PS Cammeray
A special project of the Ferries of Sydney
| Type : |
Wooden paddlewheel
steam ship |
| Launched : |
1884 |
| Builder : |
William Dunn Berry's Bay, NSW |
| Gross weight : |
197 tons |
| Dimensions : |
129.80 x 20.80 x 7.00 (feet) |
| Passenger capacity : |
740 |
| Speed : |
11 knots |
Cammeray was a steam ferry owned by the North Shore Steam Ferry Company (later Sydney Ferries Limited).
Her birth was surrounded with controversy as a William Waterhouse purchased the shed that she was being built in and drove in some piles that prevented her from being launched. Fortunately however, wiser heads intervened, the piles were removed and the vessel launched.
Similar in design to the Victoria, she was well appopinted for the time with kauri decks, internal fittings of cedar and huon pine panels. She also came with uphostered seating internally at a time when most ferries made do with wooden benches.
She was fitted witha Ladies Cabin which seated 250 and was 45 feet in length and her promenade deck, at 130 feet, ran the entire length of the vessel. Her owners also made great mileage from the fitting of an apparatus to "consume her own smoke".
Her engineers' trials were completed on the 25th of June 1884 and she was in service by early September of the same year. As was usual for the time, when not engaged in passenger operations, she ran excursions and specials.
She was accident prone; the first occurred on the 8th of May 1886 when she collided with the collier Kanahooka, one of heer paddle boxes was smashed as a result. A few years later, on the 27th of December 1893, she ran afoul of the City of Grafton, this time her port paddle box was extensively damaged.
Her worst accident was on the 15th of June 1895 when she was struck by the coastal steamer Sydney. She attempted to run for Milsons Point to beach but did not make it, sinking in twenty minutes in forty feet of water. No lives were lost and she was raised a few days later, taken to Morts Dock and repaired. At the subsequent hearing it was decided that the Sydney was at fault, as a result her master lost his certificate for six months.
Her next accident was to occur a few months later when she collided with a punt (towed by a tug) carrying meat. No damage was done to the ferry although the punt suffered badly. Her next major tangle was on the 27th of December 1897 when she struck the horse ferry Princess, loaded with three hundred excursionists, at Circular Quay. Cammeray suffered no damage beyond a few scratches, unfortunately Princess sank. She was later raised and returned to service.
Her last recorded mishap was on the 16th of March 1901 when she ran into Vaucluse - no damage ensued to either boat.
Similar to Bunya Bunya, she received life saving equipment in 1898 (hopelessly inadequate for any more than one hundred passengers). Unlike her sister she does not appear to have been given electric lighting when several other vessels received the upgrade in 1901.
In late March 1901 members of the union covering the ferry workers struck and the ferry company brought in non union labour to operate the boats. Several union members attempted to flood and sink the Cammeray, to no avail as the sinking was prevented by the other (non union workers). As a result of their efforts to save her, several of the non union men were stoned by the union members.
By 1904 with many new screw steamers available, she had been largely withdrawn from active service and was mainly running excursion trips and by 1905 (along with the other paddlers) she was permanently laid up. It would appear she was offered for sale for by 1909 she could be found on the Hawkesbury River, owned by a Dr F Calder, operating five hour tours for five hundred people every Sunday from the Brooklyn railway station. These were organised by the NSWGR.
August of 1912 saw her offered up for sale as part of a deceased estate. It is not recorded if she sold or not, but one year later during the great ferry strike the NSW government pressed her into service to once again run between Circular Quay and Milsons Point. In May of that year she was then to be found (along with Lincoln, an ex Balmain boat) carrying workers to and from Cockatoo Island. This only lasted a short while as in July 1914 she was advertised by the Commonwealth (along with Lincoln) for sale by tender. No further record exists after this date and it would be assumed that she was broken up.