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Rock Davis Shipbuilder of Blackwall
While
not the first ship builder at Blackwall, Rock Davis was
certainly the most famous and colourful of the
shipwrights that plied there trades around the edges of
the Broadwater back in the 1800’s
Rock was born on a ship en route to Australia on the 2nd
of June, 1833, he was one of 11 children.
His father, William Davis was the first school teacher
in the area and taught at the small school at Kincumber,
the school was made from pit sawn timber and had a
shingle roof.Rock and his brothers were apprenticed to
shipwright Jonathan Piper who had a shipyard at Cockle
Creek.
After they had finished their trade, Rock and his
brother Tom left Davistown to prospect for gold in the
Ovens Valley, they were quite successful as they had
arrived early when gold could be found 5 feet below the
ground or lying on the surface.
They returned to the coast as the gold on their claims
became scarce and the goldfields descended into
lawlessness, over 3,000 miners had died in the first 15
months of digging in the valley they later learnt.
Rock had always wanted to build a shipyard at Blackwall
and set about acquiring the land for this purpose, a
parcel of 13 acres at Blackwall Point was granted to him
in 1852, later he also purchased another land parcel
from C.W Cox and commenced operations there in 1862.
Timber for the first ships were sourced locally on the
Peninsula , which had a variety of suitable trees like
blackbutt, ironbark, cedar, beech, white mahogany and
honeysuckle.The logs were dragged by bullock team to the
sawmill at the shipyard, some logs were floated out of
the back blocks via a small creek that is now a drain
next to the Peninsula Leisure Centre.
Work in the shipyard began at daylight and continued
until dark, after dinner the men would sit in the meal
shed and play cards while the young apprentices were put
to spinning oakum ( caulking for use in shipbuilding )
At nine o ‘clock the cook would throw a large pot of
water on the fireplace, the ensuing steam cloud would
scatter all.
During wet weather work ceased in the yard and the men
went hunting wild cattle on the Peninsula , cattle
descended from the original herd owned by James Webb had
roamed the flats for years slowly growing in population
and made great sport and even better eating.
Rock later built a large roof over the slipway so the
men could work in all weather ,the shed at 145 feet long
was the largest building in the area at the time.It was
built like a native hut from New Guinea , two giant
poles were tied at the top and spread apart at the base
, they were then hoisted upright by a block and tackle
setup pulled by a bullock team.
A visiting well known Naval architect remarked that he
had never seen anything like it in the world , locals
called it “ The Big Shed “
Over 180 vessels were laid down at the yard ranging from
small ketches to steam powered passenger ferries for use
on Sydney Harbour , before the construction of each boat
, Rock would lay down full size plans on the ground and
work out his timber cutting list .
The launching of the completed vessels at Blackwall drew
much fanfare on each occasion, usually a feast followed
by dancing and drinking til all hours , local children
were given sweets.
The Blackwall area was a hive of activity with 2
shipyards, a sawmill, several houses and a store built,
in 1875 a post office was petitioned for and built on
the hill behind the shipyard.
The first postmistress was Eva Davis, Rock’s daughter,
she held this position until 1881.
In 1893 a post office was built at Woy Woy to serve the
growing township and the Blackwall post office was made
an unofficial office, the location of this office moved
a few times but it remained until late the 1970’s ( last
location Trafalgar Avenue )
Not only did Rock Davis build ships but he also put in
place many wharves, bridges and roads to serve his
business, he arranged for the transport and delivery of
over 19 million bricks for the construction of Woy Woy
Tunnel.
On many occasions when disaster struck , a call was put
out to the men at the Rock Davis shipyard and a boat was
quickly dispatched to help those in need.
Rock Davis died in 1904 and was buried at the old church
at Kincumber, a specially made raft was made to carry
his coffin and was towed by a steam boat from the
Blackwall shipyard across the Broadwater with hundreds
of mourners in all sorts of water craft following in an
unbroken line.
A fitting end for a man who had lived and breathed ships
for all of his life.
S.S. Wyalong at RockDavis'
shipyard, Blackwall1902
BACK TO THE WOY WOY FILES
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