TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => Join the search => Topic started by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on July 22, 2009, 05:20:36 PM
-
We know Gallagher had a camera.
Fragments of 1930s flash bulbs were found on the Seven site.
Four trunks of Gallagher's belongings were supposed to be shipped from Suva, Fiji, to Gallagher's family in 1945.
Gallagher's pictures must either have gone to the government or to the family.
Where are they now?
-
I was re-reading the old forum archives about Tighar's e-mail correspondence to track down "Miss Clancy" and to figure out who Ruby Margetts was in relation to Gallagher. http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights21_40/highlights34.html (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights21_40/highlights34.html) and http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights41_60/highlights43.html (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Forum/Highlights41_60/highlights43.html)
I did a search on "Gallagher Clancy -tighar" and eventually stumbled onto someone else's Oct 2000 geneology looking for more infor on Gallagher's father: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/th/read/GALLAGHER/2000-10/0970533823 (http://searches2.rootsweb.com/th/read/GALLAGHER/2000-10/0970533823)
A further google search of the e-mail address found nothing of interest, but a search of the first part of the e-mail address resulted in a single facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/gerry.gallagher1 (http://www.facebook.com/gerry.gallagher1)
Did Phill Tanner make any more progress in finding Gallagher relatives after July 1999 ?
-
Did Phil Tanner make any more progress in finding Gallagher relatives after July 1999 ?
I don't recognize Phil Tanner's name. He may have dropped out of the search.
Art Carty has straightened out the Ameliapedia notes on Gallagher (http://tighar.org/wiki/Gallagher).
-
According to the ameliapedia page on Gallagher:
"Gerald's mother asked that his personal effects be returned to a Miss. Clancy [Julie Marie Clancy] who was her sister and lived at Clanmere, Graham Road, Malvern, Worcester, England. Edith Gallagher had been engaged in war work in London and apparently considered the Malvern address to be more permanent than her own. [4]"
The link below is from a blog written by Julie Clancy's adopted daughter and the first part of the autobiography details her life with her mother. There is no mention of Gallagher or the rest of the extended family but if contacted she may have some idea where Gallagher's effects might have gone.
http://www.frockfairy.blogspot.ca/2011/06/autobiobraphy-1.html
-
According to the ameliapedia page on Gallagher:
"Gerald's mother asked that his personal effects be returned to a Miss. Clancy [Julie Marie Clancy] who was her sister and lived at Clanmere, Graham Road, Malvern, Worcester, England. Edith Gallagher had been engaged in war work in London and apparently considered the Malvern address to be more permanent than her own. [4]"
The link below is from a blog written by Julie Clancy's adopted daughter and the first part of the autobiography details her life with her mother. There is no mention of Gallagher or the rest of the extended family but if contacted she may have some idea where Gallagher's effects might have gone.
http://www.frockfairy.blogspot.ca/2011/06/autobiobraphy-1.html
In the old Forum, in June 1999, Deirdre Clancy's being the adopted daughter of Julie Clancy was mentioned. Deirdre was contacted by a TIGHAR contributor, Phil Tanner, and apparently the only Gallagher artifact that arose from that was a photograph of Gerald Gallagher, as reported by Ric. That photo can be seen in the wonderful August 2000 Earhart Project Research Bulletin #25 (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/25_GallagherNiku/25_GallagherNiku.html), "Gallagher of Nikumaroro," written by Dr. Tom King.
-
I took this picture of Jeff Glickmans slideshow presentation at the Symposium. It shows Jeff taking a photo of the Bevington Object. It appears to me that he did not remove the original photo from its mounting in a scrapbook. Its the old style of photo scrapbook and it looks like there are a fair number of pages. This is likely the Gallagher photo collection. Perhaps there are multiple books.
-
This is likely the Gallagher photo collection. Perhaps there are multiple books.
This scrapbook contains the pictures that Eric Bevington sent home to his parents before the outbreak of WWII. I don't see there being any relation between it and the effects of Gerald Gallagher.
-
Oh Oh. You're a good man Bruce. Caught me on that one for sure. Youre right of course. Jeff took the photos of the Bevington Object from the Bevington Phot books. Not the Gallagher photos. Me bad. You good
Thanks Bruce.
-
... if contacted she may have some idea where Gallagher's effects might have gone.
TIGHAR has corresponded with Gerry Gallagher.
I'm not sure at the moment whether he was a nephew or cousin of GBG.
