Remember the Troubridge, the old ferry to Kangaroo Island?

IT didn’t matter that it broke down, nor that that some passengers got very seasick — for nearly three decades for most South Australians the Troubridge ferry was part of any Kangaroo Island holiday.

The Troubridge off Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, in 1987.

“WHEN I was a boy in the late 1970s, we did a family trip to Kingscote on the MV Troubridge. I was so enamoured by the experience that my late father, who was a high school woodwork teacher, decided to make me a wooden model of the ship for me to remember our journey. I still treasure this piece of art to this day, remembering a great man and a wonderful family holiday.”

So wrote Andy Young, when commenting on a recent post relating to the well-known Kangaroo Island ferry on the Adelaide Remember When Facebook page.

Inside the Troubridge’s passenger bar in 1961.

For Kylie Netherton, however, the memories of the Troubridge were not so pleasant: “Oh, recollections of vomiting over the side with pretty much every other passenger during a particularly rough night going over on the Troubridge in the early ’80s. It was awful! Good thing that Kangaroo Island was spectacular and the trip back was as smooth as butter.”

They are just two of many reminiscences posted of a vessel that was a part of any trip or holiday to KI from 1961 to 1987.

The MV (motor vessel) Troubridge was the ferry that served the South Australian coastal trade between Port Adelaide, Kingscote on KI and Port Lincoln for more than 20 years.

She was built by Evans Deakin Shipbuilders in Brisbane as a roll-on, roll-off ferry to minimise loading times and maximise time at sea.

For many, it seemed the trip was not a pleasant experience.

The first car comes off the Troubridge as it arrives in Kingscote on its maiden voyage in 1961.

Captain David Gibson and seaman Bob Innes explain the bridge controls to Darren Walker, 14, of Bridgewater, in 1982.

“Went to KI by Troubridge,” wrote Jill Taylor on Adelaide Remember When. “It took eight hours from Port Adelaide and I returned by plane. I just couldn’t stand being sick for eight hours again.”

And Peter Thompson recalled the trip with his parents and little brother in 1973: “Due to some engine problems, we didn’t set sail until six hours after the scheduled departure time, finally arriving in Kingscote at around midnight in teeming rain and pitch black.”

Colin Rush, who worked for the Adelaide Steamship Company on Old Port Rd as part of the breakdown crew, toiled on the Troubridge many times, “particularly every time one of the motors would break down as she was returning to Adelaide”.

The Troubridge docks at the Kingscote jetty in1961 on its maiden voyage.

The Troubridge passes through the Birkenhead bridge at Port Adelaide in 1976.

Inside the passenger lounge and observation room.

A trailer load of 3200 sheep and lambs from Kangaroo Island are brought ashore at Port Adelaide in 1962.

He wrote: “Many passengers may remember leaving in the small hours after the workers left when they had repaired the old engines. Again!

“I was one of those people walking down the gangplank at two or three in the morning to the cheers of waiting passengers. Great memories for me, though.”

And there were some good stories, too, particularly from those who could remember school camps and excursions to Kangaroo Island when they were children, or from others who had experienced not-so-rough crossings. Steve “Sambo” Sampson even recalled her as “a great little ship”.

After 26 years of service, the Troubridge was replaced in 1987 by the Island Seaway. Built by the Igloo Engineering Company, aka Eglo, at Osborne, Port Adelaide, the Island Seaway was greatly criticised as being unsuitable for the Backstairs Passage crossing.

Seventy-five sheep and cattle died on the inaugural trip because of carbon monoxide poisoning and the ship was once described as “steering like a shopping trolley”.

When the Troubridge was retired from South Australian service, she was sold to a company in Malta and renamed City of Famagusta.

The vessel then suffered the indignity of continued ownership swapping and name changes until her final demise.

Her last voyage was to Turkey where, on March 7, 2004, final demolition work began.

Bob Byrne is the author of Adelaide Remember When and posts memories of Adelaide every day on Facebook.com/AdelaideRememberWhen