Double pulley block used on battle cruiser HMAS Australia
Object No. H3211A
This pulley block was a key component of the equipment used to lower and raise one of the lifeboats on the Royal Australian Navy's first warship, the battle cruiser HMAS Australia, which was commissioned in 1913. A naval ship could be a death trap for a large crew, and lifeboats were the only means of escape unless the ship was wrecked near land. The time taken to launch the boats meant not many crew members could escape if a ship was sinking fast. In that situation, it was more likely that lifeboats from another ship would be deployed to rescue survivors. However, in the hotly contested North Sea, where HMAS Australia spent much of the First World War, British ships were instructed not to crowd together to rescue sailors from the water, for fear of becoming an easy target. Around one thousand pulley blocks could be required on a sailing ship. This is one of a much smaller number used on the steam-powered battle cruiser. Along with two sections of capstan bar (H3209A and H3210A) donated at the same time, it represents the hard manual labour required on board ships even in the age of steam, hydraulic and electric power. It is also a reminder of the much greater effort of manual labour required in the age of sail, and of the world's first production line for a complex product, at the Portsmouth Block Mills. Thousands of pulley blocks were made there between 1805 and the 1960s using a series of machines designed by Samuel Bentham and Marc Brunel and made by Henry Maudslay. This followed Matthew Boulton's formulation of the principles of the production line while designing an efficient process for making coins (see object 87/646), a set of principles that he put into practice by designing complete steam-powered mints for several nations. As Australia had been dependent on the Royal Navy for more than a decade after Federation, taking control of its own naval fleet in October 1913 was a source of national pride. HMAS Australia, the fleet's largest ship, was the main focus of that pride. Some people saw it as a symbol of the nation's coming of age, although in 1915 the narrative changed focus to Gallipoli, to the stark reality of war rather than mere preparations for war. Many Australians were shocked when British officials determined that HMAS Australia would be scuttled under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, a disarmament agreement aimed at reducing the chances of another world war. Australia was not itself a signatory to the treaty alongside the UK, USA, Japan, France and Italy; despite the valour and sacrifice of its forces at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, it had not really come of age as a fully independent nation. Public interest in the fate of Australia's first battle cruiser led to the salvage of equipment and of brass and teak to be re-shaped as souvenirs (see the Australian War Memorial's object REL31272 and the Australian National Maritime Museum's photograph 00034328) for donation to municipalities and educational institutions or (in the case of brass ash trays) for sale. Without national pride in it as the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, and concern at its scuttling, all materials and fittings would probably have been recycled as scrap, this pulley block included. Debbie Rudder 2019 References Cooper, Carolyn, 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', Technology and Culture, vol 25(2), p182, 1984. Account of the sinking of HMS Queen Mary http://www.dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Account_of_Jocelyn_Latham_Storey_at_the_Battle_of_Jutland
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Summary
Object Statement
Double pulley block, wood / metal, maker unknown, probably England, 1910-1919, used on the Royal Australian Navy's battle cruiser, HMAS Australia, 1913-1924
Physical Description
The wooden shell of this pulley block partially encloses two metal sheaves. There is an iron eye at the top of the block, painted black. In use, a single rope was wound around both sheaves to change the direction of the force applied to the free end of the rope, and to provide greater mechanical advantage than a single-sheave pulley.
PRODUCTION
Notes
The pulley block would have been made in the UK between 1910 and 1913. The maker's name is unknown. It could have been made at Portsmouth Block Mills, where equipment designed by Samuel Bentham and Marc Isambard Brunel and made by Henry Maudslay revolutionised the block-making process in the early 1800s. This was the world's earliest production line for a complex product. However, the shell of this block was built up, with seven pieces of wood screwed together, unlike the original blocks made at Portsmouth, each of which was carved from a single piece of wood by a series of machines. The demand for pulley blocks dropped dramatically when steamships replaced sailing ships in the Royal Navy. Each sailing ship required around one thousand pulleys for handling sails and guns, but a steamship required many fewer.
HISTORY
Notes
This was the lower of two pulley blocks attached to one of two davits (small cranes) that curved over a lifeboat in its stowed position. Ropes wound around the pulleys were used to lower and raise the lifeboat. There were several lifeboats on HMAS Australia, all stowed well above the main deck. The pulley was probably operated in regular training sessions to prepare the crew for evacuating the ship. It might also have been used in 1915 to take on board the captured crew of the liner Eleanore Woermann, which was being used by the German navy as a supply ship. HMAS Australia then fired on the captured ship to sink it off the coast of Argentina. This was the only time its guns were fired at an enemy target. HMAS Australia was laid down in June 1910, launched in October 1911 and commissioned in June 1913. It served during the First World War, winning battle honours at Rabaul in 1914 and the North Sea from 1915 to 1918. After the war it served briefly as a gunnery training ship on Westernport Bay in Victoria. In 1922 British officials determined that the ship would be scuttled under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, a disarmament agreement aimed at reducing the chances of another world war. The treaty implicitly recognised that the rapid build-up of naval firepower had contributed to the pressure for war in 1914. The German fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys in 1918 and scuttled there by its own sailors in 1919 to prevent the ships becoming spoils of war. The Treaty of Versailles, signed a week later, severely restricted the ability of Germany to rebuild its navy. The Washington Treaty was signed by the Allies who had fought Germany: the UK (representing the British Empire), USA, Japan, France and Italy. All agreed to destroy some of their own ships and restrict future naval expansion. Russia was not included in the treaty as war, revolution and post-war British action had left it with very few ships. Navy personnel removed some equipment from the mothballed ship before a Melbourne-based group of businessmen won the tender to remove further equipment and material. Led by salvage operator George Wright and supervised by naval officers, a team of men carried out this work at Sydney's Garden Island naval base. Some of the brass was fashioned into souvenirs to help the salvage syndicate recoup their investment. When HMAS Australia was scuttled off the coast near Sydney in 1924, one of its lifeboats took the scuttling party away from the ship before it sank, while other lifeboats went down with it. The pulley block is one of several items from the ship donated to this museum by the Defence Department's Navy Office In August 1924. Other salvaged equipment was donated to universities, technical colleges and municipalities.
SOURCE
Credit Line
Gift of Navy Office, Department of Defence, 1924
Acquisition Date
5 August 1924
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