Baragoola Week Ending 26th May 2012

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

Upcoming events

TBC June – Lady Denman Museum visit (day tour – tentative at this stage, more info to come) 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

29th of May, Phantom, first true Manly ferry, arrives in Sydney in 1859

Phantom at Circular Quay

Phantom was the first of the eponymous Manly ferries - double ended, dark green hull, long white funnel that would mark these vessels until the takeover by the NSW government in 1974.

Baragoola Trivia

The distinctive tall black and white funnel, one of the hallmarks of the Manly ferries, has existed on

Sydney Harbour for 153 years. The current Manly ferries don’t follow the tradition and for several years

Baragoola was the only one that had it (until South Steyne returned prior to the 2000 Olympics).

Baragoola Trivia Competition (#2)

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

question correctly:

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

Balmain?

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

Committee News

Next committee meeting will be on board Baragoola on the second Saturday in June – all financial members are welcome to attend as observers

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 will be posted out this week Saturday morning was not a pleasant time to be on the harbor, cold and windy and with rough conditions – although the day didn’t really warm up at least the wind died later on! The conditions kept a few away along with others with prior arrangements and one illness. However the small team managed to get a fair bit done (as usual!) Work was concentrated on the hull, the forward wheelhouse and the forward gearbox this week with Glen polishing up a bit more of the brass fittings (something we’ll regret as they’ll need to be kept polished…….) I’m pleased to report that the wheelhouse is progressing rapidly with Peter advising that we are nearly at the stage of purchasing and fitting the window frames and glass – not that far from lock up stage! Once completed we’ll re-line the interior, chase some portholes and strip the paint of the outside. Then it’ll be time to repaint inside and out, rebuild the interior dividing wall that is currently missing, rewire the electrical, re-plumb the shower, toilet and wash basin and re-install the wheelhouse equipment. I can’t wait to see it all back in place and fitted out! Due to the poor weather no work on the forward deck was done – this remains a pain point with the small amount of rain this week sending water in through it. However on the upside, other areas that are normally wet weren’t – thanks to Peter H’s monumental effort at fixing the roof.

Both Peters were working on the wheelhouse after Peter H did some initial work replacing rotted footings on the railings on this deck. He plans on dropping in during the week to do some welding on these rails and if you are around it wouldn’t hurt to tee things up and drop down and offer him some assistance! All of this work is leading to us having one end substantially completed before too much longer.

The new footings

The forward wheelhouse received both upper and lower plates this week on the port side and at least one of the new doors has been constructed by Peter C – you can see the unfinished door on our forums at http://www.baragoola.com.au/forum/index.php?topic=1123.msg4109#msg4109 It looks great and is of very solid construction – good for years to come and to allow better security in this area ultimately as well. The wheelhouse might look like it is a quick job, but with attention to detail, traditional methodology and historical accuracy this job has so far taken somewhat over six months with all members of the volunteer crew having chipped in at some stage or another under Peter’s leadership. A beautiful and solid job thus far and much Kudos to Peter for sticking his hand up to do it.

The other major piece of work centered on plates in the Battery Compartment. In past weeks these have been painted with anti rust paint and this week a good number received their first top coat of white (on those that will be painted white, other lower ones will be done in opaline blue). Nick and I got stuck into these (as well as the aft bulkhead) and the area is looking much, much brighter. Eventually we’ll be able to remove some of the lights in this hold as they won’t all be required. This work is essential – the final painting seals off and protects the interior plates from any water and at the same time we are able to inspect the plates quite thoroughly and determine if further work is needed. This weekend saw six or seven plates identified for further work to preserve them and we will get stuck into this soon. The heavy weather also allowed us to identify a plate high up on the port side that has a weep (the waves slapping against the sides gave it away) and this one will be patched first. It’s quite wonderful seeing the transformation in this area from the dim, dark and dirty cave that it used to be to what it is becoming. This hold also contains the engineers quarters which are receiving a makeover to be used as a workroom for the engineering areas and also for secure storage. Ernie cut away the old brace for the lockers in here this weekend to allow a safer area and to permit shelving to be put up. This area has some issues – the floor is a good example with several areas of heavy rust that will need to be dealt with to ensure crew safety when working in here. But it is slowly coming together!

It’s a huge task doing this area – the nooks and crannies are bad enough but probably the worst part is painting the butt straps – although we are eternally grateful to Mort’s for over-engineering the ferry the butt straps (you can see them in the above picture) are a pain in the butt (pardon the pun!) to paint with some areas having over 50 rivets in a small area). However can’t complain too much as this is what has kept Goola going for the last ninety years! Ernie this week worked again on the forward propulsion gear (more about this shortly) as well as on some of the equipment in the aft steering compartment. The control box for this is now up in place in preparation for it to be returned to working condition – small item but bloody heavy! While we were doing that we discussed ways to ventilate the aft void space so we can work safely in there and a few ideas were tossed around including a method of supplying permanent ventilation to keep this area dry and free of humidity. These are very confined areas and over the years have probably received little attention as a result. There’s also an indication that these (at least the aft one) may have once been used as a storage tank for fresh water for Goola’s steam engines. Some time back some work on removing debris from the aft one was performed and now we need to get back in there and complete the task of stabilizing the hull. A job I doubt any of us are really looking forward to but one that must be done!

Back to the aft equipment – this is now going back together after Ernie has done quite a lot of work on it, however the main bearings for the propeller shaft need further work and this can’t be done without removing the motors – a monumental job that will need to be done at a later stage – preferably when the ferry is on the slips as it is too difficult to be done in place (and somewhat risky for the safety of both our volunteers and the ship herself). However much has been done by Ernie (and others) to clean the gear box out and stabilize it for later work.

I believe that Ernie plans on getting the motors operational and detaching them from the gearbox so that they can be demonstrated in a working condition. Quite an effort and a good result considering that it was known that this end was always going to be somewhat problematical and an attestation of the hard work put into this equipment. That’s it for this week –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/pages/Baragoola-Preservation-Association-Incorporated/122851477818947

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 2nd 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.

One of the wheelhouse doors in a somewhat not normal location!

Historic Images

Application from the 1940s for a periodic ticket on the Manly ferries

Ladies’ monthly ticket from 1944