The logbook of the S.S. CARLOTTE FENWICK for the calender year of 1897. Originally built in 1883 as a passenger steamer and used in Brisbane and also later running a service between Sydney and the Hawkesbury River. In 1890 she was sold to the Carpenter Brothers of Gippsland to use as a tug boat/cargo vessel in eastern Bass Strait and for deep-sea fishing between the Kent Group and Melbourne.
This logbook is a manuscript account of a varied year. The ship appears to fish using a seine net and occassionally a gar net. They take the fish to Melbourne and re-coal before heading off to eastern Bass Strait. Occassionally due to adverse weather, they put into Port Albert and the fish are sent to Melbourne by train. Interspersed are interludes of general cargo work.
Details of the catch, encounters with other ships, weather etc, are detailed.
By its very nature the logbook is a unique insight into the early fishing industry of southern Australia.
Written into a Lett's No 31 AUSTRALASIAN ROUGH DIARY . . . 1897. Folio.
325 mm x 200 mm.
Rare