William the Fourth

The replica operated for 14 years running cruises on the Hunter River and Newcastle Harbour. In 2001, a boiler leak put it out of service.

Newcastle Council took the ship out of the water and set in upon the shore at Carrington where it sat there for 11 years with nothing done. Over time, the ship started to deteriorate .

In 2005 a group was formed named “William the Fourth Incorporated” and the ship was handed over to this group with a small grant. Bob Cook was project manager with a small group of volunteers. Funding issues resulted in a ten year delay but work eventually commenced. This page covers Bill Bollard's involvement in that work.

Initial Involvement

Bill's initial involvement in the William the Fourth reconstruction project was around 1987 during its construction at Raymond Terrace. At that time Bill was a marine surveyor working for Waterways NSW and he did a couple of Maritime surveys during construction.

Bill had retired in 2001 and later a friend of from his old days with Carrington rang him asking if he could help out with restoring the ship.

Changing Propulsion

Bill visited the ship at Carrington where a shipwright , Tony Franov was working on it with the intention of fitting two engines with shafts and propellers port and starboard.

The boiler was beyond repair and they were not able to find an engineer with a boiler certificate to work as a volunteer.

<need to put some information about the boiler here. What was it made of (was it little pieces of wrought iron riveted together?, How badly was it damaged was it a crack or a piece missing?. What were the options (only completely new but would need to be custom built? Was patching it an option? The early steamships were built without boiler calculations and frequently exploded. For example, in the United States in the ten year period between 1880 and 1890, there were over 2000 boiler explosions. Was it considered risky to repair the boiler? Boilers on steamships of this age also used salt water which resulted in incrustation and required constant cleaning. >

Given the steep requirements for the boiler and the lack of funds, a decision was made to fit twin diesel engines. Bill agreed to help as a volunteer and the first job was to calculate the engines horsepower required to drive her at approximate 8 knots.

<need to provide some information (for a lay person) as to why this sort of calculation is needed when changing the engine and how complicated it is. Is there a formula that we can quote or is there a specific method to do this?>

Australian Standards Calculation AS 1799

Length of boat X Waterline beam width at transom X 16 less 67 then X 1.34 = hp you can use on your boat.

So an example might be

6m boat X 2.14m =12.84 X 16 =205.44 less 67= 138.44 X1.34 =185.5 hp

A serious practical on water test has also to be done, at full throttle, through an on water course,performing a 90 degree right angle turn, in a prescribed distance.

Retrofitting

Bill calculated that they would need twin 200 HP engines. They had enough in donations for the engines to be bought from China.

When the engines arrived Bill went to Newcastle to check them out and found that they where both massive engines and 400 HP each.

They were too large for the intended space as they were longer then the compartment, and it would be impossible to get around the engines.

The compartment was aft of the boiler space with a watertight bulkheads fore and aft. The space was used for two large water tanks for the steam engine. These were removed as were the coal bunkers each side of the boiler.

We decided to fit only one engine and to get around the length of the engine by cutting a center panel out of the aft bulkhead and move the gearbox aft into the space then enclosing it with a watertight box.

The propeller shaft went through the stern post and a watertight bearing fitted at the watertight box aft of the gearbox coupling.

We also fitted a small diesel generator in the space of the removed coal bunkers.

Other Repair Work

The vessel required repair work of some cracked ribs, so sister ribs were positioned next to the cracked ribs near the turn of the bilge, also some repairs needed to planking as well as caulking. These repairs were done by Phil Heaney and some volunteers.

(So the original cracked ribs were left in the boat and additional ribs were placed next to them?)

Bill also did a new Rudder design in steel as the wooden rudder would not be strong enough with cutouts for the propeller.

(Why is this? How did you know?)

Bill did some other drawings for William the Fourth including a piping schematic, tank drawings for diesel fuel, tank for hydraulic oil and the two sullage tanks. He also did drawings for the new engine room layout, shafting details, propeller detail, rudder details, general arrangement and a docking plan.

Testing

Bill was involved in the final stability test, doing arrangement of weights and position setup and moving, draft marks recording.

The inclining experiment was done in the presence of a Maritime surveyor and the the stability booklet was done by Naval Architect Graham Mugavin, which passed with 50 passenger and 10 crew.

The retrofitted vessel has been operating since 2019 doing harbour cruises with morning and afternoon tea.

The vessel was docked again in 2022 at Carrington for a bottom clean and annual survey. They have done trips up the Hunter river to Morpeth, dropping both masts to go the bridge at Hexham.