Boating to Melbourne

Many people would argue that the founder of Melbourne was John Batman, others will say John Pascoe Fawkner. I'm not going to get into who founded what in this post but rather talk about the boat that brought the first permanent settlers to Melbourne (or Port Phillip as it was known then). It's interesting to note that neither Batman, nor Fawkner were on this boat for the voyage bringing the first settlers to Port Phillip, though it was Fawkner's boat and the journey was set in motion by him.

The Enterprize landed in Melbourne, on the north bank of the Yarra on the 30th of August 1835. John Batman and his party of settlers did not arrive to settle the area until a few days later. Fawkner caught up with his men at the settlement on the 16th of October.

Anyway, the point of today's post is to talk about the Enterprize. There is now a replica of the Enterprize taking passengers sailing around Port Phillip bay and beyond every weekend. I went along on one of the journeys to try to understand what it may have felt like to be one of those founders many years ago coming up from Tasmania.

We arrived at the port at Docklands at about 6pm on the Friday evening to depart. We would be spending the whole night on the water so we had sleeping bags and warm clothes with us. We were first shown to our cabin under the deck where there were bunk beds made up for us. Some folded up so there could be couches but all beds would be in use for this journey. There was also a small kitchen and bathroom area. All very cramped, as would be expected. It wouldn't matter anyway as most of our time would be spent on the deck until we were ready to sleep.

After we set sail and enjoyed the views of Melbourne as we sailed away we enjoyed a cup of coffee while relaxing and watching the crew run the ship. A few of us had a go at climbing the rigging which was quite fun (although not if you have a fear of heights).

As we got further out into the bay the time come to raise the sails. I helped pull on some ropes but I didn't really know what I was doing.

After that we sailed further from Melbourne and enjoyed the sunset as we ate a nice dinner cooked by one of the crew (nice risotto), then I opened up a bottle of wine I had brought aboard and enjoyed that at the last of the light left the sky.  It was a clear night so the stars come out in full view and the moon looked kind of nice as it rose.

After dark and away from the lights of the city it was nice, calm and quiet on the water. We stayed warm and took turns at steering the ship. To steer you had to basically keep an eye on the huge compass and make sure you were heading in the right direction. It wasn't too hard once I got the hang of it although there was one point where I turned us completely the wrong way thinking I was trying to get to the right direction on the compass... it was a little confusing at first.

I was shown how to do it and then left alone as I stupidly turned the boat the wrong way. The steering wheel on this boat is actually quite massive and you need to use your whole body to steer - to turn or keep straight, as you can see in the picture below of me turning us off course.

It got quite late and I hung out chatting with various members of the crew. It was quite fun really (even though it was very cold). After a while we went downstairs to sleep. I had no trouble sleeping. I thinking I woke up for a minute or two as we pulled into Geelong at around 2am. It was a fun experience. It was nice experiencing a similar experience to that of the founders of Melbourne. The Enterprize that was owned by Fawkner traveled numerous times to Tasmania and back. As I traveled on the replica of that boat I was amazed that somehow they would fit many many sheep (and other animals) on it for days at a time.

The next morning after getting off the boat I saw that it had a little cannon! I wish we'd got to have a go shooting it!