[John Briggs]

Launched 1919 in Svendborg, Denmark, as the three masted schooner "Dana".

In 1965 she was purchased by an Australian syndicate (Adventure under Sail), refurbished, refitted as a passenger carrying topsail schooner (all cargo spaces converted to accomodation), and sailed to Sydney arriving 15th March 1966.

For the next few years she undertook tourist cruises in the Great Barrier Reef.

In 1968 the rig was altered to barquentine and in December that year she was laid up in Brisbane due to lack of funds. In September 1969 she gained a new lease of life as a film star in the Australian TV series "Barrir Reef". This lasted for a year. After that she gained other employment but she was again laid up in Sydney in 1972, neglected, unmaiantained and heavily mortgaged.

In 1977 she was purchased by 9 Sydney ship lovers who formed the Australian Sail Training Association and commenced restoration work.

In 1979 work on restoration was sufficiently progressed to allow the commencement of day sails on Sydney Harbour for various charities associated with youth and also paying passengers.

She eventually was able to undertake short coastal voyages with young trainees but in 1985, during the period that I was Commodore of the association, we had to destroy her by fire in the dry dock in Ballina, NSW, due to the inability to raise the required money (about $300,000) to make her seaworthy.

(I tried to upload a number of photos, but all too large. Maybe someone else has photos that will fit on the site?) SEE GALLERY FOR PHOTOS

 

[mike hutcheson]

Now that I've signed on..I can hardly wait to start building a file on the old girl John...if you know the whereabouts of any past crew, it would be great to list them, find out what has passed over the last 21 years and create an internet history of New Endeavour.

Hope to talk with you soon.

 

[gdynia]

John

Do a google search with" Barquentine New Endeavour"and several webpages on her plus some photos

 

[Richard Miller]

Hi all,

I was a crewman on the New Endeavour in 1974/5, in Sydney. When I joined the ship, she was moored at Balls Head, which I think was a coal wharf. Later she was moved to the south side, Blackwattle Bay I think. I've just looked on Google Earth and Blackwattle Bay looks like it was subsequently entirely pulled down and landscaped.

The skipper, Rob Bruce, and his wife Charme, were trying to assemble an amateur, unpaid crew to get the boat seaworthy after a fashion, and up to Singapore, where he had "backers" who would pay to have the ship slipped and properly repaired. Rob claimed to be the owner, but that was never entirely clear. He also claimed to be a WW2 fighter pilot. He lived primarily on various forms of potato and the strawberry Scotch-shake. The mate at that time was Bob Hayman, a sailing pro and a really nice bloke, from Newcastle way I think. I'd never been on any kind of sailing boat before, but I could type, and didn't need paying, so I was made third officer, and told to run the bar and buy a uniform to match. The skipper had standards, dammit.

At Blackwattle - late 1974 or early 1975 - the boat was arrested for debt, with a warrant nailed to the mast. The skipper was also arrested, and jailed in Long Bay, where I visited him once (I believe he failed to pay the TV star Warren Mitchell for appearing in a club he - Rob Bruce - was running). By this time the boat was effectively aground on a reef of gin bottles. The skipper moved out away from the quayside to prevent boarders. I left at this time, to earn my air-fare home, since it was clear we were going nowhere. I'm told that very soon after his release, Rob died when he piloted a motor boat into a wall.

There's a bunch of old slides and photos if anyone's curious enough.

Cheers -

Richard Miller

 

[Sister Eleff]

Obviously she hit rock bottom in more ways than one! We were always grateful to the 'Magnificent Nine' as they later became known and I'm pleased to report that she went on to have a much happier life as the Sail Training Vessel she became. She was much loved and sadly mourned when she had her Viking Funeral.

 

[John Briggs]

Thanks for that Richard. It's a shame that you weren't there for the better days of sailing the harbour and near coastal waters.

 

[Tracie]

Tracie from the old days signing on. Hope some more join, and the current members check this page sometime this year. Can't believe it took this long to find something on the ship - wikipedia sure is good.

 

[John Briggs]

Hi Tracie. Maybe you can stir up a bit of interest from old members.

 

[Gordon Sherrard]

Hi All
I was involved with the New Endeavour while she was moored in Blackwattle Bay. I started working for Bob Bruce sometime in 1977, I think, along with a few other people, but he never actually got aound to paying us. He died in a speedboat accident on Blackwattle Bay a few weeks later. We waited around to see if anyone would claim ownership and that was when the volunteers from the Brotherhood Of The Coast became involved. They worked very hard, along with many RAN apprentices, to raise funds and restore her but as mentioned earlier, it became too costly. A shame really as a lot of people felt very nostalgic about her. I still have quite a few photos, some from when she was slipped in Sydney, and before that when she was careened in Blackwattle Bay.

