Paddleducks
Old Yahoo Group => Yahoo Messages => Topic started by: Dennis Kerr on June 14, 2005, 06:16:35 PM
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Hi All,
At last i have found the people. You are right,there is nothing
better than steaming up a river in the morning mist with the paddles
pounding with each bend a new scene.
Well about my command, She was the P.S.PYAP built in 1906 as a
floating store,she would pull in to the isolated properties along the
Murray River and blow the whistle and the people would come down and
purchase their needs. She was powered by steam with rope drives to
the shaft but now has a Grey Marine diesel through a tank gearbox and
chains to the shaft. The floats were 5' x 1' x 1 1/2" river redgum
amd were fixed. After this career she was laid up ,with the coming of
railways and motor transport the paddleboats were redundant.
In their heyday the paddleboats roamed over 6,000 miles of waterways
in the Murray-Darling basin and there were over 300 boats.
Nowadays the boats are mainly converted to passenger carriers on
short cruises this was the case with the PYAP. If you go to Google
search engine and search "PYAP" and "Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement"
you will turn up some pictures. Also look at the port of Echuca for
more pictures.
I see that one of the members is from Echuca and look forward to
talking with him, (fond memories of the Echuca Club)
The little boat I owned was the "Emma" and she was powered by a
morris 1100 petrol engine. I cut her in half and added another 8 foot
and installed keel cooling to overcome heating problems.
I renamed her "Gemma" in recognisition of the "Gem" a 98 foot paddle
steamer that was lengthened to 130 foot.
When I transferred to Queensland I took Gemma with me on a truck,
whilst there I was tranferred to the Pacific islands so Gemma was
bought by Bruce Gow in Echuca and back on the truck and down to
Victoria,a well travelled paddleboat (by road).
At present I am heading up a project to restore an 80 foot ex second
world war hospital launch for charity work,another story. I live on a
36 foot bay cruiser but next year plan to build a 40' paddleboat.
looking forward to hearing from y'all.