alternatehistory.com
May 1852 - shipyards
22 June 1852, Recherche Bay, Van Diemen’s Land
The 18 gun 405 ton Sloop of War Maweena was something new, a ship that would actually belong to the new Colonial Government rather than the Royal Navy. Her sister ship Tasmania was also nearing completion. The shipbuilding works at Recherche Bay had been a staple of the colony ever since the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station had closed at the end of 1840. It had already produced two brigs and two gunboats, the later using the prized Huon Pine that was harvested for a month a year from Tasmania’s remote West Coast.
The yard, along with another in Hobart, were the only yards in Australasia that were able to quickly produce craft of over 200 tons. Up until now, for most British merchants, the Australian colonies were simply too remote to dispatch vessels of under 150 tons or so. As a result, there was an ever present need for smaller vessels to meet domestic needs for transport and trade between the colonies. Furthermore, smaller vessels were required to meet the needs of the Australasian-based maritime extractive industries, such as sealing and whaling and now mining, the later the first important income generating industries in the colonies. Due to the great distances between the new Australian colonies, boat and shipbuilding was vitally important to the development and sustainability of the colonists.
It was pride that kept Governor Plantagenet from ordering similar ships from the Recherche Bay or Hobart yards as Victoria had done, instead New South Wales, increasingly diverging in both attitudes and priorities from the Southern colonies, was to commence work in March 1852 on a shipyard of its own that was slated to be capable of building ships of over 2,000 tons and with an attached engineering works capable of producing boilers and screws under the new craze, steam.
Even the shipyard itself was a microcosm of diverging attitudes. In New South Wales, the shipyard construction was a project of the Colonial Government using almost entirely convict labour. In Tasmania, the Hobart yard was convict free and owned by the very wealthy Archer family, who used the income to support their grazing activities in the North of the state. The quality of the island's hardwood timber resources, combined with excellent port facilities and access to major shipping routes meant that by 1850, Hobart Town and Recherche Bay were producing double the amount of wooden ships than all other Australasian ports combined.
Archer's shipyard, Hobart
View attachment 510098
Tasmanian Colonial Flag
View attachment 510099
The 18 gun 405 ton Sloop of War Maweena was something new, a ship that would actually belong to the new Colonial Government rather than the Royal Navy. Her sister ship Tasmania was also nearing completion. The shipbuilding works at Recherche Bay had been a staple of the colony ever since the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station had closed at the end of 1840. It had already produced two brigs and two gunboats, the later using the prized Huon Pine that was harvested for a month a year from Tasmania’s remote West Coast.
The yard, along with another in Hobart, were the only yards in Australasia that were able to quickly produce craft of over 200 tons. Up until now, for most British merchants, the Australian colonies were simply too remote to dispatch vessels of under 150 tons or so. As a result, there was an ever present need for smaller vessels to meet domestic needs for transport and trade between the colonies. Furthermore, smaller vessels were required to meet the needs of the Australasian-based maritime extractive industries, such as sealing and whaling and now mining, the later the first important income generating industries in the colonies. Due to the great distances between the new Australian colonies, boat and shipbuilding was vitally important to the development and sustainability of the colonists.
It was pride that kept Governor Plantagenet from ordering similar ships from the Recherche Bay or Hobart yards as Victoria had done, instead New South Wales, increasingly diverging in both attitudes and priorities from the Southern colonies, was to commence work in March 1852 on a shipyard of its own that was slated to be capable of building ships of over 2,000 tons and with an attached engineering works capable of producing boilers and screws under the new craze, steam.
Even the shipyard itself was a microcosm of diverging attitudes. In New South Wales, the shipyard construction was a project of the Colonial Government using almost entirely convict labour. In Tasmania, the Hobart yard was convict free and owned by the very wealthy Archer family, who used the income to support their grazing activities in the North of the state. The quality of the island's hardwood timber resources, combined with excellent port facilities and access to major shipping routes meant that by 1850, Hobart Town and Recherche Bay were producing double the amount of wooden ships than all other Australasian ports combined.
Archer's shipyard, Hobart
View attachment 510098
Tasmanian Colonial Flag
View attachment 510099
- johnboy
- Word Count: 420