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The SS Allenwood: From Timber Drogher to Minesweeper.
Construction and Design
The SS Allenwood was built in 1920 by Ernest Wright at the John Wright & Co. shipyards in Tuncurry, New South Wales.
Named the Allenby at launch, the vessel was commissioned by Allen Taylor & Co.and soon was renamed the Allenwood.
Launch Date: Friday, December 17, 1920.
Original Name:
She was christened the SS Allenby, named in honor of Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, a famous British military commander during World War I.
The Launch Ceremony:
The honor of christening the ship was given to Wilga Wright, the daughter of the ship's builder, Ernest Wright. She performed the traditional ceremony of swinging the bottle to officially give the vessel her name as she slipped down the ways into the water.
The Allenwood was designed specifically for the rugged coastal timber trade.
Specifications
The SS Allenwood was a 398-ton, 147-foot twin-screw wooden steamer, easily recognizable by her two funnels.
Materials
Built to survive the punishing coastal river bars, her keel and keelson were forged from heavy ironbark, her hull was planked with blue gum, and her decking and spars utilized Oregon pine. She spent her early decades operating as a "timber drogher," hauling freshly milled hardwood from the mid-north coast down to Sydney.
HMAS ALLENWOOD - World War II Naval Service
On the 29th July 1941 the vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy as an auxiliary minesweeper. She was refitted as the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Allenwood and armed with a 12-pounder gun, a 20mm Oerlikon cannon, and a .303 Vickers machine gun. She swept for mines out of Sydney throughout the war before being decommissioned and returned to Allen Taylor's commercial fleet in 1946.
Wrecked at Birdie Beach September 14, 1951
Under the command of Captain Boutrup, the Allenwood was navigating through heavy fog when she ran hard aground on a sandbar at Birdie Beach, just north of Norah Head (in what is now the Munmorah State Conservation Area).
Despite extensive efforts, the heavy ship was wedged fast and could not be refloated.
The Fate of the Timber
The story of the Allenwood's timber—referring to the massive hardwood structure of the ship itself—was split into two phases after she ran aground.
Dismantled for Salvage:
Because the ship was hopelessly stranded, the wreck was sold off for just £601. The buyer was a retired Marine Engineer - JP Scott of Warners Bay, NSW. His plan was to build a house from the timbers in Warners Bay.**
Salvage crews systematically dismantled the ship in situ right there on the beach. They stripped away the machinery, the upper superstructure, and the easily accessible timbers, carting off whatever wood and metal could be repurposed or sold.
Claimed by the Sand:
The massive, heavy lower hull timbers—including that formidable ironbark keel and the lower blue gum ribs—were too difficult to extract and were quickly swallowed by the shifting coastal sands.
Today, the skeletal timber remains of the lower hull still lie buried beneath the intertidal zone of Birdie Beach.***
The Allenwood has become something of a local "ghost ship"; after severe storms, large swells, or king tides scour the sand away, the dark timber ribs temporarily re-emerge for beach goers to see before the sand inevitably buries them once again.
A Quirky Detail from Launch Day
Because she was built in Tuncurry but needed to be towed down to Sydney to have her steam engines fitted, the newly launched hull of the Allenby was temporarily fitted with a Metters windmill to pump the bilges during the tow. Observers at the time noted it was quite a novel sight to see the empty timber hull being towed out of the bay with a spinning farm windmill strapped to its deck!
** Interestingly in early March 2026 by chance I was visiting friends in Tuncurry and met another couple. The lady told me that she had grown up in the house at Warners Bay built from the timbers of the Allenwood. JP Scott was her grandfather.
*** Funny Story - Some years ago, around 2015, my wife and I were returning from Sydney where we'd attended a wedding. We had diverted to briefly see friends in Terrigal so afterwards we drove by Birdie Beach on our journey to Newcastle. We were of course dressed in wedding clobber but with Birdie Beach so close we nevertheless, despite our attire, decided to make the trek from the carpark over the dunes and down to the other end of Birdie Beach. The plan was to photograph the exposed parts of the wreck however as we approached the site we discovered there was a bit more exposed than the wreck.
The site was full of nudists who didn't bat an eyelid as we approached and engaged us in conversation about the history of the wreck.
Needless to say photos of the wreck were not achievable.
portstephenshistory.com/2025/08/07/history-of-the-steamsh...
seapower.navy.gov.au/history/units/hmas-allenwood
www.wikiwand.com/en/HMAS_Allenwood
Photo Credit - Graham Nicholson - Nicholson Family Collection
Copyright - All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images
The SS Allenwood: From Timber Drogher to Minesweeper.
Construction and Design
The SS Allenwood was built in 1920 by Ernest Wright at the John Wright & Co. shipyards in Tuncurry, New South Wales.
Named the Allenby at launch, the vessel was commissioned by Allen Taylor & Co.and soon was renamed the Allenwood.
Launch Date: Friday, December 17, 1920.
