LAST OF THE FLEET

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 496, 19 July 1932, Page 5

LAST OF THE FLEET

■ 1(9..1 ,!j h. DEMOLITION OF MOLYNEUX iue\ ELECTRIC RELIC OF THE DREDGING DAYS Once again the winches on the Molyneux'Electric Dredge, last of the line that worked the Mclyneux and Kawar^,us Rivers, are working, but the clanking, is the death rattle of the old machine. At the “Graveyard,” the beach dock below the Alexandra bridge, a spot where motorists now camp on a site of great activity in the dredging boom ora, the Molyneux Electric is being dismantled. Securely moored fore and aft with lines to both banks, the dredge is ending her .days at the place of, her birth 24 years ago, a natural dock where nearly all the Molyneux dredges were constructed and demolished, says the Dunedin Star. In the heyday of dredging the Molyneux Electric was one of the fleet of 17 machines working on the river between Alexandra and Roxburgh, among her more famous companion dredges being the 1911, Manuherikia, Good Chance, Sailor’s Bend, and Island Basin. Of that fleet only 1911 remains on the river as a memorial of those busy times, and she lies bottom up near the falls, where she sank some years ago.

Three years ago the Molyueux Electric was tied up. During her 20 years of dredging she was a good money-earner, and throughout the latter period of idleness she has been kept in good condition. According to Mr. Ted McDonald, who was master of the dredge for many years, and who is now supervising the demoh tion, the plant is as good as it Was when placed on the dredge, which could depth to 50ft and carried buckets of five cubic feet capacity. The Molyueux Electric’s plant was purchased recently by Mr G. Williamson for a mere song, and the machinery and gear have been sold to the Gillespie Beach Company, on the West Coast. New pontoons are to be constructed on the coast. Since she went out of commission, the Molyueux Electric was moored about three and a-half miles below Alexandra. The warping of the dredge up river to “Graveyartf’’' was slow, and labpr.lbj^'ja^k,about throe weeks.' In irlficd.t?, • tUe‘ .river Itacl silted up so badly that'the dredge hftd to be dragged across the patches.. . '[