The Battle of the Bar

1874 – 1877

The Battle of the Bar, or the Tugboat War, was a contest between two Scottish sea captains – one feisty, tough scrapper who grew up on the rough Sydney docks – and one mild-mannered gentleman who had sailed the seven seas and kept his head while all around him were losing theirs.

The Richmond River bar was treacherous and no place for the faint-hearted!
For a full description of the nature of the river entrance please read The Bar, the Breakwall & the Canal.

For the first twenty years of the timber trade, the vessels coming to the Northern rivers for the riches of the red cedar were sailing ships. Many were wrecked trying to enter the Heads.

From the early 1870s there had been a few steam tugs competing for the lucrative tug-boat service at the bar. They were all hoping to secure a valuable Government subsidy when it became available.

They used paddlewheel vessels, which were less likely to foul any snags in the river and could navigate into very shallow water. Out at sea they were usually less inclined to roll.

Captain Johnson’s 151 ton iron steamer Culloden lasted a year before it was wrecked on bar. William Yeager was using the Keystone for river towing as it was too small to cross the bar. He then bought a small 43 ton tug Athletic but he lacked the experience for the dangerous work at the Heads and soon withdrew from Ballina and concentrated on the profitable cargo run from Coraki to Casino.

William Yabsley had designed and built a 50 ton paddle-steamer Index which was launched around the same time that Tom Fenwick had arrived from Sydney with his 54 ton paddleboat Alchymist.

Yabsley employed Captain Lachlan McKinnon as Master of the Index to take his schooners carrying cedar, the 180 ton Schoolboy and the 265 ton Examiner, safely across the bar, and to pick up whatever other river traffic he could manage.
The two tugs were quite small for the heavy work demanded of them. Propelled by small, high-pressure steam engines, often working full throttle, they had to “get steam up” before they could venture out. Keeping the fire stoked with coal and the boilers at the ready, a team of three worked long hours, always available to tackle the bar.

richmond river map

The river was deep, 40 fathoms, deep enough to take sea-going vessels. As most of the ships were still under sail, they needed to be towed up the river to discharge their cargo and to load timber from the mills. After leaving Ballina they would first pass Emigrant Point; then Pimlico Island with Blackwall sawmill on the south bank and Wardell town on the north bank; Rocky Mouth (or Woodburn) had a very narrow channel, even though the river was quite wide; Devil’s Elbow (later know as Swan Bay; Oakland where William Yeager had his depot and wharf; then Coraki at the junction of the North and South Arms where William Yabsley had his massive ship-building shed – 45 miles [72km] from Ballina.
The South Arm to Casino was shallow and cargo was discharged onto smaller river droghers like the Athletic. The North Arm was deep enough for the ocean-going vessels to be towed up as far as Lismore, passing the Wyrallah sawmill on the way.

A ship wanting a tug/towing service of “In, Up & Out” would be charged around £26 – or £8 if they only needed to go to Blackwall. A Captain’s monthly wage was approximately £10 at that time. Steam powered boats could tow 2 or 3 sailing ships at a time – a very lucrative business, but Fenwick did not like sharing the profits with his fellow Scotsman McKinnon.

There was enough work to keep both tugs very busy. A flag would be raised at the Pilot Station, which could be seen from afar, to let the tugboats know a ship was out to sea needing to be towed across. The vessels out to sea would use their own flag system to indicate which tug they wanted or they would just take whichever tug reached them first.

Fenwick hated losing a tow to his rival and over time his obsession with “winning” became detrimental to the whole shipping community. Alchymist was slightly larger and faster than Index and Fenwick was often seen chasing the Index across the bar to secure the tow. On calmer days, Fenwick would wait outside the Heads all day bobbing about in the ocean waiting to spot a sail on the horizon. For the ships waiting inside to go out – or to be towed up the river – Fenwick would negotiate with their Captains and undercut the fees – lessening his own profit just so he could secure the work.

Another morning Fenwick awoke to see the signal-flag fluttering on the north head and the Index ready to move out to make a profitable tow. There was no time to dress or assemble a crew so Fenwick tore down to the tug in his night shirt, furiously stoked up the furnace and cast off. Captain, engineer, fireman and deckhand all in one, he actually got the Alchymist first across the bar and within hailing distance of the incoming Lavinia.

Only then did he realise he had forgotten his trousers.

It made little sense to Capt. McKinnon – as one tug was away towing up the river, the other tug got the bar work and vice-versa. They were both making good money and he saw little benefit in expending all his energy trying to compete. At times though it was frustrating for both men when the other beat them to the tow by minutes and they had to return empty-handed across the bar. Coal was not cheap and they could not afford to lose too many fees from the “races”. Fenwick’s frustration overflowed one day when Captain Lowrie of the Sea Ripple decided to take the tow from the Index instead of the Alchymist – Fenwick climbed onboard the Sea Ripple and thrashed the Captain on his own Quarterdeck.

Amphitrite
Index tug with Amphitrite
Francis Hixson
Francis Hixson

Fenwick’s reputation was deteriorating as he took more risks to secure a tow. Ships became stuck on the sandbanks if the water depth was not sufficient or the line was too close. When, in 1876, Fenwick beached and wrecked is own cedar schooner Susannah Booth on the bar, and almost lost the Alchymist in the same incident, the other sea Captains started trusting him less. He became so incensed that he was losing out to McKinnon that he spitefully rammed the Index while she was towing the Alice Jane through the channel.

Capt Lachlan McKinnon
Capt Lachlan McKinnon

Things were getting serious and when more threats were made, the police were notified. William Yabsley was called down from Coraki to mediate. The “war” was ridiculous and very one-sided. Yabsley negotiated with Fenwick to calm things down and they drew up an agreement to share the work. The peace did not last long and Fenwick developed other tactics. In 1877 he bought a larger and faster tug, the 156 ton Francis Hixson, and now he had two tugs to dominate the bar. He often anchored his tugs either side of the Index in the channel and when the flag went up at the Pilot Station, one tug would manoeuver in front of the Index to prevent McKinnon getting out. Fenwick employed the small tug on the up-river towing and the Francis Hixson at the bar taking the lion’s share of the shipping traffic.

McKinnon’s profits started to decrease and reluctantly, William Yabsley withdrew the Index from the towing work, and sold her.

Although it seemed that Fenwick had won the “war”, Captain Lachlan McKinnon had the last laugh. He was appointed, by William Yabsley, to be the Master of the Examiner – the pride of the river – and whenever he sailed in or out of the Bar, he could look down upon Fenwick from his Quarterdeck.

Captain Tom Fenwick
Captain Tom Fenwick

In 1877 no fewer than 269 vessels, large and small steamed up the river to Lismore or were towed behind tugs, to carry off hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of local produce for the Sydney market. Although the cedar had disappeared there were plenty of valuable hard woods to exploit.

Captain Thomas Fenwick spent the next twenty years building a large fleet of river vessels and tugboats was eventually awarded the Government subsidy in 1883. He undertook many daring rescues on the bar and was called upon for his expert knowledge of the bar when the new breakwall was being built.


Research sources:
Battle of the Bar by Susan Alley, drawn from the diaries of Lachlan McKinnon
Magdalen by Dorothy Kinny, drawn from the diaries of William Yabsley
Men and a River by Louise Tiffany Daley
North Coast Run by Mike Richards
No Holds Were Barred in the Tugboat War, Daily Mirror Dec 1969

Yabsley Barque Examiner
Square rigged barque Examiner

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