Leonie and James Furber live in Sydney, and many of their friends knows of their annual pilgrimage to the Island each January. They are regular visitors and are well known by many residents. One of their friends, Ursula Potter, had an engraving of Lord Howe amongst their family possessions, and offered this to James and Leonie to bring over as a donation to the Museum.

Ursula’s grandfather was Captain Karl Hermann Winfred Raven (1880-1954) who joined the Imperial German Navy as a cadet aged 10, and rose to the rank of Captain. He spent some weeks during WWI as a Naval Attaché in the German War Headquarters in Berlin. After the war Raven joined the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line where he became Director of passenger trade.

Captain Raven collected many naval items, most of which are now in the Bundes Military Archives in Freiburg, Germany. His estate included two engravings of famous English naval men, one of Sir Walter Raleigh, and this one of Admiral Howe, which was engraved in 1795 by Joseph Friedrich Bolt (1769-1836), a stippling engraver from Berlin whose work is in several galleries and museums around the world.

The Museum will include this engraving as part of the redesigned gallery exhibition taking place this year.