The South Steyne in Sydney

Category

Library Item

Item no

36336

Title

Page from Leith Miscellany, volume IV, The South Steyne in Sydney

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1990

Type

Promotional material

Crossing the bay before the Sydney Opera House is the South Steyne, passenger ferry steamer, built by Henry Robb, Leith for the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company. She was launched by Mrs Henry Robb on the 1st of April 1938, and sailed on the 9th of July 1938.

The biggest Manly ferry was the 1938 South Steyne. Built by Henry Robb & Co of Leith in Scotland, she could burn oil or coal and is still afloat, in the hands of a volunteer preservation group.

By the early 1970s the Manly ferry service was in trouble. Ferries were old, maintenance was reduced and plans for new ferries remained unfulfilled.

Brambles Holdings took over the ferries in 1971, promising action on the Manly ferry scene, but it was soon obvious the new owners had no interest in ferries as the service was allowed to run down dramatically with Bellubera retired in 1973 and Baragoola threatened in 1974. South Steyne's sea-going certificate was cancelled in 1973 because of lack of maintenance, finishing more than 100 years of ocean cruises available to Sydneysiders. (Graeme Andrews, 'A Pictorial History of Ferries - Sydney & Surrounding Waterways', Reed 1982, 24.)

South Steyne carried 1800 passengers. (ibid. 26.)

South Steyne just made it to Australia before the clouds of the Second World War gathered. It is strange that she was not taken over for the war effort, and I'm sure her owners and probably the New South Wales government must have made strenuous representations to keep her in service.

On 9th September 1938 the steam ferry South Steyne arrived in Sydney 62 days out from Scotland. South Steyne was built by Henry Robb of Leith and was commanded by Captain Beedie on her delivery voyage. She was launched on 1st April 1938 and was in service in Sydney on 24th October that year. South Steyne's voyage out was adventurous with warships of the Allied and Axis powers very suspicious of the odd-looking, boarded-up vessel moving through the Mediterranean Sea. The biggest-ever Manly ferry, South Steyne had a relatively incident-free working life, with a few wharf collisions, a collision with the moored carrier HMAS Melbourne in September 1970 and a minor fire in August 1974. This fire was the excuse to dispose of the ship which was the last vessel taking Sydneysiders on offshore cruises.

South Steyne's four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine was rated at 3800 indicated horsepower (2.834 megawatts) and using steam supplied by four single-ended boilers at 1380 kPa (200 psi) these engines could push the big ferry at up to 17 knots. The greatly increased cost of furnace fuel oil (FFO) which South Steyne burnt pushed her running costs to very great levels in the early 1970s. She cost about four times as much a day to run as a diesel ferry. (Graeme Andrews, A Pictorial History of Ferries, Reed NSW, 1982, 49f.)

1974 South Steyne Preservation Society formed to refit ferry.

1977 South Steyne bought for second preservation group. (ibid. 114f.)

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Landscape > Land > Bays

Landscape > Water > Seas

Places > Edinburgh areas > Leith

Places > Oceania > Australia

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Culture > Concert halls

Transport > Water > Steamships