This is the ships’ bell from the SS Clan Ranald. It is now in the hands of the South Australian Maritime Museum, having been donated to the museum by Felice Cooper in 2011.
The ships’ bell from the SS Clan Ranald
(Photo courtesy of the History Trust of South Australia)
The bronze bell used to sit in Don and Felice Cooper's Divers Service dive shop on Grange Road at Welland.
Felice’s late husband Don had reportedly* found the bell on the Clan Ranald wreck in the 1960s as a member of the SA Museum Underwater Research Group (Underwater Research Group of SA). URG member Dr Scoresby Shepherd wrote in his memoir “Underwater is Paradise” that “In early 1965 ….. Don later that day found the ship’s bell”.
* (Other reports suggest that Felice found the bell.)
The bell was proudly displayed in their dive shop for many years.
According to “Finders, keepers: An examination of the impact of diver interaction with shipwrecks as revealed by the 1993 amnesty collections” by Jennifer A. Rodrigues, “the Coopers were reportedly the first to locate the Clan Ranald (1909) in the Investigator Strait around 1962. As documented in an internal memorandum at the the South Australian Heritage Branch (SAHB), the Coopers recovered the large ship’s bell inscribed with the name Clan Ranald …”
But then it goes on to state “When Mr Cooper became very ill and decided to sell the businesses, he sold the Clan Ranald bell and porthole for $1000.”
But then further on it says, “Mrs Cooper informed the SAHB that she knew of …. another person who recovered a bell from the site”. Does this mean that there are actually two bells? And if the late Don Cooper sold his bell, how was Felice able to donate it to the SA Maritime Museum?
Unfortunately, stories do get distorted a bit as they are being passed on.
According to https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/bell-tolls-again-for-an-old-wreck/news-story/ed5747e83e314624c7b3bc95eb5fd2b8 , “The wheat ship rolled and sank off southern Yorke Peninsula in 1909 with the loss of 40 of its crew of 63.”
This is Don and Felice Cooper in those early diving days: -
Don and Felice Cooper
(Photo courtesy of the Underwater Explorers Club of South Australia)
According to Wikipedia, “After it rediscovered the wreck in 1962, the South Australian Museum Underwater Research Group bought the wreck from Clan Line in order to protect it. In 1976 the Federal Parliament passed the Historic Shipwrecks Act, which protected wrecks such as Clan Ranald. The site and all artefacts in it are historic and legally protected. It is unlawful to either damage the site or remove any artefact from it.
“In 1982 the Parliament of South Australia passed the Fisheries Act, and in 1984 it created the Troubridge Hill Aquatic Reserve under the Act. The reserve covers about 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi) and includes the wreck. This prohibits any human activity that removes marine life from the wreck or the surrounding seabed.
“In 1988 the Underwater Research Group (of SA) transferred ownership of the wreck to the Government of South Australia. In 2018 the Federal Parliament passed the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act, which supersedes the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and now protects the wreck.”
We can thank the Coopers for the collection of the Clan Ranald bell and its donation to the SAMM.
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