Captain Thomas Fenwick ( 1842 – 1896 )

Thomas Fenwick spent his youth on the tough Sydney wharfs and together with his brother John had established a tug service at Miller’s Point on Sydney Harbour. From 1870 he had been trading timber on the Richmond with his schooner Atlantic and recognised that a towing service on the bar of the river for the timber laden sailing ships would be a good business. At that time the Richmond trade was solely confined to sailing vessels and waiting for suitable tides and winds to cross the Bar, ships were often held up for days or weeks. There was also a shortage of sailing ships to transport the timber being cut out of the Big Scrub and a steam tug could tow two or three schooners at a time up the river.
Towage charges varied, but the standard price was £26 to take a vessel across the bar, up to Lismore and down the river again. The tow from the bar to Wardell and out to sea cost £8.
In 1873 Fenwick purchased the Alchymist, a 54-ton paddle-steamer and together with his wife Mary Cummings and young son Andrew, made the move to Ballina to establish a permanent towing and shipyard presence.

William Yabsley had built a small paddle steamer Index to tow his own schooners safely across the bar putting Captain Lachlan McKinnon in charge. Tom Fenwick, a wily and fearless Scotsman, was livid at the thought of losing lucrative towing charges and he used unscrupulous methods to undermine and sabotage his rival, Captain McKinnon, even at one stage ramming the Index. Thus began the “Battle of the Bar”. These antics continued for a few years until Fenwick installed the much larger 156-ton paddle steamer Francis Hixson into service. Captain McKinnon relinquished the bar trade and the Index was sold, leaving Fenwick free to monopolise the market and increase his fleet. Fenwick was a brave risk-taker, very suited to the treacherous life of a tug-master. He executed many daring rescues and was well respected as a master mariner. He and Mary had two more sons, Thomas and John and he expanded his business interests to upriver cargo and passenger transport using his droghers Victoria and Sarah L Hixson and established a large shipyard in Ballina.
In 1882 Mary died leaving three boys under 10 years old. Thomas wasted no time and married Sarah Shaw later that year. She had a young daughter Jessie, whom Thomas treated as his own child and they went on to have 8 more children. Sarah was the daughter of Ephraim and Elizabeth Shaw of Ballina. E.J. Shaw later became the Pilot stationed at East Ballina.
In 1886 Tom built a beautiful two-storied home at the mouth of the Richmond River overlooking Shaws Bay to enable shipping movements to be easily viewed from the upstairs verandah. The house cost approximately £9,000, £800 being spent on a magnificent cedar staircase and a beautiful black and white Italian tile entrance hall. At the front entrance is the family coat of arms with the motto Perit ut Vivat which translated means “He perishes that others may live”. The house was designed by Thomas’ nephew James Fenwick.



The fleet of tugs and river droghers increased to include the J. and T. Fenwick, Comet, William Langford, Sarah Fenwick, Marion Fenwick, Emma Pyers, Lady Franklin, Sir George and Rescue.
Captain Fenwick was widely accepted as an expert in his work at the bar and many stories were told extolling his bravery, with newspaper accounts describing in vivid detail his daring rescues. The most widely publicised rescue was that of the Chingtu which had broken a tail-shaft during a gale with imminent loss of ship, cargo and all on board. Fenwick braved the boiling seas and took Protector across the bar and into the fray, himself swimming a line across to the stricken ship and successfully towing it to safety.





Thomas Fenwick’s older sons, Andrew and Thomas Junior, had joined their father in business, acquiring new boats for the passenger and tug trade, and replacing those lost to the vagaries of the sea. The river droghers like the Sarah L. Hixson and Emma Pyers began regular passenger and goods runs from Ballina to Lismore. In 1882 the Florrie was wrecked on the bar and salvaged by the Fenwicks, repaired and then put back to work on the river.
Discussions about building a breakwater had been raging for years and construction finally began in 1889. Over 90 ships had been sacrificed to the bar including many owned by the Fenwicks. Thomas Fenwick’s final battle with the bar came in 1894 when he took the tug William Langford, with Will Lomax as crew, out of the heads to tow his ketch Sir George back in. On the return trip the William Langford foundered and capsized. Both men were rescued after a severe battering in the waves and Thomas Fenwick suffered debilitating lung problems until his death two years later.
When Thomas senior died in 1896, the two boys continued to build and expand the shipping interests. The first river steamer to be built at their Ballina shipyard was named the Captain T Fenwick in honour of their father.



After nearly 50 years of prosperity the Fenwicks were struggling with the loss of several key boats and the downturn in business due to the improvements in road and rail. When the Captain T Fenwick sank on the North Arm the loss was too great and they filed for bankruptcy in 1916.
George Davis, the CEO of Davis Bros, acquired the ailing Fenwick Line which included the Ballina ship yard and four river boats: the Ballina, the Sarah L Hixson, the Gannet and the pride of the fleet Captain T Fenwick which was refloated, repaired and put to work as a tug at the Heads.
