SA Maritime Museum trying to raise $1.5 million for extensive restoration of Nelcebee schooner
THE Maritime Museum is trying to throw the historic 134-year-old Nelcebee schooner a life buoy by raising $1.5 million for an extensive restoration.
AT 134 years old, the historic Nelcebee still stands tall at her Dock Two berth in Port Adelaide.
Age has wearied the historic vessel, however, and last week the Maritime Museum launched its ‘Saving Nellie campaign with the website savenelcebee.com.au.
With support from the History Trust of South Australia, it hopes to raise $1.5 million for the ship’s restoration.
“We own quite a few boats and they are all special but Nelcebee is my favourite,” museum director Kevin Jones says.
He describes “Nellie” – his pet name for the veteran schooner – as “so complicated”.
“Nellie is the oldest steamship in Australia but it doesn’t have a steam engine – it was taken out in 1927,” he says.
“Nellie is the only 19th century ship remaining in Australia that was made to be powerful.
“The others are sailing ships. Nellie is unique.”
People remember its graceful presence right around the SA coastline because of its long history carrying freight.
The museum is hoping to raise enough money for rust removal and, then, repainting.
The State Government contributed $67,000 to the campaign earlier this year.
That has been used to sandblast and paint the deck, along with work on the hull.
It will also be spent on removing the rotten mast and – if possible – restoring it.
“The idea is eventually that it will be on display and restored to what it was on its last voyage,” the museum’s senior curator, Lindl Lawton, says.
“It has had so many different lives, this vessel.
“It started off as a tug boat in Port Pirie and then ends up as a cargo vessel going to Kangaroo Island, so you can’t really take it back to its original – you have to take it back to its last life.”
Nelcebee was assembled in 1883 by Thomas Cruickshank at Cruickshanks Corner in Port Adelaide.
Captain Wilson of Port Adelaide paid £7000 to have the vessel sent over in parts from Scotland.
Its first job in Port Pirie was carrying cargo to ships anchored in deeper waters and towing sailing ships into port, including in one instance the City of Adelaide clipper ship.
In 1927, it was sold for one shilling and refitted as a two-masted schooner with an auxiliary diesel engine.
Nelcebee then joined the ketch trade and spent the next 50 years carrying wheat, barley, minerals and general goods between Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf.
In 1965, the ship was bought by R Fricker and Company.
Along with the 1919 vessel Falie, it took petrol and oil to Kangaroo Island and returned to Port Adelaide with gypsum.
By 1982, the gypsum trade had slowed.
The last two commercial ketches, Nelcebee and Falie, were retired.
The last trip
THERE was a great deal of fanfare to accompany Nelcebee’s final planned voyage from Kangaroo Island to Port Adelaide in April 1982.
News helicopters hovered overhead to capture the final raising of the flag and hundreds of Kingscote residents gathered on the banks of the American River to wave goodbye to the ship that had connected them to mainland South Australia and brought them their goods and fuel for decades.
After 99 years of continuous work, the trade of gypsum – which Nelcebee had been ferrying from the island for almost 20 years – had dried up and the decision to retire the historic vessel was made.
As they heralded the end of an era, those gathered could not have known that just one week later, Nelcebee would be dragged out of retirement after fellow ketch Falie’s gearbox blew up.
Nelcebee carried out duties for another month before completing her second ultimate journey.
Ketch hand Chris Frizell was on both final trips.
He and skipper Arthur “Scug” Cutler – along with the rest of Nelcebee’s small crew – took the very final trip delivering fertiliser and bringing a load of gypsum back to Port Adelaide.
“The last trip, I remember, was pretty emotional because we knew it was the last time she was ever going to go anywhere,” Mr Frizell said.
“You know that a ship that old is never going to get bought by anyone else so we were a bit sad and old Scug, he had been on the ship a long time and he was pretty emotional about it.
“We just had to wait and see what would happen to her and luckily the (South Australian Maritime) Museum saved her.
“She’s a special ship to me because she started my sea career and the people I met and the experiences I had I still keep in my memory.”
Mr Frizell started on the Nelcebee in 1977 and he was the last person to ever sign off on the ketch.
Today, the licence plate on his car reads Nelcebee83.
He said the campaign to restore his beloved ship to its former glory was “epic”.
“Bring it on because it is not only about her, it is about the maritime history of the Port,” he said.
Ship’s history
1882 – Nelcebee was built by Thomas Seath at Rutherglen, Scotland at a cost of £7000 for Port Adelaide’s Captain Wilson.
1883 – The vessel was disassembled and shipped in parts to Port Adelaide, where Thomas Cruickshank built the boat at Cruickshank’s Corner.
1884 – Nelcebee was sent to Port Pirie as a tug boat.
1927 – The boat was sold for one shilling and refitted as a schooner with an auxiliary diesel engine which allowed it to carry larger cargoes. For the next 50 years, it would be used as a ketch along the SA coast.
1935 – Nelcebee was involved in a serious collision at Tumby Bay. The crew managed to run it ashore.
1965 – Nelcebee was purchased by R Fricker and Company to trade between Kangaroo Island and Port Adelaide.
1982 – The gypsum trade slowed and with much fanfare, Nelcebee was retired.
1985 – Nelcebee was donated to the SA Maritime Museum through the Federal Government’s cultural gifts tax incentive program.