GIFT OF SHIPS’ LANTERNS FROM CLARENCE RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY

 

In July the President of Clarence River Historical Society (CRHS) Steve Tranter officially gifted to PYHS President Lesley Pickering and Treasurer Kerry Hulm, two lanterns from the SS Alexandra, possibly the best known of all Clarence River pilot boats and tugs. The lanterns had been part of the CRHS collection on display at Schaeffer House Grafton for many years.

 

The tug Alexandra was built in North Sydney in 1902 and leased to the Government soon afterwards as a bar and pilot vessel. The Government bought her in 1910 and she remained in service for 38 years until the end of September 1940. She was then sold to Pullens in January 1942, hulked a year later and towed to Sydney in January 1943, by the replacement tug the Henry Miles – the last wooden tug for bar and pilot work on the Clarence.