Kathleen's voyage: logbooks of the 'Kathleen Gillett' by Jack Earl, 1947-1948

MLMSS 10157/Boxes 1X-3X

fonds

1947-1948

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Drawings, Manuscript Cartographic Materials, Clippings

9607629

0.63 metres of textual material, including drawings, photographs, maps and clippings (13 folders in 3 outsize boxes)

Jack Earl was born in Durban, South Africa, and raised on Darnley Island in the Torres Strait, where his father was an administrator and school teacher. He had an affinity for the sea from an early age, and began building and living on boats as a young man in Sydney Harbour.

His dream of building a yacht and sailing it around the world was shared by his wife Kathleen Gillett. After their marriage they commissioned Charles Larson to build the Kathleen Gillett, which he constructed at his Wharf Road boat yard in Gladesville over a six year period to a design inspired by Norwegian Colin Archer. The yacht, a gaff-rigged ketch, was launched in an incomplete state in 1939 in Rushcutters Bay.

At the end of the war, Jack and a group of friends held a celebratory race from Sydney to Hobart. The Kathleen Gillett finished fourth (third on handicap). This race became the inaugural Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Kathleen and Jack’s plans to sail around the word together had been thwarted by the outbreak of World War II. In 1947 the long-planned circumnavigation finally took place, however Kathleen made the difficult decision to stay home with the children. Jack instead was accompanied by a crew of four friends. His crew at departure was Jack Day, Keith Humphries, Lyell (Mick) Morris and Don Angus (navigator). Humphries crewed for only a short period, leaving the yacht in northern Queensland due to chronic seasickness. He was only replaced when Will ‘Digger’ Sinclair joined the yacht in Durban.

The yacht travelled west from Cape York across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town, across the Atlantic to the Panama Canal and then home to Sydney via the Pacific. On this journey the Kathleen Gillett became the second Australian yacht to circumnavigate the world.

Jack, an accomplished commercial artist, documented the voyage in a series of illustrated logbooks which he sent home to Kathleen when the ship was in port. These functioned both as love letters to his wife and as a record of the journey – the logbooks were shared with friends and family who wished to keep up to date on the progress of the voyage. They were subsequently published in a limited edition in 1991. Stories of the Kathleen Gillett’s voyage were also published monthly in Seacraft magazine in articles written by first mate Mick Morris and illustrated by Jack. He additionally subsidised the costs of the voyage by selling paintings along the way.

The Kathleen Gillett was sold several years after the voyage, and went through several owners until being wrecked in Guam. The Norwegian government acquired the yacht and gifted it to Australia for the Bicentenary. The yacht is now held by the Australian National Maritime Museum, who paid homage to the voyage in a major exhibition in 2008.

Reference: Library file.

By descent.

The logbooks document the voyage of the 'Kathleen Gillett' around the world from 1947 to 1948, just the second circumnavigation of the globe by an Australian vessel. Written and illustrated by the Kathleen Gillett’s skipper, Jack Earl, the logbooks were sent home each time the yacht was in port, their arrival greatly anticipated by friends, family and the wider sailing community.

Part love-letter and part voyage log, these richly illustrated logbooks tell the story of the 'Kathleen Gillett' voyage in Earl’s distinctive style. His handwritten entries are accompanied by watercolour and pencil and ink portraits of the people he met on his journey, and scenes depicting the places he went. Tipped in throughout are photographs, maps and ephemera which add documentary evidence to Earl’s expressive text and artwork.

FILE 01:
Voyage of the Colin Archer redning skoite, 'Kathleen Gillett', Sydney to Thursday Island, 1947. Volume one.

FILE 02:
Kathleen's voyage number 2, Thursday Island to Christmas Island, July-August 1947

FILE 03:
Kathleen's voyage Indian Ocean, log 3, Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling, Rodriguez [Rodrigues] and Maritious [Mauritius], 1947

FILE 04:
Kathleen's voyage Mauritious [Mauritius] to Durban, Log 4, 1947

FILE 05:
Kathleen's voyage around the Cape, November-December 1947, Log 5, Durban to Capetown

FILE 06:
Kathleen's voyage, Capetown, St. Helena and Assension [Ascension], Log 6, December 1947-January 1948

FILE 07:
Kathleen's voyage, Ascension Island, Receife, Brazil, Log 7, January, February, March 1948

FILE 08:
Kathleen's voyage, Brazil, Trinidad, March-April, 1948, Log 8

FILE 09:
Kathleen's voyage, Tinidad to Jamaica, 1948, Log 9

FILE 10:
Kathleen's voyage, Jamaica, Panama Canal and on to Fakarava Atoll and Tahiti, 1948, Log 10

FILE 11:
Kathleen voyage, Tahiti to Auckland, 1948, Log 11

FILE 12:
Kathleen's voyage, Auckland to Sydney, Log 12, Nov-Dec 1948

FILE 13: Kathleen's voyage, the log book of 'Kathleen Gillett' written and illustated by Jack Earl during his 1947-1948 voyage around the world

Copyright status:: In copyright
Copyright holder:: Jack Earl family, care of Leilani Tomaszewski and Tiare Tomaszewski
Approval for reproduction required: From the copyright holder
Approval for publication required: From the copyright holder
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy of the Jack Earl family

The logbooks have been published in a limited edition facsimile. Kathleen's voyage : the log book of Kathleen Gillett / written and illustrated by Jack Earl during his 1947-1948 voyage around the world. Limited facsim. ed. Sydney : Weldon Publishing, 1991.