Old Australian Ship Goes To Bed...

If you gotta go...

..you may as well go in a blaze of glory and onto an afterlife!

It was a spectacular and colourful end to a vessel that had served well since 1969 until 1995. Despite a rather lingering death, the final exit was not be the ignominy of the breakers torch. The TROY D went out in style, and to a new lease of life, albeit under the waves.

Originally she was the Hopper Barge ROY A. CAMERON, constructed at the State Dockyard, Newcastle, New South Wales in 1969. She was purchased by Devine Shipping from the Melbourne Port Authority in 1995, but her new life was cut short as she grounded at Bass Point on the Ist November. Thereafter she was laid up, and her demise could have been like that of any other old ship that has rusted in a harbour.

But in Tasmania they had a need. Being created there is a dive site and artificial reef. Ships, when properly cleaned back, make good dive sites and natural habitat for marine life. They also provide, if done spectacularly, a rather impressive show for anyone with a couple of hours to kill and who likes witnessing explosions.

To Mercury Passage, off Maria Island the ship was taken, after much painstaking work to ensure no toxins remain in the vessel and there she awaited her fate yesterday. As people from the communities of Orford and Triabunna watched the preparations for her moment of glory took place.

Canadian ship sinker Roy Gabriel likes these things to be done with impact, so as well as the meiticulous planning for the relatively tiny explosions that will actually send the ship to her grave, he reckons the onlookers deserve a bit of a spectacle and so rigs effects explosions just to give the clear signal this ship is going down.

Thrilled residents watched as gigantic balls of flame shot up from the old lady's decks, she rolled over slightly to port and then, as if with a sigh of resignation, slipped down after a minutes hesitation to land upright on the sea bed.

Soon she'll have the company of marine life and divers in the clear Tasmanian waters. Surely a better end than in rusting pieces on a dockside?

Photo: http://www.troyd.com.au

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