MV Cape Don Workboat

 

 

Published

Last Updated

Name of vessel

MV Cape Don Workboat (C.D.2)

Date built

1963

Builder

NSW Government Engineering and Supply Board

Design

 

Previous owner(s)

Australian Federal Government

Vessel type

Workboat/Launch

Dimensions

L 23ft (7m) x W 8ft (2.4m) x H 4.8ft (1.5m)

Object Registration number

HB 90

Significance

This Cape Don workboat, known as C.D.2, was built in 1963 and is significant for its association with Lighthouse Tender vessel, MV Cape Don

MV Cape Don was the last lighthouse tender to be based in Western Australia. As one of the three workboats stationed aboard the MV Cape Don, C.D.2 carried out ship to shore transport duties of equipment and personnel, and was the most commonly used workboat of the three. It carried out these duties for over twenty-five years, from MV Cape Don’s commissioning in 1964 to its cessation of service in 1990. 

In addition to C.D.2, only one other MV Cape Don workboat is known to be extant and that is held by the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory.

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Description

Heavily constructed open motor workboat used for servicing navigational beacons, buoys and lighthouses from the Commonwealth Government lighthouse tender MV Cape Don. The workboat’s hull is carvel planked in Oregon wood. It is installed with a 4-cylinder Kelvin diesel 20 horsepower engine. The workboat was donated to the WA Museum in 1992 by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and restored in 1996 by Chris White, an ex MV Cape Don crewmember and AMSA employee.

Heavily constructed open motor workboat used for servicing navigational beacons, buoys and lighthouses from the Commonwealth Government lighthouse tender MV Cape Don. The workboat’s hull is carvel planked in Oregon wood. It is installed with a 4-cylinder Kelvin diesel 20 horsepower engine.
Provenance

The MV Cape Don Workboat was built in Newcastle, NSW, in 1963. It was built by the NSW Government Engineering and Supply Board for use aboard the Lighthouse Tender MV Cape Don. Two other similar workboats were fitted to Cape Don, along with a lighter amphibious resupply cargo vessel (LARC). This workboat was fitted on the middle davits on the starboard side of Cape Don, and was referred to as ‘C.D.2’. C.D.3 was positioned aft, and had a faster sterndrive engine, and C.D.1 forward, fitted with lifelines and a footrail on the exterior of the hull so it could be used as a lifeboat.

C.D.2 was the most commonly used workboat of the three. It was deployed for ship to shore transfer of supplies, equipment and personnel, especially in instances where the LARC could not be used. It also retrieved and relayed navigation buoys and carried out other jobs such as the painting of Cape Don’s side.

The common procedure for deploying C.D.2 is recalled below by Chris White, former MV Cape Don crewmember:

Lowering the boat away involved the boatman and one crew, usually the deckhand, climbing into the boat while it was in the davits and releasing the gripes which hold it secure. The davits would then be swung out so that the boat would be outboard and at deck level. The boatman would then start the engine and with the bosun giving directions the boat would be lowered into the sea. On contact with the ocean the boatman (aft) would unhook the falls first and then the forward hand would then do likewise, at which point the falls and hooking apparatus would be raised clear. The tiller would then be inserted and thus the boat would go about its duties.

In calm weather this operation (and the reverse for hoisting the boat) would be relatively simple but in rougher seas hooking and unhooking from the davits required quite a degree of skill and concentration from all involved. The boat would normally take on passengers from the foredeck and cargo would be lowered from the ships crane. A sample of the type of cargo carried by this boat included 180-pound gas bottles and 44-gallon drums. Coupled with the rise and fall of the boat along the ship’s side, loading cargo and passengers took on an element of risk.

C.D.2 carried out its duties as a workboat for over twenty-five years. MV Cape Don retired from service in 1990 and was sold in 1992. Upon this decommissioning the MV Cape Don workboat was donated to the Western Australian Museum. The Cape Don workboat was first collected in December 1991 and put on display at the Historic Boat Museum in B Shed, Victoria Quay in September 1992. In 2021 It was moved from A Shed in Fremantle to the Western Australian Museum’s storage at Welshpool Perth.

History

MV Cape Don

Commissioned in 1962, MV Cape Don was the last lighthouse tender to be based in Western Australia (WA). It was completed in Newcastle in 1963 and arrived in WA in 1964. It was the first of three Cape Class vessels commissioned by. The boat arrived in Fremantle in March 1963 replacing SS Cape Otway. MV Cape Don mostly carried out navaids work, servicing lighthouses on the WA and NT coastlines from its base in Fremantle. It supplied fuel, equipment, stores, and lighthouse keepers to manned stations, and enabled maintenance works at unmanned lights, beacons, and floating navigational aids. The three Cape Class vessels also undertook modernisation works on manned stations, preparing these stations to be automated.

Lighthouses

The first lighthouse in Australia was lit on 30 November 1818 at South Head of Port Jackson, Sydney. Western Australia’s first lighthouse was built between 1842 and 1851 by Aboriginal prisoners on Wadjemup (Rottnest Island). It was lit on 1 June together with another newly erected lighthouse on Arthur’s Head. The works on the Arthur’s Head lighthouse had commenced in 1848 and used convict labour.

Between 1895 and 1915, Western Australia built lighthouses along the full length of its coastline. Despite Western Australia being considered to have one of the most remote and harsh coastlines, it was one of the last to receive lighthouse services.

Prior to Federation, the construction and maintenance of lighthouses and navigational aids was fell under colonial governance. Although the Australian Constitution declared lighthouses subject to Commonwealth legislation (section 51), the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service did not take control until 1915. Between 1901 and 1915, Commander Charles Richard Wynn Brewis was tasked to report on the lighthouses already in use and suggest future requirements. Brewis produced ten preliminary reports between 1911 and 1913. One of his recommendations was for the purchase of four lighthouse steamers, which would supply lighthouses with stores, visit unwatched lights, and prevent smuggling. He also proposed that these vessels be responsible for repairs to lighthouses.

References

Searle, Gary, First Order. Australia’s Highway of Lighthouses, 2013, p. 77, 294, 378

https://lighthouses.org.au/wa/ [external]

https://arhv.sea.museum/en/objects/details/148621/mv-cape-don?ctx=b29ccaec-b5d0-492a-95e0-709a57e94013&idx=0 [external]