The Curl Curl and the Dee Why: Whatever happened to Manly’s identical twin ferries?

ABLE to accommodate 1574 passengers at a speed of 16 knots, the fast and elegant twins played a leading role in the Sydney ferry boom in the 1930 before meeting a dramatic ending.

Promotional postcard for the ferries Dee Why and Curl produced in 1932 by the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company

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IDENTICAL twins – once sleek, fast and stylish – lie rusting on the seabed off Sydney.

The twins – the Manly ferries Dee Why and Curl Curl – were both stripped to their bones and sent to the bottom of the sea off the coast of the city they had served so well.

The twins were born in 1928 in the shipyard of Napier and Miller in Old Kirkpatrick, Scotland, and steamed to their new home on the other side of the globe.

The Dee Why ferry was involved in three collisions with other vessels.

The Curl Curl and Dee Why were designed by naval architect E.H. Mitchell, Port Jackson and Manly Steam Ship Company manager Walter Dendy and the builders of the vessels, and were the largest ferries designed for the Manly run.

Before the twins, the seven previous additions to the Manly fleet had been built at Mort’s Dock at Balmain but local quotations for the twins’ construction were too high, so the company went overseas.

The double-ended steel hulls of the Curl Curl and Dee Why were 67m long and 11m wide, with steel superstructure to the promenade deck and timber above, and the ferries were powered by triple-expansion engines driving a single screw at each end.

Manly Steam Ship Company manager Walter Dendy.

Both vessels had difficult voyages to Australia, suffering storm damage and breakdowns, and were held up in Aden for seven weeks waiting out the Indian Ocean monsoon.

The Dee Why was also plagued by discontent among the crew and the finding of a stowaway.

The Curl Curl arrived in Sydney on October 25, 1928, and the Dee Why on ­November 1, both wearing the new colours of the Port Jackson company, Bristol green and white.

The Curl Curl and Dee Why went into service in December, 1928.

The twin sisters possessed a grace and elegance not previously seen on the harbour and were fast, well-appointed and reliable.

Able to accommodate 1574 passengers at a speed of 16 knots, the fast and elegant twins played a leading role in the ferry boom in the 1930s, boosted by the construction of the massive harbour pool at Manly in 1932 and the arrival of the glamorous South Steyne later in the decade.

But, like almost every Manly ferry, the twins had their share of dramas.

Promotional postcard for the ferries Dee Why and Curl produced in 1932 by the Port Jackson and Manly Steamship Company

The Dee Why at Circular Quay.

The Dee Why was involved in three collisions with other vessels and went aground in Obelisk Bay on Christmas night, 1946.

The Curl Curl was involved in four collisions with other boats and once went aground on Bradleys Head in a thick fog and was stuck fast for seven hours.

But the Curl Curl also had an unhealthy attraction for Manly Wharf, overshooting her berth on at least three occasions and damaging the wharf and the promenade of the harbour pool.

For 10 years, until the arrival of the South Steyne, the twins were undisputed queens of the harbour.

The ferry Dee Why on the seabed off Narrabeen

The Curl Curl served for 33 years and the Dee Why for 40 – slowly becoming shabbier and more uneconomical.

The Curl Curl was withdrawn from service in 1960.

The Dee Why remained in service until 1968.

After being stripped to her bare bones, the Curl Curl was towed out to sea and scuttled in 1969.

In 1976, the Dee Why was selected as the first of a series of vessels to be scuttled off Narrabeen to form an artificial reef.