Wilkins the mariner 

This branch of our research examines Wilkins travels aboard ships large and small.

Wilkins role in Wyatt Earp: The Little Ship with Many Names

Wyatt Earp: The little ship with many names was published in May this year. It brings together the whole story of the ship’s many lives: her 1919 launch as M/S Fanefjord in Norway, through her four Wyatt Earp Antarctic voyages with Lincoln Ellsworth and Sir Hubert Wilkins; her time with the Australian Government and service as HMAS Wyatt Earp on the first ANARE voyage in 1947-48. Finally it tells of her work around the Australian coast as Wongala and then Natone, and her grounding and final resting place on Rainbow Beach in Queensland in 1959.

The second chapter tells the story of Lincoln Ellsworth’s four Antarctic Expeditions between 1933 and 1939 in which Wilkins plays a prominent role. Without him Ellsworth would have not achieved his ambition to be the first person to fly across the Antarctic continent.