Great Barrier Reef Survey, RAAF 101 Flt Seagul IIIs

While there were many individuals who made enormous contributions to aviation history there were many whose names never hit the headlines. For instance, the crews of the amphibian Seagull IIIs of the Royal Australian Navy, from HMAS Moresby and Albatross. As was customary in those days, Naval aircraft were flown by RAAF pilots accompanied by Naval gunners and observers; they were just doing a job when they undertook the unheroic, enormous and historic survey of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia in 1926 and later the coast of New Guinea.

RAAF 101Flt Seagull IIIs were single-engined, amphibian biplanes and were designed by R.J. Mitchell of Supermarine in Southampton, England, using a format that had been established by the American Glenn Curtiss designs of World War I. The Seagulls sported beautifully varnished, mahogany hulls that were later painted dark blue. They carried a crew of three, cruised at a gentlemanly 85 miles per hour, and had to be launched and retrieved by cranes aboard HMAS Albatross.

Supermarine’s successor to the Seagull III was the Seagull V – still basically the 1914-18 war concept and designed for the Australian Government. It was also adopted by the British and named the “Walrus”. Its designer was the famous R.J. Mitchell who also designed the Spitfire. The Walrus was widely used as a fleet spotter and in air-sea rescue operations during World War II.

R.J. Mitchell, chief designer of the Supermarine Seagull and later the Supermarine Spitfire..

A Seagull III is launched from HMAS Albatross. Painting by David Marshall from Australia's Museum of Flight.

The painting by David Marshall above hangs in Australia’s Museum of Flight, Nowra and depicts an action in which HMAS Perth lost her Seagull V (the successor to the Seagull III) in a battle with two Ju88s over the Greek Island of Kythera in 1941. The artist was briefed on this action by CP. Bowen, the gunner shown in the rear cockpit.