Scientific Results of the Trawling Expedition of H.M.C.S. ‘Thetis’, off the coast of New South Wales, in February and March, 1898

1899-1914

Expeditions (Special Collections) Q115 T44 1898

Sydney: Trustees of the Australian Museum; R. Etheridge, Jnr.

The Trawling Expedition of HMCS Thetis, 1898 - In February and March of 1898, Her Majesty’s Colonial Steamer Thetis trawled the sea off the coast of New South Wales. Politician and advocate of the emerging Australian fishing industries, Mr Frank Farnell (1868-1928) was director of the expedition, which was financed by the Colonial Government of Australia. Edgar Ravenswood Waite (1866-1928), the zoologist aboard Thetis, wrote that ‘the expedition was conducted purely in the interests of fishing industries’ (Introduction, volume 1) and not from a traditional scientific point of view. In 1906, Edgar Waite became curator of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch and he also accompanied Sir Douglas Mawson on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-14.