The First Fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay with three ships on 18-20 January 1788, and on 26 January raised the British flag at Sydney Cove,  Port Jackson. The great city of Sydney grew from that day, initially with convict residents, then free men and women seeking a better life than in not-so-merry England. Gold found in Victoria and New South Wales in 1851 and the imigration boom was on. Hundreds of ship, barques, briogs and barquentuines left England loaded with hopes and the aspirations of many. Some did not make, being lost not far from home, or on the long three-month voyage out. Some came within a day of their destination, only to find their vessel shattered to pieces beneath them  on the cliffs off the heads to Sydney Harbour, or on the Victorian  and King Island west coasts. So near, yet so far.  Published books on Australian shipwrecks tend to include only thosse vessels lost off our own coastline.

That is fine if we consider the wrecking of a ship only as a material event. But it is the people that matter, and there is no lesser tragedy for those who have lost their life within Australian waters, than those who perhaps did not make it out of the Irish Sea, or the English Channel. This listing is based on a book, yet to be published, that covers the vessels that have been lost on The Australian Run. They are the convict ships of the ealry 19th century, the immigration ships of the mid-19th century, the freight transports of later years - those veesls that were on their way Australia from the United Kingdom, or on their way back home. The book is the sixth and final volume in the Australian Shipwrecks series, called The Australia Run, by Jack Loney and Peter Stone. The base manusscript was completed by Jack before he died in 1995.  His good friend and prior collaborator Peter Stone completed Jack's work.

Unlike so many books on shipwrecks, there are not so many of the smaller vessels listed here. Most were of at least 200 tons (small enough under the circumstances), and all had a hazzardous journey. Life on board, for crew and passenger, was only slightly eased with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Prior to that, vessels took the Great Circle Route south of the Cape of Good Hope, venturing into the cold Southern Ocean, and attempted to 'thread the eye of the needle', to pass through the narrow entrance into Bass Strait and on to Melbourne and Sydney. Many did not make it.

When you read the losses of the immigration ships, consider this. Every loss affected you personally. From a social athropology view, each individual loss meant a change in your destiny. Had the auxiliary-steamer London not foundered in the Bay of Biscay in 1866 on her third voyage to Australia, with the loss of 244 lives, you would not be sitting there right now reading this. Indeed, I would not have been writing it. Where would you be now if the Hibernia had not caught fire in 1833 in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of 153 lives; or if the convict ship, Waterloo, had not wrecked ashore at Table Bay, South Africa, August 1842, with the loss fo 190 lives. The greatest loss of life on the Australia run was that of the wooden ship Cosptarick, 1220 tons, which caught fire in the southern Atlantic off Cape of Good Hope in 1874. Four hundred and seventy people lost their life under horrible cicumstances  - there were only three survivors. Next came the iron ship Tayleur, 1750 tons, lost only two days into her journey from Liverpool to Australia in 1854. Three hundred and eighty lives were lost. And, undfortunately, there were many more vessels lost with hundreds of passengers and crew.

References.
Australian Shipwrecks Volume Six  (the book) will cover some of the vessels on The Australian Run that were lost in Australian waters. This internet listing includes only those vessels that were lost on the Australian run outside Australian waters. Refer to the regional listings for further wrecks. Loney and Stone [AS6] is therefore the basic of the listing, with additional information from Gregory [DG], and Noble [NH]. Starkey [HS] is the definitive work on the loss of the Tayleur.
[775 records]

Ada Melmore. Barque, 571 tons. Collided with and sank the emigrant vessel Kapunda, 1887. She herslef sustained serious damaged and was abandoned eight days later.   [AS6]

Adelaide. Auxiliary steamer, 1124 tons. One of the vessels owned and operated by the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company on a two-monthly service between London and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.  [WL]

Adelaide. Brig. Brought survivors of the burnt ship Hibernia to Hobart from Rio de Janeiro, 1833.  [AS6]

Admiral Courbet. Steel barque, 2233 tons. Built at Nantes, France, 1900. Lbd 277.9 x 40.6 x 22.6 ft.  From Cork, Ireland, to Albany, Western Australia, stranded and lost on the Irish coast near Cork, 20 October 1915.   [AS6]

Admiral Karpfanger. Steel barque, 2853 tons. Built in 1908 as the L’Avenir. Lbd 278.2 x 44.8 x 26.5 ft. Commenced her career as a training ship, first entered the Australian grain trade in 1923, then in 1930 was purchased by Gustaf Erikson and ran in the annual grain race home to England for several years. In 1937 was acquired by the Hamburg-Amerika Company as a training ship for officer cadets and sailed under the German flag as the Admiral Karpfanger. On 8 February 1938 she left Port Germein, South Australia, with thirty-three cadets, a crew of thirty-three and 42,549 bags of wheat, participating as usual in the annual grain race. She reported her position near the Auckland islands south of new Zealand on 1 March; after acknowledging  a radio signal on 11 March 1938, was never heard of again. SS Nordderch, the Argentine survey ship Bahia Banca, and the Chilean steamer Galvarino carried out searches with no success. She may have struck an iceberg, or struck one of the numerous outcrops of uncharted rocks near the Ile de Fonso Islets. Another theory which received little support was that she was manned by Nazis preparing for war, and her real mission was to establish a base in the far south for commerce raiders before being deliberately scuttled.  [AS6]

Aeneas. Involved in rescue - see SS Ayrshire, 1926.  [AS6]

Agamemnon. Barque-rigged screw steamer, 2345/1490 tons. Lbd 309 x 38-8 x 29 ft.  One of three steamers to form  Alfred Holt’s Ocean Steamship Company, operating as the Blue Funnel Line, in 1866.  [WL]

Agamemnon. Wooden ship, 1431 tons. Reg. Blackwall near London. Lbd 252.3 x 36.2 x 23.2 ft. Ran to India before entering the Australian passenger trade. On the way out to New Zealand, she was condemned at Cape Town and converted to a hulk, 1872.  [AS6]

Ajax. Barque-rigged screw steamer, 2345/1490 tons. Lbd 309 x 38-8 x 29 ft.  One of three steamers to form  Alfred Holt’s Ocean Steamship Company, operating as the Blue Funnel Line, in 1866.  [WL]

Albatross. Type unknown. Brought the first shipment of gold from the new Victorian fields to England, arriving in Liverpool on 31 August 1852.  [AS6]

Albert Rickmers. Steel barque, 2019 tons.  Built in 1905. Renamed Penang..   [AS6]

Alfhild. Wheat ship. Built 1868. Hulked after dismasting, 1925. [LM]

Alice Davies. Three masted barque, 608 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1868. Was leaving the Mersey for Adelaide with a general cargo when rammed and sunk by SS Cherbourg, 21 November 1878. Five lives lost.  [AS6]

Alice. British barque.  Assisted the stricken steamer Waikato in the Indian Ocean, 1899 with additional supplies. [NH]

Allanshaw. Iron ship of 1674 tons, built in 1874 and registered at Glasgow. She was on a voyage from Liverpool to Calcutta with salt.  [AS6]

Allegiance. Iron barque, 1236 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1876. Lbd 217.5 x 36.7 x 22 ft. Captain W. Evans. Left Greenock for Sydney on 3 October 1900, and experienced an uneventful voyage until 19 November when on fire in the south Atlantic. Twenty tons of gunpowder jettisoned immediately, but after being abandoned, she blew up. The two boats set a course for Rio de Janeiro about 11,000 kilometres away, but were picked up next day by the German barque Louise, from New York to Japan, and landed at Cape Town.  [AS6]

Amagh. Steel steamer, 12269 tons. Built in 1917 for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Lbd 530.5 x 63 x 39.9 ft. At the commencement of a voyage from Liverpool to Brisbane and Adelaide with a full cargo, ninety-nine crew, three passengers and four stowaways, the Amagh struck a retaining wall near the entrance to the Mersey River and remained fast, 15 December 1923. As the tide fell the weight of the ship’s cargo broke her back and she became a total loss.  [AS6]

Amarapoora. Steel steamer, 9306 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1920. Renamed Captain Hobson.  [AS6]

America. Convict transport, 391 tons . Wrecked near Timor on 20 June 1831 when bound from Sydney to England, via Batavia. Survivors from her were landed at Sydney by the Government brig Governor Phillips on 15 October. Another version says she struck a reef near Bunker Island off the Queensland coast and the crew all reached Moreton Bay on 27 July 1831.  [AS6]

America. Iron ship, 1504 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1872. Renamed Loch Laggan, disappeared 1875.  [AS6]

Amherst. Whaler. Involved in rescue - see General Grant, 1866.  [AS6]

Amphrite. Convict transport, 208 tons. Captain John Hunter. Left London for Sydney on 25 August 1833 with one hundred and six convict women, ten of their children, the wife of the ship’s surgeon, and a crew of nineteen. Soon after sailing a storm forced her off course, and then in a calm she drifted ashore in Boulogne Harbour on the French coast. It was low tide and a pilot boat offered to take off the entire ship's complement but her master refused, believing the women would be difficult to control once ashore, and in any case the ship was expected to float free on the high tide. A French sailor who knew the treachery of the tides along the coast and realised the ship was in grave danger swam out to her and offered to take a line ashore. His offer was also declined by both master and surgeon; then as the tide flooded in the Amphrite pounded heavily and within a few hours broke in two, going to pieces in a few minutes. Only three seamen who floated ashore on a piece of wreckage were saved.  [AS6],[#AS1]

Andrina. Four masted iron ship of 2636 tons, built in 1886.  [AS6]

Anitra. French ketch. Acompetitor in the Parmelia race from Plymouth to Fremantle, commemorating the voyage to the colony of Western Australia by Captain Stirling in the barque Parmelia about 150 years earlier, had almost reached Fremantle when she was wrecked on Rottnest Island, 26 November 1979.  [AS6]

Anjou. Steel barque, 2069 tons. Built at Nantes, France, 1899. Lbd 263.5 x 39 x 22.5 ft. Captain A. Le Telloc. On 22 January 1905, left Sydney for Falmouth with; wrecked near Cape Bustow in the Auckland Islands, 5 February 1905. The crew of twenty-two remained on board until morning when they lowered the undamaged boats and eventually landed at Carnley Harbour in the Auckland Islands after a hard row. Rescued by steamer Hinemoa on her regular call, 7 May.  [AS6]

Ann Gambles. Barque, 424 ton. On her third voyage from London to New Zealand, parted her cables during a gale at Bluff, New Zealand and went ashore, 17 May 1879. Attempts to refloat her failed and she became a total wreck.  [AS6]

Anna Robertson. Vessel of  441 tons. Left London for Melbourne on 5 April 1852 and was not seen again. A ship similar in appearance was seen to founder off the Cape of Good Hope in August.  [AS6]

Anna. Three masted steel barque, 1612 tons. Built in 1896. Originally named Lindley, then Anna, then Janna when she disappeared between Sydney and London, 1921.  [AS6]

Annamooka. Involved in rescue - see ship Polar Star, 1855.   [AS6]

Anne. Type unknown. Captain Cadegan. From Sydney to Ireland, was lost in the Severn (east England, an ‘extension’ of the Bristol Channel), 25 April 1833. No loss of life.   [AS6]

Annesley. Three masted iron barque, 1694 tons. Built as the British Enterprise at Stockholm, 1876. Lbd 246 x 40.1 x 23.9 ft. Owned by Shaw Saville and Co. Although a very fast ship she had the reputation for taking a life on almost every voyage in the last few years of her service. From Australia to England, wrecked on Tuskar South Rock off the Irish coast, December 1910. All saved. Her master was washed overboard and drowned during the same voyage when she.  [AS6]

Annie White. Barque. Involved in rescue - see barque Irene, 1854.   [AS6]

Antilles. Involved in rescue - see brig Nina, 1853.   [AS6]

Arab. Three masted wooden barque, 291 tons. Built 1827. Left London for Launceston in January 1843 but failed to arrive.  [AS6]

Archibald Russell. Wheat ship. Built 1905. Broken up 1948. [LM]

Ardandearg. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see SS Fifeshire, lost near Aden, 1911.  [AS6]

Arden Hall. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see SS King Cadwallan, lost off South Africa, 1929.  [AS6]

Ardencraig. Ship, 2153 tons. Built 1886. Lbd 277.7 x 40 x 24.9 ft Owned by Edmiston & Mitchell; in 1907 by Crawford & Rowat. From Melbourne to Falmouth with grain, called at Queenstown, Ireland in January 1911; struck Crim Rocks in the Scilly Islands in foggy weather, January 1911. All saved.
In 1907, collided with and sank the barque Norma at Semaphore, South Australia..  [AS6]

Ariel. Composite ship, 1058 tons. Built at Greenock, 1865 for the China tea trade. Lbd 197.4 x 33.9 x 21 ft. Probably best remembered for the famous Tea Race of 1866 when she and the Taipeng docked in London within twenty minutes of each other. The opening of the Suez Canal sounded the death knell for the wind driven tea clippers as the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope was no longer profitable, and Ariel joined others carrying wool from Australia. On 31 January 1872, the Ariel left London for Sydney under the command of Captain Cachenaille, but failed to arrive at her destination. Shipping authorities believed she had broached to and foundered in heavy seas.  [AS6]
Ariel. Composite hulled, full-rigged clipper ship, 853 tons. # 52743. Built at Greenock, Scotland, 1865; reg. London. Lbd 197.4 x 33.9 x 21.0 ft. Captain Talbot. Well known for her speed and beautiful lines, the Ariel sailed from London for Sydney on 31 January 1872 but failed to arrive.  Around August 1872 the remains of a teak-built ship’s boat, the only marking being a brass mounting bearing a gothic-script ‘A’ was found on the north-west coast of King Island. Otherwise, there has been no trace of the ship, nor her  crew and passengers. [TS1]

Arrow. Steel four masted barque, 3047 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1902. Renamed Parma in 1912.  [AS6]

Ashleigh-brook. Vessel of 1875 tons. Built at Stockholm, 1882. Lbd 325 x 38 x 26.5 ft. From Cardiff to Rockhampton, was wrecked on Dassen Island, South Africa, 24 May 1890. Within two days the fore part of her hull had disappeared as she broke up.  [AS6]

Ashmount. Steel steamer, 3109 tons. Built in 1904. Lbd 319.6 x 46.5 x 23 ft. Owned by Ashmount Steamship Co’, then Messes Hope & Sloane when lost. Captain McDowall. Out of Adelaide for Liverpool, wrecked  between Fish Point lighthouse and Stalwart Point, 5 April 1905.  [AS6]

Asiatic. Barque, 506 tons. Master A.S. Waddell. Loaded with wool, wheat and copper ore, from Adelaide to London, ran into a severe storm when approaching the South African coast and eventually struggled into Algoa Bay battling to remain afloat. In a stiff south easterly she parted her cables on 9 June 1850 and went ashore with the loss of three lives.  [AS6],[AS1]

Asloun. Steamship, 2828 tons. Captain Barnet. Towed the disabled steamship Waikato 2521 miles from the southern Indian Ocean to Fremantle in 22 days, in 1899. [#NH]

Assaye. Iron barque, 1351 tons. Built at Greenock, 1868. Lbd 227.4 x 35.9 x 24 ft. Under charter to the New Zealand Shipping Company. Left London for Wellington on 16 February 1890; last spoken near the equator on 16 March. Early in September wreckage and cargo from her was found on the Chatham Islands. The Government steamer Hinemoa reported sighting wreckage on one of the Snares.  [AS6]

Astraea. German barque, 514 tons. From London to Normanton, Queensland, was sighted off Port Darwin but not seen again, 1884.  [AS6]

Astronomer. Barque, 1119 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1859. Lbd 191 x 34.2 x 23 ft. From Adelaide to Dublin with wheat when lost on Poole Rocks, Freshwater Bay near Milford Haven, 21 March 1886. Heavy seas soon destroyed all chances of salvage and she quickly broke her back before going to pieces.  [AS6]

Atlantis. Motor vessel of 7862 tons, built in l937 and converted to an armed merchant raider during World War 2. Between March 1940 and November 1941 she sank or captured 22 Allied ships, until sunk by H.M.S. Devonshire near Ascension Island.  [AS6]

Auch Mountain. Steel three-masted barque, 1456 tons. Built at Greenock, Scotland, 1892. While loading a cargo intended for New Zealand at the Greenock wharf a fire broke out on board and 20 tons of gunpowder exploded, completely destroying her, 3 September 1892. No lives were lost.  [AS6]

Auguste. Three masted iron barque, German, 1527 tons. Built 1871. Lbd 208.3 x 40 x 25.6 ft. From Fremantle to London with a cargo of jarrah timber, wrecked at Atherfield, Isle of Wight, 15 February 1900.  [AS6]

Aurora. Dutch barque. Involved in rescue - see Magaera, 1871.  [AS6]

Aurora. Iron ship, 1857 tons. Built at Greenock, 1874 for the Orient Line. Lbd 261.9 x 39.5 x 23.6 ft. Fire, caused by spontaneous combustion in the cargo of wool, caused the Aurora to be abandoned in flames, with her fore and mainmasts gone,, in latitude 40ON, longitude 35OW, 9 August 1875.  [AS6]

Australia, (HMAS). Cruiser of 9850 tons displacement completed at Clydebank in 1927. Paid off in August 1954.  [AS6]

Australia. Auxiliary steamer, 735 tons. One of the vessels owned and operated by the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company on a two-monthly service between London and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.  [WL]

Australia. Brig, 250 tons. Built at Dundee, 1839. Captain Yule.  From Leith to South Australia on her maiden voyage, caught fire when about 800 km west of the Cape of Good Hope, 27 December 1840. The fifteen passengers and thirteen crew took to the boats only a short time before she was totally engulfed by the flames. A boy died while the boats were at sea and a man died after they landed at Olifants River following nine days at sea. Local farmers helped the survivors to reach Cape Town and some eventually arrived in Melbourne in the ship Byhar.  [AS6],[AS1]

Australian Empress. From Liverpool to Melbourne, reported lost on the way out to Australia, February 1853.   [AS6]

Australian. (Australia). Wooden ship, 1016 tons. Built 1866. Lbd 199 x 34.7 x 20.5 ft. On a voyage from Sydney to London, wrecked on the eastern coast of Brazil, near the River Continguba, 23 October 1869. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Avalanche. Three masted iron barque, 1210 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1874. Lbd 214.6 x 36 x 21.1 ft. Captains Bishop and Williams. Left Gravesend on 8 September 1877 for Wellington with sixty- three passengers, comprising emigrants and families returning to New Zealand, a crew of thirty- five, and cargo valued at almost £100,000. A few hours later the Forest, carrying only 600 tons of ballast and a crew of twenty-one set out for Sandy Hook, Nova Scotia. In a gale which reduced visibility, the Forest struck the Avalanche amidships almost cutting her in two, and foundered in less than five minutes, a few miles off Bill of Portland, England. Only three survivors. The badly damaged Forest struggled to remain afloat while three boats were launched. The gale took its toll. One boat was never seen again, a second, overwhelmed by the sea was found later overturned on Chesil Beach. The third, carrying the captain, third mate, seven seamen, and the three survivors from the Avalanche, afraid to risk a landing in the high seas waited until two Portland fishing boats helped it ashore. Of a total of one hundred and nineteen on the two ships, only twelve remained and very few bodies were recovered. An inquiry later found both captains equally to blame for the collision. The wreck of the Forest was found shortly after the disaster and destroyed, but the Avalanche was not located until 1983.   [AS6]

Awarua. Steamer, sealing vessel, 45 tons. Involved in rscue - see Derry Castle, 1887.  [AS6]

Ayrshire. Steel steamer, 9188 tons. Built 1903. Lbd 460 x 58.8 x 31.89 ft. Owned by the Scottish Shire Line which had vessels trading between England, Australia and New Zealand from the early days of steamships. Left Australia for England in November 1926 with a cargo of wheat, wool, and meat; on 26 November, when about five hundred kilometres from Colombo, a fire broke out in her bunkers. As the flames shot up more than fifty metres, the crew were rescued by the City of Nagpur and Aeneas, while the naval sloop Lupin took her in tow. However the rudder on the Ayrshire jammed and the tow was abandoned, leaving her to be scuttled on 2 December 1926.  [AS6]

Babcock. American ship. Involved in rescuee - see barque Merope, 1890.   [AS6]

Bahia Banca. Argentine survey ship. Searched for the lost barque Admiral Karpfanger without success, 1938.  [AS6]

Barbara Gordon. Wooden, three masted barque, 338 tons. From Port Adelaide to London, struck a reef east of Guinness Point, Cape Agulhas, 5 May 1853. Five adults and a child were drowned while trying to reach shore on a raft.  [AS6]

Bardic. Steel steamship, 8010 ton. Built at Belfast, 1919. Lbd  450.4 x 58.4 x 37.2 ft. From Australia to England, wrecked on Fastnet Rock off Ireland, 2 September 1924.  [AS6]

Belmore. Tug, steel steamer, 168 tons. Built in 1902, as the Flying Scout. Left Glasgow for Sydney on her delivery voyage on 30 May 1908; foundered in the Gulf of Suez during a storm, 18 June 1908. Of her crew of eleven, seven including the captain lost their lives.  [AS6]

Beltona. Barque. Involved in rescue - see ship Royal Edward, 1886.   [AS6]

Ben Lee. Steel ship, 2341 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1893. Lbd 284.5 x 42.2 x 24.5 ft. Owned by J. J. Rae of Liverpool. Shortly after leaving Liverpool for Sydney, run down and sunk by the American steamer St. Paul about thirty kilometres south west of Southstock, January, 1916. Crew of twenty-nine saved. The Ben Lee settled deep in the water but did not sink; minesweepers towed her to Holyhead where she was anchored in five fathoms where she sank, drowning a watchman. She lay on the sea bed until the end of World War 1 when she was raised, towed to Liverpool and converted to a hulk.  [AS6]

