SS Carabella/Karabella
A special project of the Ferries of Sydney
| Type : |
Wooden steam ship |
| Launched : |
1897 |
| Builder : |
Young, Son & Fletcher Rozelle, NSW |
| Gross weight : |
129 tons/151 tons after 1916 |
| Dimensions : |
105.00 x 21.70 x 8.50
(feet)/106.0 x 22.20 x 10.00 (feet) after 1916 |
| Passenger capacity : |
595 |
| Speed : |
12 knots |
Carabella (as originally named) was one of the fleet of vessels owned by the North shore Steam Ferry Company (later Sydney Ferries Limited). She was a sister to the Wallaroo.
In 1901, like several other vessels of the fleet, she received electric lighting.
She is recorded as only having had two accidents - both minor. The first was on the 9th of may 1901 when she was struck by the Rosedale off Milsons Point (fault was laid on the Rosedale) and received minor damage amidships, the second a few months later on January 17th 1902 when she suffered damage to her sponson band after a scrape withn Sonoma.
In 1916 she was withdrawn from service, extended and returned with a new name "Karabella" which bought her into line with the normal naming convention for SFL.
Like many of her running mates, the opening of the Sydney harbour Bridge saw her retirered and laid up. However, fate was a little kinder to her and she was returned to service in 1936 as a full time excursion boat; mainly following the eighteen footer races every Sunday. By 1939 she was once again back in revenue service operating on the Neutral Bay route.
On the 30th of April 1943 she was purchased by the United States Navy for three thousand five hundred pounds - an immense amount for an aged ferry. They used her as a service and supply vessel. Along with two other ferries (Karaga and Kiamala) she was towed away from the Sydney and her final wherabouts remain unknown. At the time several other harbour ferries had been used for target practice so this may well have been her fate as well.