Main Engine

The engine room of MV Cape Don holds the machinery that drove one of Australia's most purpose-specific working vessels for 27 years. Right of frame is the main engine: a 5-cylinder 2-stroke Polar M65T diesel, rated at 2,000 BHP at 250 RPM, assembled at the State Dockyard, Newcastle, under licence from NOHAB of Sweden. To the left sits the ship's service generator, British-built by Mirrlees. Further along the space, the main lube pumps. Painted pipework runs throughout, overhead ducting spans the deckhead, and the structural steelwork of the hull frames the machinery on either side. MV Cape Don was built at the State Dockyard, Newcastle, for the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service. The keel was laid in 1961, the vessel launched on 28 May 1962, and the maiden voyage completed on 29 March 1963. One of three Cape Class sisters designed by the Australian Shipping Board, Cape Don was built to supply lighthouses, lightships, and buoys along the Australian coastline, carrying fuel, stores, equipment, and lighthouse keepers to stations that had no other reliable connection to the mainland. The progressive automation of Australian lighthouses through the 1980s made the Cape Class redundant. Cape Don was retired from government service in 1990, the last of an entire fleet of Commonwealth Lighthouse Service tenders. Her sisters, Cape Moreton and Cape Pillar, were sold in 1993 and 1989 respectively. She is now the sole surviving vessel of the complete CLS fleet. After a period as a cargo vessel between Australia and the Solomon Islands, the ship was laid up on the Clarence River before being sailed to Sydney and moored at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, at the former Coal Loader wharf. She is now managed by the Sea Heritage Foundation and the MV Cape Don Society, with volunteer conservation work ongoing. This photograph was made in 2016.