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Albany Historical Society Inc > Records

SS WARATAH {STEAMSHIP}

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BATELIER, Claude James

1909

Subcollections

BATELIER COLLECTION

Overview

Watercolour ink and gouache on paper. Depicted is SS Waratah tied up on the starboard side of the Albany deep water Jetty. Shown by the artist Claude Batelier, readying for departure with a coal hulk still alongside (see preliminary sketch) with the Waratah flying the Blue Peter signal and the ship making smoke. This preliminary sketch and watercolour by Claude Batelier is one of the few surviving images of the ill-fated SS WARATAH ever captured, showing the vessel fully laden and in port.
In Claude's preliminary sketch for this image, there is a coal hulk visible on the vessel's port side.

Historical information

She is seen here homeward bound in late January of 1909 (Monday, Jan 25th 1909). This maiden voyage is the only ever completed by the SS Waratah.
Now sometimes referred to as 'Australia's Titanic', the later loss of the SS WARATAH, on only her second voyage, was one of the great maritime mysteries of the day.

Details

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-51-V1992.27

Item type

Artworks

Themes

Material

Gouache

Ink

Paper

Watercolours

Width

405 mm

Height or length

305 mm

Inscriptions and markings

C.J. BATELIER

Keywords

ILLUSTRATION

Watercolour

Ship

Place made

Albany, Western Australia, Australia

Year

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Comparative significance criteria

Well provenanced

Last modified

Tuesday, 10 June, 2025

Completeness

100

Albany Historical Society Inc

Albany Historical Society Inc

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Waratah

SS WARATAH pencil sketch

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