The restoration of the century-old Tasmanian passenger ferry Cartela has hit a setback, with the vessel taking on water and partially submerging. Despite the challenge, volunteers remain confident it can be salvaged and restored.
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00:00The historic car-tealer has been berthed at Franklin in Tasmania's Huon Valley for the
00:07past 10 years, but plans to restore the passenger steamship have hit a snag.
00:13The ship has been taking on water, leaving it partially submerged.
00:17The onboard alarm system failed to notify volunteers that there was a problem.
00:22The pumps stopped working, we don't know why, but we will be investigating that.
00:29Volunteers have been coming down to the waterfront sharing their memories of the steamship.
00:34Going across from Highbar to Belray where we grew up, it's part of so many people's
00:40lives.
00:41Who knows what they're going to do with her now.
00:43The car-tealer was built in 1912, the same year as the Titanic, but volunteers are determined
00:51it won't share the same fate.
00:54The passenger ship operated until 2014.
00:57It ferried people across the River Derwent after Hobart's Tasman Bridge collapse in 1975.
01:04It's also had a life as a function venue, hosting weddings and other events.
01:09We remembered the time we had a church service on it.
01:13A $1 million Tasmanian Government grant was secured two years ago to begin to restore
01:18the boat, but it's taken time for work to start.
01:22It's a complex issue restoring a vessel of that size.
01:27A salvage crew is confident it can re-float Tasmania's last river steamer, but it's likely
01:33to further delay and add to the cost of the plan to return the car-tealer to the River
01:38Derwent with passengers on board.