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.