He made inquiries among family members, and couldn't turn up a trace of the shipment.
-
A test to determine if the shipment of Gallagher's possessions made it home to Edith. Does not answer the "where are they now" question.
If Gallagher's mother Edith ever took possession of her son's trunks of personal effects, including the Colt pistol, she would be obliged to first obtain a Firearms Certificate under the UK's Firearms Act 1937 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1937/12/contents/enacted (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1937/12/contents/enacted) for example). Otherwise she would stand in breach of the law.
The Firearms Act 1937 was in force until the late 60's. It controlled the ownership of certain types of firearm, and who could not. There were also regulations concerning how an owner might dispose of an unwanted firearm.
Some salient points from the Act:
- PART I Sect 1. To own the pistol, one must first obtain a Certificate. This is done by application to the chief officer of police in the area the applicant resides.
- PART I Sect 4-(12). A permit might be issued by police to an applicant who does not have a certificate (presumably due to some unforseen circumstance)
- PART 1 Sect 11. A person transferring (selling, giving away) a firearm may only transfer it to another Certificate holder, or to a registered firearm dealer. Police must be notified in writing of private transactions.
- PART 1 Sect 12. Registered firearms dealers must keep a register of transactions sufficient to identify the persons with whom they are dealing.
My point is, if the personal effects arrived home (something we have not yet established), the presence of the pistol may have precipitated an entry in a register held by either the police or a registered firearms dealer. This was the largely the point of the Act - to provide identities of people who held - or were entitled to hold - certain firearms.
And if Gallagher's pistol made it home, then we might reasonably guess that his diaries and photographs (which are of particular interest because they may document the castaway discovery) also arrived home - unless the government took them from the crates before dispatch.
So we might look for:
- A UK police record that reads something like
Firearms Certificate (or permit) granted to Edith Gallagher, Dec 1945 (say), OR
- A day-book entry at Edith's local police station that reads something like
Surrender of unwanted firearm: Received from Edith Gallagher 1 x Colt 0.22 pistol w/ cartridges, OR
- A trading register entry from a registered firearms dealer near her home that reads something like
Received from Edith Gallagher for consignment sale: Colt 0.22 semi
for example.
Sadly, there would be no guarantees that such a record, if found, referred to "our" pistol - maybe Edith and her husband had their own collection! Or maybe Edith worked outside the law (unwittingly, surely!!) Or maybe Edith applied for a Firearms Certificate in anticipation of receiving the pistol - but still never actually received the shipment.
So what are our chances that:
Such a record was made somewhere
It still exists
Someone knows where to find it
We are allowed to look at it
It's worth the effort?
-
A test to determine if the shipment of Gallagher's possessions made it home to Edith. Does not answer the "where are they now" question.
It's an ingenious test. No harm in trying it, if it interests you.
But ...
We've been in touch with a nephew of Gallagher's several times in years past.
He was as interested as we are to find Gallagher's effects.
We have the directive from the WPHC to an agency to have Gallagher's effects
shipped.
If they didn't arrive, they're lost and gone forever.
If they did arrive, the family has lost track of them (so far). They may well be lost and gone forever, just like the bones, without any record of who decided not to save them.
-
We have the directive from the WPHC to an agency to have Gallagher's effects
shipped.
Do we know the name of the agency that supposedly shipped his effects? Undoubtedly they would have gone by ship; if we know the agency and what ships were available and sailing for England, it might be possible to track the movement of the ship and it's fate and thus narrow the search somewhat, if another search is indeed plausible.
-
Do we know the name of the agency that supposedly shipped his effects? Undoubtedly they would have gone by ship; if we know the agency and what ships were available and sailing for England, it might be possible to track the movement of the ship and it's fate and thus narrow the search somewhat, if another search is indeed plausible.
I personally visited the offices of the shipping agency in Fiji in 2003 during Bones II (http://tighar.org/wiki/Bones_II).
They were not in the habit of keeping ancient records.
Even if they had been, their offices had had a major fire between WWII and 2003.
The woman with whom I spoke was Foua Tofiga's (http://tighar.org/wiki/Foua_Tofiga)daughter.
She was very sweet and would have helped us if she could have.
-
Thanks, Marty.
Bad luck/timing again.