Ben Nevis. Ship of 1347 tons, built in 1852 and registered at Liverpool.  [AS6]

Ben Venue. Iron ship, 2090 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1884. Lbd 289.2 x 42.4 x 24.1ft. From London to Sydney, ashore in heavy weather at Sandgate on the coast of Kent, England, 11 November 1891. She was being towed down channel, when the tow rope broke. The Dover and Sandgate lifeboats and local rocket crews attended, one lifeboat capsizing in the high seas drowning several of the crew. The captain, his wife, and three others were lost off the ship. Later, the vessel was dismantled where she lay.  [AS6]

Ben Venue. Vessel of 999 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1867. Lbd 210 x 35.1 x 20.7 ft.  Wrecked at Caroline Bay, New Zealand, 14 May 1882.  [AS6]

Bengal. Barque, 428 tons. Foundered in the Tasman Sea during a voyage from Australia to England, 5 April 1872. No loss off life.  [AS6]

Berengaria. Vessel of 1318 tons. Built 1864. Lbd 239.9 x 36.9 x 22.2 ft. From Melbourne to Sunderland with a cargo of wheat, struck on the Galloper Sand off Ramsgate, England, 1 December 1884. Twelve crew, including the master, drowned; two hundred and fourteen reached safety.
On 3 February 1883, from London to Melbourne, ran ashore near Barwon Heads, Victoria, and had large quantities of cargo which included beer and spirits jettersoned to lighten her. About three thousand people travelled to the scene and defied Customs Officers and mounted police in the wish to obtain supplies of liquor. Buckets, jugs, bottles and even pig tubs were filled with spirits, and many applied their mouths to the bung holes of the casks and drank until they reeled over on the sand in a helplessly drunken condition and had to be dragged beyond reach of the tide. Numbers of young men, when they could drink no more, went so far as to wash their hands, faces and feet in the buckets of brandy and whisky.  [AS6]

Bertram Rigby. Iron barque, 1295 tons. Built at Hull, 1864; reg. Bremen, Germany. Lbd 209 x 34.2 x 23.5 ft. Left Sydney for London on 4 October 1894, was spoken in South Atlantic  on 1 December 1894 then not seen again.  [AS6]

Betsy & Sophia. This whaler left England on a sealing voyage under the command of Captain Fotheringham on 3 June 1830. Her master died, then she was almost lost while anchored off Prince Edward Island. She was wrecked while leaving Desolation Island in the Kerguelen Group, southern Indian Ocean, 16 March 1831. In six months the survivors, under first mate Peter Paterson, had built a sloop of about 20 tons, named Liberty, from the wreckage. Fourteen put to sea on 6 December 1831 and made Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania on 3 February 1832, then Hobart on 14 December. Five men remained on Desolation Island as they feared the seaworthiness of the Liberty, and were picked up by the vessel Ocean on 5 March 1832.  [AS6],[AS1]

Biarritz. Ship, 1824 tons. Left England for Hobart on 10 October 1907, and was never seen again.  [AS6]

Blervie Castle. Wooden ship, 616 tons.  Built 1857. Owned by Duncan Dunbar. Left London for Adelaide in 1859; was seen in the English Channel on Christmas night, then disappeared with all hands, numbering fifty-seven. Her hull was later located near the Ridge Sands in the English Channel and bodies and cargo washed ashore on the French coast.  [AS6]

Blue Jacket. Wooden ship, 1790 tons. Built 1854. Lbd 235 x 41.6 x 24 ft. Fifteen years on the Australian run, regarded as one of the fastest vessels of her day. Left Lyttelton, New Zealand for Liverpool with seventy-one passengers and crew, and gold valued at £63,390; and an equal cargo of wool, tallow, flax and skins. Abandoned when fire took hold in her cargo, 9 March 1869. Thirty-six survivors were picked up after a week by the German barque Pyramont, and a second boat with three occupants was found three weeks later. However, thirty-two lost their lives. The Blue Jacket figurehead, a blue-jacketed sailor, complete with cutlass and round tarpaulin hat, badly charred, but still recognisable, was washed ashore on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, on 8 December 1871, having drifted from the vicinity of Cape Horn in twenty-one months. It was returned to Lyttelton.  [AS6]

Bornholm. Steel steamship, oil fired vessel of 3177 tons, built at Copenhagen in 1930.  [AS6]

Bougainville. Escort/Patrol vessel of 2156 tons displacement, completed in 1931.  [AS6]

Bourneuf. Wooden ship of 1495 tons.  [AS6]

Boyd. Convict transport. Captain Thompson. Cleared the Thames 10 March 1809, arrived Port Jacksson 14 August. Returned to England via New Zealand, with seventy Europeans and five Maoris working their passage from Sydney to home. One of the latter was a chief’s son who refused to work, so he was not fed.  On arrival at Whangaroa where Thompson expected to load timber, he and a party of men were massacred by the Maori chief. Other Maoris attacked the ship and slaughtered the passengers. Intriqued by a keg of grey powder, a Maori warrior ignited a flame and blew himself , his chief and fourteen off his comrades to the heavens. The Boyd sank in flames. The City of Edinburgh, also loading timber nearby, sailed with just four survivors. [#JH]

Brechin Castle. Barque, 371 tons. Built at Dundee, 1844. Master T.R.Baxter. Left Adelaide for Swansea and London late in October 1846 with passengers and a cargo of copper ore, but was wrecked on the Welsh coast near Mumbles Head, 20 February 1847. All passengers and crew lost, estimated to number between twenty and twenty-six.  [AS6],[AS1]

Brisbane. Paddle steamer. Built in England for the Australian Steam Navigation Company, was lost during her voyage out to Australia having departed 17 January 1855.  [AS6]

Brisbane. Steamship, iron vessel of 1503 tons, built at Glasgow in 1874 on dimensions of 281.3 x 32.2 x 17.6ft. She stranded on Fish Reef near Darwin in October 1881 and became a total loss.  [AS6]

Brisk. HMS. Searched for two boatss from the burning Fiery Star off Chatham Islands, withjout success, 1865.   [AS6]

Britannia. Took mutineer Kelly, from the brig Venus, to England, from New Zealand, 1806. [NH]

British Commerce. Vessel of 1463 tons. Built Glasgow, 1874. Lbd 246.2 x 37.2 x 21.4ft.  Bound from London to Melbourne, sank in the English Channel  following a collision with the SS City (or County) of Aberdeen, 24 April 1883. Twenty-five lives lost; the steamer from Calcutta to London, rescued the captain and boatswain, the only survivors  [AS6]

British Enterprise. Three masted iron barque. Renamed - see Annesley, lost off the Irish coast, 1910.  [AS6]

British Isles. Steel ship of 2461 tons, built at Port Glasgow in 1884.  [AS6]

British Merchant. Wooden ship, 913 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1857. While lying at Smith’s Wharf, (Port Jackson, Sydney), loading a cargo for London, was destroyed by fire, 2 September 1860. When fire hoses proved ineffective she was towed to Cremorne Point, (within Port Jackson), and allowed to burn to the water line.  [AS6]

British Navy. Vessel of 1263 tons. Built 1869. Lbd 216 x 35.5 x 25.2 ft. Registered at Liverpool. (How did they manage to register a name like that!!). On 25 November 1881 following a collision with the ship Larnaca, sailing from London to Sydney, sank off Deal, drowning several of her passengers and crew.  [AS6]

British Queen. Involved in rescue - see Loch Earn, 1873.   [AS6]

British Sceptre. Involved in rescue - see Cospatrick, southern Atlantic, 1874.   [AS6]

British Sovereign. Barque. Owned by Ben Boyd; used in the sandalwood trade. Vessel believed wrecked  in the New Hebrides, and all but two of the crew killed by natives. [NH]

Broxbornebury. Transport. Assisted the convict ship Surry by supplying crew to bring her in to Port Jackson after most of the crew of the Surry had contracted typhus fever, 1814. [NH]

Buffalo. Captain John Hindmarsh.  With 160 emigrants, arrived at Port Lincoln on 17 December, 1836  to establish a new colony in South Australia. The party soon moved on to Holdfast Bay, arriving 28 December, where the colony was established, the foundation for the city of Adelaide.  [AS6]

Burhampooter. Wooden vessel of 550 tons. Built  1841. Captain Crowley.  With bounty emigrants for Melbourne was swept ashore by a gale at Margate, England, 18 October 1842. The crew, seventy adult passengers and twenty children were saved but lost all their belongings. Later a subscription was opened on their behalf to which the Emigration Commissioners contributed eleven guineas. Most of the passengers set out later for Port Phillip on the Royal Consort.  [AS6]

Bussorah Merchant. Convict transport. Arrived in Sydney harbour with small pox, 27 July 1828. The convicts and their guards were isolated on a remote part of Sydney’s north shore.  [AS6]

Buttermere. Barque, 1021 tons. Built 1877. Lbd 214 x 34.4 x 20.2 ft. Left Port Augusta, South Australia, for London late in 1885 and was not seen again.  [AS6]

Byhar. Ship. Involved in rescue - see brig Australia, lost southern Indian Ocean, 1840.

C.B. Pedersen. Steel vessel of 2142 tons. Built at Pertusola, Italy,in 1891. Lbd 289 x 40.5 x 25.3 ft. Reg. Gothenborg, Sweden. Passed through several owners and name changes before being purchased and renamed by A. Pedersen of Gothenburg, Sweden. Left Port Germein with wheat for Falmouth on 28 January and made good time to Cape Horn, which she rounded 36 days out. When south west of the Azores and ninety-two days at sea, she was rammed on a clear moonlight night by SS Chagres, 5406 tons, and sank within half an hour. Although badly damaged in the bow the steamer was able to rescue the crew from a calm sea, and there was no loss of life.  [AS6]

C.B.Pedersen. Wheat ship. Built 1891. Wrecked 1937. [LM]

Cairo. Iron ship, 1477 tons. Built at Shields, 1857,  as a screw-steamer . Lbd 256.2 x 35.7 x 22.5 ft. Converted to sail 1874. Left London for Melbourne and Australian ports carrying twenty-seven tons of gunpowder, and was not seen again after being spotted near Tristan da Cunha on 21 December 1877.  [AS6]

Cairo. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see SS Teddington, 1887.  [AS6]

Calabar. Barque. Involved in rescue - see barque Irene, 1854.   [AS6]

Calcutta. Convict transport. Lt. David Collins. Entered Port Phillip with 308 male convicts and eighteen free settlers, with the intention of establishing a colony, however it was to subsequently fail within a matter of weeks, with the contingent being transferred to Van Diemen’s Land. It is interesting to speculate as to what might have been had Collins persevered, perhaps with the state capital spread over two peninsulas wit a bridge joining the two.  [AS6]

Caledon. Brigantine (or barquentine), 324 tons. Abandoned at sea during a voyage from Newport, Wales to Tasmania, 12 May 1883.  [AS6]

Calypso. Vessel of 1061 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1874. Lbd 205.4 x 34.6 x 20.4 ft. From Dunedin to London, was anchored off the mouth of the Thames when rammed by the small steamer Hawk, on the night of 14 April 1880, foundering soon after. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Cambrian Warrior. Steel barque, 1432 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1885. Lbd 230.6 x 37 x 21.8 ft. Owned by the Cambrian Line. Left Liverpool for Fremantle; wrecked on the north east coast of Brazil, 1 May 1904.  [AS6]

Cambridge. Vessel type not recorded. Shortly after leaving Plymouth for Sydney, was destroyed by fire on 7 January 1848.  [AS6]

Canberra. Twin screw, steam turbine passenger liner of 45,270 tons. Built in 1960.  [AS6]

Candahar. Ran down and sank the ship Kingsbridgee in the English Channel, 1874.   [AS6]

Cape Packet. Took on board thew convict survivors of the wrecked convict ship Waterloo, Table Bay, 1842, and transported them to Hobart. [NH]

Captain Hobson. Steel steamer, 9306 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1920, as the Amarapoora. Lbd 482 x 59 x27 ft. Captain Hobson. In 1951 the ageing steamer was chartered for the emigrant trade to New Zealand after several years carrying European refugees to Australia. On her twelfth voyage she suffered a serious mechanical breakdown and after temporary repairs at Auckland set out to return to Great Britain via the Suez Canal. However, she suffered further serious engine trouble and put in to Bombay where she remained until sold to ship breakers in 1958.  [AS6]

Carawa. Steel steamer, 3530 tons. Built at Middlesborough, 1907, as the Tural. Lbd 350 x 49.8 x 23.4 ft. Reg. by the Australian Government in 1914 as a supply ship and renamed Carawa. From England to Australia via New York, wrecked on a reef off San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos Group in the Pacific, 21 March 1920.  [AS6]

Caribou. Wooden ship, 1279 tons. Built at Quebec, 1864. Lbd 182.8 x 37.6 x 23.5 ft. Captain Kerr. With emigrants for New Zealand, destroyed at sea off the South American coast when her cargo of coal caught fire.  [AS6]

Caroline Elizaberth. Involved in rescue - see ship eastern City, 1858.  [AS6]

Caroline. Embarked emigrant passengers rescued from the ship Wild Deer off Ireland, lost 12 January 1883, and took them on to their destination, New Zealand.  [AS6]

Cassard. Steel barque, 2290 tons. Built at St. Nazaire, France, 1889. Lbd 279.1 x 40.2 x 22.7 ft. Captain Lemoine. Left Sydney for Falmouth  in April 1906; lost on Bleaker Island in the Falklands, June 1906. Noloss of life.  [AS6]

Catherine Jamieson. Wooden three masted barque, 307 tons.  From Fremantle to England via Batavia, lost at Cape Town, 19 September 1840. She was entering Table Bay when she struck Mouille Point.  [AS6]

Catherine Pemberton. Wooden barque, 319 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1853. Disappeared during a voyage out to Australia, 1864. In September, a man hunting the Tasmanian tiger about twenty miles south of Cape Grim on the west coast found several casks of English ale brewed for sale in Australia and some wax candles. They had been in the water some time and were believed to part of her cargo.  [AS6]

Celia. Brig, 211 tons. From Sydney to London, was lost off Ushant, France, 18 May 1831.  [AS6]

Celtic Gem. Steel ship, 1941 tons. Built in 1892 as the Iquique. Renamed Celtic Gem, then Riverford and finally Garthforce when lost off the Cape of Good Hope, 28 January 1922.  [AS6]

Cerberus. Her Majesty’s Victoria ship. Ironclad turret vessel with four 18-tonne muzzle-loading guns,. Arrived at Port Phillip for use in the defence of the bay in 1871. In 1926 it was scuttled to form a breakwater at Half-Moon Bay on the north-east side of Port Phillip near Black Rock, and may still be seen to this day.  [AS6]

Chagres. Steamship, 5406 tons. Rammed and sank the C.B.Pedersen near the Azores, 1937.   [AS6]

Challenger, (HMS). A wooden steam corvette of 1500 tons, built in 1858. During 1872-75 she completed a scientific voyage to the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic.  [AS6]

Champion of the Seas. A wooden clipper, 2447 tons, built at East Boston in 1854 by Donald McKay for Black Ball Line. On her first voyage to Australia she recorded 75 days out, 84 home. Her second voyage out took 83 days, and her third 85. After carrying British troops to the war in India, returned to the Australia Run before becoming a general trader, changing hands several times before foundering off Cape Horn in 1876 when homeward bound with a cargo of guano.  [AS6]

Champion. Iron steamship, 229 tons owned by S.G. Henty & Company. Lost in collision 1857.  [AS6]

Chapman. Convict transport, two-decker, 558 tons. Built Whitby 1777. Lb 116 x 33 ft. Captain John Drake. Left Cork with 198 convicts in March 1817, arriving Port Jackson 26 July. During the voyaage twelve convicts were killed by shooting in a suspected ‘mutiny’. Drake and others were to stand trial In England, but the Court of Admiralty Sessions aquitted all the accused, basically on the gorunds that if you have convicts about, it is understandable that an ‘aprehension of danger’ could exist, which would ‘justify the seveal acts of homicide’. [JH]

Charles & Pauline. French barque. Involved in rescue - see Condor, 1853.   [AS6]

Charles Cooper. Wooden ship, 977 tons. Built 1853. On 25 September 1866, 92 days out from Liverpool to Melbourne with coal, limped into Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, leaking and in need of repairs. Apparently these would have been too costly so she was abandoned and sold to local interests for use as a store ship.  [AS6]

Charlmagne. Iron ship, 1017 tons. Left Greenock for Melbourne on 19 March 1857 but shortly after casting off the tug went ashore south of Campbelltown and was lost.  [AS6]

Charlotte. Barque, 434/373 tons. Built Alloa, Scotland, 1839. Captain Forrester. Bound from London for Sydney with passengers, general cargo and thirty bulls, was lost on Madeline Rees, off Boa Vista Island in the Cape Verde Group, Atlantic, 18 April, 1841. The passengers and crew took to the boats, and appear to have been saved.  [AS6],[AS1]

Chateaubriand. Steel ship, 2247 tons. Built at Bordeaux, 1901. Lbd 280.7 x 43.9 x 22.3 ft.
 

Chatham. Vessel of 352 tons. Built 1840. Captain Sergeant. From London to Sydney with emigrants, sunk off Portugal, 26 November 1842. Five lives lost. After a collision in the English Channel she commenced to leak in the Bay of Biscay and was attempting to reach Lisbon, Portugal when lost.  [AS6]

Cheapside. Ship. Involved in rescue - see Joseph Somes, 1856.   [AS6]

Cherbourg. Steamship. Rammed and sank the barque Alice Davies, 1878.  [AS6]

Chevreuil. French vessel. Involved in rescue - see ship Hastings, 1859.  [AS6]

Chieftain. Steamer. Left Clyde for Geelong, was lost soon after setting out, 7 March 1854.  [AS6]

Childe Harold. Barque, 463 tons. Master J.S. Byers. Homeward bound from Australia to England via Bombay, wrecked on the south east point of Dassen Island near Table Bay, South Africa, 13 February 1850. The only casualty was the master who drowned while attempting to swim ashore with a line.  [AS6],[AS1]

Childers. Involved in rescue - see iron ship Strathmore, Apostle Island, 1874.   [AS6]

China. Came to Australia as an emigrant ship just the once, in 1840. Sold to Captain H.B.Ford and engaged in coastal trade. [MM]

China. RMS. 7899 tons. Built 1896. P. & O. Line. Stranded at Perim, Red Sea, 24 March 1898. Reploated with considerable damage. [DG]

Chusan. Iron steamer of 699 tons, built at Newcastle, England in 1852. After her maiden voyage from Southampton to Sydney via Melbourne in 1852 she traded in the Far East until broken up in 1870.  [AS6],[WL]

Chusan. Ship. Owned by  P. & O. Steam Navigation Company. First mail steamer to arrive in the new colony from England, steamed into Port Jackson on 3 August 1852, thus establishing the first regular mail service between England and Australia.   [AS6]

Cintra. Steamship, 1979 tons. Built 1882. Broken up 1908.  [DG]

City of Adelaide. Steamship 1211 tons. Built 1864. A.S.N.Co. Later converted into a sailing ship. Broken up May 1915. [DG]

City of Lincoln. Steamship, 3182 tons. Built 1866. Wrecked Cape Town, South Africa, February 1905.  [DG]

City of Seringapatam. Ship, 1190 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1866. Lbd 225 x 34.4 x 22.5 ft. Left London to Melbourne with a crew of thirty-two and general cargo. On 13 November 1876, when near the Canary Islands, collided with the City of Berlin which necessitated her bearing up for repairs, as the collision destroyed her mizzen mast and took the lives of the second mate and six hands who were aloft at the time. Ran on to reefs near Boa Vista Island on the Cape Verde Group, 12 December 1876. The captain has failed to  make any allowance for a south westerly current shown on the chart which carried his ship further west then he anticipated, then brought her within the influence of another stream drifting to the west. All the crew with the exception of one man succeeded in reaching the shore.  [AS6]

City of Nagpur. Involved in rescue - see SS Ayrshire, 1926.  [AS6]

City of Edinburgh. Involved in rescue of just four survivors from the Boyd massacre in New Zealand, 1809.  [JH]

City of London. Collided with and sank the iron ship Simla off Isle of Wight, 25 January 1884. Though badly damaged, managed to take on survivors and reach Portsmouth for repairs.  [AS6]

City of Carlisle. Iron barque, 859 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 195.9 x 32.1 x 21.5 ft. En route from Liverpool to Port Adelaide when was abandoned in the North Atlantic on 31 December, 1897.  [AS6]

City of Aberdeen. (County of Aberdeen). Steamship. From Calcutta to London. Collided with and sank the vesel British Commerce in the English Channel, 24 April 1883.  The City of Aberdeen was badly damaged and towed in to Portsmouth.   [AS6]

City of Sydney. Wooden ship, 1181 tons. Built at Stockholm, 1863. Lbd 209.7 x 34 x 22.5 ft. Spent most of her life in the India - Sydney trade. From London to Australian ports, she was last seen in September in latitude 7OS in South Atlantic.   [AS6]

City of Auckland. Composite ship, 780 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1869. Lbd 172.3 x 31.1 x 19.1 ft. Had almost completed a voyage from London to Napier, New Zealand with two hundred and fifty-six passengers when  wrecked on Otaki Beach, sixty miles north of Wellington, New Zealand, 22 October 1878. All passengers and crew were landed safely..  [AS6]

City of Edinburgh. Ship, 526 tons. Captain Pattison. Left New Zealand on 7 January 1810 for England via the Cape Horn to deliver timber, calling at Valparaiso for repairs following damage near the Straits of Magellan, then on to Callao. After rounding Cape Horn she foundered ‘somewhere in the Atlantic’. The crew escaped in two boats but only one reached safety. Some confusion exists concerning her port of destination. She had brought no less than 100,000 litres of spirits to Port Jackson, from Cape Town, in 1808.  [AS6]

