Topsail schooner · Australia
Alma Doepel
An Australian three-masted schooner of 1903. She carried timber, jam and troops.
Technical data
- Rig
- Topsail schooner
- Flag
- Australia
- Home port
- Hobart
- Built
- 1903
- Shipyard
- Bellingen/N.S.W
- Hull material
- Wood
- Length
- 45.2 m
- Beam
- 8 m
- Sail area
- 557 m²
- Sailing area
- Australian coast
Built by Frederik Doepel on the Bellinger River in Australia and launched on 10 October 1903, registered in Sydney. She carried timber from Port Macquarie and the Bellinger River to New Zealand.
In 1916 the Hobart jam makers Henry Jones & Co bought her, and she carried jam and later timber to the mainland, especially to Melbourne. The Army requisitioned her in 1942, removed two of her three masts, fitted a stronger engine and used her as AK82 to move goods and troops.
In 1946 her conversion back into a sailing timber carrier began, based at the Tasmanian east coast port of St Helens. The masts came off again between 1959 and 1961 and she carried limestone until 1975.
In 1976 Michael Wood and David Boykett, governors of Sail and Adventure Ltd, took her over and restored her. She sailed in the Sydney Tallship Festival in 1987 and worked in sail training until 1998, then lay idle in Victoria Dock for lack of funds.
In April 2001 she was taken to Port Macquarie, where she is open daily for guided tours at the Lady Nelson Wharf. An Australian government restoration grant followed in 2004, with plans for tourism cruises around the port and coastal hops to Coffs Harbour.
She is named Alma Doepel after the shipbuilder's daughter.