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SS Manly

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Manly (II) was a ferry that served on the Sydney to Manly run from 1896 to 1924.

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28-604: Designed by renowned naval architect Walter Reeks , Manly was the first double-ended screw ferry on the Manly run. She, along with Kuring-gai (1901), were the archetypes for the long run of Manly ferries for most of the twentieth century. In the 1880s, the Port Jackson Steamship Company Limited had been expanding its paddle steamer fleet and services to Manly from Sydney (Circular Quay) . Without competition, fares also rose. In response, local interests set up

56-523: A bigger share of the expanding market, the Manly Co-op ordered a 700-passenger steamer to be named Emancipator . The company commissioned renowned naval architect Walter Reeks to design her. But by 1896, when the older company dropped prices to threepence return and the high cost of building the new Emancipator , the Manly Co-Op collapsed. The Port Jackson Co took over the Manly Co-op's interests (including

84-608: A daughter, Thelma, and son, Kent. Mary died in 1895 and Reeks married again in 1900. Reeks's son was murdered in England in 1914. Reeks died in October 1925. Several of his yachts are extant as of 2018, including Boomerang and Ena in Sydney. Binngarra Binngarra was a ferry operated by Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company on the Manly service . Launched in 1905, she

112-435: A double-ended screw configuration was particularly difficult for the fine bows that Manly ferries required for both speed and heavy seas. Further, a propeller at the leading forward end of a vessel reduced speed considerably. In the prosperous early twentieth century, this speed drawback was overcome by increasing engine size and power. The first screw ferries on the Manly run were two innovative Walter Reeks –designed vessels;

140-506: A large hole in the collier’s hull. Merksworth managed to beach near Mosman Bay and there were no deaths. Captain Thomas Capuru, master of the Manly , was found to be at fault and his masters’ certificate was suspended for three months. By the late 1890s, conditions on the Manly ferries were extremely crowded on weekends and holidays. No attempt was made to run the boats to a timetable, they simply loaded and ran. Following Christmas 1898,

168-562: A period of fitting out, Manly ran her trials on 30 October 1896 where she covered the measured mile in a little over 4 minutes, exceeding expectations. Her trials were run under Captain Clark of the Balmain Ferry Company. On 18 December, she collided with the collier Merksworth . Manly suffered no damage, but Merksworth's bridge and upper works were damaged from the overhanging bow of the ferry and Manly’s leading propeller had gouged

196-404: A record time of 22 minutes for the trip to Manly, a time which has not been beaten by any conventional mono displacement hull ferry since (hydrofoils did the run in 15 minutes). While Manly was innovative and fast, she was too small. Unlike the previous paddlers and subsequent Binngarra -type screw vessels, which were larger and a number of which could carry 1,500 passengers, her capacity of 820

224-486: A working pressure of 160 pounds per square inch (1,100  kPa ). A donkey boiler also fitted. Binngarra had her official trials on 26 October 1905 where she reached 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) and she entered service three days later on the 3 pm run from Circular Quay to Manly. Two days after she collided with the sea wall at the Quay. In 1926, she collided with the wooden K-class ferry , Kanimbla . Damage to

252-485: Is sometimes misspelled as "Bingarra". The Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company's fleet transitioned comparatively late to screw propelled vessels and the fleet comprised mostly paddle steamers until the early years of the twentieth century. The difficulty of turning in the narrow bays of Sydney Harbour - particularly in the busy Circular Quay terminus in Sydney Cove - required the use of double-ended vessels. However,

280-599: The SS Manly (1896), and SS Kuring-gai (1901), which were to become the fore-runners of the "Binngarra-class" ferries. They both had high forecastles at either to help her run through the deep-sea conditions across the Sydney Heads . The steel-hulled Kuring-gai was larger and she further refined the basic design that would be the basis of the subsequent and larger "Binngarra-class" vessels. While Manly and Kuring-gai followed paddle steamer design with their bridges around

308-494: The Manly Co-operative Steam Ferry Limited in 1893 that ran a service with chartered single-ended screw steamers. While a price-war ensued, the new company's smaller and open vessels ( Cygnet , Admiral , Conqueror , and Marramarra ) could not match Port Jackson's larger vessels, which included Brighton , Fairlight , Narrabeen . However, patronage for both companies increased significantly. To entice

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336-846: The first double-ended-screw Manly ferry, the Manly (II), and the Kuring-gai , which became the model for Manly ferries of the first half of the 20th century. Other Sydney ferries designed by Reeks, including all but one of the early-20th-century 'Lady' ferries, such as the Lady Denman and Lady Scott , and all of the Watsons Bay ferries, such as the Vaucluse . He also designed the Hobart ferries Derwent and Rosny . Reeks married Mary Emma Kent in March 1889. They had

364-630: The guidance of former chief draughtsman Andrew Christie. Binngarra and the next four were built at Mort's Woolwich yard while Baragoola was built at the Balmain yard. They were among the largest ships built in Australian yards at the time and, on the admission of Mort's executives, were built by the dock more for prestige than profit. Build costs were higher in Australia than in the United Kingdom, but this

392-635: The island trader Madal and she was broken up later that year. Walter Reeks Walter Reeks ( 25 February 1861 – 2 October 1925) was one of the earliest naval architects in Australia and is known for designing yachts, ferries and coastal ships. He was born in Christchurch , England and migrated to Australia in 1885. Reeks apprenticed with Alexander Richardson and at shipbuilders George Inman & Sons in England. He became an expert at yacht design and propulsion. He

