MV Lady Denman

As a steamer, 1920s
History
Australia
Name	Lady Denman
Operator	Balmain New Ferry Company, Sydney Ferries Ltd, Sydney Harbour Transport Board, Public Transport Commission
Builder	Joseph Dent, Huskisson
Launched	5 December 1911
Completed	1912
Out of service	1979
Identification	O/N 131510[1]
Fate	donated for preservation
General characteristics
Tonnage	96 tons
Length	33.7 m
Beam	7.6 m
Decks	2
Propulsion	38 hp compound steam, diesel (from 1936)
Speed	11 knots as built, 9 knots as diesel
Capacity	500 passengers

Lady Denman is a former Sydney Harbour ferry built in 1912 for the Balmain New Ferry Company. She was later run by Sydney Ferries Limited and its government successors. She is now preserved at the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum near her original build site in Huskisson, New South Wales, Australia.^[2]

She and four similar ferries, Lady Chelmsford (1910), Lady Edeline (1913), Lady Ferguson (1914), and Lady Scott (1914), were a new series of "Lady-class", designed by naval architect, Walter Reeks. The five survived the 1932 opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and were all converted to diesel power that decade. They also survived the 1951 NSW State Government takeover of the ailing ferry fleet. Lady Denman was removed from ferry service in 1979 and donated for preservation. She is the last extant double-ended timber ferry, a type that was once prolific on Sydney Harbour.

Continuing a Balmain Ferry Co convention of naming their ferries after the wives of Governors-General of Australia and Governors of NSW, Lady Denman was named after Gertrude Denman, wife of fifth Governor-General of Australia. This naming nomenclature was again used by the State Government harbour ferry operator with the introduction of 6 new "Lady-class ferries" in the 1960s and 1970s.