City of Cashmore. Vessel of 980 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1863. Lbd 212 x 31.5 x 21.5 ft. Captain Ross. On her fourth voyage to New Zealand with emigrants, wrecked on the Ninety Mile Beach, northern tip of North Island, New Zealand, about six kilometres north of the Timaru lighthouse, 14 January 1882.  [AS6]

City of Perth. Ship. Ashore at Caroline Bay, New Zealand, but refloated.  [AS6]

Clam MacIntyre. Cargo steamer. Last to see the SS Waratah near Durban, South Africa, 1909. [VPM]

Clan Mackay. Steel steamer, 6579 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1913, as the Sudmark. Lbd 420 x 54.1 x 26.3 ft. Owned by Clan Line Steamers Ltd. From Queensland to England with sugar she was wrecked on a reef off Sierra Leone on 19 October 1934.  [AS6]

Clarence. Steel steamer, 1093 tons. Built at Grangemouth, 1898. Renamed Kakapo, lost 1900.  [AS6]

Clarinda. Ship. Captain Carew. Boarded by pirates in the Atlantic just south of the equator 1830s. The captain recognised the name Cumberland on the pirte ship although a crude attempt had been made to paint it out. A vessel of this name disappeared between Australia and England.   [AS6]

Cleopatra. Iron clipper barque, 395 tons. Built at Dundee for the Australia, Indian and China trade. Left London with a mixed cargo for Australia and the Far East, but was lost off the coast of Brazil, 1878.  [AS6]

Clyde. Wooden ship, 431 tons. Owned by W.Smith & Sons. Reg. Either London or Liverpool, 31/1826. Master Nataniel Ireland. While on a voyage from Sydney to Liverpool via Batavia, with passengers and cargo, foundered when about five hundred kilometres from Mauritius, 5 August 1836. There was no loss of life.   [AS6],[AS1 - 401 tons]

Columbia. Norwegian barque, wood, 1381 tons. Built 1871. Lbd 205.9 x 40 x 24 ft as the  John Paterson, then Windsbraunt then Columbia; registered at Tredestrund, Norway. Left Wallaroo, South Australia, for Falmouth on 27 February 1906, but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Columbine. Brig, 280 tons. From London to Sydney with supplies of religious books and pamphlets belonging to the London Wesleyan Missionary Society, for the use of missionaries in the Australian Colonies, New Zealand and Tonga, was lost on the west coast of South Africa between St. Helena and Saldara Bay (fifty miles north of Cape Town),  31 March, 1829.  [AS6]

Comus, (HMS). Classed originally as a corvette and later re-rated as a protected cruiser. Of 2380 tons displacement, she had a top speed of 13 knots.  [AS6]

Condor. (Conqueror). Wooden ship, 911 tons. Built at St. John, 1849.Captain Leighton. Left Port Phillip early in April 1853 and her voyage was uneventful until early June when in latitude 3O30'S, fire was detected under the fore hatch. It gained rapidly so the ship was put before the wind and headed for Pernambuco. Fortunately, the French barque Charles & Pauline hove in sight and kept company with the Condor for a short time before transferring the passengers, their luggage, a large quantity of provisions, and 22,000 ounces of gold. The captain finally abandoned her on 11 June 1853.    [AS6]

Consett. Rammed and sank the ship Tessore off Cape Clear, 1877.  [AS6]

Constance. Wooden ship of 578 tons, built in England in 1848. Under the command of Captain Godfrey she sailed from Plymouth to Adelaide in 92 days in 1848, and completed the same voyage in 78 days in 1849. Other voyages to Australia were slower.  [AS6]

Constantine. French warship. Involved in rescue - see Indian Queen, 1859.  [AS6]

Coonatto. Composite ship, 633 tons. Built at London, 1863. England to Australia, lost near Beachy Head, England, 21 February 1876.  [AS6]

Coorong. Wooden barque of 359 tons, built in 1864.  [AS6]

Corinth. Barque, 686 tons. Built 1870. Left Launceston for London with three passengers and a cargo of wool; caught fire and was abandoned south of New Zealand on 19 February 1890.The crew spent five days in the boats before being rescued.  [AS6]

Cormorant. Steamship. Ran down and sank the ship St. Leonards in the English Channel off Start Point near Plymouth, 1883.  [AS6]

Cornwall. Steel steamer, 10537 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1920; owned by Federal Steam Navigation Company. Lost near Curacoa in the West Indies while on a voyage from New Zealand to London, 3 March 1930.  [AS6]

Cospatrick. Wooden ship, teak, 1220 tons. Built at Moulmein, Burma, 1856. Lbd 190 x 34 x 24 ft. Built for Duncan Dunbar, the famous shipowner; in 1873 bought by Shaw Savill. Left Gravesend at the mouth of the Thames on 11 September 1874 bound for Auckland with four hundred and seventy-three passengers and crew, and a general cargo. On the night of 17 November, five hundred kilometres south west of the Cape of Good Hope, fire spread rapidly. Only two boats containing a total of eighty-one people got clear of the ship, after beating off scores who tried to clamber aboard. The glowing masts crashed down  in a shower of sparks, crushing those still crouching on the poop; the stern blew out, killing many more in an upsurge of flame. For two days the boats stayed near the Cospatrick, then on 19 November 1874 the smoking hulk sank. One of the survivors, Henry MacDonald, the second mate, later told how an average of four died in his boat each day, most of them mad from drinking sea water. At first, their bodies were thrown overboard, then the survivors began eating the flesh and drinking the blood. After drifting for ten days the five survivors were rescued by the British Sceptre, homeward bound from Calcutta to Dundee. Two of them died a day or so after, leaving the second mate and two able seamen as the sole survivors. [NH],[AS6]  [AS6]

Countess Russell. Ship of 965 tons, built at Quebec in 1861.  [AS6]

Craig Mullen. Ran down and sank the iron ship Wasdale off Cape Horn, 1878.  [AS6]

Craigie Lea. Iron barque, 622 tons. Built as the Ella in 1864. While on a voyage from Sydney to English ports, wrecked at Bull Point, east Falklands, 26 December 1879.   [AS6]

Crest of the Wave. A wooden ship of 942 tons built at Thomaston, Maine in 1853. She ran from Liverpool to Melbourne in seventy-three days in 1853-54 and also sailed to California around Cape Horn. Lost on Wreck Island off the American coast in 1870.  [AS6]

Crownthorpe. Iron barque, 847 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1873. Lbd 186.5 x 32.5 x 18.3 ft. From Brisbane to London, dismasted in heavy weather about 500 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope on 30 June 1886. Crew rescued by the ship Dunolly.  [AS6]

Culzean Castle. Iron ship, 1818 tons. Built Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 259.3 x 40.5 x 23 ft. Left Liverpool for Melbourne with forty emigrants and crew and disappeared, being posted missing on 15 December 1875.  [AS6]

Cumberland. Ship, probably the wooden vessel of 271 tons which traded between English and Australian ports in the early 1820s. Left Australia for England on 1 September 1827 but was apparently taken by pirates when off the Falkland Islands. All on board were murdered and the ship eventually scuttled. Years later, a Captain Carew told a story of how his ship the Clarinda had been boarded by pirates in the Atlantic just south of the equator and that he had recognised the name Cumberland on their ship although a crude attempt had been made to paint it out.  [AS6]

Dacca. Steel steamer, 3909 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1881. Lbd 390 x 43.6 x 27.6 ft. From London to Queensland ports with four hundred emigrants, struck Daedalus Shoal in the Red Sea, 16 May 1890. Drifted off at high tide and sank. All saved, with the SS Palamcatta taking them on to Suez where they later left for Australia.   [AS6]

Dalhousie. Wooden ship, 848 tons. Built at Moulmein, Burma, 1848. Captain Butterworth. Left London for Sydney on 12 October 1853 with a cargo valued at £100,000 and a crew of forty- eight. Twelve passengers joined her at Gravesend; the others were to board her at Plymouth. In the early hours of  18 October, when off Beachy Head, a gale battered her for several hours; just before dawn she rolled over on her starboard beam ends, and while passengers and crew sought refuge in the rigging or on the hull, it became evident she was lost. Several vessels were sighted but they passed without offering help, until afternoon when the brig Mitchel Grove picked up the sole survivor still alive in the sea. Wreckage was washed ashore at Hastings and Rye Bay (east of Beachy Head), but few bodies were recovered.  [AS6]

Dauntless. Involvd in rescue - see fiery Star, 1865.   [AS6]

Deptford. Steel ship, 2595 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1891. Lbd 298 x 39 x 23.7 ft. From London to Sydney, wrecked at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.   [AS6]

Der Ost. Ship, 505 tons. With a cargo of sugar for Melbourne was lost on Scarborough Shoals without loss of life, 1859. She was a vessel of 505 tons. (Scarborough is a town on the north-east coast of England, facing the North Sea).  [AS6]

Derry Castle. Iron barque, 1367 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1883. Lbd 239.8 x 36 x 21.4 ft. Left Geelong for Falmouth on 12 March 1887 with a crew of twenty-one, one passenger and a cargo of wheat, and was then not heard of again. After 192 days she was officially posted as missing by Lloyds. On 21 September the 45 ton sealing steamer Awarua sailed into Hobsons Bay, Victoria, with eight survivors from her.They had been castaway on Enderby Island just north of  the Auckland Group, after the Derry Castle was wrecked there. For three more months they existed on seals, rabbits, and grain washed ashore from the wreck, before constructing a raft from timber and reaching another food depot at Fort Ross.   [AS6]

Despatch. Wool laden barque, 362 tons. Built Portsmouth, 1812; reg. London. Captain Pritchard. Destroyed by fire in the Tasman Sea while sailing from Sydney to London, 1839. One boat containing survivors was rescued by the Governor Bourke four days later and landed in Sydney. A second boat eventually reached Lord Howe Island, then the occupants were taken on the whaler Woodlark to Sydney where they joined the Tamar to return to London.  [AS6],[AS1]

Dido. Barque, 248 ton. Built as the Louis & Ellen in 1847;  reg. London. From Swan River to London with wool and twenty-one passengers, was wrecked on 10 April 1853 while entering Table Bay. Passengers and most were cargo saved.  [AS6]

Dido. Steamer, 1409 tons. Built at Hull, 1862.  [AS6]

Dollerah. Iron barque, 1017 tons. Built Glasgow 1864. Lbd 207.6 x 33.5 x 20.6 ft. Burnt at sea, en route from London to Adelaide.   [AS6]

Donald Mckay. Built at Boston in 1855, she was a wooden vessel of 2486 tons, being for many years the largest sailing ship in the world. Although she did not achieve any record passages out to Australia, her times were remarkably consistent, averaging eighty-three days for six consecutive return voyages from Liverpool to Melbourne. She finished her days as a coal hulk at Madeira, an island off North West Africa.  [AS6]

Doris Brodersen. Iron ship, 684 tons. Built 1875. Left Brisbane for London on 18 December 1884 but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Dorunda. Iron steamer, 3136 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1875. Lbd 368.5 x 37.3 x 28.3 ft. Owned by the British, India Steam Navigation Company. Left Brisbane for London on 31 July 1894; wrecked on the Portuguese coast on 27 September 1894. Struck rocks near Peniche, but was soon towed free and beached. All the passengers and crew reached safety. By early November she was breaking up after a substantial amount of her cargo had been recovered.  [AS6]

Dryade. Wooden ship, 266 tons. Built Bristol, UK, 1825; reg. London 386/1828. Master Robert Heard. From Sydney to London, foundered 200 miles from Madagascar in 1841, probably 1 or 2 March 1841. She had made many trips between England and Australia in the twelve years of her life. On her last voyage she sprang a leak which the crew were unable to contain. The passengers and crew took to the boats in heavy seas but managed to reach Fort Dauphin, on the south-east coast of Madagascar. [AS1],[AS6]

Duke of Sutherland. Barque, 1047 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1865. Lbd 201.7 z 34.3 x 21.8 ft. While loading for England at Timaru, New Zealand, apparently struck bottom and began taking water, 2 May 1882. She became a total wreck and was blown up to remove a navigational hazard.  [AS6]

Dumfriess-Shire. Involved in rescue - see barque Helenslea, 1897.  [AS6]

Dunbar Castle. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see Queen of the Thames, 1871.  [AS6]

Duncan Dunbar.  Wooden ship, 1374 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1857. Lbd 229 x 36.2 x 23 ft. Captain Swanson Left London for Sydney, 28 August 1865, with seventy passengers which included thirty-five women and children, and a crew of forty-seven. On the night of 7 October, in moderate conditions, she ran on to Rocas Shoals off Cape San Roque. Attempts were made to back her off, then float her free by throwing cargo overboard, but by next flood tide she had canted over and filled. At dawn the entire ship’s complement landed safely on a small section of the reef which remained above high water, and over the next few days the three boats which remained intact were used to land stores from the wreck Meanwhile, Captain Swanson, the mate and seven seamen had left in one of the boats to obtain assistance at Pernambuco. They were picked up by the American ship Hayara and dropped near Pernambuco where they obtained help from the British Consul. On 17 October the Royal Mail Packet steamer Oneida sighted the castaways, took them on board and landed at Southampton about three weeks later.  [AS6]

Dundonlad. Steel, four masted barque, 2205 tons. Built at Belfast, 1891. Lbd 284.2 x 42 x 24.4 ft. At the time of her loss owned by Kerr, Newton & Co. Captain Thorburn. To England from Adelaide,
wrecked ashore on Disappointment Island, in the Auckland group, 6 March 1907. Twelve lost. With no timber on the island they were forced to burrow holes in the ground and roof them over with sods for shelter through the severe winter, existing on sea hawks and seals cooked in clay ovens. Using sharpened bone for a needle, a canvas boat was made and several men crossed to the main island in the group eight kilometres away, Auckland Island, but failed to find the food depots placed there by the New Zealand Government. A second boat was built, but was smashed in launching. They built a third and four men crossed to the main island in it, but it was smashed in landing. However, this time they found the food depots and a boat in which the whole party of sixteen was ferried across. In October the New Zealand Government steamer Hinemoa arrived and carried them back to civilisation. In recent years divers have located the remains of the Dundonald in about three fathoms off the western point of Disappointment Island.  [AS6]

Dundoyne. Involved in rescue - see ship Templemore, 1893.  [AS6]

Dunedin. Iron barque, 1320 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1874. Lbd 241 x 36.1 x 20.9 ft.  The first sailing ship to carry frozen meat from New Zealand to London, leaving Port Chalmers on 15 February 1882 with 4311 carcasses of mutton. Captain Roberts. Left Camaru for London on 20 March 1890; spoken before reaching Cape Horn, but was not seen again. She may have hit an iceberg.   [AS6]

Dunlop. Wooden ship, 389 tons. Built Montreal 1806; reg. London. Captain Bance. From Liverpool to Hobart with eighty-one emigrants, was lost in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 24 November 1838. No loss of life. (Some references date this wreck 1836). She had arrived in fine weatherm and in entering the bay, headed past all the ships at anchor and went ashore, going to pieces within hours.  [AS6],[AS1]

Dunmail. Iron ship, 1397 tons. Built 1873. Lbd 242 x 36.6 x 22 ft. When leaving the Mersey for Melbourne in charge of the pilot, went ashore and became a total wreck, 10 August 1873.  [AS6]

Dunolly. Ship. Involved in rescue - see barque Crownthorpe, 1886.  [AS6]

Dunsyre. Last to see the barque Stoneleigh which disappeared in the New Zealand region in 1895.   [AS6]

E.R. Sterling. Originally a four masted vessel. Built in 1883 as the Lord Woleseley. Dismasted off Cape Flattery USA in 1903, then repaired and re-rigged as a six masted barquentine of 2577 tons. Lbd 308 x 42 x 25 ft. Owned by the Sterling Shipping Company of Seattle, USA. Captain Sterling.  From Adelaide to London with wheat, but so badly damaged she was sold to the shipbreakers. Left Adelaide 16 April 1927. On 4 July, when north of the Falkland Islands she was partially dismasted in a storm but continued her voyage. After crossing the equator, she lost her foremast on 4 September, and the chief officer was killed during a hurricane. The vessel became unmanageable but was able to struggle into the port of St. Thomas in the West Indies on 15 October 1927. Finding no repair facilities available, the crippled vessel was towed from the West Indies to London by tug, arriving at her destination after a voyage lasting nine months.  [AS6]

Earl of Pembroke. Whitby collier, 368 tons. Bought by the British Admiralty and renamed Endeavour. [NH]

Earl of Eglinton. Wooden ship of 1275 tons, built at Troon, Scotland in 1854 and registered at Glasgow.  [AS6]

Early Dawn. Barque, 519 tons. Wrecked on the coast of Brazil on 29 December 1869 while on a voyage from London to Brisbane.  [AS6]

Earnock. Iron ship of 1198 tons, built in 1877.  [AS6]

Eastern City. Wooden ship, 1368 tons. Built at New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A. in 1853. Captain D. Johnstone Chartered to the Black Ball Line when lost. Left Liverpool for Melbourne on 10 July 1858 with 180 passengers and 47 crew; also 1000 tons of general cargo; caught fire and was totally destroyed in the South Atlantic between 23 and 26 August 1858. All survived. Fortunately the transport Merchantman, bound from London to Calcutta with troops, answered her distress signals and took all except one man believed suffocated on board. They were landed safely at Table Bay and the Caroline Elizabeth later took most of the passengers on to Melbourne.  The courage of the captain of the Eastern City in rallying his crew and passengers and maintaining discipline in very dangerous circumstances was subsequently recognised when he eventually returned to Liverpool.  [AS6]

Echo. Whaler, 112 tons was lost on Wreck Reef in Torres Strait on 21 April 1820, while sailing out from England to New Zealand. The crew worked for a month strengthening two boats before setting out for the Australian mainland which they reached safely.  [AS6]

Edinburgh. Wooden barque, 310 tons. Built Durham, UK; reg. London on 2 August 1833, # 234. Master Alexander Lyall. Left Sydney for Liverpool in March 1836 with a cargo of wool, oil and cedar, but was destroyed by fire when south east of New Zealand. Her crew and passengers landed safely at Wollongong, south of Sydney, after fifteen days in the boats.  [AS6],[AS1 - 271 tons]

Edith Hough. Steamship. Captain Hawkiss. Collided with and sank the vessel Strathnairn  about thirty-seven miles west of Ushant on the north-west French coast, 13 February 1880.   [AS6]

Edward Vittery. Schooner, 119 tons. Wrecked on her way out to Australia, on Tristan da Cunha, 8 March 1881.  [AS6]

Eleanor. Vessel of 244 tons. Captain Bracegirdle.  From Belfast to Sydney, was lost on 24 September 1841.  [AS6]

Eleanor. Wooden, three masted barque, 274 tons. Built 1860. Destroyed by fire in the South Atlantic, 17 November 1861. The crew were rescued by the ship J.G. Richardson.   [AS6]

Elginshire. Steel steamer, 4579 tons. Built at Newcastle, England, 1891. Lbd 364 x 48 x 27.9 ft. Owned by the Shire Line. Left Oamaru for England with a general cargo and passengers; ashore, wrecked, near Timaru in a fog on 9 March 1892. No lives  lost.  [AS6]

Eliza Campbell. Wooden barque, 597 tons. Abandoned near St. Paul in the Indian Ocean, after being badly damaged by heavy weather, 5 September 1884.  [AS6]

Eliza Johnstone. Barque. Transported some of the emigrants who were on the wrecked barque Middlesex. From Brazil to London.   [AS6]

Elizabeth. Barque. Captain Cope. From Sydney, was lost at Nova Scotia, 10 January 1843. All saved.  [AS6]

Ellen. Brig. Involved in rescue - see barque Mahomed Shah, 1854.  [AS6]

Elmaren. Steel motor vessel, 5725 tons. Built and reg. in Sweden, 1920. Lbd 436.8 x 56.2 x 27.6 ft. Wrecked in the Chargos Group near Mauritius while on a voyage from Melbourne to Hull, May 1921.  [AS6]

Emu. Royal Navy, 10 gun brig. Captain Foster. Left Sydney for England via the Cape of Good Hope on 25 March 1816 but ran into a hurricane approaching the South African coast, lost a topmast and ran on to a rock in Simon’s Bay. Refloated but apparently condemned and used as a wood vessel until ashore in a gale and broken up.  [AS6]

Endevour. HMS. Whitby collier, 368 tons. Built as the Earl of Pembroke. Lbd 105 x 29.2 x 11 ft. Lt. James Cook. As a subsidiary naval vessel she was known as HMS Bark Endevour, as distinct from another vessel of the same name already in service. With ninety-four on board the crowded ship, sailed from Plymouth on 26 August 1768,  with an objective of sighting the transit of Venus, which he did in Tahiti on 13 July 1769. Then sailed west and charted the coastlines of New Zealand and eastern Australia. The Endevour went on to a coral reef near Cooktown on 11 June 1770; refloated after 24 hours after jettisoning cannon and ballast. On 22 June, Cook found a spot on shore to make repairs, at the mouth of the now named Endeavour River, and set said again on 5 August 1770.  On 21 August he rounded Cape York.. [#JH],[#HH2],[#HH1]

Enterkin. Steel ship, 1698 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1889. Lbd 256.4 x 38.9 x 22.4 ft. While on a voyage from Hull, England, to Brisbane with a cargo of iron pipes, lost during a gale on the Galloper Sands off Ramsgate, England, 12 December 1891. Only one of the crew of thirty-one survived.  [AS6]

Eothern. Brig, 225 tons. Lost at Milford Haven, Wales, while preparing to sail to Australia with a cargo of pig iron, 3 March 1881.  [AS6]

Erebus, (HMS). Wooden vessel of 372 tons, launched at Pembroke in 1826. Fitted with a steam engine and propeller in 1845. Abandoned in the Arctic in 1848.  [AS6]

Essex. Nantucket whaler, 238 tons. Captain Pollard. Sweet revenge!!! Wrecked by a huge whale in Pacific Ocean, 20 November 1820. Most of the men were in three vessels chasing whales. After three months the few survivors were rescued. The convict ship Surry searched and found more survivors on remote Henderson Island. [NH]

Ethel. Iron barque, 556 tons. London to Brisbane, sank after a collision with SS Umbilco in the English Channel, off Bill of Portland, 25 June 1890. Four lives lost. The survivors were taken on board the steamer and landed at Bill of Portland..  [AS6]

Europa. Brig. Captain Welsh. Involved in rescue - see ship Indian Ocean, 1862.   [AS6]

European. Royal Mail Steamer. Brought survivors from fire destroyed ship Helen from Madras to Australia, 1857.  [AS6]

Eurynome. Iron ship, 1404 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1862. Lbd 240.9 x 35.9 x 22.6 ft. With wheat loaded at Melbourne and Geelong, left for Falmouth, England, on 19 May 1881 and not seen again.   [AS6]

Eva. Iron paddle steamer, rigged as a schooner. Founded off the coast of Scotland while on its way out to Australia, 28 December 1853. Eleven lives lost.  [AS6]

Everton. Wooden ship, 904 tons. Built 1861. Lbd 165.5 x 34 x 21.2 ft. Owned by the Black Ball Line. According to the Liverpool Register, she was lost between England and Australia in mid 1863.  [AS6]

Fairlie. Barque. Involved in rescue - see brig Nassau, 1825.   [AS6]

Falcon. Probably the brig of 219 tons, built in 1846.  [AS6]

Falls of Garry. Four masted iron barque, 2102 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1886. Lbd 277.3 x 41.3 x 24.2 ft. Owned by the Weymiss Bay Shipping Co.of Glasgow. Captain Roberts. Out of Port Pirie to Falmouth, via Queenstown, Ireland, on 20 October 1910; wrecked on Sovereign Rocks at Oyster Haven near Kinsale, Cork. All saved.
In 1892, collided with the steamer Thetis in the English Channel.
In 1989, was written off as a constructive loss after going ashore at New Caledonia during a hurricane, but later bought for £47, refloated and returned to service.