420-403: The larger steel Binngarra was minimal, however, Kanimbla was severely damaged and according to some reports, was lucky not to sink. It is estimated that over her 24 years of ferry service, Binngarra completed close to 100,000 round trips to Manly and carried 30 million passengers. She and Kuring-gai were removed from service in 1930 and 1928 respectively, following the 1928 introduction of

448-530: The length of Brighton ) with a beam of 7.9 m (25 ft 11 in). At 229 tons, she was approximately half the size of the Binngarra -type ferries. Her 100 hp engine, built by Fawcett, Preston and Company (of England), was the first triple expansion steam engines in a Manly ferry. Capable of over 14 knots, she could carry 820 passengers. Her wooden construction allowed the continuous propeller shaft to lose its alignment resulting in severe vibration. This

476-821: The market, she was an innovative vessel. She became the archetype for the familiar Manly ferries throughout the twentieth century. She had high forecastles at either end to run at speed through the deep-sea conditions across the Sydney Heads. Her basic design was further refined with the subsequent steel and larger ferry Kuring-gai (1906), the six Binngarra -class vessels, culminating in the Scottish-built Dee Why and Curl Curl and South Steyne . Unlike her predecessors, Manly had two wheelhouses both placed immediately fore and aft of her funnel. She had an open promenade deck and an enclosed lower deck. She measured 44.8 m (147 ft 0 in) long (only two-thirds

504-463: The masters of Fairlight and Manly both received fines for overcrowding. Crowd control was ineffective at both the Manly and Circular Quay wharves. As a result of this penalty, the ferry was equipped with iron gates – something that would be standard on later ferries – and turnstiles were erected at both wharves. With increasing demand and overcrowding, the Port Jackson Co ordered the first of what

532-629: The midships funnels, the "Binngarra-class" vessels would have their wheelhouses at either end of their sun decks. This design, of which Binngarra was the first, would be the basic form of the Manly ferries that served for most of the 20th century up to and including the Freshwater class in the early 1980s. Subsequent to Binngarra, five similar refinements of the design were built - Burra-Bra (1908), Bellubera (1910), Balgowlah (1912), Barrenjoey (1913), and Baragoola (1922). The class were designed by Mort's Dock and Engineering , initially under

560-400: The nearly completed Emancipator ) and changed its name to Port Jackson Co-operative Steamship Co. Ltd. The name of the near complete "Emancipator" was dropped in favour of "Manly". The new ferry boat was built by Young, Son & Fletcher in Balmain, New South Wales . She was a double-ended double-screw vessel of wooden-construction. A product of the competitive market and designed to capture

588-477: The path of the Manly and the much larger Manly smashed into the launch sinking her. Two people drowned, a mother and father, leaving behind a family of four orphans who were rescued from the crash. An investigation placed the blame for the collision on the captain of the Agnes . The captain of the Manly was admonished for not sounding the steam whistle. Manly went on to lead a remaining quiet life. In 1922, she set

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616-557: Was active in the Sydney yachting community on arrival in Australia and joined several of the yacht clubs and engineering associations. He was Vice Commodore for the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron from 1906 to 1910. He was president of the NSW Engineering Association in 1914. He worked for various Sydney ferry companies between 1890 and 1915, a period in which the ferry system saw significant growth. He designed

644-414: Was not enough for the crowds on the Manly run. With the introduction of the bigger Binngarra -type ferries, she was increasingly being used as spare boat only. When Baragoola was launched in 1922, the wooden Manly was laid up permanently. In early 1924, she was advertised for sale, eventually selling for six hundred pounds to W M Ford of Berrys Bay . In 1926, her engines were removed to be installed in

672-599: Was offset by the cost of sailing them out to Australia. Binngarra's triple expansion steam engines were built by Mort's Dock and Engineering, and had cylinders 17.5 inches (44 cm), 27.5 inches (70 cm), and 45 inches (110 cm) respectively in diameter, with a stroke of 27 inches (690 mm), and steam reversing gear. Steam was generated by two Navy type boilers each 10 feet 8 inches (3.25 m) in diameter and 18 feet 6 inches (5.64 m) long, with corrugated furnaces of 4 feet 4.5 inches (1.334 m) in diameter, which were tested for

700-489: Was relieved when her three-bladed propellers were replaced with four-bladed ones. Ordered by the Manly Co-op, she was to have been named Emancipator and she was not christened at her launch due to the merger negotiations following the Manly Co-o'ps failure. Two days after her launch, on the 14 of June 1896, the two competing companies began the process to amalgamate and shortly thereafter she received her name, "Manly". After

728-439: Was safely beached and her engines were restarted. Brighton took her own passengers on to Manly wharf and returned to find the Manly grounded in the soft sand. A line was run from the Manly to the beach and the passengers were taken off four or five at a time through the heavy surf of Manly Cove . In 1904, she was involved in a fatal collision with the launch Agnes on Sydney Harbour. The 30 foot launch turned directly into

756-563: Was the first of six similar vessels built for the company–the Binngarra class—the success of which saw three of her sister vessels serving through to the 1970s and 1980s. Built by Mort's Dock and Engineering Co Ltd , in Woolwich , she was a double-ended screw steamer with steel hull and timber superstructure . She was decommissioned from ferry service in 1930. "Binngarra" is thought to be an Australia Aboriginal word for "spring" or "returning". It

784-444: Was to become the Binngarra -type vessels that were significantly larger and higher capacity. On the night of 30 June 1901, while Manly was crossing Sydney Heads in a gale with fifty passengers, heavy waves broke over her near South Head and the engines stopped and could not be restarted. Wallowing beam to the waves, she drifted towards North Head . The large paddle steamer, Brighton , towed Manly into North Harbour where she

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