Building a boat has brought together long-term Kangaroo Islanders and more recent arrivals.
(ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn)
By Caroline Horn
It started as a quick job to replace a rotting model boat at the entrance to the town of American River on Kangaroo Island.
The playground-style boat is an outline of the Independence, a 14-metre sailing ship built at the site of American River by US sealers from Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1803.
Sealing was taking place in the Southern Ocean decades before the first official English colonists arrived in what is now Adelaide and proclaimed the new colony of South Australia on the other side of Backstairs Passage.
The rebuild of the model boat led to a wilder idea: the construction of a second Independence; a full-size, operational replica of the sailing ship.
"When we finished putting it [the model boat] up there, chatting over a beer as you do, some foolish person said, 'Well, why don't we build a real one?'" said Greg Roberts, one of the "founding fathers" of the Rebuild Independence Group.
They got permission to use land at the wharf and some money to put towards building a shed, and in the 10 years since a community has grown around the construction.
Short, brutal and bloody
The original Independence was built in only five months by the ship's carpenter and some of the crew of a larger boat, the Union.
The Union's captain Isaac Pendleton had learned from French explorer Nicholas Baudin of the existence of a large island, south of the South Australian mainland, where seals and other wildlife were plentiful.
Ships from America had headed to the Southern Ocean in search of seals and whales when their traditional hunting areas became overworked.
Pendleton deposited carpenter Stephen Thorne and his helpers, along with a load of Oregon pine carried with them from half a world away, at present day American River.
Their task was to build a 45-foot-long top-sail schooner, a smaller and more manoeuvrable ship to navigate bays and waterways the Union couldn't in their pursuit of seals.
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| Rod Howard with plans for the second Independence. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn) |
With the prepared wood, Thorne and the others completed the boat in about five months.
"They probably worked seven days from sun up to sun down," said David Churchill, the rebuild project's original planner.
"We probably don't beat our volunteers enough or starve them," joked Anne A'Herran, heritage officer for the group.
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| A model of the Independence, donated by a visitor from Queensland, is now on display in the workshop. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn) |
When the crew of the Union returned, both boats continued hunting seals, depositing their cargos at Sydney and China, reputedly doing a bit of rum running from Norfolk Island along the way.
"[Sealing] was so profitable for the owners they weren't concerned if they lost 50 per cent of their ships," Irene Halley, a tour guide and prolific fundraiser for the group, said.
The Independence became one of those lost only two years after it was built, believed sunk in a storm south of New Zealand while heavily laden with seal skins.
"Very short time," said Mr Roberts of the Independence's lifespan.
"Wonderful, exciting, bloodthirsty but very short."
More American sealers found their way to Kangaroo Island over the years, along with escaped convicts and Indigenous women, forcibly brought from the mainland and Tasmania.
"They were pretty brutal," Mrs A'Herran said.
"We know this; we accept that that was the way of the world then and it was pretty horrible.
"Even then some of those women survived, brutally treated as they were, and they went on to settle and become settlers here as well."
Donations, friendship and a common purpose
While the eventual completion of the second Independence remains the common goal, the comradeship and sense of purpose created by the project has become the most important part of the venture.
Carpenter and founding president Tony Klieve had always been interested in the history of the boat, and a visit by his daughter to the area of America the sealers hailed from fired his initial enthusiasm.
He and boat builder Tony Stockton have guided the build along the plans created by marine architect Howard Peachey, teaching the other volunteers as they go.
Current president Rod Howard first came as a tourist and was gently shanghaied into the project after "wandering in for a look".
"Tony Klieve said, 'I've got a pair of overalls that will fit you. Come back and lay a plank.'"
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| The second Independence is gradually taking shape. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn) |
He and his wife then moved to American River from their home in New South Wales.
"Life's about spending time with people you've got a common purpose with," he said.
"That's the value of it," said Mr Klieve, who is now 86.
"It keeps us alive.
"It's been really good and somewhere to go. You meet people, you talk to people and it's a great experience. You meet people from all over the world.
Nearly all of the funding for the project, which is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, has so far come from donations and fundraising efforts, such as the annual Independence Day bonfire.
Tour buses stop in and visitors are shown through the site and told the story of the island's American history.
More than 8,000 have purchased a small plank with their name on it to show their support.
"People love coming here to see the boat that's being built by a bunch of crazy, old people that have this mad dream of building it and launching it into the water," Mr Howard said.
"And they say good on you and they buy into that, which is great."
Mr Klieve said part of the reason for keeping the build under their financial control was so they could ensure that American River would always remain the Independent's home port.
He hopes it will one day feature at the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart and will also help to teach the youth of the island how to sail, while also taking tourists on trips.
"You could do a globe girdle in it but I'm not sure we'll be up for that," Mr Roberts said.
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| Toolmaker Peter May with the model ship gifted by a visitor from Queensland. (ABC South East SA: Caroline Horn) |
Launch day will come … one day
The volunteers are putting the third layer of the hull in place and in 12 months' time, with the keel and planking complete, the boat will be turned over, to much celebration.
When asked when they think the second Independence will be complete, nearly every volunteer reacts with a smile or a laugh.
Mr Howard said it would be nice to have the boat in the water in five years but added, "Don't put your money on it."
"It's been a wonderful success for the town," Mr Roberts said.
"It has taken a long time but nothing worthwhile doesn't take a long time."
Where they were once hunted, the seals now loll about at American River. (ABC News: Caroline Horn)
First published at ABC News, December 21, 2024
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