Slowly rusting away in Prince of Wales Bay is the retired Bruny Island ferry Mangana. Launched from the Sydney yards of Poole & Steel Limited on 15 February 1930 as the George Peat. Sistership Frances Peat was launched from the same yards on 22 July 1930. Both vessels were built for service across the Hawkesbury River in NSW. They were made redundant in April 1945 with the opening of the Hawksbury River bridge.
The surplus ferries were converted for use as naval repair ships with their superstructures enlarged.
Declared surplus to requirements following the end of the war, both vessels were sold to the Devonport Steam Ferry Company of Auckland for use on Auckland Harbour. They were renamed Ewan E. Alison & Alexander Alison respectively. For the second time in their careers both ferries were made redundant by the opening of a new bridge, this time in 1959.
The Tasmanian Transport Commission purchased both ferries for the Bruny Island service.
The Alexander Alison left Auckland towed by the Union Steamship freighter Kaitoa on 23 April 1960 bound for Hobart. All went well until 29th April when the weather changed. The ferry began to pitch wildly taking a large amount of water over the bow resulting in a plate springing. The tow became unmanageable with the ship slowly becoming lower in the water. At 10:25AM the tow was dropped, seven minutes later the Alexander Alison foundering in 2,000 fathoms of water approximately 240 miles from Hobart.
No attempt was made to tow the Ewan E. Alison until 18 November 1960. This time the tow vessel was the coaster Sumatra which the Tasmanian Transport Commission had purchased from New Zealand company Cement Freighters Ltd. The tow was slowed by less than ideal weather conditions, finally arriving in Hobart on 10 December 1960.
Renamed Mangana, the ship commenced service on 27 March 1961.
The Harry O’May (ex Man On)was refitted for use on the Bruny Island service commencing operation is the early 1980’s. The old wooden Melba which pioneered the Bruny Island vehicular service in 1954 was retired & the Mangana moved to the backup role.
During 1991 the Mangana became surplus to requirements & was sold for conversion into a lighter. This never occurred & the Mangana remains in Prince of Wales Bay rusting away in retirement.
The Mangana’s dimensions are:
385 gross, 173 net register tons, 153 ft overall, 138 ft waterline, beam 12.7 ft to 36 ft, draught 8 feet. Power was originally provided by a pair of four cylinder Fairbanks Morse & Co (Deloit) diesel engines (355mm bore by 430mm stroke), producing 285 B.H.P. with a service speed of 10 knots. Working load was a maximum of 37 vehicles.