Inverloch - Rocket Shed and Ketch Ripple
The site has a restored Rocket Shed and replica of the ketch Ripple.
Raise the Ripple Project
The Inverloch Clock Tower Committee was a fundraising group dedicated to produce a full size replica of the ketch Ripple on the Inverloch foreshore.
Funding was provided by State and Federal governments and Bass Coast Shire Council. The remaining funding required to complete and maintain the replica was raised through sponsors, donations, raffles and annual billy cart derby.
With the replica sitting on its concrete bed, it's well to know a few facts and the importance it played in the life and sustenance of Inverloch. Ripple was built at Brisbane Waters in New South Wales in 1872 by Benjamin Davis. The vessel was 17.5m long and 4.9m wide, with a draft of only 1.55m fully laden. This design suited negotiating the highly dangerous bar and shallows at the mouth of Andersons Inlet. The Ripple carried sail, but sometimes when journeying to Tarwin Lower along the river, she had to be hauled through reeds by teams of men pulling on long hawsers (large ropes or cables). In 1922 she was fitted with a 30 horsepower oil engine.
The Ripple maintained a regular service between Little Dock at Williamstovm and Inverloch, calling in at San Remo. She carried freight an passengers. The fare charged to passengers was 5 shillings overnight with meals supplied. Baggage and pets were carried free.
In the early years, Captain Anderson was the first master to Anderson Inlet and the Tarwin River. Captain Madsen was master between 1925 and 1929, which represented the final years serving the Gippsland area. Ripple became a 'River Tripper' on the Yarra River, corning to rest under Queensbridge, Melbourne in 1945.
History of the Ripple
Wooden Ketch, 29 Tons Gross 27 Tons Net, Registration Number 64379.
Dimensions: 17.5m (57'5") long, 4.9m (16'2") wide and a shallow draft only 1.55m (5'1") deep.
1872 - Built and owned by Benjamin Davis at Brisbane Waters (near East Gosford) in the Colony of N.S.W.
1872 - Purchased by Sydney grocer, Isaac Israel and C.F. Messell.
Masters of the ketch during the N.S.W. days included James Bogan, William Strachan, George Howard and James Beattie, all of who were Brisbane Waters identities.
First voyage to Fly River (New Guinea) with miners searching for gold.
Traded from Brisbane Waters to Sydney and Sydney to Tasmania.
1888 - Transferred to Melbourne Register.
1903 - J.B. Ellerker sold The Ripple to Mr. Singleton for Queensland and South Sea Island cruises.
Purchased from Captain Anderson of lnverloch, to search for a missing yacht in the Pacific Ocean.
1904 - The Ripple left Sydney en route to Thursday Island to search for three people from Mentone in Melbourne, who were lost on the schooner Eagle.
1906 - The Ripple was employed to lay the San Remo to Newhaven telephone cable.
1907 - The hull was repaired.
1911 - Master Alfred Johannenson of Inverloch was lost overboard five miles down Port Phillip Bay.
1913 - Owned by Captain Anderson, The Master was N.P. Madsen.
1916 - Robert Allford of Sunshine, Victoria, was lost overboard four miles outside Port Phillip Heads.
1922 - Sold to Neil Madsen. At that time a 30hp oil engine was fitted. He owned the Ripple from 1922 to 1923 and again between 1929 and 1930.
1930 - The Ripple maintained a service of freight and passengers between Little Dock, Williamstown, and Inverloch via Western Port Bay. Fare was 5 shillings overnight with meals supplied. Baggage and pets carried free of charge. This service ended after a period of 40 years.
1930 - Was owned and skippered by Captain McTaggart. The top masts were removed and the Ripple entered the bay shell-grit trade from Clifton Springs, Geelong to Melbourne.
1932 - Becomes stranded off Portarlington while loading shell-grit, a product used for the trotting tracks in Melbourne.
1945 - Became a Yarra River 'River Tripper'. Before sinking under Queensbridge, Melbourne.
The Ripple, Ripple 1 and Ripple 2 stories
There have been three Ripple boats built which can be confusing.
What you see before you is a replica of original ketch Ripple, which plied between Melbourne and Inverloch from the late 1800s to 1929, bringing essential supplies. The ketch Ripple was a lifeline for the town simply because roads were appalling and the rail only went to Wonthaggi.
Ripple 1 was built in 1949 by the father-son combination, Bill and Bob Young, as a vessel to go commercial fishing, especially crayfish. It was built in their backyard shed in Abbott Street, Inverloch. The shed where it was built is still there today.
In 1959, the Youngs decided to build a bigger boat, calling it Ripple 2. Again it was built inside the shed on their Abbott Street property. Clearly they had a great love of the name Ripple. Getting the completed boat from the shed ta the water proved very difficult. It was moved very slowly by a grader, blocking Ramsey Boulevard to the annoyance of some and delight of others. Ripple 2 no longer exists, but Ripple 1 apparently still survives in poor condition in the Derwent River in Hobart, unfit for further sea voyages.
The original Ripple sunk in the Yarra River near Queensbridge, Melbourne, in the early 1940s.
The Inverloch Rocket Shed
The Rocket Shed, which is one or only three remaining in Victoria, is over 115 years old. In the early 1900s, the Rocket Shed housed equipment used to rescue crews in trouble from distressed ships along the lnverloch coastline. Rockets, with lines attached, were fired to the ship, where a Breeches Buoy was pulled aboard and used to rescue crew members. In 2009, the Society received a grant from the Commonwealth Government to restore the Inverloch Rocket Shed. The shed is now restored to Heritage standards.
