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 Museums Alight! 2008-participants |
 
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| Gladstone Maritime Museum |
Event: Gladstone Maritime Museum Open Day
When: Open Day is Sunday 25th May 10am to 3pm
Where: Francis Ward Drive Auckland Point Gladstone
Costs: FREE Admission to Open Day
General Opening Hours 17-25 May: Thursdays and Sundays 10am to 4pm
Admission charges apply outside the open day
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As part of M&GSQ’s state-wide celebration of International Museum Day, from 17-25 May 2008, staff at the Maritime Museum will be holding an Open Day on Sunday 25 May to celebrate the acquisition of the figurehead from the 1850 shipwreck of Jenny Lind on the Kenn Reef, east of Gladstone. Following the shipwreck of the vessel, the figurehead was lost and presumed destroyed by weather and time. However, a Capricorn Coast resident, Jim Byriel was exploring North Keppel Island in the 1950’s, and found the figurehead on rocks within a cave.
The Figurehead was made in 1847 for the fine 36-metre long vessel Jenny Lind, named after the famous Opera Singer known as the ‘Swedish Nightingale’.
It is a 160-year-old reminder of the time when resourceful passengers and crew, after surviving the grounding on Kenn Reef, made a still for drinking water. Having this necessity of life, they then set to and made a 27ft rescue boat from the wreckage and sailed to the safety of Moreton Bay (Brisbane). Can you imagine the difficulty of making the rescue vessel on a coral reef from only the material from the wreck? No Mitre 10 nearby to get extra screws! And all this with no loss of life!
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Gladstone Maritime Museum
Address: Francis Ward Drive Auckland Point Gladstone
Phone: 07 4972 0810
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