AN HISTORIC tallship that cost Tasmanians hundreds of thousands of community-raised dollars to restore, and more in Federal Government funding, is rotting and rusting in a North Queensland river.
The schooner Defender, built in 1896, was the pride of northern Tasmania in the lead-up to the 1988 Bi-Centenary Tallships Race.
In truly competitive parochial style, community support in Launceston trumped a Hobart business consortium when a decrepit Defender was restored in time to join the cream of the world’s old sailing ships racing from Sydney to Hobart, while the much-vaunted southern-based Lady Nelson was uncompleted.
It also participated in the 1988 Bi-Centenary re-enactment of the sailing of the First Fleet into Sydney Harbour.
A public appeal raised about $250,000 and, along with federal Bi-Centennial funding, the 115-foot Defender was restored between 1982 and 1988. It was classified by the National Trust of Australia in 1986.
However, the former trading vessel that once serviced the early colonies of south-eastern Australia and spent its post-restoration years as a Whitsundays pleasure charter cruiser, has spent the past five years falling to pieces in Townsville’s Ross River after being deemed unseaworthy following an engine room fire.
Questions are now being asked on how such substantial investment of public and private sector money can be unaccounted for and let go to waste.
The Defender is owned by Launceston maritime identity Les Dick, a former chairman of the Tamar River Improvement Project Committee and responsible for one of the Tamar’s most renowned eyesores . . . the derelict 2600-tonne freighter Cotswold Prince.
The freighter was in such poor condition when it was brought from New Zealand by Mr Dick’s company LD Marine in 1992 that only a single-use licence was granted for its voyage.
Mr Dick claimed the Cotswold Prince was to be refitted but it ended up being moored in the Tamar River, between Launceston and its mouth at George Town, for more than a decade.
The listing, rusting freighter was shifted between East Arm, Inspection Head and Bell Bay as maritime authorities and river-users complained of its presence.
Mr Dick was involved in years of disputes over the freighter with local councils, port authorities and the Tasmanian Government and at one stage was set to lose ownership of the vessel to the State.
In 2003, he signed an agreement to let the Tasmanian Government take an option over the Cotswold Prince for just $10 plus outstanding mooring fees of about $28,000.
But Mr Dick claimed in February 2004 that the option had been signed under duress, that he was still the ship’s legal owner and that he had since found an overseas buyer.
After Supreme Court battles between Mr Dick and the State Government, the Cotswold Prince was eventually allowed to sail for a scrap yard in India.
Now, Mr Dick says he has an overseas buyer for the seemingly abandoned Defender, which Townsville’s maritime authority has already shifted from one place to another but the Papua New Guinea company that he says is interested in buying it refuses to comment.
It is not known if any money that may be received from the schooner’s sale would be repaid to the many individuals, companies and funding authorities that paid Mr Dick for its restoration.
Talk of the tallship’s possible sale to a Port Moresby-based company may come as a surprise to Townsville Harbour operators who believe plans were under way to make the Defender, which starts to sink each time the bilge pumps fail, a land-based display.
In October 2007, a Port of Townsville report stated the damaged Defender was to be repaired, given “a complete refit” and returned to Whitsundays charter service the following month.
Just like Mr Dick’s Cotswold Prince, the Defender did not get its promised refit but instead remained derelict.
The Defender’s history is one of great pride. Built in NSW in 1896, it was first registered in Launceston and earned a reputation for its speed, entering the history books in November 1923 by making a record-breaking crossing of Bass Strait in less than 24 hours.
The Australian Navy used the Defender during World War II to transport troops and supplies but after the war it returned to Tasmania and fell into ruin.
After a second breath of life, the historic vessel is again falling to ruin, this time amid a cloud of questions over its funding, its operation and its future.
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Comments (20)
The wooden sailing ships that were the transport infrastructure of Tasmania into the 20th century are as important to me as Runnymede or Clarendon are to the National Trust. They have that wonderful blend of form and function that gives them timeless beauty. It would break my heart if Defender suffered the same fate as the Belle Brandon down in Franklin; too expensive and time consuming for a private owner to maintain, waiting for a white knight that never comes to save her, sinking at anchor when the solar plant running the bilge pump gets nicked or vandalised, broken up and gone forever. Ships are like houses. They have to be busy, occupied, used, cleaned, painted, and loved, or they disappear.
#1; Couldn’t agree more Ros. Problem with wooden boats is that they need constant attention. It used to be said that only the really rich or the really poor can afford a wooden boat. One because they have the money to pay for upkeep, the other because they have the time to do it themselves.
The obvious solution for a ship like this is to put her to work. Sail training, charters, etc. I doubt she would ever turn a profit but carefully managed the operation could be made cost neutral. For this she needs to be in public ownership, not private This is something that should have been addressed in 1982 and I wonder why it wasn’t?
Steve the ship was doing tours at Airlie Beach and in the Whitsundays for what sounds like quite a few years. So there should have been some money coming in. There is no exuse for allowing the decay to get this far. And if there was an engine fire…what happened to the insurance??? A Townsville port newsletter said it was being refitted back in Oct/Nov 2007…so what has happened since then????