Papanui. Single screw steamship, 6582 tons. Built 1899. New Zealand Shipping Company. Struck an uncharted rock near Tasmania, and proceeded to dry dock in Melbourne for inspection. Sold; new owners wanted to take her to Japan but port authorities condemned her as seaworthy. Transfered to the Nicaraguan flag and left Melbourne without a pilot. Repaired in Nagasaki and returned to Melbourne. On returning to Australia from England, caught fire near St.Helena. With passengers and crew safe, she was virtually gutted; towed out to sea and scuttled, September 1911.  [DG]
 

Fanny. Schooner. From Leith to Sydney,  was lost off the English coast, 24 November 1836.  [AS6]

Favourite. Whaler of 370 tons out of New London.  [AS6]

Ferdinand Fischer. Iron ship, 1782 tons. Built 1886. Lbd 258.5 x 40 x 23.7 ft. Left Geelong for Falmouth on 5 February 1906, but was not seen again. Possibly lost in a collision with an iceberg in the  immense fields of ice encountered during the winter months near Cape Horn.  [AS6]

Ferndale. Steel steamer, refrigerated cargo liner, 9670 tons. Built at the Commonwealth Dockyard on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, 1924. Lbd 500 x 63.2 x 33 ft. Owned by the Commonwealth Government Line until 1928 when acquired by the White Star Line and registered in London. From Australia to London, wrecked in a fog about eighty kilometres from Algiers, Northern Algeria, 16 June 1932.  [AS6]

Fidelia. Iron steamer, 1108 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1873. Lbd 233.3 x 31.0 x 17.7 ft. Wrecked near Cape Recife ( South Africa) on her delivery voyage to Australia, 7 April 1873.  [AS6]

Fiery Star. Wooden ship, 1361 tons. Built at New York, 1851 as the Comet. Lbd 228 x 40.4 x 22 ft. Captain Yule Bought by Black Ball Line in 1855. Left Brisbane for London on 2 April 1865 with fifty-five passengers, forty-one crew.  When 650 kilometres from the Chatham Islands, part of the cargo of 2041 bales of wool, and tallow in the lower hold was alight. There was insufficient boat accommodation, and eventually seventy-eight of the passengers and crew crowded into two boats leaving eighteen volunteers on board facing almost certain death. They fought the fire for twenty-one days, and when only the burning hull remained the ship Dauntless sighted the smoke, altered course, and rescued the eighteen men less than half an hour before the Fiery Star (most appropriately named) took her last plunge. HMS Brisk searched the Chatham Islands for two boats containing Captain Yule and most of the passengers and crew but no trace of them was ever found. The remains of the ship was discovered on the west side of Double Island in the Mercury Group, off the North Island of New Zealand in 1971 and two anchors were recovered.   [AS6]

Fifeshire. Barque, 557 tons. Built 1841. After landing emigrants at Nelson, New Zealand, was leaving for Chinese ports on her way back to England on 27 February 1842 when the wind failed and she drifted broadside on to Arrow Reef and broke her back.  [AS6]

Fifeshire. Steamship, 5812 tons. Built 1898. Scottish Shire Li ne. Wrecked near Cape Guardafui, August 1911.  [DG]

Fifeshire. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see brigantine Indiana, 1891.  [AS6]

Fifeshire. Steel steamer, 5812 tons. Built 1898. Lbd 420 x 54.7 x 28.8 ft. Owned by the Scottish Shire Line. Left Melbourne for London late in July 1911 and after calling at Adelaide set out to cross the Indian Ocean with one hundred and five passengers and crew aboard. When approaching Aden, stranded on a submerged reef off Cape Guardafui, 9 August 1911. Next day a lifeboat was sent to obtain assistance but it ran into a gale and was swept more than four hundred kilometres away and picked up four days later by SS Ardandearg with the six exhausted occupants. The same gale battered the stranded Fifeshire, forcing those aboard to abandon her in four boats.. They kept together during daylight but during the night drifted apart, and one disappeared completely with its twenty-four occupants which included ten passengers. Several vessels searched for them without success.  [AS6]

Firth of Cromarty. Vessel of 1528 ton. Built at Port Glasgow, 1888. Lbd 244.7 x 37.5 x 21.4 ft. Bound from Glasgow to Sydney, wrecked at Corsewell Point, County Wigtown, Scotland, 27 August 1898.  [AS6]

Firth of Solway. Iron barque, 1313 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1885. Lbd 228.4 x 36.5 x 21 ft. Owned by J. Spencer & Co of the Firth Line. Captain A. Watt. To Dunedin, collided with SS Marsden, off the Kish lighthouse, near Bray Head, (south of Dingle Bay, south-west Ireland), 19 April 1896. The captain and eight men were rescued by the Marsden but fifteen lives were lost including the captain’s wife and daughter.  [AS6]

Fitzjames. Wooden ship, 1195 tons. Built at New Brunswick. After service across the Atlantic and out to Australia she left Liverpool for Melbourne with emigrants on 20 January 1866, but soon sprang a leak but managed to make Lisbon, Portugal and was condemned there as unseaworthy.  [AS6]

Flora. Wooden barque, 1040 tons. Built 1877. Lbd 193.5 x 37.3 x 21.6 ft. Abandoned in North Atlantic during a voyage from Newcastle to Swansea, Wales, 27 October 1895.  [AS6]

Flying Dragon. Wooden clipper ship of 1127 tons, built at Bath, Maine in 1853. Her best passage time from London to Melbourne was 77 days in 1853-54. She also ran from Sydney to Hampton Roads on the American east coast in seventy-five days in 1860, and completed several fast passages around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Wrecked off San Francisco in 1862.  [AS6]

Flying Dutchman. Legendary ghost ship. Was reported seen ‘sailing under the bows’ of the stricken Joseph Somes, destroyed by fire at ristan da Cunha.   [AS6]

Flying Mist. Wooden ship, 1183 tons. Built in USA, 1856; reg. Boston. Lbd 200 x 39 x 24 ft. Captain Linnell. From Glasgow to Bluff, New Zealand with twenty passengers and 1760 sheep, arrived at her destination on 25 August 1862 and anchored outside the harbour. During the night, sixteen members of the crew deserted after slipping one of the cables, which allowed her to swing around and strike a rock. She filled quickly with water and sank so rapidly that only about 800 of the sheep were saved, although the crew, passengers and eighteen shepherds attending the sheep were saved. She could not be salvaged.  [AS6]

Flying Scout. Tug, 168 tons. Renamed - see Belmore, lost 1908.  [AS6]

Fortunatus. Steamship, 3425 tons. Built 1901. A.Currie Line. Totally destroyed by fire in Indian Ocean, July 1907.  [DG]

Fortune. Vessel of  571 tons. Ashore at Dundrum Bay on the Irish coast with 290 passengers aboard, bound for Hobart. Two passengers were drowned, but the remainder were safely ferried ashore and given shelter in local accommodation. Salvage commenced and she managed to get off and be floated. [AS6]  [AS6]

Frances and Eliza. Convict ship. From Cork, Ireland, arrived Sydney 7 August 1815 with 54 male and 70 female passengers on board. Intercepted by the American privateer Warrior in the Atlantic, where items in the captains possession were stolen. [NH]

Francesca. Brig. From London to Australian ports was abandoned after springing a leak in the sierra Leone Basin off south-west Africa, 8 May 1853.  [AS6]

Galvarino. Chilean steamer. Searched for the lost barque Admiral Karpfanger without success, 1938.  [AS6]

Ganges. HMS.  Admiral Baynes. Involved in rescue - see Indian Queen, 1859.  [AS6]

Garland Grove. Wooden barque, 483 tons. Built 1820. From England to Australia, foundered near Mauritius, May 1851.All members of the crew and the mails she carried were saved.  [AS6]

Garrow. Wooden barque of 541 tons.  [AS6]

Garthforce. Steel ship, 1941 tons. Built in 1892 as the Iquique. Sold to Liverpool owners in 1908 and renamed Celtic Glen; purchased by Canadian interests in 1918 and named Riverford. Then sold to British owners and finally named Garthforce. Out of Liverpool to Newcastle, New South Wales with a cargo of rock salt and gunpowder, collided with an iceberg south east of the Cape of Good Hope, 28 January 1922. With her bowsprit torn away, foremast and main top gallant mast damaged, she limped back to Port Natal aided by the Swedish steamer Unden, also bound for Australia. Used as a hulk and then towed out to sea off Durban and scuttled, 1 July 1927.  [AS6]

Garthpool. Steel vessel, 2842 tons. Built as the Juteopolis in 1891 for the Calcutta and Dundee jute trade. Lbd 310 x 45 x 25.1 ft. At the time of her loss she was the last square rigger under the British flag. Left Hull on 24 October 1929 bound for Port Adelaide, struck a reef off Boa Vista Island in the Cape Verde Group, 11 November 1929. Natives swam out and piloted their boats through the reefs to the beach, and later the crew were taken in a small sloop to St. Vincent, the capital of the islands, and from there they returned to their home port.  [AS6]

Gazehound. Barque, 383 tons. Drove ashore at Oamaru, New Zealand while loading wool for England, wrecked, 12 March 1865.  [AS6]

Gazelle. Brig, 242 tons. Built  at Whitehaven, 1826. From Sydney to London, was lost on the Goodwin Sands in the English Channel, November 1850. There were no survivors.
A vessel of this name was badly damaged while on a voyage from London to Hobart Town; put in to Bahia in June 1839 where she was condemned and the cargo sold.  [AS6]

Geelong. Steamship. Captain McLean. Left England for Geelong under sail on 7 November 1853; lost her rudder in the Bay of Biscay. Temporary steering gear was rigged but during the night heavy seas caused further damage, so next morning when the Swedish vessel Najaden was sighted the crew crossed safely to her in boats just thirty minutes before the Geelong foundered. All were landed at Gibraltar and later proceeded to Southampton on the P.& O. liner Iberia.  [AS6]

General Grant. Wooden ship, 1103 tons. Built 1864. Lbd 179.5 x 34.5 x 21.5 ft. Captain Loughlin. On 3 May 1866 the American owned General Grant left Melbourne for London carrying 83 passengers and crew, and a large quantity of gold; wrecked in the Auckland Islands, 13 May 1866. Good weather favoured the ship in the early stages of her voyage, but when in the vicinity of the Auckland Islands, the wind fell away leaving her to drift helplessly towards towering cliffs while held in the grip of a strong current. Eventually she swung bow on to a giant cleft more than two hundred metres deep, and as the heavy swell forced her further in her masts and yards snapped as they scraped the cavern’s roof, raining rocks and debris on to the deck. Finally, the ship’s seams opened and she sank in forty metres of water, drowning sixty-eight including the captain. The fourteen men and one woman who survived landed on Auckland Island where one man died shortly after. First Officer Brown and three men set out for the New Zealand mainland in the ship’s pinnace but were not heard of again. After eighteen months of privation in the bitter climate the survivors were rescued by the whaler Amherst and landed at Bluff in New Zealand. Then the search for the lost gold commenced. Many individuals and syndicates obtained salvage rights, but only a few attempts, all  unsuccessful,  have been mounted. In 1986, an expedition believed they had found the wreck but was forced to abandon the attempt after discovering only a few cases.  [AS6]

General Hewart. Wooden ship of 973 tons, built in 1812.  [AS6]

General Hewitt. Convict ship, 900 tons. Sailed from Portsmouth on 26 August 1813 with 300 convicts, 104 crew, 70 soldiers, fifteen women and five children. By the time the ship reached Port Jackson, thirty-four convicts had died from dysentery and typhus.  [NH]

Georegtown Victory. Steel vessel,7604 tons. Built in 1945. Lbd 439.1 x 62.1 x 34.5ft. Left Sydney on 25 March 1946 carrying 1500 British navy men back to England, with her first intended port of call being Glasgow; wrecked on to rocks at Killard Point south of Belfast in the Irish Sea, 30 April 1946. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Georgette. Steamer.  Wrecked in heavy surf off Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia. A sixteen year old girl, Grace Bussell, was awarded the first silver medal issued by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia for her heroic rescue of fifty passengers and crew of the steamship. Her aboriginal servant Sam Isaac was awarded a bronze medal.  [AS6]

Glen Huntly. Barque, convict transport, 430 tons. Captain Buchanan. Sailed from Greenock with 157 emigramts, arriving Hobsons Bay 7 April 1840. Ten deaths from ‘fever’ on passage, with more to die ashore. [NH]

Glenaroy. Barque, 698 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1869; reg. Glasgow. Lost in the English Channel when she ran on to the Isle of Wight while taking wool from Adelaide to London, 1876. Three of her crew of eighteen were drowned; the survivors were rescued by the rocket crew.   [AS6]

Glenhuntly. Wooden barque of 505 tons.  [AS6]

Glenmark. Wooden ship, 953 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1864. Lbd 197.7 x 33.6 x 21 ft. Traded exclusively between London and Lyttelton, New Zealand, with an average for her eight voyages of ninety-five days. Captain Wrackmore. On her last voyage she left Lyttelton with fifty passengers and crew, a cargo of wool and £80,000 in gold bound for London via Cape Horn. She was not seen again.   [AS6]

Golden Age. Wooden paddle steamer of 2864 tons, built at New York in 1852 with a capacity of 1200 passengers. Later sold to Japanese interests.  [AS6]

Golden Fleece. Iron barque, 1257 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1869. Lbd 229.3 x 36.8 x 22.3 ft. Left Sydney for London, via Calcutta in August 1871; was spoken off the South African coast, but not seen again.  [AS6]

Golden Fleece. Steamer, approx 2500 tons. Owned and operated by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company on the England to Australia run  in the 1850s.   [WL]

Gossamer. Wooden ship, 734 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1864. Lbd 181.4 x 30.6 x 18.4 ft. London to Adelaide with 29 passengers and crew,  ran close to the Devon coast, struck rocks off Pawle Point, then quickly broke in two. Thirteen lost their lives and wreckers stole most of her cargo before police and soldiers arrived. An Inquiry found the pilot guilty of drunkenness and manslaughter.  [AS6]

Gothic. Steamship, 7755 tons. Built 1893. White Star Line. Damaged by fire and beached, June 1906. Repaired and finally scrapped, 1927. [DG]
 

Governor Bourke. Involved in rescue - see barque Despatch, destroyed by fire in the Tasman Sea, 1839.   [AS6]

Grace Harwar. Wheat ship. Built 1889. Broken up 1935. [LM]

Grace. Ship, 245 tons. Built Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. Armed with four guns and carried a crew of seventeen. Owned by Buckles and Co. Of London; reg. London. Master Robert Lethbridge. With a cargo of wool and oil, destroyed by fire in Struys Bay near the Cape of Good Hope while bound from Sydney to London, 1 June 1822. No loss of life. Part of the oil had been stored in the hold above the wool, and was ignited by spontaneous combustion when off Cape Agulhas. . [AS1],[AS6]

Grafton. Sealing schooner. Captain Thomas Musgrave. Wrecked on the Auckland Islands, 3 January 1864.  [AS6]

Great Britain. Iron screw steamer, 2982 tons gross. Built 1842 by the Great Western Steamship Company on a design by the renown engineer I.K. Brunel and initially designed as a screw steamer. Lbd 322 x 51 x 32 ft. When completed she was ‘ the most beautiful ship afloat’. Operated initially on the Atlantic run.
In September 1846, ran ashore in Dundrum Bay, Ireland and lay there all winter until towed off. Sold to Bright Bros. & Co, and after a rig change, ran in the Melbourne-London trade for twnety- one years. Captain Gray was her master for most of the time - he disappeared at sea. In 1882 she was converted to a sailing ship, and was eventually hulked in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.  [WL]

Great Britain. An iron auxiliary steamer of 3500 tons, built at Bristol in 1844 for the Great Western Steamship Company. First came to Australia in 1852 when owned by the Liverpool and Australian Steam Navigation Company. During her career she completed thirty-two round trips to Australia, averaging sixty-five days per voyage. Converted to sail in 1882. Withdrawn from service and used as a store ship at Stanley in the Falkland Islands in 1886. Abandoned at Sparrow Cove, several kilometres from Stanley in 1937. Towed to Bristol for restoration in 1970, this magnificent ship is now on display to the public.  [AS6],[WL]

Great Britain. Barque, 514 tons. From Gravesend to New Zealand ports, was lost in the Cape Verde Islands, 1863.  [AS6]

Great Queensland. Three-masted iron ship, 1794 tons. Built in 1852 as the steamer Indiana. Lbd 253.7x 38.9 x 25.7 ft. Her engine was later removed and vessel converted to sail. Left Gravesend for Melbourne on 6 August 1876 with thirty-five passengers, thirty-five crew, and a quantity of explosives. On the 26 August she was sighted, and then disappeared. Only a few pieces of wreckage were picked up off Cape Finisterre. Another version of her loss says that a tremendous explosion was seen at sea on 12 August; and a further version suggests she may have blown up when off the wstern Victorian coast.  [AS6]

Great Victoria. Auxiliary steamship of 2230 tons, built at in 1854 and named Jacquard. Purchased by the Black Ball Line and first arrived in Australia in 1863. Arrived in Brisbane in 1865 carrying 629 immigrants. Traded to Australia for a number of years. Later converted to sail, then broken up.  [AS6]

Grief. Steel ship, 2228 tons. Lbd 281 x 42.2 x 24 ft. The unfortunately named Grief was built in 1892 as the Wiscombe Park for G. Windean and Co.of Liverpool. She was bought by French interests in 1919 and renamed Edouard Bureau. After lying idle for some time she was bought by the Germans as training ship in 1923 and renamed Grief. After a battering while rounding Cape Horn on her way from Port Pirie to England with wheat she arrived at Falmouth on 7 June 1927 after a voyage of 126 days and was ordered to Belfast to discharge her cargo. On the way she grounded on the Twin Rocks, in the Irish Sea, and was towed clear and taken to Belfast but as soon as her cargo was unloaded she was handed over to the Irish shipbreakers for £2,500.  [AS6]

Guardian. Frigate, 901 tons, 44 guns. Built at Limehouse on the River Thames, England, 1784. Lbd 140 x 38.5 x ? feet. Captain Riou. After her guns were removed she was classified as a store ship.Left Spithead, England for Sydney on 12 September 1789 under Lieutenant E. Riou R.N., carrying cargo, officials for the new colony and twenty-five convicts. After loading cattle and horses at Cape Town she left on 11 December 1789, but when twelve days out, in the vicinity of Prince Edward Island, struck ice and was so badly damaged she appeared in imminent danger of sinking. Guns, cargo and cattle were jettisoned, but as the water gained and an atmosphere of despair settled over her, liquor supplies were raided and many officers, seamen and convicts became intoxicated. Some panicked and deserted the ship in five boats, leaving her commander, and sixty-two persons, including twenty-one of the convicts to sail the badly crippled vessel back to False Bay, South Africa.. With most of her ballast lost through the numerous holes in her hull, it was only the buoyancy of the barrels the the hull that kept her afloat, even though she was extremely unstable. The damage however was too great, and she was later destroyed by a storm on 12 April 1790. Only one of the boats which left the Guardian was rescued. It contained only ten occupants, picked up by the French merchantman Viscoinuntess of Brittany on 3 January 1790. Twenty of the convicts who remained on the ship eventually landed in New South Wales where fourteen were granted pardons in view of their conduct during the voyage. [#NH],[AS6],[AS1]

