Baragoola Week Ending 16th June 2012

In attendance: Nick, Glen, Peter H, Peter C, Mark, Ernie and lance Visitors: Nil

Upcoming events

27th June – Lady Denman Museum visit (day tour – separate email sent out – one response so far) 28th July – Annual General Meeting of the BPA on board Baragoola – all financial members are encouraged to attend – details closer to the event

Historic Manly ferry events this week

21st June 1859 – Phantom, first scheduled trip to Manly 17th June 1908 – Burra Bra launched 18th June 1912 – Balgowlah launched

Phantom in Campbells Cove

The Phantom is the earliest Manly ferry about which any great detail survives. She was an iron paddlewheel steamer and the first double ended Manly ferry (but not the first double ended ferry on Sydney Harbour). Like others of her vintage, she was assembled from parts imported from England. As such, she was also the first full time Manly ferry to be imported. She was also the first Manly ferry to introduce the standard Manly colours - dark green hull, white superstructure, white funnel with a black band - that would endure until the blue and white of the UTA ferries introduced in 1974. After being built she was used as an excursion steamer on Port Phillip Bay until 1859 when she was sold to Sydney to operate on the Manly run. Phantom was known as 'Puffing Billy' due to the habit she had of blowing smoke rings as she huffed and puffed her way over the harbour. Sometimes the trip would take nearly two hours to complete. In 1860 she was sold to the Skinner and Wilson partnership who continued to operate her on a regular Sydney-Manly run for around another eight years. In 1868 she was again sold, this time to a partnership that would eventually form the shipping line of Huddart Parker in 1876. They also kept her on the Manly run until 1877 after which she was then operating to Watsons Bay. She remained in this role until being retired and broken up in 1886. She was not an ideal sea-going boat due to her narrow beam. On one occassion in bad weather she shipped a large wave that put out her fires. Her crew jury rigged a sail and got her to safety in Quarantine Bay where they managed to restart her engines. However after getting underway, she again shipped another wave. After rigging the sail once again, they managed to take her all the way to Circular Quay - a little over two hours late. To counter the bad roll that Phantom often developed in such seas, the crew took to hanging weights on poles from the side of the ship on the windward side. A common complaint from her passengers was that her engines were also fairly noisy. Phantom can be credited with being the first Manly ferry to provide a 'snack bar' on board - something that would be formalised much later when the later Binngarra class ferries came into service. At this time the Manly boats called en-route at Woolloomooloo and were frequently delayed while waiting for passengers. One enterprising passenger (or perhaps Phantom's engineer) by the name of Rober Grant devised the idea of roasting potatoes on the boiler grate and serving them up with hot coffee and bread and butter. Ultimately this came to be called the Hot Potato Club.

Fundraising Information

We have launched a major fundraiser on Indiegogo - please help out by sharing the following link with

all your facebook (and other) friends!

http://www.indiegogo.com/baragoola

Also, with the end of financial year fast approaching now is a great time to make a donation to Baragoola’s restoration – all donations $2 and over is tax deductible – so what are you waiting for? It’s perhaps relevant to state that the BPA has no paid staff or workers – every cent goes to the vessel herself so you can be assured that no money is being wasted on non-essential items.

Baragoola Trivia

Baragoola Trivia Competition (#2)

This week you can win one of our North Head commemorative mugs if you can answer the following

question correctly (two wrong answers received so far):

All five of Baragoola’s sisters were built at Woolwich – what was the reason for Baragoola being built at

Balmain? (Hint – it had to do with a downturn in Mort’s revenue).

Answers to landover@tpg.com.au – first correct answer wins.

Committee News

Annual General Meeting will be held on Baragoola on the last Saturday in July – this is one we strongly encourage all members to attend as we will be electing the committee for the next year and presenting the financial records for the last year

Membership renewals and AGM packs were posted out two weeks ago Your renewal pack and AGM info pack were posted you should start seeing them arrive next week early. It contains a cover letter from our president, an invitation to our AGM (you will need to RSVP) which we are encouraging all members to attend, a renewal form, a proxy form for voting if you can’t attend, committee nomination for and the agenda for the AGM. Attending the AGM is a great way to see your vessel – quite a few of our members have never been on board so this is a perfect opportunity to see her first hand. If you haven’t received your pack please contact us ASAP.

Finances

Our bank balance increase by $562.60 this week and there were no outgoings.

This Week

Well, the day started sunny and held much promise – and then went rapidly downhill; cold and wet –

the coldest day so far this year made for not the best conditions but we still managed a small team from

our dedicated volunteers. Earlier in the week Peter H had been aboard and painted around the roofline

of the forward wheelhouse as well.

First order of the day was pump maintenance; Ernie had already dropped by earlier in the week and

started this chore so on Saturday morning the work continued, moving on to the pump in the engine

room. New pipes were also laid and an improvement in the bilges was noted after an hour or so work.

