Lighter (1890)

Frenchman Bay

Lighter (1863-c1890)

Port of Building: Albany
Year built: 1863
Rig Type: Lighter (originally yawl rigged)
Hull: Iron
Length: 76.0 ft (23.2 m)
Breadth: 18.0 ft (5.5 m)
Depth: 10.0 ft (3.05 m)
Tonnage: 140
Date lost: c1890
Location: Frenchman Bay
Chart Number: WA 1083, AUS 110, AUS 118 & BA 2619
GPS position: Lat. 35º 05.55102 S
Long. 117º 56.80602 E
Protection: Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Significance criteria: 1

THE VESSEL
This lighter was one of the four large lighters prefabricated from 6 mm iron plates in England and shipped, along with the necessary tools to assemble them, on the P&O sailing ship Haddington (1 459 tons, Captain Browne). It arrived at Albany from Southampton on 4 December 1862. During 1863-64 the lighters were assembled under the supervision of Captain Charles Loius van Zuilecom on a flat rock near the company’s jetty. Although described by the company as barges, they appear to in fact have been yawls, possibly capable of long sea voyages. On 4 May 1863 a Perth newspaper’s Albany correspondent reported:
The first of the P&O Company’s new lighters under construction has been launched and named Albany. I learn that the second is to be called Fremantle. Though these vessels are reckoned barges by the Company, they are really fine coasters of 140 tons each, length 76 feet, beam 18 feet, hold 10 feet, and masts of 45 and 20 feet, yawl rigged, and it was originally intended to sail them out from England (Inquirer, 13 May 1863: 2f).

The lighter is thought to have had a counter stern (Bocock, et al: 35).

The second lighter was launched on 29 August 1863 by ‘Miss Symers’ (most probably one of the daughters of Captain Thomas Symers of Albany) and named Fremantle. The last was launched in April 1864.

The lighters were used by P&O to carry water, coal and stores out to ships anchored in Princess Royal Harbour. There is some evidence that at least in later years they were towed to the waiting vessels by tugs or launches. In his reminiscences Captain Ernie Donohue states that one of his jobs was towing three lighters ‘of 130 tons each from Frenchman’s Bay outside Albany to the Town jetty full of water for shipping callers’ (Marshall, 2001: 277). The lighters were divided by bulkheads into five or six separate holds, and were capable of carrying 500 tons of water. After the withdrawal of P&O from Albany the lighters were used by the Douglas family, Nobbie Pannet and the Armstrong and Waters Lighterage Company.

THE LOSS
At some time about 1890 this lighter was abandoned in Frenchman Bay.

After being of no further use another of the lighters was destroyed near Whale Rock in 1928 (see entry). The wreck of a third iron lighter is shown on two sketch maps, one by Howard Hartman and the other by Les Douglas, published in Marshall, 2001. The wreck is shown just to the east of the base of the P&O coaling jetty.

SITE LOCATION
The wreck of this lighter lies 10-15 m off the shore at Whaler’s Beach between the ruins of the old Norwegian whaling station and Vancouver Springs.

SITE DESCRIPTION
The wreck lies in 3 m of water approximately parallel to the shore, with the bow pointing to the east. Excavations by Bocock, et al, in 1990 uncovered both the bow and stern posts, frames and plating, but the profusion of iron beams across the site prevented an examination of the keel. The wreck is about 24 m in length and 5.4 m wide. There is timber associated with the iron remains, which were assessed as being part of a timber deck. The structure of the barge has been badly broken up, a considerable amount has corroded away and the deck beams have collapsed. According to local sources the wreck originally lay on the beach until changes in the shoreline left it in the surf zone, where it is subject to considerable water and sand movement. This would probably have been a major contributor to its disintegration.

EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
Samples of timber were collected, along with a whale’s tooth.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
HISTORIC (1)
Water for filling the lighters was originally obtained from a spring that had been dammed at Frenchman Bay. It was then piped to the lighters along a small jetty. The dam remains, hidden in dense bush, but the pipeline and jetty have long disappeared. There is some evidence that at one time the water may have been conveyed to the floating dock (see entry) and stored there until required.

Charles Louis van Zuilecom was the designer and builder of the P&O Company’s floating dock, launched in April 1866, and the first of only three wooden floating docks built in Australia (see entry). He arrived in Albany on board the steamer Bombay (1 186 tons, Captain Methwen) at about the same time as the material and tools brought by the Haddington. He later resigned from the company and moved to Kojonup to become that town’s first resident magistrate.

REFERENCES
Bocock, A., Bower, R., Coroneos, C., & McKinnon, R., 1990, Survey of Wrecks, Frenchman Bay, Albany. Report, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, No. 50.

Erickson, R., 1979, Dictionary of Western Australians: Free: 1850-1968, Volume 3. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands.

Lovell, A.F. (ed.), 1975 Your Museum Albany, Vol. 3, No. 3. Trustees of the Western Australian Museum, Perth.

Marshall, G., 2001, Maritime Albany Remembered. Tangee Pty Ltd, Kalamunda.

The Inquirer and Commercial News, 17 December 1862: 2f, 13 May 1863: 2f & 16 September 1863: 2f.

Wolfe, A., 1994, The Albany Maritime Heritage Survey 1627-1994. Unpublished report, Albany Town Library.