge: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500. Below gauge 2 embossed lines around the circumference. Base: 5 / Resistent / 500 ml. Around the circumference short lines from outer edge to middle.medical, hospital, intraveneous fluid bottle, wagenestein -
Kiewa Valley Historical Society
Bottle - Medical
... - Medical Clear glass Baby's Feeding Formula bottle with a gauge ...This bottle was used in the Tawonga District General Hospital which was built in the 1950's specifically for the increase in population due to the Kiewa Hydro Scheme.Clear glass Baby's Feeding Formula bottle with a gauge on 2 faces - 1 with mls and 1 with ounces. The bottle holds 240 ml and 8 ounces. The third side also has heavy embossing as has the base. The base is rectangular with curved corners. The sides are straight with a gradual taper to a narrow neck which has a heavy lip on it (for the teat).Front: At the top 240 ml, 200, 150, 100, 50 with horizontal lines marking every 10 ml. downwards. Side: 8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. with a horizontal line in between each number and 'ounces' along side of this gauge. Other side: 'Agee /Pyrex / Feeder' (cursive writing with word in middle printed) Base: Common Seal / IS 998 / 7baby's feeding bottle, formula bottle, hospital