Guernsey. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see iron ship Simla, lost off Isle of Wight, 1884.  [AS6]

Guiding Star. Wooden ship, 2013 tons. Built at Nova Scotia, 1852. Lbd 233 x 38 x 22.1 ft. Completed her first round trip to Melbourne in 1854. Left again for Melbourne on 9 January 1855 carrying 480 passengers and crew (some references say 546) and completely vanished without trace. That year vast icefields were sighted moving north into the Indian Ocean, and when the Guiding Star vanished it was believed she had hit an iceberg. [AS6]  [AS6]

Gulf of Finland. Iron steamer, 2323 tons. Built at West Hartlepool, England, 1880. Lbd 286 x 37.2 x 22.1 ft. From England to Adelaide, ashore on Jebbul Zooger Island near Aden and became a total loss, 18 October 1882.  [AS6]

Gulf of Martaban. Steel steamship of 2447 tons, built in 1889.  [AS6]

Gustav. Built 1892. Wheat ship. Sunk in collision off the Irish coast, 1932. [LM]

Halcione. Iron barque, 878 tons. Buil at Greenock, 1869. Lbd 191.7 x 29.4 18.8 ft. Originally rigged as a ship she was reduced to a barque after being purchased by Shaw Saville & Albion Company, and had made nineteen  voyages between England and New Zealand.  Captain Boorman. Out of london, wrecked near Wellington Heads in a squall, 8 January 1896.  [AS6]

Hamburg. Steel ship, 1985 tons. Built at Nantes, France, 1886, as the Marechal de Castries; renamed Henriette, then Hamburg in 1924. Lbd 216.2 x 43 x 23.1 ft. Originally a French bounty ship, then modified to operate as a cargo carrying cadet vessel, and called at Australia to load grain.. Left Melbourne for home on 18 April 1925, but was forced to call at Sydney sixteen days later with a broken rudder, and did not sail again until 29 May. Arrived off The Lizard after 144 days and was sailing around to Cork to discharge her wheat when she went ashore in Dublin Bay, 29 October 1925. Refloated a month later, was dry docked for examination and although found to have suffered only minor damage her owners decided not to repair her and she was sold to the shipbreakers.  [AS6]

Hansy. Steel three masted ship, 1618 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1885, as the Aberfoyle; renamed in 1910. Lbd 258.8 x 38.1 x 22.7 ft. Wrecked in the Lizard, United Kingdom, on 6 November, 1911, while on a voyage from the Baltic Sea to Sydney.  [AS6]

Harrbinger. Steamship, 1100 tons. . Owned and operated by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company on the England to Australia run, arriving in Australia in 1853. [WL]

Hashemy. Convict transport. Arrived at Port Phillip with the first convicts under a new scheme called the 'exile system', followed by the Randolph, 8 August 1849. However, a strong public protest against the convicts landing encouraged Lt-Governor Latrobe to send the Randolph on to Sydney.  [AS6]

Hastings. Wooden ship, 997 tons. Built 1853. Captain James Nicol Forbes. From Liverpool to Moreton Bay, lost off the Cape of Good Hope, 28 December 1859. When sighted by the French vessel Chevreuil she was slowly sinking and took captain and crew on board.  [AS6]

Haversham Grange. Steel steamer, 7757 tons. Built 1902. Lbd  475.5 x 56 x 32.2 ft for Houlder Brothers Ltd. who traded to Australia and New Zealand in the frozen meat trade. Caught fire while coming out to Australia and was abandoned by her crew when about 1300 kilometres north west of Cape Town, 23 October 1906. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Haversham Grange. Steamer, 7757 tons.Built 1898. Houlder Bros. Abandoned on fire 800 miles from Cape Town, 23 October 1906.  [DG]

Hawk. Steamer. Collided with and sank the vessel Calypso off the mouth of the Thames, 14 April 1880.  [AS6]

Hayara. American ship. Involved in rescue - see Duncan Dunbar, 1865.  [AS6]

Hedwig Charlotta. Brig. Involved in rescue - see barque William Brown, 1861.  [AS6]

Helen. Wooden ship, 1003 tons. Built at Boston, USA, 1857. Captain West With  twenty-one passengers and twenty-three crew and a valuable general cargo, left London for Melbourne on 7 October 1857. In December caught fire and headed for Algoa Bay one thousand kilometres away while boats were prepared in case of emergency. On 8 December sighted the Swedish ship Thor and was finally abandoned in latitude 37O50'S, longitude 31O12'E. The passengers and crew were forced to leave her without any of their personal belongings but were well cared for while being transferred to several passing vessels before finally reaching Madras, India, where they were placed on R.M.S. European for Australia.  [AS6]

Helene Blum. Steel ship, 2632 tons. Built at Bordeaux, France, 1901. Lbd 281.6 x 44 x 22.6 ft. Left Bristol for Hobart on 1 April 1908; wrecked on Deal Rocks in the Falkland Islands, 26 May 1908.  [AS6]

Helenslea. Steel barque, 1315 tons. Built 1882. Lbd 249.8x 35.4 x 21.6 ft. Gained a reputation as a very fast ship after four of her voyages out to Australia averaged only seventy-six days. Left Glasgow for Fremantle on 1 April 1897 loaded with general merchandise; abandoned having struck a reef off Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic, 24 April 1897. Crew reached Tristan da Cunha after finding it impossible to land on Inaccessible or Nightingale Islands; picked up by the Dumfriess-Shire and landed at Table Bay.  [AS6]

Hellespont. Steamer, 600 tons. Owned and operated by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company on the England to Australia run. Described as ‘the prettiest steamship in Port Jackson’ in 1853. [WL]

Henbury. Ship, 473 tons. Burnt in Otago harbour on the morning of 22 August 1859, shortly after arriving from England. Later her remains were raised and used as a hulk.  [AS6]

Henriette. Steel ship, 1985 tons. Built at Nantes, France, 1886, as the Marechal de Castries; renamed Henriette, then Hamburg in 1924. Ashore Ireland 1925, refloated and then sold to shipbreakers.  [AS6]

Hera. Barque. While loading for England, destroyed by fire at Port Underwood, New Zealand, 11 March 1870.  [AS6]

Herald of the Morning. Wooden clipper of 1294 tons, built at Boston in 1853.  [AS6]

Herald. HMS. Sent to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands in 1854 to investigate a report of a white man living on the island, the thought being that it could be blackbirder Ben Boyd. When a skull was offered, it was later determined to be native. [NH]

Hero. Wooden barque of 330 tons.  [AS6]

Heroine. Barque, 250 tons. Built 1848. Outward bound  with emigrants from London to Melbourne, went ashore on the Dorset coast on 26 December 1851 and soon broke up. The complement of forty-four reached safety in two of her boats although a boat from the revenue cutter Francis which was assisting them was upset in the surf and four of the occupants drowned.  [AS6]

Heroine. Vessel of 250 tons. Built 1848. From London to Port Phillip was wrecked near Lyme Regis a small port on the Dorset coast, 1853. About eighty passengers and crew reached safety about an hour before she broke up. Four out of five local residents were drowned when their boat capsized in the wild seas during rescue operations.  [AS6]

Herzogin Cecilie. Four-masted steel barque, 3242 tons. Built at Bremerhaven, Germany, 1902 as a training ship for the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line. Lbd 324.1 x 46 x 23.8 ft. Purchased by Gustaf Erikson in 1921. Left Port Lincoln, South Australia for Falmouth, January 1936, arriving there on the 22 April, eighty-six days out, then left for Ipswich (on River Orwell, Suffolk, north-east of London) to complete the unloading of her cargo of wheat. In foggy weather strayed off course and stranded on Hamstone Rock near Salcombe in south Devon, England where she lay for several weeks until refloated and beached in Starhole Cove, where volunteers raced to remove thousands of tons of rotting grain. Unfortunately, she broke her back on 18 July 1936 during a gale and was sold for scrap.  [AS6]

Hibernia. Wooden ship, 456 tons.  Captain W Brend. Bound from Liverpool toHobart with 232 passengers and crew, on fire on 5 February 1833 soon after crossing the equator. Only seventy- nine could be accommodated in the three boats, leaving the remainder to be burnt to death or drowned. One hundred and fifty-three perished in the ship and eighteen on the boats. The survivors, picked up by the ship Lotus were taken on to Rio de Janeiro and eventually reached Hobart in the brig Adelaide.  [AS6]

Highland Chief. Iron barque, 901 tons. Built 1881. On her maiden voyage from Middlesborough to Adelaide when she went ashore at Boulogne, 30 December 1881. Broke up in a storm shotly after.  [AS6]

Himalaya. Steamship, 6898 tons. (Sister Australia). Built 1892. Made a  umber of fasttrips to Australia before being commandered for active duty in World War 1. Scrapped prior to 1928. [DG]

Himalaya. Twin screw, steam turbine passenger liner of 27,955 tons. Built in 1949 and broken up in 1974.  [AS6]

Hindoo. Barque, 310 tons. Captain Burgoyne. From Adelaide to London via Fremantle, was destroyed by fire when in the South Atlantic, 30 December 1848. The twenty passengers and crew took to the boats and were picked up by a passing vessel four days later.  [AS6],[AS1]

Hinemoa. Government steamer. Sighted wreckage, possibly from the barque Assaye, 1890.  [AS6]

Hinemoa. In 1907, involved in rescue - see barque Dindonald, Auckland Island.  [AS6]

Hinemoa. New Zealand Government vessel. In 1895, sighted wreckage in the Auckland Islands possibly from the barque Stoneleigh, lost that year.  [AS6]

Hinemoa. New Zealand Government steamer.
In 1905, rescued creq from the barque Anjou, from Auckland Islands.  [AS6]

Hollinwood. Steel, four masted ship, 2673 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1889. Lbd 307.7 x 45.1 x 24.2 ft. Left Sydney for London on 22 May 1898 with a mixed cargo which included 2306 bales of wool, hides and general items but was abandoned on fire near the Azores, 26 August 1898.  [AS6]

Holt Hill. Iron, 4 masted barque of 2441 tons, built in 1884.  [AS6]

Hooghley. Ship, 566 tons. Destroyed by fire while sailing between Australia and England, 1849.  [AS6]

Horsa. Iron ship, 1163 tons. Built 1882. Lbd 220 x 34.2 x 21.7 ft. Left Bluff, New Zealand on 19 December 1892, for London;  ashore, abandoned, in the Scilly Islands 4 April 1893. Towed clear by the Scilly packet Lyonesse next day and then set out for St. Mary’s. When about twenty kilometres off the islands she rolled over and sank.  [AS6]

Hougomont. Ship. Brought the last convicts to be transported to Australia,  arriving at Fremantle 10 January 1868.  [AS6]

Hougomont. Wooden ship of 875 tons built at Moulmein, Burma in 1852 and originally owned by Duncan Dunbar. In 1868 she landed 279 convicts in Western Australia after a voyage of eighty- nine days from London.  [AS6]

Hougoumont . Ship, 875 ton. Was the last convict ship to leave for Ausstralia, departing England for Fremantle, 12 April 1867. An estimated total 160,000 transported over a period of nearly a hundred years. [NH].

Hurunui. Vessel owed by the New Zealand Shiping Company. Bound for Dunedin, collided with and sank the full rigged ship Waitara, bound for Wellington, in the English Channel off Bill of Portland, 23 June 1883. Damage to the Hurunui was confined to the watertight bulkhead.  Sixteen on the Waitara, including the master and chief officer, were saved by the Hurunui, but twenty-five of her passengers and crew drowned. The Waitara was also owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company.    [AS6]

Hydaspes. Iron ship, 2093 tons. Built at London, 1852. Lbd 263 x 38.7 x 25 ft. Captain. From London to Melbourne with cargo and passengers, under tow, was in a collision with the SS Centurion off Dungeness,  in a dense fog, and sank shortly afterwards 17 July 1880. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Inca. Barque. From Liverpool to Sydney, went ashore on the Irish coast, 10 May 1840 and abandoned.  [AS6]

Indefatigable. Brig. Left South America for Port Jackson in 1835; captain murdered by Chilean crew, and four men set adrift in a longboat. After four weeks they reached Tahiti. The first mate, an Englishman, Loffgreen, was held captaive and ordered to pilot the ship. At Guam, two mutineers went ahsore and were arrested by the Spanish authorities. All mutineers were hanged, loffgreen was sent back to Sydney, and the ship kept as a prize by the Spanish government. [NH]

India. Barque, 493 tons. Left Greenock for Melbourne on 4 June 1841 with two hundred and sixteen emigrants and crew. On 20 July 1841 when in latitude 16OS, longitude 33OW the third mate and a boy were drawing spirits from a cask when some was spilt on a naked light. Within a short time the vessel was ablaze from stem to stern. The French whaler Roland saw her plight and rushed to the rescue but in the panic a boat from the India was overturned and several passengers drowned. Eventually all survivors were transferred to the whaler but nineteen had lost their lives. The Roland put into Rio de Janeiro; all were later sent on to Port Phillip, where many arrived destitute.  [AS6]

India. Iron ship, 912 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1861. Lbd 190.3 x 32 x 21.1 ft. Abandoned in a sinking condition in February 1881 while on a voyage from. Barrow-in-Furness, England, to Port Pirie, South Australia.  [AS6]

Indian Ocean. Wooden ship, 1019 tons. Built 1851; reg. London. Captain Russell. While under charter to the Black Ball Line, on a voyage from Liverpool to Sydney, abandoned in a gale in a sinking condition off Waterford, Ireland (south-east coast), 24 January 1862. No loss of life, the crew of twenty-five rescued by the brig Europa from Le Havre to Liverpool. The Indian Ocean went ashore soon the crew were rescued, and at flood tide went to pieces scattering cargo along the coast.  [AS6]

Indian Queen. Wooden ship, 1041 tons. Built at Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick, Canada, 1852. Owned by Harrison & Stoue and registered at Liverpool. Ran between Liverpool and Melbourne 1853-1857. Captain Brewer. Left Melbourne for Liverpool on 13 March 1859 with 40 passengers and a cargo of wool but towards the end of the month when in latitude 58OS, longitude 151OW, collided with an ice berg. The Captain, chief officer and most of the crew abandoned the ship when she struck,  to be swept away in the fog and not seen again. Only the second mate remained on board; she drifted helplessly among ice bergs for several days before sails were rigged on the broken masts and a course set for Valparaiso. She came across a whaler, the Lafayette which provided a correct longitude. Soon after she met the French warship Constantine, her captain offering to escort the stricken Indian Queen into port. Land was eventually sighted, the Constantine went ahead and H.M.S. Ganges, Admiral Baynes, came out and took the ship in tow reaching Valparaiso on 10 April 1859. The skill of the second mate Mr Leyvret, and the ships carpenter Thomas Howard had brought home the ship and her grateful passengers after Captain Brewer, the mate Jones and fifteen seamen had deserted their own ship, only to tragically die in the gale-swept seas. The ship was rebuilt and re-rigged  but was later sold by public auction at Valparaiso and ended her days as a palm oil hulk at Boxny in West Africa.  [AS6]

Indiana. Wooden brigantine, 300 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1876. Captain Littler. From England to New Zealand, abandoned in a sinking condition about eighty kilometres south of the Scilly Islands, 18 March 1891. After five days all were rescued by SS Fifeshire bound for London.  [AS6]

Indomitable. Auxiliary steamer, 1470 tons. Operated by the Australian Auxiliary Steam Clipper Company  on the UK-Australia run, 1854.  [WL]

Insizwa. Steamship. Sighted boddies in the sea off Banshee River, south-east Africa, possibly from the liner Waratah, lost between Durban and Cape Town, July 1909.  [AS6]

Invercauld. From Melbourne to Callao, was lost on the Auckland Islands, 10 May 1864. Of the nineteen officers and men who reached shore, only three survived to be rescued by the ship Juliain on 20 May 1865. [AS6]  [AS6]

Investigator. British vessel, sloop, 334 ton. Formerly HMS Xenophon. Commandered by Matthew Flinders. Saw Cape Leeuwin on 13 December 1801.Arrived Sydney 9 May 1802; sailed north on 22 July 1802 with Lady Nelson as tender. During charting of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Investigator leaked so badly that she was barely navigable and in November 1802, the ships carprenters gave her six months, if sailing conditions were favourable. The ship survived the long trip around Australia, and came down the west coast, then across the Great Australia Bight, finally reaching Sydney on 9 June 1803. He and many of his men were sick with scurvy and dysentery. The Investigator was condemned as unfit for any further journeys.  [HH2],[#HH1]
Where was she condemned? Sydney, or did she return to England?

Inverkip. Steel barque, 1466 tons. Built by Russell & Co. at Port Glasgow, 1893. Lbd 235.8 x 36 x 21.7 ft. Owned by the Inverkip Ship Company Limited. Captaain Jones. Bound from Melbourne to Queenstown, Ireland, with wheat, sank after collision with the Loch Carron off Fastnet, southern Ireland, 13 August 1904. The Inverkip sank almost immediately stem first. Only two survived of the 22 crew: one seaman in the rigging was thrown on to the Loch Carron’s deck, and the other scrambled to safety up her bowsprit.  [AS6]

Inverurie. Steel barque, 1417 tons. Built by Hall of Aberdeen, 1889 for Inver Line, owned by G. Milne & Co.of Aberdeen. Lbd 242.2 x 37.1 x 21.6 ft. From Belfast to Sydney, wrecked near Bally Ferris Point, Antrim, on the east coast of Ireland, November 1914.  [AS6]

Invincible. Wooden ship of 1460 tons, built at Bath in 1873.  [AS6]

Iowa. Wooden ship, 879 tons. Built at St. John, New Brunswick, 1849. Lbd 151.5 x 31 x 22.8 ft; reg.  Liverpool. First voyage to Australia in 1853 then sold to J. Steel & Co. Liverpool in 1854 and registered there. Captain Davies. Left Liverpool on 29 April 1854 with emigrants and was not seen again.   [AS6]

Iquique. Steel ship, 1941 tons. Built in 1892. Renamed Celtic Gem, then Riverford and finally Garthforce when lost off the Cape of Good Hope, 28 January 1922.  [AS6]

Irene. Wooden barque, 823 tons. Built 1852. Bound for Australiaa from England, fire broke out on board on 5 March 1854 when just south of the equator, forcing passengers and crew into the boats. They set a course for Brazil and were fortunate to be picked up by the barque Calabar. The barque Annie White fell in with her a few days later and took some of the passengers on to Melbourne.   [AS6]

Irmgard. Iron three masted ship, 1652 tons. Built in 1874 as the Thirlmere. Lbd 260 x 39.1 x 32.1 ft. From Streaky Bay, South Australia, to Falmouth with 30,000 bags of wheat, she was wrecked at Canal, Chile in June, 1910.  [AS6]

Isaac Hicks. A wooden vessel of 495 tons, built at New York in 1834.  [AS6]

Isabella. Vessel of 193 tons. Left Sydney for London on 4 December 1812; wrecked on the Falkland Islands, 8 February 1813. After all had landed safely on Eagle Island a small boat was constructed from one of her damaged boats, and in it several crew members reached the River Plate (Riva de la Plata, east coast, Argentina). The brig Nancy left immediately to rescue those still on the Falklands and on her passage captured an American sealing schooner loaded with about 8,000 skins. (England and America were at war over the action of England towards neutral vessels in the Napoleonic War of 1812-1815).  [AS6],[AS1]

Istamboul.Auxiliary steamer, 1470 tons. Operated by the Australian Auxiliary Steam Clipper Company  on the UK-Australia run, 1854.  [WL]

J.E.H. Wooden ship, 706 tons. Built at Quebec, 1862; reg. Liverpool. Lbd 159.2 x 31.1 x 20 ft. Loaded with passengers, general cargo and gold she left Melbourne for England on 16 July 1864 but was not seen again.  [AS6]

J.G. Richardson. Ship. Involved in rescue - see barque Eleanor, 1861.  [AS6]

J.L.Thierman. Ship. Involved in rscue - see ship Narborough, 1866.  [AS6]

James Baines. Ship, 2275 tons. Built 1854.  Burnt at Liverpool in 1858. [LO]

James Baines. A wooden clipper of 2275 tons, built at East Boston in 1854 by Donald McKay for the Black Ball Line. Her first voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne took the remarkable time of 63 days with a best 24 hour run of 423 nautical miles. She returned home in just over 69 days. Times for other voyages to Australia; 78 days, return 95 days; 75 days, return 77 days. After carrying British troops to the war in India she was almost totally destroyed by fire at Liverpool in 1858.Her remains were converted to a landing stage for Atlantic steam passengers.  [AS6]

James Patterson. (James Pattison). Ship, 513 tons. Built at London, 1828. Captain Cromarty. Bound from Sydney to London via Bombay, destroyed by fire in latitude 4O3'N, longitude 26OW,  19 September 1840. All were saved by the Norval.  [AS6]

Janna. Three masted steel barque, 1612 tons. Built in 1896 as the Lindley, then Anna; bought by Norwegian interests in 1920 and named Janna. Lbd 244.1 x 37.6 x 22-5 ft. Left Sydney for London on 3 December 1921 loaded with wheat, but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Janus. Convict ship. Arribed port Jacksson 3 May 1820 with 104 female convicts. The captain and crew were charged with condoning prostitution, but had left on a whaling expedition in the vessel before they could be aprehended. [NH]

Jason. Steamer, approx 2500 tons. Owned and operated by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company on the England to Australia run  in the 1850s.   [WL]

