THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN STEAMER

West Coast Times, Issue 11360, 4 August 1899, Page 4

THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN STEAMER

The statement that it is less than 70 years since the first steamer entered Sydney harbor is no doubt as true as gospel, but it nevertheless seems hardly credible that the huge steamshipping trade of Australia should be of such recent birth The story of the beginning of that trade is one* of the mosc interesting in the whole history of Australian development, and it is well told by Mr Walter Jeffery' a literary coadjutor of Louis Becke. The pioneer of the floating hotels and ware.

houses which link Australia with the Mother Land was an odd little craft called the Sophia Jane, which was built at Home some time in the thirties, and gai«ed much renown as oue of the first steamers running on the Thames. She was at first used aa a ferry boat between London and Gravesend, then she ran f rotn London to Calais, from Portsmouth to Plymouth, and from Liverpool to the lale of Man,- eventually being sent out to Sydney. She arrived there on May 14tb, 1831, after a voyage of all but 3 months, her route having, of course, been by way of the Cape of Good Hope, for it was long before the days of the Suez Canal. The Sophia Jane was not exactly an ocean greyhound. She was 126 ft long, with a beam of 20ft and a draught of 6ft loaded, and her burthen was 2b6 tons. Her lines were, therefore, rather tubby than graceful, and the utmost speed her 50 horsepower engines could drive her was eight miles an hour in smooth water. But she was staunchly built, and her 54 passengers no^ doubt thought her a marvel of mechanical aud engineering skill. After having achieved so long a voyige it waa rather a comedown for her to be put to tugging vessels out of Sydney harbor as soon as slih goi there, but her usefulness in this capacity was the admiration of all beholders. She battled about, up and down the coast for a number of years, until bad weather and worse navigation left her bones on a rocky shore. Before this happened, however, she had seen the steam trade firmly established. Enterprising colonists had turned out several small steamers. Three or four were built near Newcastle, and one of these, sold subsequently to the Chinese Government, had a long cireer on the Chinese coaat. From Home the Sophia Jane had been followed by the King William, and tee Clonmel, of 524 tons, which would have been the first steamer to visit the infant city of Melbourne, had she not been wrecked near Port? Phillip Heads, while trying to make the harbor. A year or two earlier the first iron steamer was built and launched in Sydney. The Rapid was little more than a harbor ferry boat, and her principal duty lay in running from Sydney up the Parrajnatta river to Parramatta. She waj followed by several others, the pioneer boats of the Australian Steam Navigation Company. It was not until 1852 that the P. and O. Company took the course which had often bttn urged upon them, and ventured into Australian waters. We described, some time ago, the voyage of the Chushn to Sydney with the first regular steamship mail. It was a great evant, but it was thrown in the shade before the year was out by the arrival in Australia of the largest steamer then afloat, the Great Britain, with 800 emigrants for the goldfields. She continued in the Austialiau trade for twenty two years until past hard work, and was then sent to the Falkland Islands, where she was condemned, and made to do duty as a hulk — a sad fall for a vessel whioh had once held so proud a position. But still she had begun life when steamers were very common objects. We like best to remember the Sophia Jane, ex- Thames ferry boat, panting and puffing through latitudes till then unknown to steam. That was, indeed, a ' voyage of adventure. —Press,,