After this we located a temporary pump into the forward peak – it has been collecting rain water since

the work on the weatherdeck above it started and needed to be cleared. Previously this compartment

had always been bone dry. This area houses the chain locker for the anchors and is very much confined

but Nick and Ernie managed to install the pump in quick time and get it dried out.

Ernie in the forward peak

Spurling pipes in the forward peak

The chain locker

As I mentioned this has been our previously driest compartment so attention was then turned to the

deck above to do some temporary repairs to it to prevent any further rain water entering. This deck has

been receiving quite a bit of attention lately and we have opened quite a few holes in it as the work

progresses – unfortunately the hole opening is proceeding faster than the repairs and therefore water is

draining into the male toilets below and then into the compartment. So Nick, Mark and myself went to

work to patch (temporarily) the open areas pending proper work later. The change below was instant

with barely any rainwater percolating down – a huge benefit! Although the end result looked like a flock

of seagulls had attacked poor Baragoola......

This has multiple benefits as some of the water was also damaging timber decks and the coach house

walls behind the male toilets – nice to see that stopped. There are still a couple of tiny pinholes to be

closed but the dramatic reduction in runoff is much appreciated by all (and no doubt by Goola herself!)

Next weekend we’ll spend an hour or so doing the last repairs and then we can get back to the long

term repairs and preservation of the metal deck that will see the problems in this area dealt with on a

more permanent basis.

The rain confined a large chunk of the work this weekend to the interior and some of the other

multitudes of jobs that needed to be done were undertaken. One of these was some work on the

watertight doors – the one between the control room and battery compartment in particular with Ernie

doing some work that now sees this open and close far more easily – previously it was a bugger to open.

It’s now a lot easier and the adjusting bolt on the top part has been replaced.

Ernie also kept at the forward gearbox and this is now moving much closer to be properly turned over

with more work being done on it this weekend.

With Peter C’s arrival around lunchtime the focus moved back to the wheelhouse; he brought down the

four windows for the doors that are going on to it – 6mm thick toughened glass that should handle the

rigorous punishment that Baragoola will hopefully be subject to once she becomes again fully

operational – and a lot thicker than her original glass. Can’t wait to replace the other 200-odd

windows.....

Of course the glass presented a photo opportunity so one of the doors (tempoaraily) was fitted just to

see what it looked like Peter has done an absolutely incredible job on all facets of the wheelhouse

rebuild though I think he’s looking forward to a well earned two week break away from things!

Door on the left has the glass installed temporarily

Then it was on to preparing them for painting with a light sanding being done first and trim being

applied.

With that out of the way Mark and Peter relocated to the wheelhouse itself and began the task of

installing the final panel.

There’s still quite a bit to do there yet though and Peter began the installation of the interior trim – this

will be varnished similar to the trim around the windows in the coach house decks. Interior of the

wheelhouse will then be re-lined as well and we’ll be doing this with solid boards for effect and

longevity. Then the deckhead has to be cleaned back and repainted, interior painted, a hot water system

installed, plumbing reinstituted, partition returned between the bridge and the captains’ cabin,

electrical wiring done, front windows installed and the operational equipment restored and returned –

there’s a lot to do and most of it can be knocked off quickly with a few extra hands. The exterior of the

wheelhouse is also being stripped and this will be then painted in cream. After that the dodgers and

handrails at this end will be reinstalled as well and this end will start looking “right” again after so many

years of looking derelict.

We do need some certain skills to assist in this – a plumber for a couple of days would be great for

example as well as a few general volunteers to help out with the other work. We aren’t asking for

people that can work every weekend, just a few hours here and there to get this job completed.

The sooner the work is done the better – at the moment the open wheelhouse is exposed to the

elements and it would be extremely disheartening to see the first class work Peter has done go

backwards.

Last but not at all least, Geoff was again working on the interior of the engine room hull and the

remediation work is now nearly completed all the way back to the diesel tank – a monumental task and

we are very, very pleased to have him.

That’s it for this week – thanks to all that attended and put in such a great job - you can keep up with all the latest on our forums and you can see our old newsletters at http://www.baragoola.com.au If you are on Facebook you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/ManlyFerry We’re also on Twitter as #MVBaragoola – updates are posted fairly regularly. Our main website is now www.baragoola.com.au and if you have Google Talk installed you can chat to us if anyone is online and nearby the computer – add baragoola@gmail.com as a friend. And, last but not least, we also have a flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/65669741@N08/ Please note that the on board phone number has changed to 0478 519 033 – when you need access to Baragoola please use this one in the first instance; only call one of the crew directly if it doesn’t answer. For general business you should call our message bank on 02 9294 3168. There will be people about

most of this week so feel free to come down (after 8am) to lend a hand or have a look around. Next scheduled work is on Saturday the 23rd of June. We’ll send out the usual reminder mid week. There will also be people here most days throughout the week – ring ahead and check first.

Historic Images

Harbour Queen (ex Lady Scott) passes into history (last Lady on the harbour) © Ian Dodd