Jessie Lawson. Ship, 320 ton. The day before embarking fifty-two emigrants at Plymouth for Hobart Town, was driven on to rocks on Mount Better Bay during a gale and lost, 1828.  [AS6]
Jessie Lawson. Ship, 320 tons. Built at Quebec, 1824, and owned by John Marshall & Co., a London company specialising in emigrants to the colonies. Captain J. Church. She was to have embarked fifty-two emigrants from Plymouth, England for Hobart on 14 January 1828, but was wrecked the day before in a gale when her cables parted. She was driven on to the Indian Trader, and then went on to the rocks in Mount Batten Bay. The John and Robert was also wrecked nearby. Sixteen other vessels were either wrecked or badly damaged in the storm. [AS1]
 

Jessie Osborne. Iron barque, 1110 tons. Built in 1874. Renamed Mariposa and the Okta when lost off Bluff Harbour, New Zealand, 1913.  [AS6]

Jessie Readman. Iron ship, 1013 tons. Built at Greenock, 1869. Lbd 204 x 32.6 x 20.8 ft. Albion Line.
From Napier to London with wool Lost on the Chatham Islands, 23 December 1891. Crew landed safely and most of her cargo was eventually recovered.  [AS6]

Johannes. Norwegian barque, 1205 tons. Built 1860. Lbd 190.8 x 38 x 23.2 ft. Left Albany, Western Australia, for London on 14 August 1899, but sprang a leak and was disabled by a severe storm in the Atlantic Ocean. After pumping night and day for eleven days, the crew finally when about eight hundred kilometres from Barbados (West Indies), and were picked up by a passing vessel.  [AS6]

John & Lucy. Wooden ship, 1235 tons. Built at Warren, Maine, USA, 1850. Lbd 169.2 x 31.1 x 23 ft. Purchased by the Black Ball Line in 1853, the first American vessel owned by the famous English compnay. Wrecked on rocks at Santos, Brazil, 13 December 1859.  [AS6]

John Patterson. Renamed - see Columbia, lost 1906.  [AS6]

John Pauper. Ship. From Sydney to Liverpool, was lost in October 1840.  [AS6]

John Sugars. Wooden three masted barque, 508 tons.  Built at Sunderland, 1853. From London to Australia, was abandoned in a sinking condition,  in latitude 36O28'N, longitude 8O15'W. , 6 January 1860. All crew were rescued by SS Nicholas Wood.  [AS6]

 Joseph Somes. Wooden ship, 774 tons. Built at London, 1845. Lbd 125.2 x 30.2 x 23 ft. Captain. C.T. Elmstone. Left London for Melbourne on 15 December 1856 with 23 passengers. On 25 February 1857, at the island of Tristan da Cunha the captain and some of the crew went ashore for water and additional supplies. As they were returning the ship caught fire and with part of her cargo consisting of 252 barrels of gunpowder she threatened to blow up. The crew and passengers jettisoned the dangerous cargo, but as the fire gained control all left hurriedly in the boats. After an uncomfortable night at sea they gained the shore where the islanders cared for them until the Nimroud from London called on the 6 March and took all fifty-two aboard. A further passage of fourteen days saw them landed at the Cape of Good Hope; then some continued on to Adelaide on the ship Cheapside.The legendary Flying Dutchman, condemned to roam the oceans impelling all who saw her, was linked with this loss. When landed at Cape Town some passengers and crew claimed the ghostly ship with its evil captain sailed right under the Joseph Somes bow shortly before the ship was destroyed by fire.   [AS6]

Josephine Willis. Wooden ship, 786 tons. Built 1854. Captain Canney. Carrying one hundred and ten passengers and crew, left London for Auckland on 1 February 1856 and two nights later was off Folkestone, sailing at about six knots when struck by SS Mangerton abaft the rigging on her starboard side. In the panic which ensued the Josephine Willis lay on her beam ends with the top gallant yards just clear of the water for more than an hour, and passengers clinging to the rigging as she sank. The steamer only remained by the sinking ship for ten minutes. A total of sixty-nine lost their lives including fifty-seven passengers and the captain.  [AS6]

Joshua Bates. Wooden ship, 561 tons. Built 1844; reg. Port Adelaide. Badly damaged by fire on 5 March 1872 while loading for London. Following extensive repairs she sailed again for London but after suffering heavy storm damage was forced into Mauritius where she was condemned on 31 January 1873.  [AS6]

Juan Ferrin. Three masted barque, iron, 417 tons. During a voyage from Australia to England carrying gunpowder in her cargo, caught fire and blew up near Montevideo, 24 September 1873.  [AS6]

Julian. Ship. Involved in rescue - see Invercauld, 1864.  [AS6]

Juliana. Ship, wood, 516 tons. Built in India, 1798. On her second voyage as a convict transport she arrived at Hobart Town with 159 convicts on 28 December 1820 but on the return voyage to England was wrecked in the English Channel, 1821. The master and crew were drowned but the passengers had already landed.  [AS6]

Juliana. Wooden barque, 549 tons. Built at Calcutta, 1819.  From London to Sydney with 241 emigrants, wrecked at Mouille Point, Table Bay, South Africa, 19 January 1839. All the passengers and crew landed safely and were eventually taken on to Sydney by the Morayshire and Mary Hay.  [AS6],[AS1]

Juteopolis. Steel vessel, 2842 tons. Built 1891. Renamed Garthpool and wrecked in 1929.  [AS6]

Kaikouia. Steamer of 1456 tons, built in 1865.  [AS6]

Kaikoura.  Two-masted brig-rigged, screw steamer, 1501 tons. Built Millwall Ship and Graving Dock Company, 1865. Lbd 260 x 32 x 26 ft. Accomodation for 100 saloon and 60 second-class passengers. Owned and operated by the Panama, New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company. Left Plymouth under Captin Wheeler in March 1866. When off St.Helens, discovered one propellor blade was missing, but reached the Cape of Good Hope, and continued on across the southern Indian Ocean. When 500 miles from Port Phillip, a secondd blade (of four total) fell off, but made her destination in 56 days. Ran a regular service between Australia to Panama in order to connect with the trans-isthmus railway to Colon on the Atlantic coast, commencing out of Sydney on 15 June 1866.  Taken over by West India Royal Mail Co. In 1869 and renamed Tiber. Wrecled Haiti 1882.  [WL]

Kaiser Wilhelm II. Steamship, liner, 6681 tons. 'Magnificent appearance with her white hull, four pole-masts and two funnels'. Norddeutscher Lloyd Co. On the Ausralia run in 1889. She lost her name when the company built a 20,000 ton liner, and became known as the Hohenzollern. [DG]

Kaitawa. Steamship. Foundered off southern tip of New Zealand, May 1966. [#NH]

Kakapo. Steel steamer, 1093 tons. Built at Grangemouth, 1898, as the Clarence. Lbd 225 x 34 x 13 ft. Captain Nicolayson. On her delivery voyage to the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand when lost near Cape Town, 26 May 1900.  [AS6]

Kapunda. Iron ship, emigrant vessel, 1135 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1875; reg. London. Lbd 221.5 x 34.6 x 19.6 ft. Captain Masson. Left London on 16 December 1886 for Western Australia with two hundred and seventy immigrants and a crew of forty-four. When south of Maceio, between Pernambuco and Bahia, Brazil, the barque Ada Melmore, 571 tons, ran her down, 20 January 1887.
Almost cut in two, she foundered within five minutes. Most passengers who were asleep below had no chance. About 203 people including the master are believed to have drowned. Some of her crew and a few emigrants jumped on to the Ada Melmore, which also lowered a boat and picked up a few from the water. The Ada Melmore had also sustained serious damage and was abandoned eight days later.  [AS6]

Kenmore. Iron barque, 958 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1882. Lbd 207.2 x 33.3 x 20.2 ft. Left Geelong for London on 9 April 1894 but failed to arrive and was officially posted missing by Lloyds on 14 November 1894.  [AS6]

Kent. Built at Blackwall near London in 1853, she measured only 927 tons. Considering her size she was apparently one of the finest and fastest ships trading out of London. On her maiden voyage she ran from London to Melbourne in 83 days and during her career she averaged 80 days for the run out to Australia. Finished her days as a hulk.  [AS6]

Ketty. Steel barque of 1551 tons, built in 1895.  [AS6]

Killochan. Emigrant ship, barque, 1300 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1874. Lbd 226.5 x 37.1 x 21.6 ft.  Captain Manson. Loaded with grain and wool and carrying passengers, collided with SS Nereid off Dungeness, 3 February 1888. Seventeen, including the captain, died when the Killochan sank within four minutes and another seven went down with the Nereid.   [AS6]

Kilmeny. Iron barque, 792 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1877. Lbd 193.7 x 31.6 x 19.2 ft. Left Wellington for England on 5 May 1883 and was not seen again.   [AS6]

King Cadwallan. Steel steamer, 5119 tons. Built at Hong Kong, 1920. Lbd 400 x 52.2 x 28.5 ft. Carrying coal from Britain, consigned to the Adelaide Electric Supply Company, when her cargo caught fire as she crossed the Indian Ocean about 800 kilometres from Durban, July 1929. Abandoned, the ship drifted for six weeks, then beached herself north of East London, South Africa, and was eventually broken up. The crew were taken off by S.S. Arden Hall.   [AS6]

Kingsbridge. Iron ship, 1498 tons. Built 1869; reg. London. Lbd 230.7 x 38.8 x 24.6 ft.. Shortly after leaving London for Sydney she was run down and sunk off The Lizard by the Candahar, on her way out to Melbourne , 14 October 1874. Eleven lives were lost.  [AS6]

Kirkmichael. Steel barque, 933 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1882. Lbd 202 x 33.1 x 20.1 ft. Owned by J. Steel & Sons, reg. Liverpool. Wrecked in ‘the Great Gale of 1894', near the Holyhead breakwater on 22 December 1894 shortly after leaving Liverpool for Melbourne.  [AS6]

Knowsley Hall. Iron ship, 1860 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1873. Lbd 260 x 42.3 x 23.9 ft. Left London for Lyttelton in June 1879 carrying fifty-five passengers and crew of thirty-five, dropped the pilot, and was never seen again. Posted missing on 7 January 1880 when 214 days out. Speculation concerning her loss circulated for many months. Towards the end of the year a message found in a bottle near Portland, Victoria said that Knowsley Hall had struck the Crozets and all except three had been drowned. The survivors were living on shell fish. It was thought to be a hoax as the date on the paper showed the ship to be then 269 days out and her fate would have been decided many months before. In August 1881, portion of her bulwarks with the letters ‘Know’ and ‘s’ painted on them were found at Point D’Entre-casteaux, south-west Western Australia.   [AS6]

Kobenhavn. Steel barque of 3901 tons, built in 1921. Disappeared between Buenos Aires and Melbourne in 1928.  [AS6]

Konini. Steel steamer, 1420 tons. Built 1924. Lbd 245.2 x 37.3 x 17.3 ft. Owned by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Sank near Bluff, New Zealand while on her maiden voyage from England to Dunedin, 22 December 1924.  [AS6]

Kooringa. Iron barque, 1206 tons. Built at South Shields, 1874. Lbd 226 x 35.2 x 21.6 ft. Left London for Brisbane on 22 February 1894,  was spoken on 8 April in the South Atlantic, but not seen again. Posted as missing by Lloyds on 26 September 1894.  [AS6]

Kyber. (Khyber). Iron ship, 2026 tons. Lbd 276.6 x 40.1 x 24.2 ft. Built in Liverpool, 1880. Purchased by the Galgate Shipping Company in 1898. Captain Rothery. Havin left Melbourne on 27 October 1905,  wrecked on the Cornish coast early the following year. The cpatian and 22 crew lost thier lives; only three survivors  [AS6]

Lacarna. Involved in a collision with the vessel British Navy, English Channel, 1881.  [AS6]

Lady Cairns. Iron ship, 1274 tons. Built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast, 1869. Owned by the British Shipowners Co. Ltd. of Liverpool until 1881, then sold to Martin of Dublin. Lbd 216.4 x 35.4 x 22.5 ft. In a fog, collided with the barque Mona off Queenstown, Ireland when bound for Timaru, New Zealand; heeled over and capsized within two minutes taking down her entire crew of twenty-two.  [AS6]

Lady Castereagh. Convict transport, wooden, copper sheathed ship, 848 tons Captain Welton After unloading convicts at Hobart the transport called at Sydney and loaded troops for India intending to then return to England. She left on 31 May 1818 only to be lost sometime later on the coast of Madras, India.  [AS6]

Lady McNaughten. Wooden ship of 558 tons, built at Calcutta in 1825.  [AS6]

Lady Munro. Wooden ship of 254 tons, wrecked when bound from Calcutta, Madras, and Mauritius to Van Diemen's Land, on Amsterdam Island, 12 October 1833. Only 22 survived from her complement of ninety-seven.  [AS6],[AS1]

Lafayette. Whaler.  Captain Rae. Out of New Bedford. Involved in rescue - see Indian Queen, 1859.  [AS6]

Lake Ontario. Iron three masted barque, 1096 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1868. Lbd 217.7 x 34.7 x 21 ft. Left Liverpool for Wellington on 26 April 1898 but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Lakemba. Iron barque of 1174 tons, built at Port Glasgow in 1885.  [AS6]

Lalia Rookh. Barque. Recorded one of the longest voyages from Australia to England - 300 days from brisbane to Falmouth.   [AS6]

Lamorna. Iron barque, 1258 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1867. Lbd 216.8 x 36 x 22.7 ft. Captain King. Left Newcastle, New South Wales for London, via Honolulu on 21 February 1893 with a crew of twenty-seven and cargo of coal but was not seen again. Posted as missing by Lloyds early in August.  [AS6]

Landrail. HMS. Rammed and sank the iron ship Siren in the English Channel off the Bill of Portland, 11 July 1896.  [AS6]

Lanoma. Iron barque, 700 tons. Built 1876. Captain Whittington. From Launceston to London with wool and wheat, wrecked on Chesil Beach, Bill of Portland, England, 8 March 1888. Twelve lives lost including the master; only six of the crew survived.  [AS6]

Lastingham. Iron ship, 1217 tons. Built 1876. Lbd 221.6 x 35.3 x 20.8 ft. From London to Wellington, with a general cargo, wrecked on Cape Jackson, Cook Strait, New Zealand, 1 September 1883.  [AS6]

Lawhill. Built 1892. Wheat ship. Seized as a war prize in 1942. Lost from neglect. [LM]

Leichardt. Tea clipper, 634 tons. Built 1853. Ran in the China tea trade until the mid eighteen- sixties. In October 1868 when outward bound for New Zealand she was run down and sunk off Gravesend by SS North Star. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Letitia. Ship, about 700 tons. Captain Clements. Reported lost on rocks off St. Jago in the Cape Verde Islands on 19 August 1828 while bound from Dublin to Hobart Town. No loss of life. The passengers eventually arrived in Australia on other vessels. According to a passenger, hte ship was lost due to the ‘misconduct of her captain and crew’.  [AS6],[AS1]

Liberty. Sloop. Built on Desolation Island, Kergulen Group, southern Indian Ocean, 1831, from the wreckage of the whaler Betsy and Sophia, wrecked there 16 March 1831. Fourteen survivors of the Betsy and Sophia  put to sea on 6 December 1831 and made Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania on 3 February 1832, then Hobart on 14 December. Five men remained on Desolation Island as they feared the seaworthiness of the Liberty, and were picked up by the vessel Ocean on 5 March 1832.  [AS1]

Lightning. Considered by many to be the fastest wooden ship of all time, she often exceeded 17 knots in favourable winds. In 1854 when crossing the Atlantic on her delivery voyage under Captain Forbes she covered 436 nautical miles in 24 hours, and again while running her easting down under Captain Enright in 1857 she made 430 nautical miles in just over 23 hours. On the following day she ran 360 nautical miles. Over 25 days she made 6958 knots, at an average speed of 11.5 knots. No other clipper ships ever matched this performance.  [AS6]

Lincluden. Wooden ship of 1028 tons, built in 1853 and registered at Belfast.  [AS6]

Lindley. Three masted steel barque, 1612 tons. Built in 1896. Renamed Anna, then Janna when she disappeared between Sydney and London, 1921.  [AS6]

Lion Belge. Wooden ship, 569 tons. Built at Antwerp, Belgium. On a voyage from Leith to Sydney was lost near Yarmouth, England, 17 September 1861.  [AS6]

Loch Carron. Ship. Owned by Glasgow Shipping Company. Collided with and sank the barque Inverkip, off Fastneet, southern Ireland, 1904.    [AS6]

Loch Dee. Iron vessel, 726 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1870. Lbd 187.6 x 30.1 x 18.6 ft. Captain Black. After completing six voyages to New Zealand, sailed from Lyttelton, New Zealand, on 3 March 1883 for Falmouth with wheat, wool and a crew of seventeen, and not seen again. She may have struck an an iceberg near Cape Horn.  [AS6]

Loch Earn. Iron ship, 1200 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1869. Lbd 226.2 x 35.8 x 21.5 ft. Captain Robertson.  Under full sail for Australia, collided with the French Atlantic mail steamer Ville du Havre on 22 November 1873 at the entrance to the English Channel. The Ville du Havre was carrying 313 passengers and was one week out from New York for Le Havre. Under the law of the sea, steam was expected to give way to sail but instead the steamer continued on course, at about 9 knots, and swung across the Loch Earn’s bows. The sharp bow of the sailing ship cut into the steamer’s plating, stove in her side for a distance of thirty feet by twelve feet almost opposite the engines, and she sank within fifteen minutes drowning two hundred and twenty-six of her complement. The eighty-seven survivors  (twenty-six passengers, sixty-one crew) were picked up by the damaged Loch Earn and later transferred to the American vessel Tremountain, and landed at Cardiff. On 28 November 1873, the Loch Earn, with its bow smashed in, commenced to sink as the bulkheads gave way, so was abandoned by and her crew without incident. They were eventually picked up by the British Queen and landed at Plymouth on 7 December.   [AS6]

Loch Ective. Iron ship of 1235 tons, built at Glasgow in 1877. Sold to French interests in 1911 and finished her days as a coal hulk.  [AS6]

Loch Fyne. Iron ship, 1270 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1876. Lbd 228.5 x 36 x 21.3 ft. Left Lyttelton, New Zealand, for Queenstown, Ireland via Cape Horn on 14 May 1883 with four passengers, a crew of thirty-one and 1600 tons of wheat, and never seen again.  [AS6]

Loch Katrine. Ship of 1200 tons, built at Glasgow in 1869. Ended her days as a coal hulk at Rabaul.  [AS6]

Loch Laggan. Iron ship, 1504 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1872, as the America. Lbd 243.1 x 37.8 x 22.8 ft. Left Liverpool for Melbourne with a general cargo on 1 October 1875, but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Loch Lomond. Iron ship, 1249 tons. Built 1870. Lbd 226.3 x 35.8 x 21.5 ft. Owned originally by the Glasgow Shipping Company  then purchased by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand who planned to use her as a training hulk for the company’s cadets. Carrying a crew of nineteen, she left Newcastle, New South Wales on 19 July 1908 for England but not seen again. Wreckage recovered indicated she may have foundered off the North Island of New Zealand. Pieces from her were found in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), on Great Barrier Island and at Cape Maria Van Diemen.  [AS6]

Loch Shiel. Iron ship, 1277 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1877. Lbd 225.3 x 35.6 x 21.1 ft. Wrecked on Thorn Island, Milford Haven, Wales while on a voyage from England to Australia, 30 January 1894.  [AS6]

Loch Shiel. Iron barque, 1277 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1877. Lbd 225.3 x 35.6 x 21.1 ft. From Glasgow to Adelaide and Melbourne, wrecked at Milford Haven, 30 January 1901. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Loch Sunart. Iron ship, 1231 tons. Built 1878. Lbd 228.5 x 34.7 x 21.7 ft. Captain G. Weir. From Glasgow to Melbourne, ashore near Belfast, Ireland, 13 January 1879. Tom Pearce, the hero of the Loch Ard disaster on the Victorian coast less than a year earlier, was a member of her crew, and had again survived.  [AS6]

Loch Torridon. Ship, 2000 tons. Launche 1881. Lbd 287 x 42 x 24 ft. Made many voyages on the Australia Run. Ended her days owned by Russians; in 1915 foundered near the entrance to the English Channel, possibly as a result of a German submarine attack.   [AS6]

London. Iron auxiliary steamer, 1752 tons. Built 1864. Lbd 267.2 x 35.9 x 24.1ft.  Owned by Money, Wigram & Company. Shipping experts hailed the London as a splendid example of marine architecture. Captain Martin. Left Plymouth on her third voyage to Melbourne on 6 January 1866 carrying 263 passengers and crew, including six stowaways. On the third day out while crossing the Bay of Biscay in heavy seas the cargo shifted and her scuppers choked, forcing the vessel lower in the water where she was swept by tremendous seas. Water poured down the hatches extinguishing her fires and forcing the captain to turn about and return to Plymouth. In so doing he headed into the eye of a storm. On 10 January, after a considerable buffeting over several days, a sea carried away bodily the port life boat; then in at noon another sea carried away the jib-boom, followed by the fore topmost and main royalmast with all spars and gear. On 11 January,  a huge sea crashed on deck, smashing the engine hatch, an avalanche of water entering the engine room putting the fires out. On 12 January, the London her channels were nearly level with the sea.. The boats had been swamped as soon as launched, and at the last moment the only successful effort was made, the port cutter getting away with nineteen souls on board, but only three being passengers. When the boat was a hundred yards off, the London went down, stern first. As she sank, all those on deck were driven forward by the overpowering rush of air from below, her bows rose high till her keel was visible and then she was ‘swallowed up, for ever, in a whirlpool of confounding waters’. Helpless as she was in the raging seas the London took with her two hundred and forty-four persons. The nineteen people who got away in her cutter were the only ones saved. They were picked up next day by the barque Marianople and landed at Falmouth.  [AS6],[DG]