I wonder if there's a data base someplace of old shipping companies/steamship lines that would contain a listing of what ships were where in 1945? If the likely name of a ship could be determined it might be able to trace/track it's voyage and port of arrival in UK. If said ship survived to be scrapped, the logbooks are likely archived someplace. Might be a starting point anyway. Maybe someone of a nautical expert could help.
Craft a search engine to look for steamship companies operating from central Pacific to UK in 1945, then potentially search their archives for anything relevant.
-
I wonder if there's a data base someplace of old shipping companies/steamship lines that would contain a listing of what ships were where in 1945? If the likely name of a ship could be determined it might be able to trace/track it's voyage and port of arrival in UK.
If you wish to search, here is a starting point (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/42_FijiBoneSearch.html): "TIGHAR has discovered that the WPHC wrote W.R. Carpenter Shipping on August 7, 1945, to ask them to pick up four trunks containing Gallagher’s belongings and ship them to his mother in England. This fact shows that the WPHC was capable of putting work on the back burner for four years and then addressing it when the time was ripe."
-
Several months back I was doing a google search of Gallaghers family and ran across this.
http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?department=Medals&lot_id=68987 (http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?department=Medals&lot_id=68987)
I believe these are medals issued to Gallaghers mother. There could be another Edith Annie Gallagher but it is consistant with the work she did during the war noted here: http://tighar.org/wiki/Gerald_Gallagher (http://tighar.org/wiki/Gerald_Gallagher)
I personally don't have time to research it, but this could be a lead to what happend to "Gallagher's Effects" if soneone else in the forum wants to roll with it. It's a very long shot since we would have to assume that Gallagher's Effects were shipped to his mother and that his items were eventually "disposed of" in the same manner as these medals (assuming they belonged to his mother)....and the successive owners of these medals since her death in 1981 can be traced.
I e-mailed the auction house to find out if they had a record of the seller. They confirmed that they did, but did not provide the information to me. They said they would notify the seller, but I never received any feedback.
-
Hi Marty,
I found a web site that has a listing, with photographs, of the ships operated by the W. R. C. Carpenter Shipping Company in 1945. I cannot say it's all inclusive but from the way the site is constructed it seems to be accurate. Go here:
http://www.flotilla-australia.com/wrc.htm
There seem to be only two possibilities from this listing, the SS Suva and the SS Salamaua/Lautoka.
I found a logbook for the SS Suva for 1945 here (it's about half-way down):
http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/ST_MARGARET_TO_TAMBAR.pdf
From this it appears she never left the Pacific in 1945.
The SS Salamaua/Lautoka is a real possibility. She did RAN service in WWII and made at least one trip to the Med, no doubt through the Suez Canal. I did find a site that says her movement logbook is held by the AU Nat'l Archives but is not on-line. It's here:
http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/16396-s-s-salamuia/
Perhaps one of our Aussie members could find and review the logbook and see if she made a trip to the UK in 1945 or early '46.
There are other ships in operation in 1945 but they seem too small for a voyage of that length.
There may be other sources out there; this is just what came up on Google.
What ever the ship, it would have had to clear UK Customs when it docked. A copy of the passenger/cargo manifest would be provided to Customs. That manifest would almost certainly have the name of the company or agency WRC Carpenter consigned the cargo to for final delivery, or in the case of the missing possessions, the name of the person to be contacted when the 4 trunks were available for pickup. This may give us a starting point for Gallagher's descendants to start investigating, if they're still interested. In any case in has the potential to uncover more information.
-
Here's a photo of the SS Salamaua/Lautoka.
-
I found a web site that has a listing, with photographs, of the ships operated by the W. R. C. Carpenter Shipping Company in 1945. I cannot say it's all inclusive but from the way the site is constructed it seems to be accurate.
Good detective work!
But we don't know that the Shipping Company necessarily delivered all of its shipments by itself.
They may have gone to a central port and handed things over to an intermediary that would complete the shipment to England.
(I'm totally ignorant of how these things worked in reality--this is just imagination in play.)
This may give us a starting point for Gallagher's descendants to start investigating, if they're still interested.
Gallagher died childless, so far as we know.
We have been in touch with his nephew.
His nephew knows the rest of the family.
Dunno whether more facts about the shipping method is going to change the fact that the nephew could not turn up any of the material or any history of the material by talking with the members of GG's family.
-
But we don't know that the Shipping Company necessarily delivered all of its shipments by itself.
They may have gone to a central port and handed things over to an intermediary that would complete the shipment to England.
