Suction Dredgers

The "Lucy" and the "Sir Gordon"

The Lucy was East London's first suction dredger. She was named after Lucy Schermbrucker, wife of Colonel Schermbrucker (Member of Parliament for King William's Town) and arrived at the port in May 1886. Although she went to work in July, she was officially inaugurated only in November that year.

Sir John Coode's harbour scheme, started in 1872, provided for training walls along both banks of the Buffalo River. The theory was that heavy rain would cause a "freshet" (minor flood) which would scour the river, thereby removing the sand-bar from the mouth and dumping it out to sea. The period from 1872 until 1887, however, was a time of protracted drought and so the bar remained fairly static.

The arrival of the Lucy was most opportune because, from August to November 1885, the river mouth shoaled up almost completely and became nearly dry at low tide. The dredger began work in July 1886 and, by the end of the year, she had already made good progress, having straightened the channel as far as the bar, and even that was showing a marked improvement. By the end of 1887 the depth of water had reached eleven feet at low tide.

So successful was the Lucy that in February 1888 Coode suggested that a second dredger be acquired. The entire channel could then be maintained at a depth of some 15 feet which, he said, would place the harbour "in a first class condition". The idea was eventually taken up and the Sir Gordon, named after Sir John Gordon Sprigg (East London's "senior" Member of Parliament), arrived in February 1891.

Unfortunately, the Lucy would not survive much beyond the arrival of the Sir Gordon. In November 1895, she struck some submerged blocks and was wrecked. The official enquiry into the accident indicated that she had dragged anchor because her cables were of insufficient length and there had been no look-out on duty at the time. The dredger had eventually come broadside to the swell which had swept her on to the rocks.

It was a sad end to a vessel which had been largely responsible for initiating a period of unprecedented prosperity for East London. The ship's bell eventually found its way to the Anglican Church at Kidd's Beach, a coastal resort some 30 miles to the south-west of East London, where it served as a church bell. In 1985 it was donated to the East London Museum where it is housed today.

Dr Keith Tankard