BO and WD

As you may well know, the first two sections of what is now the Shipwrecks Museum were built in the 1850s. Over the decades the building has been used by several government agencies, but always as a store. The gallery you are in now, the Dutch Wrecks Gallery, has been used to store all sorts of things but, probably during World War Two, it was also divided up with partitioning to create small offices. The holes you can see drilled in the floor at various points are the giveaway here, that was where the electrical conduits were put through to reticulate the power points in the offices. There are other indications of occupancy too, by the Military. If you look on some of the posts on the east side of the gallery you will see stamped impression in the timber with W^D and B^O on them. These were stamps used by the ‘War Department’ and ‘Board of Ordnance’. The stamps were used by the stores clerks to mark government property.

The use of the broad arrow can be traced back to 1330, during the reign of Edward III. It was taken from the coat of arms of the Sidney family and was intended to prevent the pilfering of government property. It was almost certainly seen in this building on the uniforms of the convicts who worked in here.

WD engraved on posts.
Credit: WA Museum

Ammunition box or coal container dated 1831, displaying Board of Ordnance coat of arms, initials and broad arrow.
Credit: Colin Babb, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

British convicts in uniforms bearing broad arrows, 1889.
Credit: Wellcome Library, 37857i