The Maid of Sker is an iron hulled paddle steamer, built in 1884 at the Brisbane shipyards of Evans Anderson Phelan and Co. The vessel is 75 feet long (22.8 meires) and at the time of construstion boasted apair of high-pressure surface-condensing engines imported from Cochrane and Co. in England. It is thought that the vessel was named after the popular traditional Welsh ballad The Maid of Sker or the 1872 novel of
the same name by author P. D. Blackmore.
The Maid of Sker was built for Charles Philpot who was one of the founders of an early timber mill and sugar plantation in Nerang. An 1884 issue of The Queenslander notes that Mr Philpot supplied a model of the vessel he wanted to the builders
Top: The Maid of sker, circe 1888.
Image courtesy John Oxley Library, State
Library of Queensland Neg: 37703.
Right: Early 20th century promotional flyer or
poster for the Maid of Sker.
Image courtesy John Oxley Library, State
Library of Queensland Neg: 42651.
my picture of the ship taken by: Flaker2rule aka Sophia Alexander
The Maid of Sker, a coastal paddle steamer, was built by J. W. Sutton Foundry of Kangaroo Point, Brisbane and launched in 1884.
The steamer played a significant role in the early economic use of inland waterways on the Gold Coast. From 1893 to the early 1930s the Maid of Sker made weekly trips carrying passengers, sugar and general cargo from Brisbane to Southport and Nerang. She was a versatile vessel and in 1894 she transported 250 passengers for a day at the beach.
By 1925 she was the last paddle steamer operating from the Port of Brisbane and, spending her life in sheltered waters, had never suffered significant damage. Her ability to travel through, and be extricated from, shallow water and sandbanks made her well suited to travel in The Broadwater and up the Nerang River when the tide was in her favour.
She was originally built for C. H. Philpott of the Nerang River to transport timber from Philpott’s mill to Brisbane. In her final years she operated as a barge and it was while being towed with a load of sand in 1936 that she sunk off Cleveland. The following year she was floated by her owners, the Kleinschmidt Bros of Upper Coomera and continued to operate along the Brisbane River.
The Maid of Sker was registered until 1950. Her engine was removed and the hull was used as a sand and gravel lighter on the Brisbane River until 1974. No longer used and in serious decay, the Kleinschmidt family donated the Maid of Sker to the Gold Coast City Council in 1984. One hundred years after her construction.
A project to restore the boat was undertaken by a group of combined service clubs with support from Council. And so the Maid of Sker once again made the trip from Brisbane to Southport, only this time the vessel was towed by a trawler called the Kirra Bay. In 1986 a decision was made to move the hull to Nerang.
after or during or before the AL, feel free to also find my cache.
cache is a mirco. There is an area for you to go under the ship to sign the log without being seen I also recommend that spot to find the cache as well as it keeps the cache hidden from muggles.
our next event is The Tenterfield event