Edwin Fox returns at last

Press, 5 December 1986, Page 3

Edwin Fox returns at last

Blenheim reporter Several hundred people lined the Picton foreshore yesterday morning to welcome back the historic Edwin Fox after an absence of 20 years. The famous East Indiaman, the sole remaining vessel of her kind in the world, made her journey under tow in little more than an hour from the comparative obscurity of Shakespeare Bay to pride of place in the launching ramp basin near the ferry terminal.

There the 133-year-old vessel will be the centre of activity and interest as the Edwin Fox Restoration Society launches into a project estimated to cost $4 million. The society no longer feels, however, that it is fighting a losing battle. Support for the work has already come from within New Zealand and overseas.

Help with ’ restoration has been promised by the West Australian Maritime Museum, Earthwatch, and the Historical Maritime Society of England.

For the last month the Edwin Fox has been floating clear of her restraining shingle bank in Shakespeare Bay as teams of volunteers, many of them students of the Cobham Outward Bound School at Anakiwa, worked to clear shingle ballast from the hold. The interior was

given a final clean this week, and she made the journey to Picton without taking in any water. The vessel displayed her own pennant identification letters from a makeshift mast as the Marlborough Harbourmaster, Captain Don Jamison, directed towing first from the bow and then from the stern. The final stern first entry into the basin was achieved with the assistance of small craft, including jet boats, and a pull from landbased machinery. The tow from Shakespeare Bay was given by the Marlborough Harbour

Board’s pilot boat Marlborough. The rudder on the Edwin Fox was used to assist with steering, as the rail ferry Arahura slackened speed to give way to sail. A lone piper contributed to the stirring welcome as the vessel passed in front of the Queen Charlotte Yacht Club.

Now that the Edwin Fox is safe in her new berth she will be held in place for a time with railway irons. The hull will then be flooded so that it settles evenly on the seabed, a move necessary to preserve the teak timber.