02May 2012

H. C. Reynolds – Chester Hill archive beckons!

[Quick sidenote before I forget: Claudia Heilmeyer is apparently going to be reading about / from the Voynich Manuscript at 18:40 this Saturday 5th May 2012 as part of the “Prager Nacht” series in Freiburg… make of that what you will.]

Anyhow, a few days ago I posted here about what the Log of Logs had to say about the various ships on which our elusive Tasmanian Tamam Shud suspect H. Charles Reynolds worked during 1917-1919. I then found out a bit more about the RMS Niagara’s 51 log books and posted that here… all close, but no cigar.

Well, here’s a further update, this time thanks purely to the archival diligence of Diane O’Donovan and Cheryl Bearden who both very kindly put some time in to help try to resolve this…

Firstly, Diane O’D has found out where the SS Koonya’s logbooks are held: in the NAA’s Chester Hill archive, way beyond even the fabled back of beyond of Sydney. The suspicion seems to be that the shelfmark “3/4861.2” may also possibly include the archive’s number of nautical miles from civilization. 🙂 But if, kind reader, you do somehow manage to get there, please go through the 1918 logbook and tell us all if you find any mention of H. Charles Reynolds!

In fact, if you do happen to go there, please also have a look at the RMS Niagara’s log book I mentioned before (NAA SP2/1, LOG BOOK NIAGARA, 1917-1918, item barcode 464129) for the period 17th February 1918 to 20th April 1918 when Reynolds was on board, because that’s held in Chester Hill too!

Diane also noted a spectacularly-named book that came up in her search: J. Melton’s (1986) “Ships’ Deserters 1852-1900 including Stragglers, Strays and Absentees from HM Ships” (Library of Australia History, Sydney). She adds “I know the dates are out, but the title was irresistible. 😀” Yup, a hilariously tempting waste of time!

Secondly, I briefly mentioned the also intriguing-sounding NAA document A11803, 1918/89/729 “Correspondence (Intercepted). SS NIAGARA passengers” (1918). Though Cheryl B managed to find a reasonably detailed online description for this, her interpretation is (sadly) that “all messages from these files were letters and telegrams between high ranking UK-US-AUS-NZ-CAN military officials containing sensitive information. In my opinion, ‘Intercepted’ could simply mean ‘Received’, though there is the possibility it was a message intercepted by the Niagara from either a P.O.W. camp located near, I think, Canberra, or a Niagara passenger with ties to the camp.” So… a fascinating little nugget of WWI history, but not nearly nutritious enough to end our Reynoldian fact famine, alas! 🙁

So, we now know what we’re looking for and where to look for it (which is excellent!) We just need a knight on a white charger (a small white car would do) to be our virtual eyes in Chester Hill. Polish your chainmail, we’ve got a hot one for you, Penny! 🙂

Posted in: Tamam Shud, Voynich Manuscript

9 thoughts on “H. C. Reynolds – Chester Hill archive beckons!”

Tessa on May 3, 2012 at 7:37 am said:

I think in conjunction with what rob (a person from another one of your posts) said about it being a suicide note, that the Somerton man took his life because the woman he loved was in love with another guy (also known as Jestyn) from him and i think that the cipher was left in car of the guy who had taken his love away from him. He only denied the claims that he knew the man….no interview was done. And Jestyn for years asked to be kept away from the Somerton man case because she may have been ashamed that he killed himself because she loved another guy.
Also there is evidence that Jestyn had a child whose ears and face beared close resemblance to the Somerton man.

I dunno this is just a theory i came up with. =P
MPV on May 6, 2012 at 10:03 pm said:

Could he not be either of these two men?

Guy 1: http://i.imgur.com/l1Uef.png
Guy 2 (scroll down): http://i.imgur.com/1vYXA.png
wilkens on September 19, 2012 at 1:47 am said:

Hallo bin zufällig auf diese Seite gelangt. Mein Vater, sein Vater ist damals 1925/1926 mit der Nachbarin abgehauen, auf Nimmerwiedersehen. Von dem Ausweis her weiss nicht genau aber könnte es sein das er ähnlichkeit hat mit meinem Vater.Die Augenpartie. Mein Vater war 3 Jahre alt als er die Familie verließ.Keiner wusste wo er sich aufhält.Mein Vater meinte das er wahrscheinlich nach Amerika gegangen ist. Sein Vater hatte die Pässe wohl gefälscht. Die Buchstaben im Pass in Spiegelschrift. Oder als er die Familie verlassen hat, hat er seiner Geliebten in Spiegelschrift an die Scheibe geschrieben das sie es von Gegenüber lesen kann. Meine Oma hatte es später entdeckt.Vielleicht ist es ja der Vater von meinem Vater.
Furphy on November 11, 2013 at 10:24 am said:

I wonder if anyone has heard from Wilkens since this post. It translates from German roughly as follows:

Hello, I found this page by chance. My father’s father in 1925/1926 went off with a neighbour, never to return. I do not know the identity of this man [SM?], but he could have some resemblance to my father, especially in the eye area. My father was three years old when his father left the family. No one knew where he went. My father thought that he had probably gone to America. He believed that his father had probably forged passports. There were letters in the [?] in mirror writing. When he left the family, he wrote to his mistress in mirror writing on the [?], so that she can read it by comparing it to [?]. My grandmother discovered it later. Maybe it’s the father of my father.
Furphy on November 11, 2013 at 11:05 am said:

That “letters” is _Buchstaben_, i.e. characters (not correspondence) and the “mirror writing” appear to have been found on an identity card (_pass_) and window pane (_scheibe_).
Diane on November 13, 2014 at 3:46 pm said:

If the Americans are as honest with the electorate as the English navy used to be, then I’d be glad to have a copy of the final list of men who deserted the United States Naval Task Force when it lay in Sydney in 1947.

The great majority of personnel were legally underage by Australian and English standards – of the five thousand, four thousand were under 21. So appalling was their seamanship that the fiasco of their departure from Sydney harbour in May 1947 made the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. Curiously, the visit to Australia is not mentioned on the official online history, but it is certainly reported in the Australian papers of Melbourne, Sydney and (at second hand) Adelaide.

The point is, that about 20 of the men deserted or were absent when the fleet sailed, and subsequent issues of the S.M.H. do not reduce the number beyond ten, so if the Somerton man had deserted (say) the aircraft carrier (CV 36, I think), then their identity might stand out by reason of age. Would explain the chewing-gum habit too, wouldn’t it?
Diane on November 13, 2014 at 3:49 pm said:

The name of the aircraft carrier which I cited, but which does not appear above is the old (CV 36) ANtieTAM. (yes, I get it.. TAM..An.. Tie)
Diane on November 13, 2014 at 3:53 pm said:

Correction – OCR error.
The stats on those young lads, from the SMH of the time …
The personnel is extremely young, most are post-war personnel on their first major cruise. Of the 5,000 men visiting Sydney, 31%, or nearly one-third, are under 20 years of age. 24%, -or about a quarter, are under 19, while not fewer than 85 % or
about 4.000, are under 35.
sorry.
Bravecourageheart on November 14, 2014 at 6:13 pm said:

Omg it would be heaven for me to be aboard that ship. Heard the old one about the barrel with the hole in it?