26/05/2026
At last, the Ocean Rover is shining in her full glory.
Ocean Rover was a 139 ton wooden brigantine, embedded in the intercolonial trading network connecting Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales & New Zealand. In Tasmania the vessel regularly visited Hobart, Launceston & Circular Head.
The "Cook in Charge" Incident (1896): The ship made regional headlines in January 1896 during a voyage to Gisborne, New Zealand. While her master, Captain Williams, was ashore attending to business, the vessel was left entirely in the hands of the ship's cook, causing a minor panic when she began to drift out.
Captain Thomas Hughes (c. 1894–1895): A veteran Welsh mariner (commanding at age 63). He famously helmed the vessel during her heavy run between Circular Head (Tasmania), Melbourne, and Sydney.
Captain Edward Williams (c. 1896–1897): A master mariner originally from Liverpool. He was the captain during the infamous 1896 "cook in charge" drifting incident in New Zealand and oversaw her multi-week voyages delivering cargo into Hobart.
Captain John Johnson (c. 1898): Took command of the brigantine later in the decade as she shifted more heavily toward the timber routes between New South Wales, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
In May 1896, under the command of Captain John Johnson, the Ocean Rover was on a voyage from Lyttelton carrying a heavy cargo of wheat. Approximately 25 miles east of Cape Brett, New Zealand, the ship was struck by a severe, violent South-East to North-East whole gale.
The storm was so destructive that it completely dis-masted the vessel, snapping her timber rigging, spars, and sails straight off the deck. Stripped of her power, she drifted helplessly before managing to limp into the port of Russell for emergency assistance. Her owner at the time, a merchant named Mr. Lamb, had to coordinate extensive, costly repairs to step new masts and get her seaworthy again.
In early 1899, after battling nearly two decades of treacherous conditions across the Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea, the Ocean Rover was officially retired from active service. Records indicate she was either written off following cumulative storm damage or quietly broken up and scrapped at an Australasian port, as was common for wooden hulled merchant vessels of her size once they became structurally unsafe to insure and sail.
Possibly re-built by Lionel Scarr Rogers (1899 - 1970) the Ocean Rover was restored by Colin Burrows in Feb, 2005.
