Ship’s Bell from the MV Stanford

This bell, engraved with the name Stanford, once rang out across the deck of the 5000-tonne Norwegian freighter MV Stanford. It would have been used to signal time and weather shifts at sea and perhaps sounded its final alarm on the stormy night of 24 June 1936, when the ship struck African Reef, just 20 km from Geraldton.

Most of the crew and passengers were rescued, but the Stanford was lost. Her propeller, now displayed outside the museum, is a powerful companion piece to this bell — both survivors of a ship claimed by the sea.