Sydney ferry Kanangra, 100 years afloat [ with unique Crossley reversing set-up]
As written by Graeme Andrews, OAM, honorary life member of the Sydney Heritage Fleet.AFLOAT magazine no 274.
"August 12, 2012, marked the 100th anniversary of Kanangra, the last survivor afloat of a design that became the ' traditional' [ iconic? ]Sydney ferry. As the Star ferries of Hong Kong were and are symbolic of the Hong Kong - Kowloon run so too were the double ended green & cream Sydney ferries. Today's inner harbour fleet consists of many , roughly similar, medium speed catamarans. They are not & cannot be considered to be Sydney's ' traditional ferries'. In April 2012 Sydney ferries have only two ferries of the traditional double ended type in use, and as they are both 40 years old, they are unlikely to be working as long as Kanangra did.
As explained in AFLOAT, March 2010, the Sydney Heritage Fleets crew of volunteers was working towards taking the big ferry out of the water so the steel hull could be replated. That's still on the agenda, but it can't happen before the steam Pilot Boat, John Oxley's hull replating has been completed. In the meantime, the volunteers work at replacing & renewing above water structures, the while keeping a very careful eye on that part which is below the surface of Rozelle Bay, Sydney.
Between 1912 & 1959, Kanangra was powered by a triple expansion steam engine. From 1959 to 1987, the ferry ran much more economically with a Crossely eight cylinder diesel engine. For the final 25 odd years she was the 'heavy lift ' ferry for the inner harbour services run by the government of NSW. There were many advantages in changing kanangra from a steam ship into a motor vessel. The reduction in crew size was important. Considered too was the speed with which the ferry could be ' fired up ' from cold to working. Firing a boiler takes many hours to get to working pressure.
There was one major drawback when the diesel was compared to to the steam engine & that was the steam engines ability to go from Ahead to Astern at the engineers direction, without the machinery actually being stopped. The marine diesel engines of the 1950's used in ferries had no gearbox, because they were too powerful for the available gearbox technology. So, the Crossley system used a high pressure air bottle which was used to start & re-start the engine.
The vessel would be heading towards a wharf - the dead ends of Mosman & Circular Quey are good examples. In the wheelhouse the Master was provided with a steering wheel which operated the hydraulic steering engine. A copper & steel voice pipe led from his position to that of the Engineer down in the engine room.The Masters engine telegraph was a brass pdestal which had various engine actions shown on the top. A handle on the side moved a pointer to whatever action the Skipper wanted.The engine room telegraph would ring its bell & show, via a pointer, what the Skipper wanted to happen. There was a built in delay in the system. It was OK if both ends understood what was expected.
The Master would ring on 'STOP ' & the engineer would stop the engine - dead stick - until it was time to go astern.The Master would ring on ASTERN [ while mentally crossing his fingers !] . The Engineer would move the appropriate lever, open the air start valve and the engine would kick into life in the reverse direction. This happened nearly all the time. When it didn't, the ferry would smash into stone walls or wooden buffers and get its photo in the evening papers
The system generally worked well when the ferry had the right of way to any wharf & could just glide in.If the approach was baulked in any way things became tricky.This is best illustrated in The Sound, heading for the Spit Bridge on an afternoon cruise, particularly of a weekend or on a public holiday in fine boating weather. The air bottle was designed to have an air capacity equal to perhaps half a dozen starts.When it was partly discharged, it was recharged by the air compressor which was the only audible piece of machinery at certain times when nearing a wharf. The most nerve wracking time in Kanangra, when the status of the air bottle was of concern, was when approaching the Spit Bridge on the outward leg of the afternoon cruise . It was vital to near the bridge with the minimum of expected waiting time or it would be necessary to stop the engine.
A stopped engine meant no control, no control meant that whatever breeze was about would set the big ferry one way or the other as she waited for the green light.When surrounded by small craft there was another worry should it be necessary to fire the engine.The moment it fired, the propellor turned, & the ferry moved. Sometimes the crews of small yachts would would hold on to the ferry, hoping not to have to keep sailing around, and that big propellor was dangerously close!. There was not enough air to keep starting & stopping the engineso as to manoeuvre the ferry, and if you did start up, you risked damage & injury to the ' riders ' . "
Talk about driving by the seat of your pants, Bob
I’m pretty sure the dinosaurs died out when they stopped gathering food and started having meetings to discuss gathering food
A bookshop is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking
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Originally Posted by UncleHo
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