OIL PAINTING Sailing Vessel

Inscriptions: Signed not dated: "A. Wulff" black oil, lower right corner. The 'A' and 'W' are combined. Name on hull of ship not possible to read. Spelling of surname varies, sometimes spelt Wulff or Wolffe. Subject Matter: Three-masted sailing ship flying red ensign off-shore. Steamship and sailing ship in distance. Note from Richard McKenna: it is a "Blackwaller", i.e. built in Blackwall, London. Their main characteristic being painted ports on the side. Red ensign signifies British. Rigging is unusual: the triangular flag on top masts and the upper 'Jimmy Green' on the bowsprit not familiar. Three crew members visible and large black bird on bowsprit. Biography: Information from Post Office Directory and Mrs Hall (relative): Probably around the 1880s. Not listed in POD until 1902 to 1904 as pilot crew on Rottnest, 1907 to 1909 Gustavus Wulff signalman on Rottnest. He is listed in the "Independent" as intra- state traveller before and during this period. Married Emily Gallagher, daughter of Rottnest schoolmaster and sewing mistress, she was 14, he was 40. They had three children. He is from the German Fokker-Wulff aircraft manufacturing family. His daughter - a relative of Mrs Hall* - confirms he was a pilot, signalman and worked in the "Lady Forrest". He died of a heart attack at the Fremantle Pilot's Quarters. *Mrs Hall's mother was a niece of the family. She has a watercolour of the "Penguin". Elsewhere in the family is a picture of a Chinese junk painted by a woman on the island. (She was going to show me the Penguin but didn't turn up.) She also has photographs of the family. Other: See also CH70.748.

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