Polly Woodside

Polly Woodside aka Rona
Iron barque, built 1885 in Belfast.
647 tons, 192 feet long, max speed 14 knots.

A trading ship, coal mostly, from the end of the era of sail, although she remained in use to the 1920s, when she was converted to a coal hulk.

Original Photos

Under sail

Under sail, from a different angle

"Three masted barque about to be broken up on the rocks."

"On Her Way To The Seclusion Of Hulkland"

Before restoration




We're going to start at the bow, walk down the starboard side, then back along the port side. Then we'll go below, have a look at the hold and then the aft accommodation.





The white thing there is the deck cabin where the crew slept, and the galley is just behind it.









Inside the deck cabin.



Galley



Main mast










Companion











This would be looking back down the length of the ship, if the boats weren't in the way.








In the hold.

The deck bit here is a modern addition for the benefit of visitors, in use it would have been all hold, accessed by ladders.



Looking forewards. Beside the big, blue information panel, there's a little window that looks into the forepeak store.





Looking the other way.




This is the layout of the aft accommodation, recreated to reflect living conditions when the ship was in use.

The doors connecting the hold to cabins, and the door from the apprentices area (shown on the plans, not in the photos though) are for the benefit of visitors. Originally, these areas would also have been accessed directly from the upper deck.




Apprentices' area.



Ladder from apprentices area to deck



Entrance part of cook & steward's cabin



Master's cabin



Master's bath



Saloon



Pilot's cabin.



Companionway, connecting officer's cabins to quarterdeck.



Second mate's cabin (this one and next). Note the two bunks.





First mate's cabin (this one and next). Only one bunk in here.

Museum at Ancanthe

This is an odd little place.

Its an art gallery, out in Lenah Valley which is right on the edge of Hobart, in under the mountain. Its a history is a little more interesting than that though.



From the Australian Dictionary of Biography, "in 1839 Lady Franklin bought 130 acres (53 ha) of land near Hobart Town for a botanical garden, to which she gave the name Ancanthe. Here a museum of natural history was built for her, on the model of a Greek temple, and to it the collections she had been forming in Government House were removed. They and the accompanying library were dispersed in 1853" and the little temple was left to become a packing shed for apples. It wasn't until a century later that it finally became an art gallery.

She's an interesting women to read about, if you follow the link. Also interesting is the PDF article about the museum from the Mercury's INK page.

Finally, before I get to my photos, two very different images of the building.
Painting by Curzona Allport
Lenah Valley postcard

I don't know what this front part is supposed to be.



I think its (the remains of) a memorial gateway. The two centre posts have stones under them (see below). 1937 was the time when the restoration of the building started too.