Benjamin Francis Helpman map collection
- Bib ID:
- 7857888
- Format:
- Map
- Author:
- Helpman, Benjamin Francis, 1814-1874, cartographer
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item
- Related Online Resources:
- Finding aid at National Library of Australia
- Access Conditions:
- Available for reference. Not for loan.
- Scale:
- Scales differ.
- Description:
-
- [approximately 1845?]
- 4 manuscript maps : pencil and ink ; 34.5 x 53.6 cm or smaller + 2 double sided pages of manuscript text, 1 double sided page of printed text
- Series:
- Benjamin Francis Helpman map collection.
- Full contents:
-
- Plan of an anchorage under Kangaroo Island. Scale approximately 1:145,920
- [Untitled sketch of unidentified channels]
- Port Elliot. Scale approximately 1:3,168
- [Sketch of Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot]
- [Calculations for navigating in unidentified waters]
- Annotated pages from The South Australian Government Gazette, July 24, 1845, pages 181-182, including text ‘Sailing Directions for Gulf St Vincent’ by Thomas Lipson, R.N., Naval officer and Harbour Master of the Province of South Australia. Port Adelaide, July 15, 1845
- Handwritten double sided page titled: Adelaide sailing directions [transcribing ‘Sailing Directions for Gulf St Vincent' from The South Australian Government Gazette, July 24, 1845, page 181].
- Biography/History:
-
Benjamin Francis (Frank) Helpman was a Devonshire-born sailor and harbourmaster. Born in 1814, he entered the navy at the end of 1829, serving in the West Indies and North America before being posted to HMS Beagle in 1837, the period of surveying the north-western coast of Australia. In 1840 he was appointed captain of Western Australian H.M. Colonial Schooner Champion, with which he was associated until it was taken out of service in 1852.
In 1842 he married Mary Ann Pace, daughter of Captain Walter Pace, who had worked for the East India Company. Ann Pace, with some assistance from her daughters, ran businesses in Perth and Fremantle. Helpman retired from colonial service in 1854 and the family moved to Victoria the same year, travelling on a vessel also named Champion. In 1857, just one month after Helpman gave evidence to a Select Committee upon Westward Harbors, this vessel collided with another Henty steamer off Cape Otway, leaving 32 dead. Helmpan was exonerated in an enquiry, but this was to be his last command. From 1861-1868 he served as Harbour Master at Warrnambool. Frank Hempman died in 1874. Sir Robert Helpmann was his great-grandson.
- Notes:
-
- Collection of manuscript maps of Kangaroo Island and Port Elliot, South Australia drawn by Benjamin Francis Helpman. Also includes a double sided page of handwritten calculations for navigating in unidentified waters, an annotated double sided page from The South Australian Gazette, dated July 24, 1845 which includes text for 'Sailing Directions for Gulf St Vincent’, and a handwritten double sided page by Helpman titled ‘Adelaide Sailing Directions’, transcribing ‘Sailing Directions for Gulf St Vincent’.
- Title supplied by cataloguer.
- Depths shown by bathymetric soundings.
- Also available online https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2256822289
- Index/Finding Aid Note:
- Finding aid available in Special Collections Reading Room and online. Finding Aid reference no.: MFC 42.
- Subject:
- Time Coverage:
- 1845
- Form/genre:
- Copyright:
-
Out of Copyright
If you wish to copy or order copies, contact us. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Creator Date of Death is Before 1955
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Artistic
- Presumed date of death of creator (latest date):
- 1874
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1845
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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