MV Cape Don is a lighthouse tender

Lighthouse tender

A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses, or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail and transportation....

, situated as a museum ship

Museum ship

A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...

 in Waverton

Waverton

Waverton is any of the following places:*Waverton, Cheshire, a civil parish in Cheshire, England.*Waverton, Cumbria, a civil parish in Cumbria, England.*Waverton, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia....

, New South Wales, Australia.

Built and launched by the State Dockyard

State Dockyard, Newcastle, New South Wales

The State Dockyard at Dykes Point, Newcastle was built by the New South Wales Government from 1938 until 1941 and opened in 1942 during World War II. The dockyard was constructed using much of the plant and buildings from the former Walsh Island Dockyard and Engineering Works which had ceased...

 at Newcastle, New South Wales in 1962 for the Commonwealth Lighthouse Service, the ship serviced the lighthouses, lightships and bouys of the Australian coast from 1963 to the early 1990s. The ship is being restored by the labour of enthusiasts, to be used as a museum and training ship. the ship is listed on the Australian register historic vessels. She is currently berthed at the old coal loader wharf in Balls Head Bay

Balls Head Bay

Balls Head Bay is a bay located to the east of the Waverton Peninsula and the west of Berry Island, on the north of Sydney Harbour.Previously known as Oyster Bay, Sugarworks Bay and previously Kerosene Bay. is located within the bay....

, Waverton

Waverton

Waverton is any of the following places:*Waverton, Cheshire, a civil parish in Cheshire, England.*Waverton, Cumbria, a civil parish in Cumbria, England.*Waverton, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia....

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

.

Service history

In 1973 Cape Don recovered two anchors from HMS Investigator, which were jettisoned by Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

in 1803.