Whenever I’m in Hobart, I always slip down to the waterfront and look over the beautiful ketch, the May Queen. I have no idea of the origin of her name but it forever reminds me of the pagan prayer when Beltane arrives each Spring and the May Queen arises from her Winter sleep: The bright colors of nature herself / blend together to honour you, / Queen of Spring, / as we give you honour this day.
That May Queen fights off the Queen of Winter, sending her scurrying away for half a year to allow the Earth to be once more abundant. It might be a bit fanciful, but I always think the old girl might appreciate the comparison.
Much of the life of the ketch (in Tasmanian waters, her type often referred to as a barge) was fairly mundane, carrying timber, shingles and other produce, including pears and apples, north from the Huon and Southport to Hobart for the city and for the building industry, returning with steel for the railway lines being built to the south, and with other essential supplies.
Her construction began at Franklin in 1865 from a scale model created by designer, Alexander Lawson. At 21 metres in length, with a beam of 5.3 metres, a draught of 1.5 metres fully laden, May Queen was launched on 5 June 1867. Her hull is constructed of Tasmanian Blue Gum and Stringybark, her deck golden Tasmanian Celery Top and her masts imported Oregon. She was designed with a retractable centreboard to allow her passage across river bars and into relatively shallow waters, although this with its housing was removed in later years for the sake of carrying greater load.
Despite the journey from, say, Southport to Hobart being only eight hours or so, it was not without some jeopardy. On one trip in Winter 1873, loaded with 25,000 super feet (50 tonnes) of sawn timber, May Queen, as with a number of other barges, was caught in a South-Westerly squall and had to run for cover. Before she was able to come round, a great gust stripped her of her mizzen sail and brought down rigging and the mizzentop, striking a seaman on the head. There was many another occasion in her 105 years’ service she suffered damage from the elements.
In August 1883, leaving Port Arthur with a full load of timber, she was struck by a westerly gale. On this occasion, she lost her mizzen mast at deck level, with it and the sails and rigging lost overboard. She sheltered overnight in Wedge Bay, jury-rigged as a cutter, and sailed into Hobart the next day. On another occasion, in 1888, heavily laden and caught in a savage squall, she sank adjacent to Huon Island, thankfully without loss of life. She was raised with little difficulty within a month and returned to service.
But enough of the workaday stuff. At times, the beautiful lady lifted her skirts and really kicked up her heels. She was a pretty handy sailer, winning her first trading ketch race at the Royal Hobart Regatta in 1868. In fact, over the next 86 years until the very last race of the type in 1954 (when she still came second, even at her great age), and despite not racing every year, she set a remarkable record of nine wins, eight seconds and two-thirds. It was effectively May Queen first, daylight second!
A couple of interesting bits of May Queen history:
In December 1895, sailing past Trefoil Island, near Cape Grim on Tasmania’s extreme North-West tip, James Parker on board saw what he thought to be a signal fire. She turned about to investigate, only to find six children of the Kay family stranded there. The children’s father, mother and two older siblings had drowned in a rowing boat six weeks earlier. The oldest child, Belinda, aged 13 years, tended to their needs while Albert, ten, slaughtered an occasional sheep, so they had fresh meat. May Queen effected their amazing rescue.
On Tuesday 16 August 1966, not long out of the port of Hobart and sailing south off Taroona in the Derwent, the old girl suffered a sudden jolt. Her stern was lifted high out of the water by a whale estimated to be greater than her own 21 metres in length. The whale surfaced alongside the vessel, and they eyed each other off briefly before each went their own way, neither evidently harmed by the coming together.
The May Queen, adventurer, hard worker, flighty old lady, was retired in 1974 and is now a permanent and greatly admired sight at Hobart’s Constitution Dock after many years’ loving reconstruction.
A brief, sad footnote: My wife and I had been on a week’s holiday in 1996. The morning I took the title photograph was Sunday 28 April, a delightfully mild, calm and peaceful Autumn day in Hobart. All that was about to change. As we drove home to Zeehan along the Lyell Highway, news reports came through on the car radio that two people had been shot at Port Arthur, then another report that Police believed as many as twelve might have been shot…
My photograph of May Queen is forever linked in memory to that dreadful time; I wish the peace and the tranquillity of the picture for all victims, both living and dead.
Vale…
Have you seen this magnificent ship? Do you remember what you were doing when the tragedy in Port Arthur occurred?
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