The wreck of the Dutch trading ship Batavia on her maiden voyage from Holland to The east Indies (Indonesia) is one of the most dramatic in Australia's, if not the world's, maritime history. Batavia's encounter with Western Australia's Abrolhos Islands occurred 141 years before the famous British navigator Lieut. James Cook explored the east coast of Australia. The loss of the Batavia was followed by a mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors, the drama coming to a close with a dramatic showdown between the mutineers and the rescuers.
Go There
Photo: WA Museum
In the early hours of 28 April 1656, the Dutch trading ship Vergulde Draeck (Gilt Dragon) struck a reef five kilometres south of Ledge Point, 100 km north of Perth. Little is known of what actually happened, even less is known about the fate of the survivors. Built in 1653 by the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Vergulde Draeck was a 260-tonne, 42-metre 'jacht'. On 4 October 1655 the Vergulde Draeck sailed from Texel in the Netherlands on only her second voyage, bound for the East Indies (now Indonesia). She was carrying, apart from passengers and crew, cargo, trade goods and silver coins worth 185,000 guilders. She reached the Cape of Good Hope on 9 March 1656 and four days later set sail for Batavia. She never reached her destination.
Go There
On 1 August 1711, the Dutch trading ship Zuytdorp left its home port Wielingen in Zeeland (Netherlands) with 286 people on board, bound for the trading port of Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). It was also carrying a cargo of trade goods and silver including some 248,000 guilders in newly minted coins for the VOC. The Zuytdorp left the Cape of Good Hope, Table Bay, on 22 April 1712, but never arrived at its destination. Their fate was unknown until the 20th century when the wreck site was discovered on a remote part of the Western Australian coast between Kalbarri and Shark Bay. Numerous relics have been found over the years, indicating there were survivors, but what happened to them remains a mystery.
Go There
Note: no image exists of the Sydney Cove.
Sydney Cove was the Bengal country ship Begum Shaw that new owners purchased in 1796 to carry goods to Sydney Cove, and renamed for her destination. She was wrecked in February 1797 on Preservation Island off Tasmania while on her way from Calcutta to Port Jackson. She was among the first ships wrecked on the east coast of Australia. Neighbouring Rum Island was so named because much of the cargo of the Sydney Cove was rum, and was stored there away from the survivors! Leaving about 30 survivors with the wreckage, a party of seventeen men set off on in the ship's longboat to reach help at Port Jackson, 400 nautical miles (740 km) away. Their story is one of Australia's most dramatic tales of adventure and survival.
Go There
In May 1836, the Stirling Castle (Capt. James Frazer) with 17 passengers and crew set sail from Sydney to Singapore. Some days later, Stirling Castle ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. As she started sinking slowly, they went into 2 boats. James Frazer, accompanied by his highly pregnant wife Eliza decided to make it back southwards, to Moreton (now Brisbane). After a horrifying journey of 1 month at sea, during which Eliza gave birth to a child (that soon died), they decided to beach their badly leaking boat at Great Sandy Island, now known as Fraser Island.
Go There
The Dunbar was a wooden full rigged ship, built in Sunderland England, in 1853. Shortly before midnight on 20th August 1858, the Dunbar was reckoned to be about 10 km off the entrance, extra lookouts were posted. Breakers were seen right ahead; an attempt was made to claw off the land, but the ship was too close in and carrying too little sail to have any chance. It struck the rocks and was hurled almost broadside on to the cliffs just north of the signal station, midway between the lighthouse and The Gap, resulting in one of Australia's worst maritime disasters. An anchor from the Dunbar is on display at The Gap above the wrecksite.
Go There
There have been many tragic shipwrecks in Australia's history but few have been worse than that of the Loch Ard, which came to grief of Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. The Loch Ard was a clipper, a long fast passenger carrying sailing ship. The Loch Ard was an iron clipper ship, which was built in the Clyde by Barklay, Curle and Company in 1873. She was described as being 1693 tons gross weight, and was 263 feet 7 inches long, 38 feet 3 inches wide (beam) and 23 feet depth. Her masts were almost 150 high, and she was launched on 8th November 1873.
Go There
Though the story of the wreck of the Maheno is not as dramatic as some, the wreck itself is quite famous as the ship's remains can still be seen and approached at close range on a beach on Queensland's Fraser Island. The 5,000-ton steel-hulled ship was built by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton, Scotland, and launched on 19 June 1905. It was powered by three Parsons turbines, giving a spe
Go There
In 1963 Greek freighter named Alkimos ran aground several times along the coast of Western Australia, beginning on a reef off Beagle Island 240 kilometres north of Perth on March 20 and finally stranding itself 56 kilometres north of Perth near Quinns Rocks. This was only the final act in a 20 year career from its launch in October 1943 - a career marked by mishap after mishap, until finally embedding itself not just on the reef it now has become an integral part, but in the anals of maritime mythology as a haunted, jinxed ship. Under all of its names - it had three - it ran aground numerous times, as if pursuing an itinerant passage from reef to reef, compelled to ground itself into the landscape, never settling down, propelling itself onwards towards its eventual grounding.
Go There
The collision of the Australian Daring Class Destroyer HMAS Voyager and the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne on the 10th February 1964 is considered as Australia's worst peacetime naval disaster. HMAS Voyager weighing 3,658 tonnes was operating as 'Plane Guard' for the Royal Australian Navy's flagship, Aircraft Carrier HMAS Melbourne, in excersies (night flying ops) when it tragically crossed the bows of HMAS Melbourne, weighing 20,322 tonnes, at 8:56pm just off Point Perpendicular, Jervis Bay. Traveling at approximately 22 knots, it took HMAS Melbourne about three seconds to cut through HMAS Voyager, slicing her in half near the bridge and sending 82 officers and men to their deaths.
Go There
George Bass (1771 - 1803) was a bold, intrepid character. Reports describe him as handsome, dark complexioned (he apparently wore glasses according to the description his father-in-law provided after George disappeared), and was six-feet tall. He was 'lively, strong minded, enterprising, well-humoured and physically very strong. He loathed inactivity and despised danger. After seven years exploring and charting the coasts of Australia, George prepared for his final voyage, homeward bound to England via South America with a cargo of contraband). He departed Port Jackson on the Venus on 5th February 1803, but was never seen again.
Go There
Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, was born on 23 August, 1741 near Albi, France. He entered the Navy when he was fifteen, and fought the British off North America in the Seven Years' War. Later he served in North America, India and China. La Pérouse was a great admirer of James Cook, so when he was commissioned by Louis XVI of France to lead a French expedtion to the Pacific, it went without saying that his voyage would include a sojourn at Botany Bay, which Cook had explored 18 years earlier. Upon arrival there, he encountered Captain Arthur Phillip and the ships of the First Fleet. After spending 6 weeks at Botany Bay, he departed for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, and the Louisiades, but his two ships were never to be seen again.
Go There
Design by W3layouts
