STAGHORN CORAL

 

Seafarer - 16 voyages to China.

 David of Sand Mountain head of Swedish East India Company after 16 trading voyages that made the company the largest in Sweden.  One of his descendants today is the actor Helena af Sanderberg.

 

TSMV CORALITA with Alby Ziebell

Coralita had a 'Commonwealth Survey' certificate and did charter work up the Fly River in PNG (were previous vessels had been lost by sudden 'tidal bores').  Captain Wally Muller's son Roy Muller had an underwater close-shave with a saltwater crocodile unseen in murky river water.

         79 ft. Coralita in good shape when owned by Irene and Alby Ziebell.

Coralita was all set for distant international waters when the boat exploded and sank within seconds (nobody was aboard).  Sabotage or accident?  The charter business can be competitive and cruel to new arrivals. The expensive and nicely printed brochure promoted Osprey Reef in the northern section of The Coral Sea and elsewhere.

New owner Captain Alby Ziebell was a former Tasmanian professional abalone diver with years of underwater experience.    A deal was made with Captain Wally Muller of Yeppoon Qld who was by this time ready to quit after years of pioneering with the scuba dive charters to The Coral Sea.  Coralita had moved home base to Cairns to take advantage of the new international airport.

  

 

 

Previewing this blog THE BELGIAN EXPEDITION (1967) © jhh

 At Otter Reef off Townsville I photographed the aftermath of a pre 1967 Crown of Thorns starfish invasion, The pictures were published in Sea Frontiers (August 1968) were to become an invitation for myself and (separately) Dr. Robert Endean to participate in a Westinghouse Ocean Research Laboratory project based at Guam (USA) from July 1969.  More than 100 international participants were involved, four from Australia, including Dr. Barry Wilson and myself.

Previewing this blog Egum Atoll

 

                The northern section of The Coral Sea - just over the border with PNG  (1972)  © jhh

GBR Film maker, BEN CROPP

 Lynn Roberts (below) appeared in several Ben Cropp documentaries as an underwater assistant.

Gorgonian coral - a unique solitary formation at Low Isles. 

Forbes Island -  a location selected for a 'living off the sea' survival test and documentary.

 

Previewing SUN (or The Sun) historic shipwreck site (with Ben Cropp)

 

Preview US Francis Preston Blair on Saumarez Reef