 

[Sister Eleff]

You were before my time on her Gordon, she was sailing well when I joined in 1982. At that time she was owned by the Australian Sail Training Association and we were told of the times she was careened to fix the hull. When we were in dry dock we spent a lot of time and energy getting the cement out of her and replacing planks!

 

[Gordon Sherrard]

I was there at the formation of the ASTA with Dick Mills, Phillip Mills, Rick Angel, Gordon Kirby, Adrian Hoogvfliet and a bunch of others, some from the Lions Club. Three or four bilge pumps required permanent manning and the only way to slow the water coming in was by stuffing underwater cement and chicken wire into the holes. Some of the volunteers (Ray Fricke and Keith White) had diving skills and without them and others she would have been back on the bottom in Blackwattle Bay many times. A very tense time in the early days of ASTA.

 

[Sister Eleff]

Some familiar names there Gordon. Rick was still part of it all when I was there and also a member of the Brotherhood of the Coast. Gordon Kirby was treasurer and Adrian was chief engineer. We were all volunteers.

 

[Alan Maggs]

Hi John
Thanks for update/accurate but final note is incorrect
NEW ENDEAVOUR(She was at that time rigged as a topsl schooner) was in the dock at Riley's Hill on the Richmond River,not at Ballina. In 1987 I was construction superintendent for the SOUTH STEYNE
In July 1987 I purchased her through the Bballina Slipway & Engineering Co as my agents.
Demolition commenced immediately,the sails and yards were sold to a small square rigger in Hobart. The small PACIFIC diesel was installed in the SOUTH STEYNE driving. a fire pump.
The hull was waterlogged in parts so I had the dock flooded to 1 foot above the blocks and then set the vessel on fire in the midships deck house.
She took a log time to really start burning so I hastened the process by hurling plastic bags of desel fuel on board. Day one hull was burnt from stem to mainmast,day two after section was burnt.
Dock was then pumped out and remains broken up lifted ashore by crane and burnt alongside the dock. I videotaped the operation
Regards
Alan Maggs

 

[Sister Eleff]

You are quite correct Alan but it is splitting hairs as you do enter the river at Ballina before travelling (30km by road, shorter by water) to Rileys Hill.

There was always some discussion about topsl schooner vs barquentine but she did have a fore course sail so we called her a barquentine - except when we entered a schooner race where we didn't use the fore course!

We crew members were not told when she was to be burnt and the details were thankfully kept from us at the time. Your explanation sounds a very sad end to a fine lady.

The masts and spars were used on the 'Windward Bound', the Captain told me they had been found in a shopping centre that had been going to use them in a forecourt but later decided not to, so had been purchased for this vessel when she was built in the 1990's.

 

[Hugh Ferguson]

E.mail me a photo, John, of the New Endeavour; I'll see what I can do. Hugh

 

[CharlesN]

Hi

HI Everyone, my name is Charles Nicholls I was a crew member on New Endeavour back in 1981 ..
I used to do a sleeping watch one night a week and used to go to work after that as I worked in the City back then ..ASTA also ran a midshipmans course back then where we learnt all about the ins and outs of her ..Later I worked behind the bar with a friend I made there called Bernie Hort - who also became one of the engineers ..back when Adrian was chief Engineer ..
I feel nostagic whenever Im in Darling Harbour ( LIke today for Australia Day) and cant believe how much its changed - THe overpass wasnt finished then - just the main supports - and work had stopped on it for ages - We were moored at a wharf there which we shared with an old minesweeper ..
A movie was made back in that year too called ' The Pirate Movie' which featured 'New Endeavour' and had a couple of young well known American actors ..The ship was rigged up with Dummy cannons and had body builder extras such as Paul Graham ..

Ive got a booklet here called ' The story of the Australian Sail TRaining Association ..by Gordon Kirby -
Bye for now ..Charles

 

[Sister Eleff]

Welcome to SN Charles. I agree with you about Darling Harbour!

 

[Captain Rex]

New Endeavour

I just fell over this site, I've looked for contacts from the NE for years. It's good to know you are still alive Richard, have you contacted any other crew?

 

[Bob Lyons]

I think this is it, we see it sail past the dockyard every fine weekend, not sure if it is or not, but I think so....


Bob

 

[Bob Lyons]

Another shot....