PS James Watt [Australia]

[Roderick Smith]

About 5 years ago, I wrote a five-section article on ferries of Tasmania for what was then Australian Ferry Society Newsletter (now Ferries Australia).

From it:
First Bass Strait steamers: In 1842, regular steam services between Launceston, Melbourne and Sydney commenced with Benjamin Boyd's wooden paddlesteamer Seahorse, replaced in 1843 by Hunter River Steam Navigation Company's iron paddlesteamer Shamrock. Both were under 50 m in length. In 1851, the first full-time Bass Strait steam-ferry service commenced, with the wooden screw steamer City of Melbourne. With the onset of the gold rush later in the year, large numbers of steamers arrived from UK, many taking up running across Bass Strait.

I was in Devonport on Thursday for the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Bass Strait roro shipping.  Half of the event was at the excellent maritime museum.  www.dmhs.org.au/gal/index.html.  I found a panel on a boat which I had not discovered in the earlier research: PS James Watt.  I didn't write a copy of the notes, and the photo is too blurred to read.

From http://books.google.com/books?id=v279uRHojcMC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=paddlesteamer+James+Watt&source=bl&ots=dk-Ay4FAzs&sig=ozgetUiQ3peXhkwK1mqCYLN4yGY&hl=en&ei=Pz-9SuTHGNKGkQX88MhW&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=paddlesteamer%20James%20Watt&f=false
In 1837 PS James Watt voyaged Sydney - Launceston - Melbourne - Launceston - Sydney, and Sydney - Launceston - Sydney.
In 1838 it made another Sydney - Launceston - Sydney.
This had been the first steamer to enter Port Phillip (serving Melbourne).
This is quoting Peter Plowman, Ferry to Tasmania.  I may well own a copy, I have been buying all of his books.
The panel at Devonport mentions that James Watt was very slow.  On one voyage, it was beaten by 3 days by a schooner.

Plowman goes on to mention PS Clonmel (1840), PS Corsair (1840), PS Seahorse (1841).

Another reference is:
http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010445b.htm
GROSE, JOSEPH HICKEY (1788?-1849), merchant and steamship owner...In 1830, hearing of the success of steam-propelled vessels overseas, he commissioned two Scottish shipwrights, William Lowe and Marshall, to build a paddle-steamer for the Sydney-Hunter River trade. The ship, William the Fourth (the 'Billy'), was launched at the Deptford yards, Clarence Town, on Williams River, on 22.10.1831, the first coastal steamer wholly built in Australia. Afterwards he bought the 153-ton paddle-steamer Sophia Jane, imported from England in May 1831, and held the main share of the Hunter River steamer trade for many years, his vessels travelling between his wharf and store at Morpeth and his wharf in Sydney...enlarge his fleet by importing the 141-ton paddle-steamer James Watt from England in 1837, and the fast steamer King William the Fourth in 1838....wrecked a few months later he salvaged her engines and built the 119-ton paddle-steamer Sovereign in 1841...

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor