Historic Replica Boats

Child of Bounty is a replica of a Royal Naval launch cl781. She was built in 1982 by T. C Watson of Whangarei, New Zealand, for a re-enactment of Captain Bligh's 4000 nautical mile voyage from Tonga to Timor after the mutiny on the Bounty in 1783.

The largest ship's boat on a naval ship in 1788 was commonly called the longboat. However by that date many were built with a deep broad hull and were known officially as Launches.

Child of Bounty was donated to the Sydney Heritage Fleet by Captain Ware in 1984.

My Jolly Boat is a replica of First Fleet yawl or jollyboat developed from plans of the period before 1787.

She was built in 1987 to re-enact the first European landing by Lieut. Ralph Clark at Woodford Bay on the Lane Cove River on the 14th February 1790. My Jolly Boat is a typical jollyboat or yawl of the time of the First Fleet.

This was the type of small boat pressed into service in the Colony after 1793 as a passenger boat or private ferry for the trip up the river to the colony of Rosehill.

My Jolly Boat was donated to the Sydney Heritage Fleet by the Lane Cove Council in 1989.

Built in 1987 for the Bicentenary Celebrations by Mr K. Gervens, the yawl Tom Thumb II was meant to be an authentic replica of the second Tom Thumb used by the explorers Bass and Flinders.

In 1988 she was employed to perform a re-enactment of their second (1796) voyage of exploration. She sailed with a crew of three on a return voyage from Sydney to Lake Illawarra.

The boat was built to a size specification suggested by K. McRae Bowden in his biography of George Bass and great care was taken to use materials and construction methods appropriate to the Colony at the time of Bass and Flinders.

By order of the Governor, boat builders in the infant Colony at Sydney Cove were forbidden to build boats more than 14 feet long. Tom Thumb II is an authentic replica of the type of small yawl built in the Colony after 1793 as Passage Boats (the first private ferries).

Tom Thumb II was donated to the Sydney Heritage Fleet in 1988 by Mr Paul Smith.

Construction: Clinker built with steamed frames and copper fittings.
Materials: Australian Cedar planks on Spotted Gum frame, Ti Tree grown knees, Flooded Gum mast.
Rigging: Single mast with linen Lug sail.
Propulsion: 2 oars plus sweep/sail.