Port Lincoln's tribute to Finnish mariners: the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum

Two Finnish seamen, Axel Stenross and Frank Laakso, arrived in Australia in 1927 on the windjammer s.v. Olivebank as it entered Port Lincoln, South Australia. They stayed in Port Lincoln for the rest of their lives.

Frank died in 1975 and Axel died in 1980. Following their deaths, friends raised money to preserve their work by establishing the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. On the coast, a short walk from Port Lincoln city centre, are the boat sheds and museum. The boat shed is where Axel and Frank built large and small boats – some of which are on display. Boatmaking tools and equipment used by Axel Stenross are laid out in the blacksmith shop. The winch room was used to hoist boats up onto the slipway located outside the room. Still there is the old winch and car engine used before the electric winch was installed.

The small living quarters (from 1942) with Axel and Frank’s personal items show their sparse lifestyle. The sofa is from the sailing vessel, Buffalo, which brought the first settlers to South Australia. The kitchen has a wood stove, meat safe, ice chest, coal irons and cast iron pots. Water was collected from the nearby spring.

Outside is a range of boats. Hecla, built in 1903, was a trading vessel, and Nabilla – the first tugboat to operate full time in Port Lincoln – was built in 1945. Axel was the inaugural Vice-Commodore of the Port Lincoln Yacht Club, and Rio Rita, built by Stenross in 1936 for his own use was also used as a rescue boat during races.

http://www.axelstenross.com.au

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog