Soundings Board

The soundings board aboard MV Cape Don is a working instrument, not a decorative one. Mounted in the vessel's interior, it recorded the volume of fuel oil, fresh water, and ballast remaining in each tank. The columns are practical and direct: tank designation, contents, quantity. Over 27 years of government service, the figures chalked or marked against those columns told the crew what the ship had left and what it needed before the next remote station could be reached. MV Cape Don was built at the State Dockyard, Newcastle, New South Wales, and launched on 28 May 1962. The vessel completed its maiden voyage on 29 March 1963. It was one of three Cape Class lighthouse supply tenders designed by the Australian Shipping Board for the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service, the others being Cape Moreton and Cape Pillar. Cape Don was the largest and longest-serving of the three. Home-ported at Fremantle, her primary operating area covered the Western Australian and Northern Territory coastlines, with service also extending along Tasmania's coast and the eastern seaboard. The ship's role was to keep isolated lighthouse stations operational. That meant carrying fuel, equipment, stores, and lighthouse keepers across long open-water passages to stations that had no other reliable connection to the mainland. The vessel was fitted with three workboats and a LARC-V amphibious vehicle for transfers where boats could not operate safely; rocky coastlines and surf landings were part of the regular work. Knowing exactly what remained in each tank was how the vessel managed those distances. Cape Don retired from government service in 1990, when the progressive automation of Australian lighthouses rendered the Cape Class tenders redundant. She is now the sole surviving vessel of the entire Commonwealth Lighthouse Service fleet, berthed at the former Coal Loader wharf at Balls Head Bay, Waverton, and managed by the Sea Heritage Foundation. The 2016 photograph records the soundings board as it has remained since active service ended: columns intact, the quiet record of a working ship.