All true, but the Suva did make a voyage to London in 1944, so there's a history of WRC Carpenter ship(s) making that trip. The Salamaua was a more modern ship than the Suva. Perhaps the Salamaua took over that route.
If the manifest could be found it may have information that would jog the family's memory.
-
If the manifest could be found it may have information that would jog the family's memory.
See the article on the missing trunks (http://tighar.org/wiki/GBG#Missing_trunks) for most of the story.
"Gerald's mother asked that his personal effects be returned to a Miss. Clancy [Julie Marie Clancy] who was her sister and lived at Clanmere, Graham Road, Malvern, Worcester, England. Edith Gallagher had been engaged in war work in London and apparently considered the Malvern address to be more permanent than her own."
The rest of the information is in "Gerald Gallagher's Effects." (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Gallagereffects.html) Items 30 and 31 on that list are the ones that hold the most promise, in my view.
-
I've since found a logbook entry for the MV Salamaua. It's here, about half-way down. Looks like she didn't leave the Pacific in '45 or '46 either.
http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/RONAKI_TO_SAMUEL_HEINTZELMAN.pdf
-
Bill,
I've found this a useful reference:
http://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/wwii-merchant-ship-movement-records-australia
It contains scans of the Australian WWII Merchant Ship Movement Records cards. I have been through most of these, looking specifically vessels for which the listed owner is W R Carpenter & Co, or a subsidiary. You might like to download File 37 Lake Ormoc to Loatta and view the cards for Carpenter's vessel LANSING (two cards).
This ship arrived in Suva Port in the evening of 6th August 1945 - a significant day in the war, as any Hiroshima schoolkid would tell you. The next day, the 7th August 1945, the WPHC reportedly asked Carpenter's to pick up Gallagher's trunks of belongings. As I can't locate any other Carpenter's vessel anywhere near Fiji at the time, I remain convinced that the WPHC intended for the shipment to leave on the Lansing.
So where did the Lansing go, and when? Sadly, Lansing's arrival in Suva is the last movement in the record set for that vessel. I can demonstrate from other sources that the Lansing went to Vancouver. But I don't know when, or if she went directly, or via other ports (eg San Francisco and San Pedro, both copra trading ports in the US, feature in Lansing's trans-pacific movement history).
This site has some history on the Lansing (launched as the British Queen in 1890).
http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/B-Ships/britishqueen1890.html
For those wondering what WWII Merchant Ship Movement Records cards are, they are the product of a wartime initiative to protect British and allied merchant shipping from prying enemy eyes. I don't really know how it worked, but basically ships did not carry (among other records) information regarding their movement history. So ship movement records were kept at home. These are Australia's records. The UK has theirs digitised (pay to view). New Zealand still keeps their cards, with some content available on an internet database. Canada had a set, but destroyed them intentionally in the 1950s or thereabouts, citing national security concerns.
I have brought the Lansing to the attention of Tighar HQ quite some time ago, but as I've heard nothing further, I assume there was nothing further to be made of it.
-
Hey Steve,
That's the site where I got the movement records for the Suva and Salamaua. I came up with those vessels at this site:
http://www.flotilla-australia.com/wrc.htm
Lansing isn't listed there, so this is a really good find.
Looks like she made a trip to the US west coast (San Pedro and San Francisco) Sep - Nov '44, came back to Suva in Dec, made a voyage Brisbane - Sydney - Suva then went inactive (for maintenance ?). Don't know what those three lines in the remarks column mean. Anyway, one more round robin trip before back to Suva on 6 Aug.
Since she was sold to China Trading Corp. in '46, I wonder if this was her last trip for Carpenter's. This would explain why it's the last entry on the second card.
Carpenter's records would have had a date for the sale but they were likely lost in the fire.
-
I received some info on Carpenter's from Gerry Gallagher via TIGHAR in 2003.
I have a lot of accumulated information that may or may not shed some light
on W.R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd.
The information I have is that the items were crated and made available for
transit through W.R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd (Fiji).
