| Type : |
Wooden paddlewheel
steam ship |
| Launched : |
1884 |
| Builder : |
G Duncan Balmain, NSW |
| Gross weight : |
105 tons |
| Dimensions : |
112.40 x 18.20 x 6.70 (feet) |
| Passenger capacity : |
unknown |
| Speed : |
unknown |
Bald Rock (as originally named) was built for John Watson's Balmain operations. She also worked for the Balmain New Ferry Company and the Watsons Bay and South Shore Ferry Company.
She appears to have been largely free of the misadventures that often befell ferries on Sydney harbour with only one major incident being recorded. On 18/3/1893 she collided with Lady Napier near the Stephen Street Wharf; little damage was done to either vessel.
In the late 1800's, competion in the Balmain area heated up with the introduction of a competitor, the Balmain New Steam Ferry Company. Both companies hotly contested the routes and this came to a head in 1895 when the master of Bald Rock came to blows with the master of Lady Napier. Bald Rock's master complained that Lady Napier's master had boarded his vessel when the two bumped together and threatened to "smash his head in". The master of the latter boat claimed that this was untrue and as no witnesses came forward the case was dismissed. The magistrate noted that he thought both men were of disreputable character.
Late in Jjanuary 1895 all of the company's steamers were offered for sale after the company decided it could no longer compete in the cut-throat price war that had ensued. The newer company purchased all of them in what the newspaper article called "a most interesting sale".
In August 1900 the vessel was sold to the Watsons Bay and South Shore Ferry Company who renamed her to Vaucluse. She operated on the Watsons Bay run until the introduction in 1905 of the new Vaucluse, at which time she returned to her original name.
She may have been laid up at this date; one year later on November 27th she departed to Melbourne under the command of a Captain Young.
The Victorian papers make no mention of her, but it can be assumed that she was in some sort of service for the next twenty years or so as she was not broken up until 1928 at the ripe old age of 44 years old.