Michelle Daw, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

An important part of Spencer Gulf’s maritime heritage may be lost with the sinking of the Mary Anne Simms in Port Lincoln.

The vessel went down at Snook’s Landing on the weekend of September 6 and 7, possibly due to earlier hull damage from a barge collision and the theft of solar panels that powered its automatic bilge pump.

The Mary Anne Simms was designed and once owned by well-known Yorke Peninsula professional fisher Ben Simms, who died in 2023. He named the vessel after his eldest daughter, now Mary Anne Chapman, of Moonta.

Retired diesel fitter Kevin Masters, of Wallaroo, who served as the boat’s engineer for many years, took it to Port Lincoln about a decade ago with the intention it would be restored as a tourist attraction. Mr Masters said he hoped the boat could be refloated and restored, or at least salvaged for key features such as the wheel and mast with its distinctive blue crow’s nest to be displayed at the Wallaroo Heritage and Nautical Museum.

“It’s a great loss to Spencer Gulf maritime heritage,” Mr Masters said.

“That boat worked out of Moonta, Wallaroo, Port Broughton and Port Lincoln and was unique in many ways.

“It’s disappointing, it should have been looked after.

“It could be brought to the surface but the problem is the engine — they don’t like being underwater.”

Before the sinking, Mr Masters had been preparing to put the vessel on slips in Port Lincoln for initial repairs before sailing it back to Wallaroo for further work and possible display in the local area.

The project would have been conducted on behalf of Sherrie Simms Farmer, Mrs Chapman’s sister, who also lives in Moonta.

The Simms family has deep ties to the region.

Simms Cove, Moonta Bay, is named after patriarch Joseph “Curly” Simms, a former North Sea trawlerman who migrated to South Australia in 1864.

From the cliff tops at Simms Cove, he spotted schools of fish offshore and established his fishing base there. 

Versatile vessel

When the Mary Anne Simms was built in 1957 by RT Searles and Sons of Port Adelaide, it was the largest vessel designed and constructed for the Spencer Gulf fishing fleet.

It was also the first fitted with refrigeration and featured the unusual addition of a sizeable sailing rig, often used to save fuel.

The vessel was built for fisherman and businessman Ben Simms, of Moonta, who served as its only skipper. He later modified it with a wheelhouse and reduced rig so it could operate offshore from the gulf.

The Mary Anne Simms was used for commercial scale fishing, including tuna from Port Lincoln.

It also serviced lighthouses in Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent, assisted with surveys before cables were laid between Kangaroo Island and the mainland, and supported research for a prawn farm at Port Broughton.

In the 1970s, western king prawns were bred in a plankton net off the stern at Simms Cove — the first time the species had been bred in captivity.

In 2012, Mr Simms retired the vessel from fishing and it was listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels.

Ben, his cousin Stephen Simms and Wallaroo businessman Michael Nance oversaw the vessel’s incorporation until 2017.

It was then moved to the Wallaroo marina, but Ben and his daughters were unable to maintain it.

In 2017, the vessel was awarded by tender to a fisher in Port Lincoln.

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 16 September 2025.