A drift meter from the Diamond Dakota: from Carnot Bay to the Dutch Aviodrome Museum
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Imagine you are flying a plane in early March 1942. The journey from the Colonial Dutch Indies is bound to Australia. A course is set. It is an escape from the Japanese, as Dutch rule in the East Indies is collapsing. You are flying over open sea. There is only water, not many recognisable points to fly on and it may even be dark at some stretches. It is windy… so how do you keep your course? In my hand, I hold a drift meter. This is what you would need. And Dutch - Russian pilot Iwan Smirnoff from the DC-3 Pelikaan, or his navigator…had one.
Landing in Carnot Bay
The plane was shot down over Carnot Bay, on the north-western coast of Australia. They were almost to their destination when the plane was fired upon. Iwan was an Ace in WW1 for the Russian Imperial Army. Despite being hit,, he managed to land the plane on a beach in this remote area, with all people initially surviving. In the days leading up to their rescue, four of them eventually lost their lives due to the hard circumstances. A cargo of diamonds was also on board of the plane, valued today between 10 and 20 million Australian Dollars (many different figures go around), which scattered along the beach and into the surf… Hence the other name of the plane… the Diamond Dakota.
The object I hold in my hand is a drift meter. But it is far more than an instrument. It is a symbol of a period when everything was actually adrift. There was war. The Dutch Indies had fallen to the Japanese and ceased to exist as part of the Netherlands. The once ‘great’ Kingdom was adrift. In this part of the world, the Dutch colonial period was drawing to a close. Valuable assets were transported to safer places. The plane got shot down at a place where these goods really didn’t have that much economic value. I guess that those who survived, must have felt that irony.
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The significance of the drift meter to the Augustine family
The Augustine family, first nation and indigenous to the nearby Beagle Bay area, took custody of this drift meter and cherished it for 82 years. That is about four generations! They have added real value to the object and to the story of the plane. For them it was of value, symbolizing something monumental that had happened. The generations after them kept it as a reminder to their parents and grandparents.
Transfer of the heritage, from Carnot Bay to the Netherlands
Now, however, the family has chosen to return it the Netherlands. This piece of history – or histories more like – will get its place at the Dutch Aviodrome museum. It will be honoured as a part of a collection honoring the legacy of pilot Smirnoff, as well as a reminder of the past, both before and after the war. The piece symbolizes the war with all its atrocities, that touches the helping hand of people when disaster strikes, and touches and connects people from literally both ends of the world.
A piece that will keep our vision clear, keeps us from drifting off and not lose our way.
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Word of gratitude
Thank you first of all to the Augustine family and the leader of the Beagle Bay community, Henry Augustine, and Dion Marinis from the Broome Historical Society and Museum. You made this happen! Thank you also The Embassy of the Netherlands in Australia for coordinating the hand over in Australia and for transporting the object back here. Thank you to the National Military Museum for inscribing the object into the National Register.
I received the Drift meter from Xenia Hanusiak, cultural attaché from the Dutch Embassy in Canberra, Australia. She received it from Ambassador Ardi Stoiosbraken, after witnessing the transfer of the object from the Augustine family to the ambassador at Beagle Bay. During the Embassy Days, when attachés from Dutch embassies all over the world come back to the Netherlands to discuss and exchange ideas with, our transfer was completed.
I handed the drift meter to Bas Kreuger. Bas is extremely instrumental in the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands’s mission to protect and preserve Dutch aircraft abroad. He will make sure the object will be added and inscribed to the national collection, and assist in its final journey to the Aviodrome, where the object will be on long-term loan and exhibited for the public. So, it may seem that the drift meter is again adrift, but it is not. The route is clear and we will stay on course. It will arrive at its final destination, ready to share the many different stories it has to tell. At Aviodrome, thanks to all.
Speech from Martijn Manders during the ceremony to accept the Drift meter - brought by cultural attachee Xenia Hanusiak from Australia to the Netherlands - in the Dutch National collection.
Also see the ABC 7.30 video A plane crash, a handful of survivors and a stash of diamonds gone missing.
And the article Revisiting a WWII plane crash and a case about missing diamonds.
