Showing posts with label historical ship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical ship. Show all posts

Monday, December 19, 2016

Tall ship "Defender"

I first saw the Defender a couple of years ago when she was moored in Ross creek next to Townsville's Museum of Tropical Queensland.

It's rakish masts, rounded stern and classical deck layout and rig were designed and built during the peak of the age of commercial sail, sometime in the 1890's. She had sailed thousands of miles north along the east coast of Australia, from her home port of  Launceston, Tasmania.

Defender moored alongside the Tropical Museum in Townsville, 2014
A genuine classic gaff ketch rigged wooden trading vessel, the hull over 100 foot long, It is the last ship of it's heritage and lineage remaining in Australia.

Defender sailing in the WhitSunday's, about a decade ago


She  still seemed in reasonable shape in 2015, though mothballed with the sails and some running rigging etc removed to keep them out of the sun and in need of a paint. It did look like she was slowly deteriorating in the harsh tropical sun. I read that she was chartered in the WhitSundays for some years previously but had an engine room fire, so had been in Townsville harbour for about 6 years,

Then one night in early 2016 "Defender" sank at the mooring.

Defender shortly after sinking

Here is one of ABC news stories about the sinking and possible Resurrection of Defender. 
But there has been a lengthy legal case about who actually owns her and who is responsible for salvaging, which kept her on the bottom of the harbour.

Last week, after 11 months on the bottom,  Defender was re-floated from is watery grave by a professional dive salvage team backed with government funding.

Salvage experts built a steel frame around hull and lifted with airbags, then pumps.

She was hauled out on a slipway, a safer location should a cyclone hit this season. Nearly a years worth of marine growth, mud and harbour gunk covered everything. I'm guessing that a marine survey will be carried out.

 What caused the sinking? Perhaps a corroded sea-cock, a faulty bilge pump system,   teredo worms  or a sprung plank? Vandalism was quoted as the cause of the sinking, one observer noted that allot of bilge pumping was happening while moored at the museum. Did the vandals disable the pumps?

This turns out to be the last time i saw "Defender" in 2016










2017 - I took a look at the slipway and Defender's hull was gone. Turns out she has been quietly dismantled. Some salvaged parts are to be restored and displayed in the Townsville Maritime Museum.

There was almost no media coverage of her final death knell. Only a couple of articles found eg - Sunk Defender Dismantled by Queensland Government. A slow sad end to a once fine tall ship.


R.I.P. "Defender" - The last of the Bass Straight ketches.





Monday, April 25, 2016

Jane Gifford - Historical sailing scow - Warkworth, New Zealand

Flew over to new zealand (Aotearoa) to visit family, on the road trip north of Auckland we stopped at the historic town of Warkworth.

It's the home of the Jane Gifford, a restored sailing scow - the last of its kind operating in nz. What a magnificent sight. She was built in 1908. There were 130 wooden scows of this type built but most have long rotted away in the tidal estuaries along the coast.

Jane Gifford
The scows were flat-bottomed shallow-draft cargo vessels, they used to haul loads of timber, gravel, livestock,  supplies and carry passengers to remote communities in estuaries from 1873 to 1935.  They could dry out on tidal flats at low tide to work the cargo as there were often no wharves in the many remote settlements along the coast or Islands.



 The rig is two masted gaff topsail..



I'm guessing a bit but that looks like a huge centreboard case in the middle..



The wharf is on the Mahurangi river which joins a larger estuary and the Hauraki gulf downstream.
The Jane Gifford is now the flag ship at the  Mahurangi Regatta and an ambassador to save the river.
Allot of boats come from Auckland and surrounds for the annual event held in the Auckland anniversary weekend holiday (late January)  Mahurangi Regatta information. There are allot of classic yachts there, a huge b.y.o picnic and family events.



The Jane Gifford Society operates and maintains the ship.