ARCHIVE INFORMATION:
W.R. Carpenter & Co Ltd (1914 - )
Location:
Registered in New South Wales in 1914. In subseqent years the company
tookover or acquired:
1935 W.R. Carpenter & Co (Solomon Islands) Ltd [Registered in New South
Wales, 1922]
1951 W.R. Carpenter & Co (Fiji) Ltd
In 1957 the company was taken over by W.R. Carpenter Holdings Ltd
Some archive material for the company is as follows:
Archives of W R Carpenter & Co Ltd, Tulagi Branch, in Dunedin
When war came to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in early 1942, the
'commercials,' as businesses were called, left Tulagi, the prewar capital,
to local looters and the invading Japanese. In the turmoil, records,
including some government ones, were lost or destroyed. The first small
group of civilians to return to the Solomons after the war had various
commissions from business interests and individuals. The shipping company,
W.R. Carpenter, asked Tom Elkington, labour recruiter and son of the former
owners of Elkington's Hotel in Tulagi, to look for their safe in Tulagi and
gave him the key. Tom found the safe, sent back to Sydney the material
Carpenter wanted and threw to one side old documents that were to be burned.
They never did get burned; they provided a few laughs for Tom who knew all
the characters mentioned in the letters and branch reports. Over the years,
he all but forgot the papers, in a box stowed away. Then a historian, Judy
Bennett, turned up at Tulagi in the mid 1970s to talk with Tom. He allowed
her to read the papers and she used them in her Wealth of the Solomons: a
history of a Pacific Archipelago, 1800-1978. A few years later, Tom
Elkington with his humour and his vast store of knowledge of the colonial
Solomons died in Brisbane. Fittingly, his ashes were later scattered at
Tulagi by his widow, Naysa. She gave the Carpenter papers to Judy Bennett.
With the permission of Devereau Holdings, the successors of W R Carpenter &
Co Ltd, Dr Bennett kindly allowed the Bureau to film the Tulagi Branch
archives.
The PMB title is as follows:
PMB 1112 W R CARPENTER & CO, TULAGI BRANCH: Branch Manager's correspondence
and related papers, 1925-1932. 1 reel. (Available for reference.)
Thanks to Judy Bennett, History Department, Otago University, for the
substance of this report
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Australian National University
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau
Australian National University
Address Room 7012, Coombs Building, Research School of Pacific and Asian
Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra
Postal Address PMB, RSPAS, Australian National University, ACT 0200
Telephone (02) 6249-2521
Fax (02) 6249-0198
Email pambu@coombs.anu.edu.au
URL http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pambu/
Date Range: 1925 - 1932
Description: * Unpublished manuscript (c.1980s) by Ray Melrose "Camohe"
in-house company history from 1860s-1980s.
* On microfilm are papers which were retained by an employee of the
company - letters and branch reports.
* Some material with Dr Judy Bennett (NZ historian), which has been
microfilmed.
* Ewan Maidment of Pacific Manuscripts believes that there are more
surviving records of the company, and is negotiating with its successor,
Devereau Holdings for these to be archived.
Quantity: 1 reel of microfilm
Access: Access through PMB
INTERESTING CONNECTION WITH HARRY MAUDE:
PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU:
As a preliminary to the formation of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in 1968,
Harry Maude set out a kind of manifesto in the form of a taxonomy of Pacific
archives, a proportion of which the Bureau would attempt to capture on
microfilm over the following years. ("The Documentary Basis for Pacific
Studies: a report on progress and desiderata", 1967) Maude distinguished two
major classes of archives: (a) official colonial government records -
classified in to the 8 metropolitan colonial powers which had imperial and
economic interests in the Pacific; and (b) unofficial manuscript material
which he considered to be "probably of considerably greater importance"
(p.16) consisting of:
1. records of discovery and exploration.
2. travellers accounts and impressions
3. records of residents
4. mission records
5. trading records
6. whaling records
7. labour trade records
8. planters records and material connected with expatriate agricultural
production
9. political polemics
10. vernacular material of all kinds
11. unpublished research material
12. miscellaneous
13. tape recordings of oral historical and other material
The greatest concentration of manuscript material Maude pointed out was to
be found in the islands themselves. He identified four main categories:
1. territorial and local government records (Note subsequent transfer of
records of WPHC and NHBS from Suva to London.)
