Whalebone picture opens window on 19th century maritime adventure

One of the most remarkable works of maritime art from 19th century Australia is on display in Sydney at the Australian Maritime Museum.

It’s a lively whaling scene with the whaling ship Terror standing by three small whaleboats attacking a pod of whales, beautifully engraved on flat whalebone 20cm x 35cm.

The Australian National Maritime Museum acquired the work against spirited competition at a recent Christie’s sale in New York.

Scrimshaw developed out of boredom at sea. Sailors on whaling ships used jack-knives and other simple tools to scribe designs on whale teeth and bones. Many were illiterate and their artistic efforts, often modest, are generally anonymous.

But the museum’s new acquisition is not only signed, it portrays a whaling ship owned by one of the most famous and colourful characters in Australian maritime history - Benjamin Boyd.

A wealthy London stockbroker, Ben Boyd came to Australia in 1842 to develop pastoral and whaling interests in southern NSW. He established Boydtown on Twofold Bay as a base for his whaling fleet in 1843. His ventures failed, spectacularly, and the liquidators were in by1849.

The whaling scene on Mickleburgh’s scrimshaw appears above an inscription "Barque Terror Commencing after Sperm Whales, Property of B.Boyd, Esq." Mickleburgh’s design also includes a crest: a hand with palm held forward and two fingers raised with the motto Confido (I confide). This is a variation of the crest of the Scottish Clan Boyd.

Hundley’s historical research has confirmed that Edward Robert Mickleburgh, the English sea captain with documented artistic skills, was indeed working in Australian waters in the 1840s. But Mickleburgh’s association with the entrepreneurial Ben Boyd and his whaling ship Terror remains a mystery.

The Australian National Maritime Museum has a log book from the barque Terror kept by the master of the vessel, Henry William Downes, between September 1846 and July 1847 on a voyage from the NSW coast out to the Solomon Islands and back.

The log contains further lively descriptions of encounters with whales, vivid original sketches and water colour illustrations of the Terror… but no mention of Captain Mickleburgh!

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Australian National Maritime Museum