London. Wooden paddle steamer, 405 tons. Lb 183 x 28 ft. Operated initially between London and Scotland. Purchased by the Melbourne Steam Packet Company, and the by the A.S.N. Co. [WL]

Lord Brassey. Steel, four masted barque, 2749 tons. Built 1891. Lbd 318.3 x 43.2 x 24.5 ft. After a splendid outward voyage of seventy-seven days from London to Melbourne, disappeared on her voyage home, 1892.   [AS6]

Lord Fergus. Iron barque, 674 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 202.1 x 33.2 x 18.7 ft. Owned by J. Sproat and Co. Captain T. Williams. Ashore at Killiney Beach, south of Dublin early in February 1899 while bound from Glasgow to Brisbane with a general cargo.  [AS6]

Lord Raglan. Wooden ship, 1886 tons. Built at Quebec, 1854. Lbd 227.6 x 41.4 x 22.1 ft. Reg. at Liverpool for the White Star Line in 1860 after several owners. Left Liverpool for Melbourne with almost five hundred passengers and crew on 24 February 1863, was spoken on 23 March in latitude 2ON, longitude 22OW, but was not sighted again. When the ship Imperatrice Eugene reached England from Natal, she reported the remains of a ship burnt to the waterline on 26 March. There was no sign of survivors.   [AS6]

Lord William Bentinck. Ship, 544 tons. Built at Bristol, 1828. From Sydney to London via Indian ports, was wrecked at Bombay in July 1840. Heavy loss of life.  [AS6]

Lotus. Ship. Involved in rescue - see ship Hibernia, 1833.    [AS6]

Louis & Ellen. Barque, 248 tons. Built 1847. Renamed Dido, wrecked Table Bay, 1853.  [AS6]

Louise. German barque, 1480 tons. Captain Kohler. Involved in rescue - see barque Allegiance, 1900.   [AS6]

Lupin. Naval sloop. Took stricken steamer Ayrshire in tow, 1926.  [AS6]

Lydia. Wooden barque of 541 tons, built at Sunderland in 1849.  [AS6]

Lyonesse. Scilly packet. Involved in attempted salvage of ship Horsa, 1893.  [AS6]

Lyttleton. Iron ship, 1180 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1878. Lbd 223.8 x 35 x 21 ft. Captain Boorman. Lost at Timaru, NZ, 12 June 1886.  [AS6]

L’Avenir. Wheat ship. Built 1908. Lost at sea, 1938. [LM]

Madagascar. Wooden frigate, 951 tons. Built at Blackwall, London, 1837. As the Madagascar rode at anchor in Hobsons Bay on 11 August 1853, preparing to sail for England with a full passenger list and 68,390 ounces of gold dust, detectives boarded her and arrested several passengers believed involved in the McIvor Gold Escort robbery. Although subsequent investigations delayed the Madagascar for about a month she was expected to arrive back in England late in December. In July 1854 the Madagascar was officially declared lost with her passengers and crew numbering more than two hundred, the cause being given as a probable collision with an iceberg. Many years later a woman dying in New Zealand told a clergymen her story of the ship’s fate. She had been a child’s nurse on the Madagascar, and when in the South Atlantic some of the crew and passengers mutinied, killing the officers and other members of the crew. Locking the remaining passengers below, they took the gold and some of the young women away in two ship’s boats after setting the ship on fire and allowing her to founder. Only one boat reached the coast of Brazil, but the gold dust on board was lost when it capsized in the surf. Yellow fever struck the survivors leaving only two men and herself to reach civilisation and go their own ways. The woman’s story was never proved.   [AS6]

Madeline. Barque, 256 tons. From England to Australia, lost near the Cape Verde Islands, 7 April 1822.  [AS6]

Madeline. Ship, 256 tons. From London to Sydney, wrecked on a reef near St Jago in the Cape Verde Islands, April, 1835. There was no loss of life.  [AS6]

Madeline. Vessel of 256 tons. From London to Sydney, was wrecked at Hartwell River, England without loss of life, 1834. Some references date this wreck occurring in 1835 in the Cape Verde Islands.   [AS6]

Magaera. HMS. Iron frigate, armed with 14 guns, 1395 tons displacement. Built 1849. Lbd 207 x 37.8 x 24.3 ft. One of the first of the Royal Navy’s iron-hulled warships, but spent most of her service life as a troop transport. By 1865 she had become a storeship, and her days seemed numbered until the Admiralty decided to use her to transport relief crews for warships being recommissioned on the Australian Station. On 22 February 1871, under Captain Thrupp, she commenced the long voyage out to Australia. She left Simonstown, South Africa, on 28 May 1871 and three days later ran into a succession of storms. On 9 June a bad leak developed near the keel. A course was set for St. Paul which was reached on the 17 June but two days later a storm forced her ashore and she became a total wreck. Fortunately, most of her stores and gear was salvaged and a camp was set up on the inhospitable island. The Dutch barque Aurora answered distress signals, and after landing a few supplies left for Surabaja, Indonesia with a member of the Megaera’s crew aboard. Several ships were chartered to rescue the men on St. Paul, and after receiving a severe battering from the weather when approaching the island HMS Malacca finally completed loading on 5 September 1871, then set a course for Western Australia, arriving at King George Sound nine days later.  [AS6]

Magoera. Iron steamship. Caotain Thrupp. Left Egland in 1870 with relief crews for the colonies naval squadron, but turned back due to her leaking condition. Presumably after repairs were effected, she resumed her voyage only to develop worse leaks when a thousand miles from St Paul Island in the middle opf the southern Indian Ocean. The captain decided to run the ship ashore in an effort to preserve life. The ship made the island and a temporary camp established. The ship soon broke up, and it was several months before the crew were rescued. [NH]

Mahomed Shah. Wooden barque, 590 tons. From England to New Zealand, caught fire on 4 May 1854. Her fifty-nine passengers and crew were rescued by the brig Ellen and landed at Hobart.   [AS6]

Malacca. HMS. Involved in rescue - see Magaera, 1871.  [AS6]

Maori. Steamship, 5317 tons. Built 1893. Shaw Saville and Albion Co. Wrecked near Huot Bay, South Africa, 4 August 1909. Thirty-two lives lost.  [DG]

Marco Polo. Wooden ship, 2039/1625 tons. Built at St.John, New Brunswick, 1851. Lbd 185 x 35 x 29 ft. Purchased by James Baines & Co, in 1852 and entered the Australia Run the same year. One of the most significant, and magnificent, ships to have brought emigrants to Australia from the United Kingdom. Some of her voyages were controversial, with death through fever prominent in early voyages. In her thirty year career she made many swift and reasonably comfortable passages between England and Australia, and had her share of misfortunes but in general she was ‘sailed hard’ and kept remarkably free of accidents.
On 24 January 1854, she lost an anchor and chain in Port Phillip and grounded on Popes Eye (shoal) near the entrance.
In 1855, collided with the brig Glasgow in the Mersey, and subsequently went ashore on a falling tide; refloated on the next flood and continued her journey.
In 1861, homeward bound from Melbourne,  in 1861 she collided with an iceberg and was badly damaged, but made for Valparaiso, Chile. After repairs, she continued round the Horn arriving in Liverpool after a long and tedious journey of 183 days.
In 1866, completed her last sailing from Liverpool, arriving in Melbourne after 76 days (and beating the leviathan steamship Great Britain).
In 1871, after twenty years of magnificent service, she was put into the ignominious task of carrying guano from South American ports. Another grounding put her into Callao for repairs. Further voyages included the Quebec to London run with timber.
Later sold to a Captain Bull of Norway, remaining in the timber trade, this time Quebec to Liverpool, In 1883 sprang a leak whilst in the St. Lawrence. Her pumps could not cope, so Captain Bull put her ashore near Cavendish on Prince Edward Island. The masts were cut away, and she was dismantled.  [AS6]

Marechal de Castries. Steel ship, 1985 tons. Built at Nantes, France, 1886;  renamed Henriette, then Hamburg in 1924. Ashore Ireland 1925, refloated and then sold to shipbreakers.  [AS6]

Marguerite, (HMAS). Minesweeping sloop of 1250 tons displacement, built at Port Glasgow in 1915-16. After serving with the Royal Navy in World War 1, presented to the Royal Australian Navy in 1919. Sunk as a practice target off the New South Wales coast in August 1935.  [AS6]

Maria. Wooden ship, 1014 tons. Built at Quebec, 1849, for Captain James Nicol Forbes later commodore of the Black Ball Line. Lbd 150 x 31.6 x 22.9 ft. Owned by James Baines & Company, when she first visited Melbourne in 1852, one of the first of the Black Ball Line ships to be placed on the Australia Run. Foundered off the Brazilian coast on 18 June 1853 while on her way from Australia to England.   [AS6]

Marianople. Barque. Involved in rescue - see iron auxiliary schooner London, 1866.  [AS6]

Marlborough. Iron ship, 1191 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1876. Lbd 228 x 35 x 21 ft. Owned by Albion Line. Left Lyttelton, New Zealand on 11 January 1890, bound for London; two days out was spoken by a passing vessel, but was not seen again. Remarkarkably, in October 1913, more than twenty-three years later, newspapers published a story that the barque Johnson had sighted what appeared to be a sailing ship in distress in a cove near the Strait of Le Maire, east of Cape Horn. A boat sent off to investigate found the derelict lying almost upright in a sheltered position, but with her few ragged sails, superstructure, hull and fittings green with mildew. Near the remains of the wheel lay the skeleton of a man clad in mouldy rags; remains of three others were found in the hatchway; ten in the messroom, and six others lay scattered about the decks. It seemed that each man had met his death suddenly and unexpectedly. All that remained to identify the ship were the words ‘Marlborough, Glasgow’ still legible on her stern, but her other secrets were never unfolded.Understandably there were many who considered the story a fake. Other possible fates are also recorded.The probability is that the Marlborough hit an iceberg off Cape Horn.  [AS6]

Maroposa. Iron barque, 1110 tons. Built in 1874. Originally named Jessie Osborne, then Mariposa then Okta when lost off Bluff Harbour, New Zealand, 1913.  [AS6]

Marquis of Anglesea. Ship, 352 tons. Arrived at Swan River, Western Australia, carrying 104 passengers and a general cargo, on 23 August 1829. On 4 September during a gale she dragged her anchors, went ashore. Sold as a wreck she was let out as a store, office, and prison ship until broken up about three years later.  [AS6]

Mars. Brig, 269 tons. Built at Bristol, 1819. From Hobart to London via Batavia and Antarctic sealing grounds, was wrecked in the Falkland Islands, 4 July 1834. After forty-five days in the boats the crew were rescued and taken on to England.   [AS6]

Marsden. Steamship, 919 tons. Collided with and sank the iron barque Firth of Solway, off south- west Ireland, 19 April 1896.   [AS6]

Mary Hay. Involved in rescue - see barque Juliana, South Africa, 1839.  [AS6]

Mary White. Barque, 330 ton. London bound from Sydney with passengers and a cargo which included wool, whale oil and tallow, was destroyed by fire in the South Atlantic, 18 May 1851. The Russian barque Preciosa rescued the entire complement.  [AS6]

Mataura. Built in 1868 as the Dunfillan and renamed when purchased by the New Zealand Shipping Company. A barque of 853 tons. Sold to the Norwegians and renamed Alida. Dismasted and abandoned in the Pacific on 24 August 1900.  [AS6]

Mataura. Iron steamer, 5764 tons. Built in Glasgow, 1896. Lbd 421 x 54.6 x 29.1 ft. Owned by New Zealand Shipping Company. From Wellington to London struck a submerged rock in Sealers Cove, Desolation Island in the Magellan Strait, Cape Horn, 1898. All passengers and crew, totalling sixty, were saved.  [AS6]

Matoaka.  Emigrant ship, wood, 1092 tons. Built 1853. Lbd 198.8 x 37.9 x 22.3 ft. Purchased by Shaw, Savill and Albion Company in 1867. Captain Stephens. Left Lyttelton, New Zealand, for London on 13 May 1869, with forty-five passengers, including thirteen women and eighteen children, a crew of thirty-two, and a cargo of wool and gold. She was not seen again and it was thought she had probably struck an iceberg or been destroyed by fire.  In 1868 she carried a consignment of thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, finches and robins for New Zealand; their descendants are now legion.  [AS6]

May Queen. Iron barque, 849 tons. Built as a ship in 1869. Lbd 178.6 x 31.2 x 19 ft. From London, wrecked New Zealand, 26 January 1888.  [AS6]

Mayda. Barque, 582 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1845. Left Launceston for London on 23 April 1846 with eight passengers and crew but was never seen again. She was removed from Lloyd’s Regisster in 1847 as ‘missing’.  [AS6],[AS1]

Mazeppa. Barque. Wreckage washed up near Stornaway in the Outer Hebrides was identified as being from the barque which left Liverpool for Geelong on 16 January 1854 under the command of Captain Newlands.  [AS6]

Medic. Steamship. Built by Harland and Wolff. Owned by the White Star Line. Ran on the Australia-UK route.  [WL]

Medora. Wooden ship , 382 tons. Master James Tweedie. Left Sydney to London on 21 June 1837 with thirteen passengers and a cargo of timber; lost on the Brazilian coast thirty miles north of Bahia, 25 September 1837. No loss of life. A small schooner rescued all passengers and crew.  [AS6],[AS1]

Melbourne. Auxiliary steamer, 817 tons. One of the vessels owned and operated by the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company on a two-monthly service between London and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.  [WL]

Melbourne. Four masted steel barque, 2691 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1892 as the Gustav, then Austrasia. Lbd 305.1 x 44 x 24.7 ft. Bought by Captain Erikson in 1929. Captain Johansson. Sunk in four minutes after a collision with the Anglo-American Oil Company’s Seminole when off Fastnet, Ireland, July 1932. Eleven of her crew of twenty-six, including the master, who was on his last voyage, drowned.   [AS6]

Melpomene. HMS. Despatched from India to search for the disabled steamer Waikato in the southern Indian Ocan but could not locate her. [NH]

Merchantman. Involved in rescue - see ship eastern City, 1858.  [AS6]

Mercurius. Barque. From San Francisco to Liverpool struck Rocas Shoals in 1870, only six of her crew of thirty-four reached the sand bank and would probably have also died from thirst had they not found the water tanks from the Duncan Dunbar, wrecked there in 1865, and eked a base existence until rescued.  [AS6]

Mercury. Schooner. Reported on the fate of the brig Venus, taken by mutineers who were eventually murdered in New Zealand, 1806. [NH]

Meredith. Barque, 228 tons. Captain Fullerton. From Liverpool to New Zealand via the Sandwich Islands was lost in the Hokianga River on 13 July, 1832. She had attempted to cross the bar at the Hokianga Harbour entrance (North Island, New Zealand). The boatswain was drowned, then Maoris robbed the survivors of most of their possessions.  [AS6]

Meridian. Wooden ship, 579 tons. Built 1852. From London to Australia, wrecked a few hours after she struck Amsterdam Island in the South Indian Ocean, in June 1853. On board were 108 passengers and crew and a cargo for Sydney valued at about £25,000. Immediately she struck, the master, cook and one passenger were washed away and drowned, but those remaining managed to struggle ashore. On 29 August the whaler Monmouth sighted their distress signals and she stood on and off the island for nine days while all were rescued. After landing them at Mauritius, Captain Isaac Ludlow of the Monmouth received high praise and also a testimonial raised among the passengers.  [AS6]

Mermerus. Iron ship of 1671 tons, built in 1872. Sold to Russian interests and broken up in 1910.  [AS6]

Merope. Barque, 1082 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1870. Lbd 203.3x 35.1 x 20.5 ft. Homeward bound from Wellington to London after her nineteenth visit to New Zealand with emigrants, on fire as she approached the Azores, 27 June 1890. Crew were rescued by the Servia which then transferred them to the American ship Babcock, and they were eventually landed at Queenstown, Ireland.  [AS6]

Middlesex. Wooden barque, 578/418 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1839. Owned by Duncan Dunbar and Co. Master C. Monro. After leaving Sydney for London on 15 May 1842, wrecked on the coast of Brazil near Macelo, 30 August 1842. There was no loss of life and some of her passengers continued on to London on the barque Eliza Johnstone.  [AS6],[AS1]

Mignonette. Yacht. Foundered when on a voyage from Southampton to Australia. Three men and a boy took to a boat; twenty days out the two of the men killed and ate the boy. After rescued by the barque Montezuma they were later tried for murder, sentenced to death, then reprieved after serving six months imprisonment.  [AS6]

Miltiades. Involved in rescue - see ship Salsette, 1895.  [AS6]

Miltiades. Steamship, 6793 tons. Built 1903. Aberdeen Linee. Lengthened 50 ft in 1912. Sold to R.M.S.P.Co. and rnamed Orcana. Broken up 1924.  [DG]

Milton Park. Iron ship, 1520 tons. Built at Dunbarton, 1882. Lbd 225.7 x 38.3 x 20.6 ft. Owned by G. Gordon and Co. Left Liverpool for Fremantle on 31 March 1903;  last spoken on 23 April, but not seen again. After H.M.S. Terpsichore searched unsuccessfully for her she was given up as lost in September . Officially posted missing on 21 October.  [AS6]

Minerva. Wooden ship, 987 tons. Built at Bombay, 1812. Captain J. Moir. Bound for Australia with emigrants, parted her anchors while lying alongside the bar at Port Natal, South Africa, and drifted on to rocks at The Bluff, becoming a total wreck, 4 July 1850. There was no loss of life, but most passengers had their luggage destroyed. [AS6],[AS1]
Bateson indicates that there is some, minor, doubt that the ship was bound for Port Natal, and thus had not intended to proceed on to Australia.

Mirzapore. Three masted ship, iron, 1186 tons. Built in 1863; reg. Liverpool, Lbd 209.7 x 36.5 x 22.9 ft. From London to Melbourne with a general cargo, lost on the French coast, 23 October 1883.  [AS6]

Mitchel Grove. Brig. Involved in rescue - see Dalhousie, 1853.   [AS6]

Molly Stark. Ship. Left Cork for Melbourne on 3 October 1857 but was not seen again.  [AS6]

Mona. Barque. Collided with and sank the ship Lady Cairns, off Queenstown, Ireland, 1904.  [AS6]

Monmouth. Whaler, barque, 273 tons. Captain Isaac Ludlow received high praise and also a testimonial raised among the passengers he saved from the ship Meridian, wrecked on isolated Amsterdam Island, 1853.   [AS6]

Montezuma. Barque. Rescued the men who killed and ate a boy after their yacht, Mignonette, foundered between southampton and Ausstralia, 1884.   [AS6]

Montmorency. Wooden ship, 668 tons. Built at Quebec, 1855. Destroyed by fire at Napier, New Zealand, 27 March 1867, three days after arriving from England with passengers. Attempts to scuttle her failed and by next day she had been completely gutted. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Morayshire. Involved in rescue - see barque Juliana, South Africa, 1839.  [AS6]

Moto. Steamship. Collided with and sank the barque Smyrna, 1888.  [AS6]

Najaden. Swedish vessel. Involved in rescue - see steamer Geelong, 1853.  [AS6]

Nancy. Brig. Despatched to rescue the survivors of the wrecked vessel Isabella in the Faulklands, 1813. On the way she captured an American sealing schooner loaded with about 8,000 skins. (England and America were at war over the action of England towards neutral vessels in the Napoleonic War of 1812-1815).  [AS6]

Narborough. Wooden ship, 1011 tons. Reg. Glasgow. After leaving Greenock for Melbourne lost her rudder, became unmanageable and was abandoned in latitude 56ON, longitude 15OW, 16 April 1866. The crew were picked up by the ship J.L.Thierman and landed at Queenstown, Ireland.  [AS6]

Nassau. Brig, wood, 208 tons. Built Gosport, UK, 1819. Left Sydney for London in June 1825; wrecked on Tristan da Cunha after developing a severe leak and being run ashore to save life, 30 August 1825. The crew eventually reached the small settlement on the north western side of the island on the 3 December . All but two who elected to remain were taken on to Hobart by the barque Fairlie.  [AS6],[AS1]

Nebraska. Wooden paddle steamer of 2145 tons. Built 1865.  [AS6]

Neptune. Wooden ship of 809 tons.  [AS6]

Nereid. Steamship. Collided with and sank the emigrant barque Killochan, 1889. The steamship also sank with the loss fo seven lives, off Dingeness, England.  [AS6]

Nereus. Barque, 641 tons. From Barrow, England to Mackay, Queensland, ashore on the English coast, 28 January 1884. Refloated on 17 March but listed so heavily it was necessary to fill her again. Before another attempt to refloat could be made the sea destroyed her.  [AS6]

Nevada. Wooden paddle steamer of 2145 tons, built in 1867. Replica of Nebraska except in rig. Made last voyage out to Australia in 1873.  [AS6]

Nicholas Wood. Steamer. Involved in rescue - see barque John Sugars, 1860.  [AS6]

Nimroud. Involved in rescue  - see Joseph Somes, 1856.   [AS6]

Nina. Brig, 230 tons. Built 1839. Left Bristol for Melbourne on 29 March 1853 but was dismasted in a gale in latitude 39O 20' south, longitude 66O 10' west. While passengers and crew were being transferred to the Antilles which happened upon the scene a boat swamped and three were lost. After being abandoned the Nina was not seen again.  [AS6]

Noormuhul. Barque, 197 tons. Built London, 1823. Captain Stephenson. Sailed from launceston to London on 18 April 1842, and disappeared. She may well have joined the long list of mysterious disappearances, had it not been for the fact that a coloured man had been recognised at Port Arthur as having been on the lost ship. He admitted that the crew had mutinied and taken her to South America. [AS1]
Bateson rightly asserts that the claims of the convict cannot be substantiated. Lloy’s simply lists her as missing in 1842.

