SS John Oxley before restoration |
|
| Career (Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS John Oxley |
| Owner: | Sydney Heritage Fleet |
| Port of registry: | ; |
| Builder: | Bow, McLachlan & Co,[1] Paisley, Scotland |
| Yard number: | 464[1] |
| Launched: | 20 July 1927[1] |
| Commissioned: | 1927[1] |
| Decommissioned: | 1968[1] |
| Homeport: | Sydney |
| Status: | under restoration |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Pilot boat[1] |
| Tonnage: | 544 GRT[1] |
| Displacement: | 760 DWT[1] |
| Tons burthen: | 212 NRT[1] |
| Length: | 168 ft (51 m)[1] |
| Beam: | 32 ft (9.8 m)[1] |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m)[1] |
| Installed power: | 1,400 IHP[2] |
| Propulsion: | triple expansion steam engine[1] supplied by two Scotch boilers[2] |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h)[2] |
| Capacity: | 14 pilots[2] |
| Complement: | 15 crew[2] |
| Armament: | One Oerlikon 20 mm cannon[2] |
SS John Oxley is a former pilot boat and lighthouse and buoy tender[2] in Australia. She belongs to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum Ltd. and is currently undergoing restoration at Rozelle Bay, Sydney. John Oxley is the last surviving inshore steamer in Australia and is significant in maritime history as one of the few surviving inshore steamships. She also the largest steam-powered vessel in Australia by displacement, although the former Manly Ferry South Steyne has larger dimensions.
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Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland built John Oxley in 1927.[1] She was delivered to the Government of Queensland Harbours and Marine Department, whom she served as a pilot boat in Moreton Bay[1] and buoy tender and lighthouse tender along the Queensland coast.[2]
In the Second World War John Oxley was requisitioned for the Royal Australian Navy and a 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun was mounted on the stern. She was returned to her former duties in 1946, and converted from coal to oil fuel that same year. John Oxley continued to serve as a pilot tender, lighthouse and buoy tender until 1968 when she was decommissioned. In her later years she had become increasingly decrepit, such that in 1964 the Seamen's Union of Australia's journal called her a "rust heap" with "the worst living conditions of any ship on the entire Australian coast".[3]
John Oxley was given to the Lady Hopetoun and Port Jackson Marine Steam Museum Ltd (now the Sydney Heritage Fleet) in 1970.[2] She saw very little use until 1997, when restoration on another ship, the James Craig, was completed. Until then John Oxley's hull had gradually deteriorated, so she was badly in need of repairs. Because another ship of the Heritage Fleet was currently under restoration, John Oxley was only drydocked for immediate and necessary repairs until 2004, when she was moved to Sydney and drydocked.
John Oxley is being restored in the drydock of the Sydney Heritage Fleet.[4] The ship, during the eighty years on the water, had incurred substantial corrosion and rust. Many components, including a number of plates of the ship's riveted hull, have required complete replication from original plans.[4]
The decks and some of the superstructure, including the captain's cabin and wheelhouse, are built of teak. The ship above the waterline and her superstructure have remained in reasonably good condition.
The John Oxley is a ship of considerable historical significance in maritime heritage preservation, as save for the change of fuel from coal to oil, she remains essentially in the condition as when she was first launched. The ship's lines are very conventional and typical of the ship designs of her era. In 2010 a volunteer at the Heritage Fleet wrote a book about its history and the restoration so far, called S.S. John Oxley Restoration Underway, available via www.blurb.com.