Century-old Tasmanian ferry Cartela partially sinks during restoration, but volunteers remain hopeful

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The restoration of the century-old Tasmanian passenger ferry Cartela has hit a setback, with the vessel taking on water and partially submerging. Despite the challenge, volunteers remain confident it can be salvaged and restored.

Transcript

00:00The historic car-tealer has been berthed at Franklin in Tasmania's Huon Valley for the

00:07past 10 years, but plans to restore the passenger steamship have hit a snag.

00:13The ship has been taking on water, leaving it partially submerged.

00:17The onboard alarm system failed to notify volunteers that there was a problem.

00:22The pumps stopped working, we don't know why, but we will be investigating that.

00:29Volunteers have been coming down to the waterfront sharing their memories of the steamship.

00:34Going across from Highbar to Belray where we grew up, it's part of so many people's

00:40lives.

00:41Who knows what they're going to do with her now.

00:43The car-tealer was built in 1912, the same year as the Titanic, but volunteers are determined

00:51it won't share the same fate.

00:54The passenger ship operated until 2014.

00:57It ferried people across the River Derwent after Hobart's Tasman Bridge collapse in 1975.

01:04It's also had a life as a function venue, hosting weddings and other events.

01:09We remembered the time we had a church service on it.

01:13A $1 million Tasmanian Government grant was secured two years ago to begin to restore

01:18the boat, but it's taken time for work to start.

01:22It's a complex issue restoring a vessel of that size.

01:27A salvage crew is confident it can re-float Tasmania's last river steamer, but it's likely

01:33to further delay and add to the cost of the plan to return the car-tealer to the River

01:38Derwent with passengers on board.

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