2. mission records
3. trading and plantation material
4. private manuscripts
Pambu became very active and successful in copying mission and personal
papers. Pambu also copied some government papers, particularly in Tonga, but
this area was largely beyond its sphere of authority. In the commercial
sphere, Pambu organised a massive project copying logs of American whalers
operating in the Pacific out of New England, however apart from copying
records of some Burns Philp branches in Fiji and a few plantation records,
Pambu was not terribly successful in the fields of trading and plantation
records. Maude was well aware of the problems associated with preserving
business archives: "It is particularly difficult to persuade business firms
(including planters) to permit their books and correspondence to be
preserved in archives, or even to preserve them in their own custody" (p.36)
A friend of Maude's, the General Manager of Morris, Hedstrom & Co, a
well-known island trading firm, refused to comply with Maude's request to
transfer the company's records into archival custody following take over by
W R Carpenter & Co, on the contrary, he personally supervised the burning of
the company's archives. I have persistently tried to track down surviving
records of W R Carpenter & Co over the last 18 months, but there is every
indication that nothing has survived in either Sydney or Suva. Judith
Bennett, the Solomon Islands historian, was given a small batch of
Carpenters, Tulagi Branch, archives which had been rescued from a safe among
the ruins of the Branch office after the War. These may well be the only
surviving records of that company.
Maude wrote that "if the commercial history of the area is...to be written
an urgent and concerted attempt will have to be made by the Pacific Research
Libraries to obtain and preserve every scrap of source material that still
remains undestroyed." (p.37) There is an elaborate network of Pacific
research libraries: at least four in New Zealand, three in Australia, two in
the United States, the USP in Suva, the UPNG in Port Moresby and, to a
lesser extent, the Université Française du Pacifique in Papeete and Noumea.
Efforts were made, at least in Australia and New Zealand, and some
relatively strong archives of Australian and New Zealand firms which have
operated in the Pacific are in custody. The archives of Burns Philp & Co are
intact (at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the ANU and at the Bridge
Street Head Office of the firm) but they include only patchy series of
Branch correspondence. The CSR Ltd archives (also at the Noel Butlin
Archives Centre) are probably strongest Pacific commercial archives,
documenting in detail the whole of the company's operations in Fiji. However
the correspondence between the Fiji mills and head office to 1948 is held in
delicate presscopy letterbooks which have a relatively short life
expectancy.
W R CARPENTER (SOUTH PACIFIC) LTD
c/o Carpenters Fiji Ltd
P O Box 299, Suva, Fiji
I contacted them on September 25, 2000 and spoke with a gentleman named
Daniel Vilsoni. I also emailed them as follows:
Dear Daniel,
After speaking with you today I send you this fax in order to obtain
information in regards to a shipment handled by W.R. Carpenter Co. in 1945.
A relative of mine worked for the West Pacific High commission and died in
the Pacific. His personal effects (of which I have a detailed list) were
supposedly shipped (or at least requested to be shipped to a U.K. address.
I include the telegram from the Western Pacific High Commission to W.R.
Carpenter Co. of August 7, 1945. This telegram is the last that has been
heard of these 4 trunks of personal effects of Gerald Gallagher.
Can you please check your archives and advise if indeed this was shipped
(consigned to who in the U.K.?) and send me copies of any relevant paperwork
that you may have in regards to this consignement.
Sincerely Yours,
Gerard Gallagher
This is the information that I can share with you. I never heard back from
Daniel or the company.
They also owned some sea going vessels:
In 1934, W.R.Carpenter & Co. acquired two motor vessels, each of 6,800 tons
gross and renamed them Rabaul and Salamaua registering them both in Suva
Fiji. At the time, they carried Australian and British Deck and Engineer
Officers and a crew of native Fijians. They commenced a service between
Australia Britain and Europe, including calls at Rabaul and other South Sea
Island ports, running a ten weekly service carrying wool, copra, and other
produce. It was the first privately owned shipping line operating between
Australia and England.
Last but not least:
Duranbah. Steel steamship, 284 tons. Built England, 1905. Lbd 130 x 23.1 x
9.2 ft. Sold on arrival in Australia to N.C.S.N.Co.; to W.R. Carpenter Co.
in 1922. Believed captured by the Japanese in WW2.
-
Looks like the British Archives has movements as well.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8653452
-
I've purchased and downloaded the Lansing's movement card from the UK Archives.
I've attached the PDF for examination.
Looks like she made a voyage from Tutuila (?) to Vancouver to San Francisco to Auckland in late 1945, then a final voyage in 1946 before being sold to the Chinese.
It's possible she carried the trunks to Vancouver/San Francisco for transfer to another ship going to the UK. Unless another ship is identified somehow, this may be the end of the trail.
-
I've purchased and downloaded the Lansing's movement card from the UK Archives.
I've attached the PDF for examination.
Thanks!
It's amazing how much information there is about the past. "Scripta manent!"