Bertram and Klausmann’s 'Atlantis' Seaplane Float
By Dr Michael (Mack) McCarthy. A precis of a story first presented by Scott Sledge, then of the WA Maritime Museum.

• Flight into hell • Rescue • Recovery • Conservation • Back to Projects

Hundreds of miles to the west, totally lost, the German aviators, became desperate for lack of food and water, 
removed a float from their seaplane and attempted to sail to safety. The improvised sail and rudder proved 
un-manageable in high winds and strong offshore current. After five gruelling days and nights paddling the
lost aviators struggled back to shore, having failed to attract the notice of a coastal steam ship which passed 
within a few hundred metres of their makeshift boat. To add to their woes, the bow had been dashed against
sharp rocks and virtually destroyed.



 


Top left: The makeshift canoe and mast and the real Junkers JU W-33 
Atlantis minus its float (right and lower).

Several attempts were made to walk out overland, but found no human habitation in what seemed a limitless 
expanse of inhospitable bushland. They then made a final effort to save themselves using the stern half of 
the float as a canoe.  This tiny boat was no use on the open sea.

Rescue - Top

Starved and exhausted, the aviators finally gave up hope and were very near death when they were
discovered by an Aboriginal search party from Drysdale River Mission (now called Kalum-buru, just west of 
the town of Wyndham). The Germans had been almost entirely without food for 40 days. Klausmann had
become un-hinged mentally and Bertram had lost several teeth. Both were so weak from starvation that they
could only swaliow after their Aboriginal saviours had chewed tood for them.

  
Klausmann and Bertram with their Aboriginal rescuers 

It took 12 more days before rescue parties could get the pitifully weak men to Wyndham. Bertram regained his
health in Perth, and eventually reclaimed the Atlantis from the Kimberley coast, using a float borrowed from 
another seaplane.

Throughout their ordeal the two made a photographic record that has survived to this day and after Bertram 
arrived back in Germany with Atlantis, he wrote a book saying, 

We were found by natives of Australia, naked, black men. Those Samaritans ot the wilds 
tended and cared  for us. Their treatment of us showed a generosity that I have rarely met 
with in any people in the world. In  order to thank the Aborigines of Australia I am writing 
this account. 

Later, two other books were published, one an english-language  reprint of Bertram’s original Flug in die Holle
(Flight into Hell) and the other, published in 1979 enititled Atlantis is Missing.  

  
The story was adapted for television by the ABC and screened in 1985. Three years later another
expedition to the area led by Scott Sledge followed the footsteps of the aviators and later, with 
the assistance of the RAN, succeeded in recovering a large missing section of the float.  This was
 presented  to the museum in 1988.

 
The float as found, half buried (left) and the research team uncovering the float (right)  

The epic run of one of the Aboriginal men Andumeri, who, on finding them ran an extrodinary  marathon 
and  swam crocodile infested rivers to advise the authorities that the flyers had been found has been 
immortalised in a website, musical play and CD  of songs commemorating all who landed on the Western 
Australian shores in a destitute condition, starting with those lost from the Eastindiaman wrecks that litter the 
West Australian Coast. The website, play and CD are all aptly entitled Strangers on the Shore and were 
all produced by Lesley Silvester (check) and Michael Murray.


Above: The replica Junkers built for the documentray film, seen here at Broome. 
ABC/Merv Prime. Below: The two actors depicting Bertram and Klausmann.




Recovery  Top

The battered, sawn-off seaplane float remained abandoned and lost until spotted by a WA Maritime  Museum
team 46 years later. In October 1979, Scott Sledge, then the Inspector of Wrecks, accompanied the RAN
patrol boat HMAS Assail to excavate the retrieve the float which was badly corroded from exposure to salt 
and the extreme humidity variations of a harsh climate.


 
The removal of the float to the HMAS Assai (left) and (right) part of Western Australia's vast and desolate 'top end' .


Conservation and Restoration - Top

Close inspection showed that much of the skin and many of the structural members had been completely 
destroyed by corrosion and that their shape was only kept by a cemented mixture of oxidized metal and the 
local brown clay and sand. Copper from the original Duralumin had redeposited on parts of the sound metal 
and this had caused massive pitting.	 

  
David Gilroy of the Museum's Conservation Laboratory at work (left) and as currently displayed (right).

The fioat was acting like a short-circuited battery and if left untreated it would have been completely destroyed. 
Dr lan MacLeod of the Museum's Conservation Laboratory developed a new treatment method to stabilize the 
corroding float. (See Technical Section).

Early in 1982 David Gilroy of the Museum's Conservation Laboratory undertook to shore up the fragile artefact
 so that it could go on public display. Flexible perspex was fitted to restore the shape of the perished end Finally, 
the loose pieces of metal were painstakingly refitted so that as much of the original float as possible could be dispiayed.

  
Above left: The Junkers film replica in the RAAF Museum at Bull Creek in Perth. 
Right: A replica of the float on  display at the Broome Historical Museum today.

  Click here to go to the Atlantis website story 'Stangers on the Shore' 
by Lesley Silvester and Mike Murray.

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