Images(7)

VICTORY about to float off its cradle on launching day

Victory

Vessel numberHV000759

Builder Melbourne Harbour Trust

Previous owner Melbourne Harbour Trust

Previous owner Port of Melbourne Authority

Date1936

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 17.07 m × 15.62 m × 4.88 m × 1.8 m, 38.62 tonnes (56 ft × 51.25 ft × 16 ft × 5.9 ft, 38 tons)

DescriptionVICTORY was built in Williamstown Victoria by the Melbourne Harbour Trusts tradesmen. Digby’s scantlings for the construction of VICTORY are substantial. The Iron Bark keel is 225mm Sq, the keelson 225 x 150, while the hull uses 50mm thick Huon Pine planks and the deck is 50mm thick Celery Top Pine. This has helped give VICTORY great longevity and it remains in excellent condition.

The explosive lighters were located on moorings at Williamstown. When explosives were required to be moved, one of the tugs would pick up a lighter from the mooring and tow this to the Truganina reserve at Altona. The explosives would be loaded from horse drawn carts to the lighters tied up alongside the pier. The lighters would then be towed out by the tugs to the waiting ships. The tugs were also used to transport workers from Williamstown for these operations. This continued until the Truganina reserve closed in May 1962. In 1940 VICTORY was dispatched to the schooner HENRIETTA in bad weather off Point Cook. The crew and the ships cat were rescued, however the schooner was smashed on the reef during the storm.

Following the closure of the reserve the tugs were used for general ports and harbour work. VICTORY and GOUDIE were used in Port Phillip Bay and Westernport Bay. AVON was transferred to Paynesville on Gippsland Lakes. In 1971 VICTORY was taken out of service and sent to Gippsland Port for a new deck, wheelhouse and funnel. The installation of a stiff leg derrick crane on the foredeck was also carried out for servicing channel buoys. Even though this was not a popular decision, it did secure the future of VICTORY until 1996.

After decades of public service through the Melbourne Harbour Trust and then the Port of Melbourne Authority, VICTORY was sold in to private ownership to Hamish Knox. It has been in the ownership of its current owner since 2008. The removal of the foredeck crane in 2011 was welcomed by many as a step towards returning VICTORY back to its original design.

Even though Victory was built for harbor operations in protected waters some of the voyages have been in open ocean. Regularly taking voyages from Melbourne to Westernport. Taking trips West to Apollo Bay and East to Lakes Entrance. In 2007 Victory sailed to Hobart for the Wooden Boat Festival.

SignificanceVICTORY is a wooden tug built in Victoria in 1938. It was built by the Melbourne Harbour Trust to a design by well known designer and boat builder Ernst Digby. It was one of three similar tugs built for the Trust to tow explosives barges to and from the Truganina Reserve at Altona. It is one of the few remaining tugs of its era and represents the many working craft, often with special roles or characteristic that were the working vessel infrastructure that supported operations and commerce on Port Phillip. It is also an important extant example of Ernest Digby’s small but high quality out put of designs, from yachts to working craft. It was in operation for four decades before being sold to a private owner.