| Type : |
Wooden paddlewheel
steam ship |
| Launched : |
1843 |
| Builder : |
William Lowe Williams River, NSW |
| Gross weight : |
70.5 tons |
| Dimensions : |
92.0 x15.5 x 6.7 (feet) |
| Passenger capacity : |
unknown |
| Speed : |
unknown |
Comet was a small paddler owned originally by Eyde Manning's Parrmatta River Steam Company and operated by him on the fledgling Parramatta River service from 1843 until 1854.
She was laid down the previous year prior April and her name registered at the time. Manning paid one thousand and sixty pounds for the vessel - the boiler alone taking up three hundred and twelve pounds of that.
Prior to going into service on the Parramatta River a legal case ensued that attempted to stop her and confine her to the Sydney to Hunter, Patterson and William River routes. This was bough about as it was thought that the Parramatta River was unsafe for steamers. Manning had to give assurances that only experienced navigators would be employed and as a result she made her first trip on Wednesday, 21st of June 1843. At the time she was described as the fastest vessel in Sydney. From then on she ran daily services departing Sydney at 7am and returning from Parrmatta at 4pm.
On the 11th of March 1844 returning to Sydney, it was noticed that she was steering an eccentric path. Due investigation showed that she had lost her rudder and with some difficult she was steamed and poled to a wharf at Ryde where a temporary one was affixed. Under way again, a gust of wind caught her and drove her onto a mud bank where she "gyrated gently". Her passengers were taken off by Emu.
In 1846 she was advertised as running excursions to the Heads and Manly Cove .At this time she was also engaged to carry spectators to the annual river regattas.
Both Comet and Emu were put up for auction on the 1st of December 1852; the auctioneer was T. S. Mort. Curiously they were both sold on the 3rd of December directly to Eyde Manning for the combined sum of five thousand two hundred and fifty pounds - the reserve figure. Emu was to remain on the harbour, but not so the Comet. Almost immediately she went to melbourne, leaving Sydney on the 14th of January 1853 (running into a small launch as she was departing) and arriving in Melbourne on the 24th of January.
She was placed into service on the Melbourne to Williamstown (Hobsons Bay) run commencing on the 16th of February under the command of Captain W Carder.
She was offered for auction on the 22nd of April, 1853 and she appears shortly thereafter ferrying passengers from Melbourne to various other steamships engaged on the coastal trade for a short while.By July she had been refitted and returned to the Williamstown route once again still under Carder.
By December 1855 a one quarter and one sixteenth share in the vessel was offered as a going concern. By 1862 she had been superseded and was sold again - back to Sydney. However, by August 1862 she was several weeks overdue and was presumed lost.