Images(2)

NSS VERNON

Date1890-1892

Object number00055460

NamePhotograph

MediumPhotographic print on paper mounted on cardboard, ink, glue

DimensionsOverall (mounted): 248 × 305 × 1 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum gift of Gregg Hubbard

Terms

DescriptionNautical School Ship VERNON moored at an unknown location in Sydney Harbour. The photograph of VERNON shows the starboard side of the ship. Its foremast is missing, as are the topmasts for the main and mizzen masts. In many respects, the ship appears to be in a derelict state, and a hog is barely perceptible along the length of the hull.HistoryIn 1866, the Industrial Schools Act was introduced in colonial New South Wales to control 'wayward' children. This included youths found destitute, wandering the streets, begging, abandoned, or committing a crime. The Act also allowed the governor to declare 'any ship or vessel or any building or place together with any yards, enclosures or lands attached there, to be a 'Public Industrial School.' Under this wide-ranging Act, the former merchant sailing ship Vernon was purchased in January 1867. It was refitted and declared a Public Industrial School (and 'Nautical School Ship') in May 1867. The ship was the embodiment of the principles of the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children. In 1853 the Society had stated its aims: to provide relief for children found in a degraded and neglected state, to place them in protection under good influences, and to train them in the habits of honest industry. N.S.S. VERNON was initially moored between the Government Domain and Garden Island. Admissions commenced on 20 May 1867 and by July the following year, 113 boys had been admitted, with some as young as three being sent to the ship. While aboard, the boys were given moral training, nautical and industrial training and instruction, and elementary schooling. In 1871, VERNON was moved and moored off Cockatoo Island. The island provided a small plot for the boys to have a vegetable patch and for use as a drill ground and recreational area. In 1892, VERNON was replaced by the former clipper SOBRAON, which was nearly three times its size. Vernon was sold, and in 1897 accidentally caught fire, burnt to the waterline and sank in Kerosene Bay. SOBRAON continued the traditions of the Vernon, but the idea of Nautical School Ships was in decline. The number of boys sent to SOBRAON began to fall in 1905, after new laws introduced a system of juvenile probation. In 1911 the boys remaining on the ship were discharged to parents or guardians, apprenticed, or sent to the Mittagong Farm Home or the Brush Farm Home for boys at Eastwood.SignificanceVERNON was originally a merchant vessel that transported goods, but also brought British immigrants to Brisbane in 1863-64. The photograph of the vessel in its final years as NSS VERNON depicts an iteration of the ship that was instrumental in 'shaping' destitute and derelict young boys into responsible adults by serving as the platform upon which they were subjected to nautical training and discipline. Few, if any, photographs are known to exist that show VERNON as an abandoned hulk, which makes this image both incredibly rare and historically significant.