The MAID OF LINCOLN’S LIFEBOAT
The community of SWS continues to grow with people from all over Australian and New Zealand suggesting articles and ideas. This week thanks to the Joe Connor, who himself once found an old wooden boat in a shed, we learn about Bob Sheppard’s find - a 136 year old piece of history, marooned in the rafters. Here’s an article from the ABC, Western Australia mid-west and wheatbelt reporter Samille Mitchell. Thanks Joe!
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When an ageing farmer took archaeologist Bob Sheppard aside and pointed high into the rafters of his old hay shed, the history lover could not quite believe his eyes. For there, covered in decades of dust and spider webs, was a 136-year-old wooden lifeboat.
The wonderfully preserved boat is all that remains of The Maid of Lincoln which was wrecked and sunk off Jurien Bay in 1891.
"They were giving me a tour of the sheds and said 'come and have a look at this Bob', and they opened this creaky doorway and I peered up in the gloom and there, hanging in the rafters, was this old boat," Mr Sheppard said.
"There's nothing like it in Australia. It's just remarkable."
THE MAID OF LINCOLN, built in South Australia in 1885, had set sail from the Abrolhos Islands off the West Australian coast in 1891 laden with guano. But it soon ran into trouble and was wrecked off Hill River, south of Jurien Bay and about 220 kilometres north of Perth. The captain, five or six crew, and a stowaway escaped from their sinking vessel in the 3.6-metre-long lifeboat and made it to shore.
Upon reaching the then-nearly-uninhabited stretch of coast, the party ventured inland where they came across the Grigson family who took them on horse and cart to Dongara to report their predicament to police. The captain gifted the lifeboat to the Grigson family to show his gratitude for their help. John Grigson first recalls seeing the boat on the verandah of his family home. The family used the boat for fishing for several years before storing it in an old hay shed on the farm.
John Grigson's family was gifted the historic lifeboat 130 years ago
after helping survivors of a shipwreck.
When its bulky form eventually became a nuisance, the old lifeboat was hoisted up into the rafters to save space. And there it remained for some 70 years until Mr Sheppard saw it in Mr Grigson's shed. Mr Sheppard, a forensic archaeologist who has worked with staff from the Maritime Archaeology Department and the Conservation Department of the Western Australian Museum, knew he was looking at a seafaring treasure. Excited by the find, Mr Sheppard volunteered his help in rescuing and restoring the historic lifeboat. The Grigson family were adamant that it be kept for the Jurien Bay community. With no obvious public facilities to display the boat, they decided to remove it from the rafters and keep it safely stored elsewhere while awaiting a suitable venue.
Archaeologist, caver and ropes expert Ian McCann, left, and a team of volunteers carefully remove the old lifeboat from the Grigsons' shed.
But the boat was several metres off the ground in a 120-year-old hay shed, and its wooden rafters had seen better days. How do you remove a precious item from a precarious position without damaging it? Or the people trying to extricate it? Enter archaeologist, caver and ropes expert Ian McCann and a team of enthusiastic volunteers. After measuring the boat's every dimension so it could be reconstructed should it fall apart, Mr McCann and his team painstakingly planned the removal. Over several hours they measured, supported, and rigged up the boat. Then, as they held their collective breath and steeled their nerves, they began to move the vessel from its decades-long resting spot.
Archaeologist Bob Sheppard couldn't believe his eyes when he first saw the old lifeboat hidden in the rafters.
Remarkably the boat stayed intact, enabling its transport to a weather-proof shed for storage.
Mr Grigson is relieved that the historic vessel that his family has been custodians of will be preserved for future generations to admire. Mr Sheppard is hoping to find a suitable venue to display the boat once it is restored.
"I'd like to see it on display somewhere — I mean it's an iconic artefact," he said. "People are going to come from everywhere to look at a 140-year-old lifeboat."
Here’s a link to watch a VIDEO on the discovery.
All words and pictures by Samille Mitchell at the ABC.
Nice one Sam!