Elly May at Home and Abroad: Bligh lives on...

The Tale of Eli Waters

Hervey Bay is a growing incarnation of the Modern Penzance, beginning life as a fishing village and slowly growing out of the mangroves and swampy reaches into a thoroughly prosperous and therefore respectable sea-side marvel. Around ten thousand call it home although they admit it's the home of the newly-wed and the nearly dead. Already it boasts Malls, Plazas and Clubs that rival a casino for glitz and spitz, a great golf course, several markets where almost anything can be bought and sold and a growing fleet of boats, ships and sundry other craft.

The Elly May in haven at Point Vernon

The main drag is iconic but no longer the focus of most travellers who head for the super-market and the restaurants, but that's not today's story. Today I want to introduce an Old Sea Dog, now land-locked but chafing, always impatient to be back on the water. This man is one of the family Outlaws, a well-known Gang of Four, comprising Zan, Annie and the two Peters. One Peter is a mere landlubber - that's me, folks - whose background is almost entirely steam-or-two-stroke driven. The man of the sail, the jib, the days before the mast, is Captain Peter Eli O'Bligh. (Not his real name - but this story can be verified by those who were there.) Naturally, we contacted him by today's semaphore as soon as we docked in the Point Vernon haven and headed to his place, words of welcome ringing in our ears. We ate at the Inn attached to the Golf Course and there things began to take shape. The Captain was at work planning a new project. It's not entirely clear how it happened but one of us offered some help on the basis of a casual appraisal of the complexity and probable duration of the job. As the story unfolded, along with the Instructions, the Crew's confidence began to waft away in the breeze. Here the Plot began to waver, too.
Perhaps some diagrammatic photos will help.

The Keel rails.. Already I was suspicious.

The vessels ribs, laid bare and laid out. The crew would be, too.

Much of the project was at hand. All that was needed was a Gang of Willing helpers.

Beginning The Works. Capt O'Bligh would give all his Crew the works at times as they blundered about in the rigging. Note the tiny dock in the background. We discovered he got his previous crew by Blackbirding, luring the unwary into the jewelled waters and then leaving them high and dry.

The rains came early this season, slowing the work to a dribble. Capt O'Bligh ordered a halt to lull his Gang with a feast at the Lair.

The Cook at work. NB HUGE silver Belaying Pin.

Above, the Galley. At right, Rations.

Unsuspecting Crew Members

Salt Pork and Bully Beef my foot.

This would fool anybody into thinking Good Things, even after a day's toil at the hammer.

The Oven. Look at that Knife!

Capt Eli O'Bligh fashions a Noose.

The omens were not good; the bird in silhouette at left is not a buzzard nor even a crow, but a bird of portent none-the-less: a crane. We could have done with a real one instead. Pictured below, the next day. The Scaffold. Most people don't survive the Scaffold, and it looked llke the same old thing might occur. Hang-ups were the order of the day - and then the rain came. Work was more or less abandoned, as many a good skipper finds his crew would prefer. Capt O'Bligh would have to look closer to home for replacements. There would be some progress, as you can see. The sheets were too far to the wind to keep the Captain happy. You've heard of the saying "Three sheets to the wind" no doubt, meaning someone too far gone to be any use. Well, that applied. The next day, the crew was reported to have deserted to the south and were seen at Tin Can Beach. They might have even gone over to the Island, leaving Captain Eli's project forever.