Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Three-seat commercial seaplane

Power Plant:

One 179 kw (240 hp) Beardmore six-cylinder in-line liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

History:

Sometimes known as the Short Sporting Type, the Short Shrimp was a three-seat commercial biplane fitted with floats, designed and built at the Company’s Rochester, UK facility in 1919.  Only three examples were built, the first coming to Australia.  The other two were: G-EAUA (c/n S.541) exhibited at the Olympia Show in London in July 1920, this machine being re-built in September 1920 after having been damaged in a heavy landing.  At that time it was fitted with a 224 kw (300 hp) Hispano Suiza engine.  The other, G-EAUB (c/ n S.542), was first flown on 21 January 1921 but only survived to 1924 when it was dismantled.

One example of the Shrimp was imported to Australia.  This aeroplane VH-UPZ (c/n S.540 – ex – G-EAPZ) was first registered in the United Kingdom to Short Bros Ltd on 5 December 1919.  It was first flown on 10 December 1919 at Rochester, then purchased by Lebbeus Hordern in February 1920, and shipped to Australia in June 1921.  The Shrimp was first registered in Australia on 19 June 1922 as G-AUPZ and always carried this registration as the changeover to VH- registrations did not occur until 1929.  Mr Hordern, one of the directors of Anthony Horden and Sons, was well known for his interests in marine aeroplanes (Felixstowe F.3, Short Cockle, Farman Hydroplane, etc), donated the machine, along with one of his Curtiss Seagulls (G-AUCU), to an expedition which proposed to proceed up the Fly River in New Guinea in 1921.  The Australian photographer, Captain Frank Hurley, led the expedition and made a film entitled “Pearls and Savages”.

The Shrimp arrived at Port Moresby, PNG aboard the S S Morinda on 6 September 1922. It then spent some time in New Guinea, and one report indicated that it made two surveys of the New Guinea coast flown by Captain Hurley.  It was originally planned to base the Shrimp at Daru to explore the coastline to the Dutch New Guinea border, and survey Torres Strait, whilst the Curtiss Seagull would cross to the north-coast, but this plan did not eventuate and the Shrimp served mainly as a back-up.

When originally built the Shrimp was fitted with a 119 kw (160 hp) Beardmore engine but prior to shipment to Australia it was fitted with a 186 kw (250 hp) Siddeley Puma six-cylinder in-line liquid-cooled engine of 18,832 litres (1,149 in³) capacity.  Built at Rochester in 1919/1920, it had four seats, two in the front in tandem with dual controls, and two in the rear, side-by-side.

After completion of operations in New Guinea the aeroplane returned to Australia on board the S S Morinda, arriving on 21 December 1922. However, when assembled it was found the machine had suffered considerably from the climate in the tropics, there being some deterioration to the fabric surface.  It was re-assembled at Double Bay, NSW and, on 20 January 1923, flown by Andrew Lang with Mr Alec Hill as passenger, it left Double Bay to fly the short distance to Botany Bay.  However, this ended in disaster as the machine was caught by a wind gust and crashed near Point Piper in Sydney Harbour and sank in four fathoms (7.3 m / 24 ft) of water.  The pilot was ‘submerged’ with the aircraft but he and the passenger extricated themselves.  The aircraft was salvaged but written off.