Cultural Artefact: Melanesia (Schooner)

Details

The 76-ton schooner Melanesia was the first mission vessel owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Australasian Union Conference. Built in Sydney with a twin-cylinder, two-stroke Kahlenberg engine, it arrived in the Solomon Islands in 1917 and replaced the auxiliary ketch Advent Herald. A steam engine was installed in 1923 but it lasted only a year and the old Kahlenberg engine was reinstalled. The ship continued in use until it evacuated missionaries during the Second World War, and after the war it was used in the Fiji Islands until the late 1950s. (Australasian Record, 7 July 1980, 9, 14)

Related Corporate Bodies

Published resources

Manuscripts

  • Australasian Record, 1911-1953. Details