Tasmanian Steamers Proprietary Limited [1] was a company that operated passenger ferries across the Bass Strait from 1921 to 1959. It was jointly owned by the Union Steam Ship Company and Huddart Parker. [2]
Tasmanian Steamers Proprietary Limited [1] was a company that operated passenger ferries across the Bass Strait from 1921 to 1959. It was jointly owned by the Union Steam Ship Company and Huddart Parker. [2]
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2016) |
The company was established on 22 December 1921. Their ships experienced many difficulties over the next nearly four decades of operations; Amidst the ongoing Second World War, some of its ships were encountering intermittent attacks whilst at sea, having already witnessed the First World War. During the latter, one of its ships, Taroona, was an Australian troopship, and also serving in the same capacity with New Zealand for a brief time.
The company ceased passenger operations in 1959 after the Australian National Line purchased its assets.
Streets in the Burnie suburbs of Shorewell Park and Malonga Park are named after the fleet.
P&O was a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World currently operates several P&O branded businesses, P&O Ferries, Istithmar P&O Estates, and P&O Maritime Logistics. It also operates P&O Heritage, which is the official historic archive and collection of P&O.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830.
Huddart Parker Ltd was an Australian shipping company trading in various forms between 1876 and 1961. It was one of the seven major coastal shippers in Australia at a time when shipping was the principal means of interstate and trans-Tasman transport. The company started in Geelong, but in 1890 shifted its offices to Melbourne. By 1910 Huddart Parker had grown to rank 24th of the top 100 companies in Australia by asset value. Several of the company's ships served in World War I and World War II. Huddart Parker ceased to be an independent company in 1961, when it was taken over by Bitumen and Oil Refineries Australia Limited.
SS Zealandia, nicknamed "Z", was an Australian cargo and passenger steamship. She served as a troopship in both World War I and World War II. Zealandia transported the Australian 8th Division. Her crew were the last Allied personnel to see HMAS Sydney, which was lost with all hands in 1941. Zealandia was sunk in the air raids on Darwin of 19 February 1942.
SS Loongana was a Bass Strait passenger ship initially owned by Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. In 1922 she was transferred to Tasmanian Steamers Pty Ltd. SS Loongana was in service between 1904-1934 and was the first ship registered in the Southern Hemisphere with steam turbine propulsion. During the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster she crossed the strait in 12 hours and 46 minutes at 22 knots, carrying rescue gear from Victorian mines.
Australian National Line (ANL) was a coastal shipping line established by the Government of Australia in 1956. It was sold in 1998 by the Howard government to CMA CGM.
SS Taroona was built in Linthouse, Glasgow by Alexander Stephen & Sons for Tasmanian Steamers, Australia. She was a steam turbine ship capable of 18 knots, but typically operated at 16 knots for better fuel economy.
Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer. It was incorporated by James Mills in Dunedin in 1875 with the backing of a Scottish shipbuilder, Peter Denny. Bought by shipping giant P&O around the time of World War I it was sold in 1972 to an Australasian consortium and closed at the end of the twentieth century.
HMS Nairana was a passenger ferry that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy (RN) as a seaplane carrier in 1917. She was laid down in Scotland in 1914 as TSS Nairana for the Australian shipping line Huddart Parker, but construction was suspended after the outbreak of the First World War. Following resumption of work, the ship was launched in 1915, and converted to operate wheeled aircraft from her forward flying-off deck, as well as floatplanes that were lowered into the water. She saw service during the war with the Grand Fleet, and in 1918–19 supported the British intervention in the Russian Civil War.
Asbury Park was a high-speed coastal steamer built in Philadelphia, and intended to transport well-to-do persons from New York to summer homes on the New Jersey shore. This vessel was sold to West Coast interests in 1918, and later converted to an automobile ferry, serving on various routes San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and British Columbia. This vessel was known by a number of other names, including City of Sacramento, Kahloke, Langdale Queen, and Lady Grace.
Bass Strait Ferries have been the ships that have been used for regular transport across Bass Strait between Tasmania and Victoria in mainland Australia, as well as the various attempts to link Tasmania with Sydney. Historically, some regular shipping services in the twentieth century linked Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart with the Bass Strait ports: Launceston's various port locations, Devonport and Burnie. The distinction between coastal shipping and Bass Strait ferry has been blurred at times.
HMAS Coogee was a passenger ferry that briefly served as a Royal Australian Navy armed patrol vessel and minesweeper in the latter part of the First World War. She was launched in 1887 and scuttled in 1928.
Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company Limited was an Australian steaming company, formed in Hobart in 1853 and defunct in 1922 after a series of acquisitions. It operated a shipping service from Tasmania to the Australian Mainland, later expanded to New Zealand.
Associated Humber Lines (AHL) was created in 1935 to manage the services of various railway controlled shipping lines including port activities in the Humber area of the United Kingdom. The ownership of the respective vessels did not transfer to A.H.L and similarly the ports concerned, Hull, Goole and Grimsby, also remained under the control of the railway companies and their successors.
Sydney Ferries Limited operated ferry services on Sydney Harbour from 1900 until June 1951.
Karrabee was a ferry operated by Sydney Ferries Limited and its NSW State Government operated successors on Sydney Harbour from 1913 until 1984. A wooden ferry built at the time of Sydney Ferries' rapid early twentieth century, she and near "sister", Karingal, were the smallest of the fleet of round-end "K-class ferries".
Kulgoa was a "K-class" ferry on Sydney Harbour. Launched in 1905, the timber-hulled steamer was built for Sydney Ferries Limited during the boom in cross-harbour ferry travel prior to the 1932 opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Kulgoa was Sydney's largest ever wooden ferry. She was a typical early example of the "K-class"; a group of double-deck, double-ended, steam-powered screw ferries. Kulgoa was one of the first Sydney ferries built with the sides of her promenade (upper) deck enclosed, although the ends near the wheelhouses remained open.
Kareela was a "K-class" ferry on Sydney Harbour. Launched in 1905, the double-ended timber-hulled steamer was built for Sydney Ferries Limited in response to the early twentieth century boom in cross-harbour ferry travel prior to the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. She was the first of Sydney Ferries Limited's boats to have a fully enclosed upper deck.
Kosciusko was a "K-class" ferry on Sydney Harbour. Launched in 1911, the timber-hulled steamer was built for Sydney Ferries Limited during the boom in cross-harbour ferry travel prior to the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Sydney Harbour ferry services date back to the first years of Sydney's European settlement. Slow and sporadic boats ran along the Parramatta River from Sydney to Parramatta and served the agricultural settlements in between. By the mid-1830s, speculative ventures established regular services. From the late-nineteenth century the North Shore developed rapidly. A rail connection to Milsons Point took alighting ferry passengers up the North Shore line to Hornsby, New South Wales via North Sydney. Without a bridge connection, increasingly large fleets of steamers serviced the cross harbour routes and in the early twentieth century, Sydney Ferries Limited was the largest ferry operator in the world.
Media related to Ships of Tasmanian Steamers at Wikimedia Commons