#3; My point precisely Lisa. The engine room fire was undoubtedly covered by insurance but there’s generally no compulsion on a private owner to apply insurance payouts to the event they are intended to compensate for.
Why was a ship that was restored with public funds, allowed to remain in private ownership?
Brandt thanks for the article.
Can you enlighten us more in relation to:
“The Australian Navy used the Defender during World War II to transport troops and supplies ...”
Editor, please keep this important story alive. The ship’s past is fascinating and significant; it’s future perilously in balance. Publicity will provide it’s best chance of survival.
I would have thought, the point of article and the moral of the story is…...dont give money to anything Les Dick does.
Boat n. (especially wooden): finite hull shaped hole in water into which one pours an infinite amount of money. Antonym: Magic pudding.
Thank you Mr Stott for your interest in my article and your support of the Defender. The best I can do in answer to your query is to point you in the direction of probably the best library I’m aware of that specialises in Australia’s historic shipping and that is, rather oddly, at the Killer Whale Museum in Eden, NSW. I know it seems bizarre but this great little museum has a huge range of literature, in particular regarding merchant ships used in navy service in Australian waters. A specific book of interest would be The Sea War in Bass Strait by Jack Loney, plus other books in sections coded C, D, F and G of the library’s holdings. You can phone the library on (02) 6496 2094 or view its data base online at http://www.killerwhalemuseum.com.au/Documents/EKWMLibraryCatalogueNov2008.pdf I hope this is of some help to you. Sincere regards, Brandt.
Tonight’s ABC News had Mr Dick stating that the insurance re the fire had been complex, that he did not owe any outstanding debts and that he would not be leasing it out again for any tour operators. He reserved his right as owner to determine where it would go next. Over to you all interested posters. Please keep it alive.
#9: Thank you Brandt for the information.
It was my grandfather (Captain Walter Leggett)who set the 18 hour Bass Strait record in Defender.
I seem to recall that Les Dick spent a lot of his own money restoring this ketch. If it wasn’t for his input (and yes from many others as well) we wouldn’t have Defender any more.
She is a vessel worth saving again in my opinion.
It is obvious by the state of the vessel that so-called restoration was not done on a skilful basis in any way. Supposedly undergoing restoration just 12 years ago it is obvious that this butchered attempt has sealed Defenders fate and now placed future work way off the screen in regard to cost at this sad time. I was a shipwright that worked on the vessel in the late 1940’s when the ship was already very tired. A new replica would be far cheaper
Good to hear from you Geoff and to hear your views.
At what place did you do the work on Defender?
Did you get to meet Cpt. Leggett by any chance and any of the crew? Names?
Thank you Clive, Yes as an apprentice shipwright with Holyman’s in lower Charles street, our work there comprised mainly maintaining and repair to a number of island trading vessels that were working at that time. I did know a lot of the skippers by name only, but in those days a mere apprentice knew his place but Cpt.Leggett was a good friend of my boss (Bert Parkinson) with whom I finished my apprenticeship with as a boat builder all those years ago in the late 40s early 50s.
Excellent Geoff and thankyou.
Some things we never forget when we were an apprentice. Knowing our place was one of them!
You may have even worked on other vessels that Cpt. Leggett was master of or owned, eg, Westaway built by shipbuilders Wilsons of Cygnet (also related).
Re the Defender; can you recall what colour she was when you worked on her please? She was not always white.
I have seen her written up as being black but in a water colour painting by well known marine artist A. V. Gregory (1923) she is shown as being green, with red below.
My memory is a bit second hand these days but I believe she may have been dark blue or maybe I’m thinking of the ‘Leprina’ as the two were very similar but Defender being under charter to Holymans at the time she may have been white. My grandfather Edward Higgs built several ketches at his shipyard in Devonport in the late 1800/1900s, his yard was where the ferry terminal is today.
It seems that we can talk about this vessel’s sad state but if anything is to be done Les Dick would have to offer it up at no cost and then someone would have to survey the condition professionally. I suggest an expert from the Wooden Boat School would have the commercial knowledge to work out a quote for repairs. It would then be appropriate to raise funds from all sources to complete the work
I rember going to the launceston maritime cpllege in 91 and she was there ,,,fix her op and take her back there ,,, a good tourist vessel
Like most things two sides to every story .The article may be found to be a tad harsh on Mr Dick .Remember some insurance companies weasel out of any claim they have .
I have been on defender and almost cried when I saw these photos .I have a sense that once back in control of the Dicks he will again pour bucket loads of his money and effort to bring that ship back to what it was when i last saw it 1994
Iremember the Defender layed up at a wharf at East Devonport in the 1950s, where the Spirit now berths.At that time ,she was painted white.It would be a great shame to loose her as she is part of our history.Two days ago I had the pleasure of a short trip on the Julie Burgess,a similar vessel and history. A million dollars has seen the complete restoration of the vessel to its original beauty and is now a four million asset to the City Of Devonport in Tasmania