As you pass King's Wharf at the beginning of a Tamar River cruise, you'll see a big rusty hulk.
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Captain Faulkner points it out: "That's the Ponrabbel II," he says.
Ponrabbel II was a tough and reliable dredge that worked tirelessly for us for 56 years.
In the 1890s Launceston was becoming impractical as a port.
Ships were getting bigger and could no longer accept being limited to high-tide access.
The Marine Board didn't want to move the port and decided to dredge.
A purpose-built vessel was ordered from Ferguson Brothers in Glasgow in 1913, originally to be named Tamar.
It was quickly realised, however, that this wasn't possible.
There was already a Tamar on the register.
One Warden, the famous botanist Dr LC Webster, suggested "Ponrabbel", to commemorate the Aboriginal name for the Tamar estuary, and this was agreed.
Ponrabbel rather optimistically left Glasgow in August 1914, a fortnight after Britain declared war on Germany, though the Marine Board did ensure she was insured against war risk.
Crossing the Indian Ocean she was spotted by the German light cruiser Emden.
The German captain courteously removed the civilian crew before sinking the ship, then dropped them off at the nearest Indian port.
The Marine Board immediately ordered a new vessel, to be named Ponrabbel II.
Given the availability of a dredge on lease from the mainland, it was decided to take the opportunity to make modifications - and not be in so much of a hurry to cross a war zone!
Ponrabbel II finally left Glasgow in August 1920 but disaster struck again only a week later.
In heavy fog she struck rocks off the coast of Portugal and went aground.
Only the calm weather saved her from destruction.
She was pulled to sea by a salvage steamer and towed to Malta for major repairs to the hull.
Once off again, it was found that the repairs were leaking and she was forced to stop at Malta.
With leaks caulked and a steam pump fitted for good measure, she proceeded through the Suez Canal, only to run into a hurricane.
After taking shelter for a few days, she finally made it to Launceston on April 8, 1921, steaming up the Tamar to a welcoming crowd.
For more than half a century Ponrabbel II dredged silt and blasted rocks, making the estuary navigable and safe.
Silt was raised by a chain of buckets coming through a slot in the hull and tipped into waiting hopper barges, then used to reclaim low ground around Inveresk and Stephenson's Bend.
Towards the end of her life, Ponrabbel II helped build the deep-water port at Bell Bay, providing for a future without her.
After conversion from coal to oil in 1964, she finally left service in 1976, tied up and forgotten at King's Wharf.