Original Name:
She was christened the SS Allenby, named in honor of Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, a famous British military commander during World War I.
The Launch Ceremony:
The honor of christening the ship was given to Wilga Wright, the daughter of the ship's builder, Ernest Wright. She performed the traditional ceremony of swinging the bottle to officially give the vessel her name as she slipped down the ways into the water.
The Allenwood was designed specifically for the rugged coastal timber trade.
Specifications
The SS Allenwood was a 398-ton, 147-foot twin-screw wooden steamer, easily recognizable by her two funnels.
Materials
Built to survive the punishing coastal river bars, her keel and keelson were forged from heavy ironbark, her hull was planked with blue gum, and her decking and spars utilized Oregon pine. She spent her early decades operating as a "timber drogher," hauling freshly milled hardwood from the mid-north coast down to Sydney.
HMAS ALLENWOOD - World War II Naval Service
On the 29th July 1941 the vessel was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy as an auxiliary minesweeper. She was refitted as the auxiliary minesweeper HMAS Allenwood and armed with a 12-pounder gun, a 20mm Oerlikon cannon, and a .303 Vickers machine gun. She swept for mines out of Sydney throughout the war before being decommissioned and returned to Allen Taylor's commercial fleet in 1946.
Wrecked at Birdie Beach September 14, 1951
Under the command of Captain Boutrup, the Allenwood was navigating through heavy fog when she ran hard aground on a sandbar at Birdie Beach, just north of Norah Head (in what is now the Munmorah State Conservation Area).
Despite extensive efforts, the heavy ship was wedged fast and could not be refloated.
The Fate of the Timber
The story of the Allenwood's timber—referring to the massive hardwood structure of the ship itself—was split into two phases after she ran aground.
Dismantled for Salvage:
Because the ship was hopelessly stranded, the wreck was sold off for just £601. The buyer was a retired Marine Engineer - JP Scott of Warners Bay, NSW. His plan was to build a house from the timbers in Warners Bay.**
Salvage crews systematically dismantled the ship in situ right there on the beach. They stripped away the machinery, the upper superstructure, and the easily accessible timbers, carting off whatever wood and metal could be repurposed or sold.
Claimed by the Sand:
The massive, heavy lower hull timbers—including that formidable ironbark keel and the lower blue gum ribs—were too difficult to extract and were quickly swallowed by the shifting coastal sands.
Today, the skeletal timber remains of the lower hull still lie buried beneath the intertidal zone of Birdie Beach.***
The Allenwood has become something of a local "ghost ship"; after severe storms, large swells, or king tides scour the sand away, the dark timber ribs temporarily re-emerge for beach goers to see before the sand inevitably buries them once again.
A Quirky Detail from Launch Day
Because she was built in Tuncurry but needed to be towed down to Sydney to have her steam engines fitted, the newly launched hull of the Allenby was temporarily fitted with a Metters windmill to pump the bilges during the tow. Observers at the time noted it was quite a novel sight to see the empty timber hull being towed out of the bay with a spinning farm windmill strapped to its deck!
** Interestingly in early March 2026 by chance I was visiting friends in Tuncurry and met another couple. The lady told me that she had grown up in the house at Warners Bay built from the timbers of the Allenwood. JP Scott was her grandfather.
*** Funny Story - Some years ago, around 2015, my wife and I were returning from Sydney where we'd attended a wedding. We had diverted to briefly see friends in Terrigal so afterwards we drove by Birdie Beach on our journey to Newcastle. We were of course dressed in wedding clobber but with Birdie Beach so close we nevertheless, despite our attire, decided to make the trek from the carpark over the dunes and down to the other end of Birdie Beach. The plan was to photograph the exposed parts of the wreck however as we approached the site we discovered there was a bit more exposed than the wreck.
The site was full of nudists who didn't bat an eyelid as we approached and engaged us in conversation about the history of the wreck.
Needless to say photos of the wreck were not achievable.
portstephenshistory.com/2025/08/07/history-of-the-steamsh...
seapower.navy.gov.au/history/units/hmas-allenwood
www.wikiwand.com/en/HMAS_Allenwood
Photo Credit - Graham Nicholson - Nicholson Family Collection
Took the children down to Swansea City today and we went to the Waterfront Museum, This was one of the many Model ship's on display, all behind glass tried my best to take a pic without any glare off the glass
Floating on a bed of flowers by The Sloop Inn, the skills of the model-maker demonstrated in this replica of the restored Humber Keel, 'Syntan' which moors on Beverley Beck.
boston, massachusetts
october 1970
alexander with r/c boat
charles river esplanade
part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf
© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via flickrmail or nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com
Re-discovered model aircraft carrier, I believe based on HMS Indomitable (launched 1940).
This belonged to my father and was powered by steam, a blowlamp heating a boiler and somehow turning the propellor shaft. Last used well over 70 years ago and now a little worse for wear
2020PAD 39/366 (8/2)