The Inverloch Rocket Shed and equipment was in use from 1900, and was located close to where the building now sits. The structure was restored a few years ago, and the only serious repairs were to the floorboards and their supports.
The Inverloch Rocket Brigade volunteers of around 8 to10 men had two major practices per year and were paid five shillings, for their time and efforts. Volunteers came from as far as Pound Creek, and were led by the local policeman. Officially the Inverloch Brigade was only called upon once, and that was disastrous for when the rope was fired to the distressed vessel, it caught the leg of a volunteer, and pulled him into the sea. Remarkably, he was rescued by the very people he was supposed to be rescuing. In the end apparently all went well for the cargo vessel, S.S. Manawatu. The actual Rocket and Launcher along with the whip line in its boxes and hawsers, and other equipment sat on a small four wheel wagon, which was manually hauled to the distress site.
The 'Boxer' Rocket and Launcher
(named after its inventor, Colonel Boxer)
Around the Victorian coast rocket sheds are preserved at Portland, Port Fairy, Queenscliff, Port Albert and Inverloch. Portland and Port Fairy sheds are built of bluestone, whilst Inverloch's is more a humble wooden structure, built of quality cedar and best quality English corrugated iron (the English manufacturer's stamps are still evident inside).
The 'Boxer' Rocket and Launcher was a creditable Victorian-age attempt to save the lives of those seamen who were within several hundred metres of the shore on a stricken vessel, foundering so close to the shore-line. We may marvel and yet be startled, for it is quite clear that transfers were limited. Only ONE PERSON AT A TIME could be saved by this method. The rescue could change dramatically if the situation changed on the vessel. It was a slow and dangerous task, yet it was a serious and well-intentioned attempt to save lives in a coastal location prone to a shipwreck.
A The 'Boxer' Rocket rested on a tripod mount and had a two stage gunpowder charged rocket head. Once the first rocket charge had expended its force, a second charge was ignited and this gave the rocket extra distance, a range of 470 to 500 meters. Its 10 second fuse was ignited by a port-fire.
First a line of about 2.5 centimetres then a series of stronger lines were sent to the wreck. The line is wound in The Rocket Line Box. The Breeches Buoy was held to the block running on a hawser and pulled to and fro from wreck by the whip line. This action of winding the line 'faked' around pegs in a false bottom box from one end of the box to the other. The false bottom with the pegs was then withdrawn and the box and placed at 30 degrees to the line of fire. The line was then free to flow without any hindrance to the flight of the rocket to the intended target. When the line arrived at the target, a whip line and hawser was sent to the target with a 'Tally Board' attached with instructions in four languages - English, French, Norwegian and German, explaining how to attach lines to the mast etc. using a Breeches Buoy to transport one person at a time. It's a cork lifebuoy with a pair of breeches of tanned canvas though which the legs were placed. Suspended from a hawser by a travelling block, the Breeches Buoy, was pulled from ship to shore, and reverse by an endless whip line.
At Little Dock
On weekdays, the Little Dock was always a hive of industry. It was an open wharf and it was quite a sight to see all the drays backed up to the wharf.
The old horses, with their feed bags over their heads, munched away whilst the drivers, dressed in flannels and long trousers, worked like demons, lumping bags of cereal as well as just about every other type of merchandise imaginable on their backs. They loaded and unloaded their drays to the rattle of winches and tackle. There were no cranes and no forklifts then, nor were there too many tea breaks.
Perhaps with a heavy attack of nostalgia, you may even imagine that you can smell smoke from the dozens of fusty little steam engines shunting to and fro over the viaduct, adding their own pollution to that of several steamers nearby, which were flashing up in readiness for sea.
Little piles of chaff and horse manure could be seen wherever the wind saw fit to leave them, and the gutters were continually aflow where the old horses pumped ship whilst awaiting the drivers commands.
At the commencement of the 1930s, there was a number of small sail trading vessels operating in Port Phillip Bay. These were the shell-grit carriers, the ketches Ripple, Helen Moore, Speedwell, Tangalooma and the schooner Woolamai. There was also a 20 tonne converted fishing boat, officially known by its registration number only, but affectionately called 'Paddy' by its owner.
These ships were decrepit old warriors with patched sails and stained decks, owned and worked on in the meanest fashion. The last of a proud fleet of small sailors that once crossed the bay in great numbers.
Little Dock
The little ships of Little Dock have ridden down the tides.
The timbers meet the measured knock where one lone dinghy rides.
The little ships of Little Dock are on their southward way.
The Helen Moore of Inverloch has spoken Leeta May.
Round Tortoise Head the seagulls flock the Ripple passes Rhyll.
I've watched her bound for Little Dock with chicory for the mill.
A coal barge lies above the dock the Sphene idle waits.
The sirens of the foundries mock the hotting interstates.
Down river lies a Finnish barque tall masts and snowy sails.
I think of pinewoods tall and dark and mystic Nordic tales.
The ship comes from fishing grounds they come with island mails.
With rattling anchor chains and sounds of breezes through their sails.
They've built a bridge at Little Dock where ships went stealing past.
And stones and mortar now will block proud hulls and swinging masts.
The girdered hands of commerce lock (in gauntlets of cement).
with industry by Little Dock where floated Good Intent.
When trains stop in a traffic block upon the viaduct.
Will travellers see a phantom dock between tall buildings tucked.
The Ripple last from Little Dock has ridden down the tides.
The sun drenched timbers meet the knock where one lone dinghy lies.
Author unknown
Photos:
Location
22 The Esplanade, Inverloch 3996 Map
