Brian Frankham
We pay our great respect on the passing of another dedicated Seven Seas Club member, Bryan Frankham who crossed the bar on March 31st 2014. He was one of the original Club members and attended the first meeting at the Feathers hotel in 1968 when Malcolm Mahew put out the call.
Bryan was born in Lockleys, Adelaide on January 16th. 1942. He attended Thebarton Primary school and then ‘Thebby Tech’. On leaving school he did an apprenticeship as a printer for five years and meanwhile became a keen member of the West Beach Life Saving Club. This was his initial connection with the sea which was to manifest itself into travelling to England with some Life Saving Club mates where they bought a 52 ft. pinnace called ‘Awake’ from a 7th. Day Adventist (hence the name), and after 9 months of ‘messing about’, starting on the voyage home to Australia. They sailed to the Channel Islands then across the Bay of Biscay to Spain but not before they were blown 200 miles off course by a hurricane of force 12, and for three days they ran out of control under bare poles. After visiting Casablanca and the Canary Islands they set sail for the Caribbean and then unfortunately fate took a hand, whilst crossing the Atlantic, they were run down by the 10,000 ton steamer called ‘Sunrise’. Fortunately the steamer stopped to pick them up but she was heading the wrong way and they ended up Grangemouth – Scotland.
They all stayed at the Missions to Seamen at Grangemouth before deciding what to do next. One returned to Australia. The others went their various ways but Bryan was lured by a magnetic force back to London and renewed his acquaintance with Jane and in due course they were married. Their first son Barry was born before they decided to return to Australia. Bryan resumed his job with National Paper industries, this time as a salesman, a position he held for 11 years. Their second son Scott was born during this period.
Bryan couldn’t stay away from the sea for too long and with a mate started up an enterprise farming oysters off American River on Kangaroo Island. They were pioneers in that field but couldn’t maintain a reliable supply of spat (baby oysters) to keep the enterprise viable and they had to give it away.
Bryan’s affinity with the sea led to a job with Quins of Port Adelaide as a yacht broker, a job he held for 5 years. He then, at the age of 42, took the radical step of deciding to go back to tafe and take on a full time course for 2 years, and thus he gained an Associate Diploma in Environmental Health. He was employed in this field for 13 years.
Bryan was a great supporter of the Seven Seas Club along with other clubs. He gave several talks at our monthly meetings, one I remember on the Percy islands in the Barrier Reef and another on a trip he did by cruise ship through Drakes Passage in Sth. America.
He was a wonderful guy, greatly respected and is deeply missed by our members.