Exhibition Gives New Beginning to Finnish Shipwreck Tale

It may not be the Titanic, but the retelling of a shipwreck off southern Australian waters more than a century ago is creating waves of interest across the seas.

An exhibition about the sinking of the Fides, a Finnish sailing boat bringing supplies to the new colony of South Australia in 1860, has made headlines in Finland.

Such is the interest that the exhibition is to go on permanent loan to Finland and be a feature of celebrations marking the 350th anniversary of the historic port of Kristinestad.

"The exhibition has sparked enormous interest in Finland, particularly iin Kristinestad, which was the home port of the Fides and of all the crew on board," says Terry Drew, one of two South Australians who initiated the exhibition.

"It is not only providing them with another piece of history in their own seafaring tradition," Mr Drew said. "It is also opening a new world of interest in the early colonial days of Australia, and the connection and perils both worlds shared."

The Kristinestad museum curator, former seacaptain Journi Harju, was so enthused by the story that he spent more than 1150 hours building a model of the Fides, which is the centrepiece of the exhibition now travelling around Australia.

The Fides - the Latin word for 'faith' - was a 387 ton three-masted, wooden sailing barque built in Kristinestad in 1857, commissioned by a local merchant Carl Gustav Hyden who wanted to take advantage of the opening of trade with the British colonies.

In January 1860 it set sail from England, loaded with a range of household and farming equipment - including beer, spirits, clothing, gunpowder, candles, taps, pickles and paint - which were then the comforts and necessities of the white settlers of southern Australia.

On the dark and stormy night of May 21, 1860 the Fides come within a few kilometres of Kangaroo Island, then a tiny settlement of fur seal and whale hunters. Early next morning the vessel smashed onto the rocks near Snug Cove, its captain and nine crew drowning as it became a total wreck within hours.

Five surviving crew managed to scramble ashore, salvaging pickled herrings and a sheep from the scattered cargo for sustenance as they struggled through dense scrub for three days to reach the Cape Borda lighthouse - the only chance for help.

More than a century later, Cape Borda is now a favourite haunt for tourists from around the world wanting to explore the natural wealth of Kangaroo Island. But it is also the site of a small tribute to the Fides' crew - one of whom was buried nearby - which was initiated in 1989 by Eric Sandlund, the great grandson of Fides' owner Carl Gustav Hyden.

Sandlund and local enthusiasts Terry Drew and Bill Jeffrey were determined not to let the Fides sink without trace. They developed the exhibition with the support of, among others, the South Australian Department for Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs, Heritage South Australia, and the Maritime Museums in Helsinki and Kristinestad. The two Australians hope to go to Finland for the exhibition's opening there in July.

The exhibition contains Finnish, British and South Australian historical information, photographs, artefacts and a short film of the history of the Fides.

As Drew says, it is not just a story of a shipwreck. "It Highlights that it was not just ships from England which came out here, but that ships and crews from around the world helped to establish the Australian colony, oftern with tragic consequences."

The exhibition is currently on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle (until March 12), and will be at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane from March 23 to May 3, and the Lady Denman Heritage Complex at Huskisson in New South Wales from May 7 to June 18. It will then move to Finland.

For further information, please contact Christopher Rann.