Nordderch. Steamship. Searched for the lost barque Admiral Karpfanger without success, 1938.  [AS6]

Norfolk. Ship, 536 tons. Reported lost off the South American coast in July 1837 without loss of life while on her way back to England from Sydney. [AS6]

Norfolk. Steamship, 5310 tons. Built 1900. Federal Steam Navigation Co. Captain Corner. Left Durban on 27 May 1910 for Albany. All went well until 10 June 1910 when the propeller and boss fell off 'with an awful jarring'. Being at the mercy of the wind, sails were made from tarpaulins and under jury rig, made Fremantle some 800 miles distant, where she was repaired.
On 8 November 1914, on fire, run ashore on the Ninety Mile Beach, eastern Victoria, where she broke up.  [DG]

Normuhul. Wooden barque, 197 tons. Built at London, 1823. Left Launceston for London on 18 April 1842 but failed to arrive. In 1849 a convict at Port Arthur, Tasmania stated he had been a carpenter on the ship when the crew mutinied and seized her but his story was never substantiated. Others believed the ship may have been taken by pirates or sank unexpectedly.  [AS6]

North American. (North America). Iron ship, 1715 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1856, as a steamer on dimensions of lbd 283 x 35.2 x 23.5 ft; later converted to sail. Captain H. Hamilton. Left Melbourne for London on 19 February 1885 - was sighted by the Aristides on the 28th, but not seen again. After 202 days she was posted missing at Lloyds.  [AS6]

North Briton. Wooden barque of 402 tons, built in 1829.  [AS6]

North Star. Steamship. Ran down and sank the tea clipper Leichardt off Gravesend, 1868.   [AS6]

Northam. Vessel of 1330 tons. Built at Southampton, 1858, originally as an iron screw auxiliary and equipped with a 300 hp engine. Lbd 274 x 34.7 x 26 ft. After several changes of ownership she was converted into a four masted sailing ship in 1876 and renamed Stars & Stripes.The Northam was the first vessel to be fitted with refrigeration machinery to take the first shipment of frozen mutton and beef from Australia to England. Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure as the equipment broke down during the voyage. She made her best voyage between England and Australia under sail in 1878, her time being sixty-eight days. In December 1878 while outward bound to Sydney, the Stars and Stripes was abandoned on fire.  [AS6]

Northfleet.  Barque, 951 tons. Built 1853. Lbd 180 x 32.3 x 20.9 ft. Left East India Docks, London, on 17 January 1872, with 450 tons of iron rails for the Hobart-Launceston railway, and crammed with 342 passengers and a crew of thirty-three. When at Dungeness was rammed by the Spanish ship Murillo which then reversed away and disappeared into the storm. Only two boats were successfully launched, and one of these was swamped. Passengers and crew clung to the rigging; only 83 were rescued. After lengthy inquiries, the Murillo was positively proved to be the ship responsible for the disaster. It was seized at Dover on 22 September and auctioned to help meet the claims made against her by the Northfleet’s owners. Unfortunately, under International Law no action could be taken against the crew, but the maritime world condemned the conduct of the master, Captain Berrute.  [AS6]

Northumberland. Steamship, 2170 tons. Built at London, 1871 as an auxiliary steamer. Lbd 278.8 x 38 x 26 ft. In 1883 the Shaw Savill Company acquired the vessel and converted her to sail, then used her to carry thousands of immigrants out to New Zealand. Wrecked at Napier, NZ, 9 May 1887.  [AS6]

Norval. Involved in rescue - see ship James Patterson. 1840.   [AS6]

Nugget. Three masted ship, 1128 tons. Built 1853. Believed lost between England and Australia during 1862.  [AS6]

Oak. Brig, 342 tons. Landed emigrants from Liverpool at Port Adelaide in January and when returning to Swansea, Wales, was abandoned at sea in latitude 6ON, longitude 24OW on 4 November 1849.  [AS6]

Oberon. Cutter. Captain Truscott. Visited Guadalcanal in 1854 and heard reports of aa beareded white man living on the island. It was thought that perhaps it could be the blackbirder Ben Boyd, but the man was not found. [NH]

Ocean Chief. Wooden ship, 1026 tons. Built at Maine, 1853. Lbd 182.1 x 34 x 22.5 ft. Owned by the Black Ball Line after 1854. On her way home from Melbourne, she called at Bluff, New Zealand to discharge four thousand sheep. While entering harbour ran aground but was refloated next day badly damaged and towed to a berth against the wharf, then apparently set on fire by her crew and completely destroyed, after being scuttled to save the wharf, 22 January 1862.  [AS6]

Ocean Mail. Vessel of 1039 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1869. Lbd 208.3 x 34.8 x 20.6 ft. Captain Watson. Left Wellington for London on 16 March 1877 and ran ashore in the Chatham Islands during a fog, 21 March 1877. Passengers and crew landed safety.  [AS6]

Ocean Queen. Barque, 236 tons. From Brisbane to England, was lost on Bazarunta Shoal in the Mozambique Channel, 3 March 1857.  [AS6]

Ocean. Ship, transport. Anchored in Port Phillip, the first ship to do so, 7 October. Two days later Lt. David Collins entered the bay in the Calcutta, with 308 male convicts and eighteen free settlers, with the intention of establishing a colony, however it was to subsequently fail within a matter of weeks, with the contingent being transferred to Van Diemen’s Land.   [AS6]

Ocean. Vessel type not recorded. Involved in rescue - see Bety and Sophia, lost Desolation Islan, Kergulen Group, southern Indian Ocean, 1831. [AS1]

Oceana. Steamer, 6603 tons. (Sister Arcadia). Built Belfast, 1887. P.& O. Co. Left Sydney for London in January 1897 with £520,000 in specie on board. While at Port Melbourne, further shipments of gold was placed on board. During one of these loadings it was discovered that a bullion box was missing. Several years later, two boys found the soverigns under Williamstown jetty. Ended her days when she sank after a collision with the four-masted barque Pisagua, off Dover, English Channel, 16 March 1912. Divers recovered £700,000 in gold under very difficult circumstances. The wreck as subsequently blown up as she was a shipping channel.  [DG]

Okta. Iron barque, 1110 tons. Built in 1874 as the Jessie Osborne; renamed Mariposa, then Okta;. Lbd 221 x 34.3 x 20.7 ft. Reg. Norway. Left Port Huon, south-east Tasmania, for Falmouth, via Cape Horn, with a cargo of timber, on 6 September 1913, but on the following day ran into a gale which caused her to leak. For almost a fortnight she battled heavy seas and adverse gale force winds before deciding to put into Bluff Harbour, New Zealand for repairs, however near the entrance struck Pelham Rock. Heavy seas soon reduced her to a total wreck and her remains lie with debris from the Pelham (1886), Scotia (1864) and Maid of Otago (1886).  [AS6]

Oliver Lang. Wooden ship, 1275 tons. Built 1854. Lbd 183.2 x 34.4 x 23 ft. Owned by the Black Ball Line. Condemned and beached after  a fast voyage of 85 days from Plymouth to Wellington, New Zealand, with 300 passengers, arriving 18 September 1858.   [AS6]

Oltonia. Wooden ship, 1398 tons. Built at Quebec, Canada, 1854; reg. Liverpool. Captain Taylor.
With 183 passengers, 54 crew, left London for Sydney in company with the Windsor on 7 November 1857, but was not seen again.   [AS6]

Omar Pasha. Wooden ship, 1279 tons. Built by Walter Hood of Aberdeen, 1854. Lbd 207 x 36 x 22 ft for the Aberdeen White Star Line. First voyage was to China, her second to Sydney. She made several voyages to between Engalnd and Melbourne in under eighty days. She was sold to Taylor, Bethel and Roberts and placed in the Queensland trade. On 1 February 1869, she left Brisbane with sixty-four passengers and a crew of thirty-four and reached a position in the Atlantic 29ON of the equator, in longitude 43OW, when her cargo of wool was found to be on fire. Strenuous efforts were made to quell the flames, but finally all were forced into the boats. Two hours later there was an explosion in the hold and the Omar Pasha sank stern first. The survivors were picked up by a little Italian barque laden with oranges. With an additional ninety-eight people to feed her stores soon gave out, and all had to live on oranges until a larger vessel hove in sight and completed the rescue.  [AS6]

Oneida. Royal Mail Packet steamer. Involved in rescue - see Duncan Dunbar, 1865.  [AS6]

Opawa. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see SS Papanui, lost off St Helena, 1911.  [AS6]

Ophir. Steamship, 6814 tons. Built Glasgow, 1891. Four masts, two funnels. Orient Steam Navigation Co. In 1901, requisition and transformed into the Royal yach for the Duke and Dutchess of York's visit to Australia to open the first Federal Parliament in Melbourne. Resumed service to Australia but at the ioutbreak of World War 1 was again requisitioned, and converted to an armed merchantman. Sold for scrap in Glasgow, September 1922.  [#DG]

Orcades. Twin screw, steam turbine passenger liner of 28,472 tons. Built in 1948 and broken up in 1973.  [AS6]

Oriana. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see barque Pitcairn Island.  [AS6]

Oriana. Twin screw, steam turbine passenger liner of 41,910 tons. Built in 1960 and sold to Japanese interests in 1986 for use as a floating cultural and tourist centre.  [AS6]

Orion. Wooden ship, 1265 tons. Built at Aberdeen, Scotland, 1874. Lbd 222.6 x 36.9 x 21.3 ft. Left Australia for England on 21 October 1901 but failed to arrive.  [AS6]

Oronsay. Iron ship of 1569 tons, built at Liverpool in 1859.  [AS6]

Orotava. Royal Mail steamer, 5857 tons. Built 1889. Pacific Steam Navigation Co. Capsized in Tilbury Dock, London, December 1896. Four lives lost. Later raised.
 

Oroya. Steamship, 6298 tons. (Sister Orizaba). On 4 March 1895, stranded in the Bay of Naples during a storm. Refloated after considerable damage. [DG]

Orsova. Twin screw, steam turbine passenger liner of 29,091 tons. Built in 1954 and broken up in 1974.  [AS6]

Otranto. Steamship, 12124 tons. Built 1909. Orient Line. Sunk as a result of a collision with SS Kashmir in the Irisg Sea, October 1918. Great loss of life.  [DG]

Ourimbah. Steel, twin screw steamer, 750 tons. Built 1909. During her delivery voyage from England to Sydney to join the fleet of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company, went ashore at Chelsea Point, Cape Recife, on the south coast of the Cape Colony, South Africa, 26 November 1909. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Packet. Type unknown. From Glasgow to Melbourne, was badly damaged by a storm in the Atlantic and put in to Cape Town for repairs. She left for Melbourne in December 1854 and was not seen again.  [AS6]

Palamban. Ship. Arrived in Port Jackson with the first assisted immigrants to arrive in Australia, 31 July 1831.  [AS6]

Palamcatta. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see SS Dacca, 1890.  [AS6]

Palmyra. Wooden barque of 602 tons, built at Calcutta in 1820.  [AS6]

Papanui. Steel steamer, 6582 tons, originally square rigged ship. Built at Plymouth, 1898. Lbd 430 x 54.1 x 30.1 ft. Owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company, sold 1909. From Melbourne to England with 376 passengers and 108 crew, she was found to be on fire in No. 3 hold, when in the South Atlantic, near St. Helena, 1911. She headed for the island, anchored in James Bay, and succeeded in landing all passengers and crew. As she was not worth repairing, was towed out to sea in September 1911 and scuttled. SS Opawa took the stranded passengers on to Fremantle.
In 1901, while on her way from New Zealand to London, put in to Vigo, Spain with a fire in a hold. It was quickly extinguished but she lost a large quantity of cargo including 33,000 carcasses of mutton.
In April 1909, was damaged by fire while berthed at Victoria Docks, London.
In 1910 was stranded near Sydney.  [AS6]

Paparoa. Twin screw steel steamer, 7697 tons. Built at Dumbarton in 1899 for the New Zealand Shipping Company. Lbd 430 x 54.2 x 30 ft. From England to New Zealand, scuttled in the South Atlantic after a fire virtually destroyed her, 17 March 1926. All saved. Coincidently,  the Paparoa burnt only a short distance from where her sister ship Papanui met a similar fate fifteen years earlier.  [AS6]

Parisiana. Steel steamer, 4823 tons. Built 1909. Lbd 410.1 x 52 x 27.6 ft.  While steaming from New York to Melbourne, destroyed by fire near the island of St. Paul in the southern Indian Ocean, 14 December 1911. The crew landed at Fremantle.  [AS6]

Parma. Steel four masted barque, 3047 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1902, as the Arrow; registered at Marieham, Finland, for the Standard Oil Company to carry case oil. Lbd 327.7 x 46.5 x 26.2 ft. ‘One of the most magnificent sailing ships ever built.’ Sold in 1912 and renamed Parma, then taken over by the British in World War 1. She served in the nitrate trade to South America until 1930. Later owners included Captain de Cloux and Mr. A.J. Villiers and a Finnish syndicate. Shortly arriving at Glasgow from Port Victoria, Spencer Gulf, South Australia, with a cargo of wheat, on 15 July, the Parma was severely damaged in a collision with the dock wall near her discharging berth. She was converted into a coal hulk for Haifa, Israel but never used and was sold to a German shipbreaking firm the following year.  [AS6]

Penang.  Steel barque, 2019 tons.  Built in 1905 as the Albert Rickmers. Lbd 265.7 x 40.2 x 24.3 ft.
Purchased by Gustaf Erikson in 1923. After sailing from Port Victoria, South Australia, for Queenstown, Ireland, early in June 1940, paused briefly at Stenhouse Bay to take on board a deserter who had been apprehended by the police, and then never seen again. Her disappearance heralded the end of the era of commercial sail. Details of her final hours are shrouded in mystery. Months after she disappeared Berlin radio announced that the Penang had been torpedoed and sank off the Irish coast by the German submarine U-140 with the loss of eighteen lives on 8 December. The survivors were either left adrift in a boat, never to be rescued or taken into the U-boat which possibly was sunk later leaving no trace. The Penang was posted ‘untraced’ at Lloyds in March 1941 and her fate was not confirmed until after the war. To her belongs the sad distinction of being the last deep water square rigger to be lost.  [AS6]

Perekop. Wooden ship, 856 tons. Built at New Brunswick, 1855; reg. Liverpool. Wrecked near the Cape Agulhas lighthouse during voyage from Fremantle to London, 15 July 1862.  [AS6]

Peri. Iron barque of 932 tons, built in 1868.  [AS6]

Perthshire. Steamship, 5877 tons. Built 1893. Left Sydney for London via New Zealand on 27 April 1899. Broke down and drifted for fifty-six days when her tailshaft broke, her passengers and crew finally being picked up by SS Talune on 3 June 1899.  [DG]

Peshawar. Steamship, 7634 tons. Built 1905. P.& O. Co. Sunk off the Irish coast, 9 September 1917. Eleven lives lost.  [DG]

Pinguin. Motor vessel of 7766 tons, built in 1936 and converted to an armed merchant raider during World War 2. She disposed of 28 Allied vessels from when she left Germany on 22 June 1940 until sunk by H.M.S. Cornwall in the Indian Ocean on 8 May 1941.  [AS6]

Pitcairn Island. Steel barque, 1359 tons. Built at Greenock, 1888. Lbd 231.3 x 36.1 x 21.7 ft. Left Wellington for London on 19 March 1906; on fire about 2000 kilometres west of Cape Horn, 3 May 1906. Nine lost when one of two boats was never seen again. On 16 May the survivors reached Maullin on the coast of South America, where several had fingers and toes amputated owing to severe frostbite. A few days later the steward died from his privations. The others eventually reached Valparaiso and were taken to England on SS Oriana.  [AS6]

Pleiades. Iron ship, 1020 tons. Built at Dundee, 1869. Lbd 209.6 x 33.1 x 20.6 ft. Purchased by Shaw Saville & Company in 1873 and visited New Zealand twenty-three times. Captain Burton. Beached near Cape Turnagain, 30 October 1899. Not worth salvaging.  [AS6]

Pleione. Iron ship, 1139 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1876. Lbd 209.7 x 34.6 x 20.3 ft. While approaching Wellington from London, ashore, 16 March 1888.  [AS6]

Polar Star. Woden ship. Destroyed by fire in mid Atlantic on a voyage from London to New Zealand ports, 1 October 1855 . Passengers and crew were rescued by the Annamooka shortly before she sank.  [AS6]

Ponape. Built 1903. Wheat ship. Broken up 1936. [LM]

Port Chalmers. Steel steamship of 4154 tons, built at Sunderland in 1891.  [AS6]

Port Douglas. Steel steamer, 4285 tons. Built 1891. Lbd 371.5 x 46.1 x 26.3 ft. Owned by William Milburn & Co. From London to Adelaide and Sydney, via Cape Town, with a general cargo, wrecked on a reef off the island of St. Vincent, one of the Cape Verde Group, 24 May 1892.  [AS6]

Port Kembla. Steel steamship, 8435 tons. Lbd 481.2 x 62.3 x 33 ft. Built for the Cunard Line which had taken over the Commonwealth & Dominion Line in 1920. While on a voyage from London to Lyttelton, wrecked at San Salvador, Watling Island, in the Bahamas,8 July 1926.  [AS6]

Portunia. Brig. Owned by Ben Boyd and used on the first Australian blackbirding expedition to the south sea islands, along with the schooner Velocity. [NH]

Preciosa. Russian barque. Involved in rescue - see barqque Mary White, 1851.  [AS6]

Prince of Wales. Wooden ship of 342 tons.  [AS6]

Prince Rupert. Wooden barque, 332 tons. Built 1827.  Wrecked at Green Point, at the western entrance to Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, 4 September 1840.  [AS6]

Prince. Steamer, approx 2500 tons. Owned and operated by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company on the England to Australia run  in the 1850s.   [WL]

Princess Royal. Steamer of 109 tons, built in 1843.  [AS6]

Princess Victoria. Brig, 258 tons. Built 1831. Captain Scott. From London for Melbourne, was destroyed by fire in latitude 39O16'S, longitude 136O20'E, 13 April 1853. Crew rescued by a passing vessel.  [AS6]

Promise. Wooden barque, 183 tons. Built 1847. Bound from Liverpool to Sydney,  becalmed and drifted ashore, wrecked, on Coal Rock off Holyhead, Wales, 10 September 1850. No loss of life.  [AS6],[AS1]

Pyramont. German barque. Involved in rescue - see Blue Jacket, 1868.  [AS6]

Queen Bee. Vessel of 726 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1859. Lbd 158.5 x 32.1 x 20.9 ft. Purchased by Shaw Saville Line in 1873. Captain Williams. From London, was nearing Nelson, New Zealand, when she ran ashore, 2 August 1877. Passengers and crew left the wreck in boats and on a hastily built raft; one drowned.   [AS6]

Queen Margaret. Steel four masted barque, 2144 tons. Built 1893. Lbd 275 x 42.2 x 24 ft. Owned by John Black & Co. Captain Bousfield. Left Sydney on 17 January 1913 carrying wheat; wrecked near The Lizard, 5 May 1913. All saved.   [AS6]

Queen of the Thames. Auxiliary steamship, iron, 2607 tons. Built in Glasgow, 1870. Lbd 336 x 41 x 31 ft. The first full powered steamer to anchor in Hobsons Bay; her arrival in January 1871 was celebrated by a public holiday and an inspection by the Governor. Left Melbourne in February 1871 with 345 passengers intending to call at St. Helena for coal. After twenty-four days at sea, her master, Captain Macdonald, realised her consumption of coal was higher than anticipated, so a course was set for Cape Town. However, on 19 March she went ashore on Kilstrand reef, Struys Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope, after the flames from a bushfire were mistaken for the light house at Cape Agulhas. Out of a total of three hundred and fifteen passengers and crew, only four lives were lost when one of the life boats capsized. SS Dunbar Castle took the survivors on to Cape Town, but after the Queen of the Thames and her cargo were sold for £15,000, she became a total wreck and broke up completely about a year later.  [AS6],[DG]

Queen of Beauty. Clipper, 1238 tons. Ran down and sank the ship Wanata in the Bay of Biscay, 1866.  [AS6]

Rakaia. Steamer of 1456 tons, built in 1865.  [AS6]

Ranger. Whaler, 374 tons. Foundered south of Madagascar while returning from Sydney to London with sperm oil, August 1852.  [AS6]

Rangitoto. Twin screw, diesel passenger liner of 21,809 tons. Built 1949,  broken up in 1976.  [AS6]

Red Jacket. Wooden clipper of 2460 tons, built at Rockland, Maine in 1853 and purchased by the White Star Line. One of the few sailing vessels to have covered more than 400 miles in 24 hours; she ran 417 miles during her maiden voyage from New York to Liverpool. Her first voyage out to Melbourne in 1854  took just over 69 days. Finished her days as a coal hulk.  [AS6]

Red Rover. Emigrant ship, 373 tons. Built Yarmouth, 1834. Master J. Smith. From London and Plymouth to Australia, ran agroundd, wrecked, at Port Praya, Island of St. Jago, in the Cape Verde Islands, 24 April 1839. The barque Ferguson, also London to Sydney, was moored close by and assisted in taking off the passengers and crew. The Ferguson could take only nine survivors from St. Jago; most of the survivors reached Sydney on board other ships by the end of August.   [AS6],[AS1]

Redbreast. Wooden barque, 312 tons. Built  England. Wrecked at Algoa Bay, South Africa in July 1878 while on her delivery voyage to Australia.  [AS6]

Renfrewshire. Iron ship, 898 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 202.5 x 33.1 x 20 ft. Captain Cummins. Left Glasgow for Brisbane  in July 1888; seen off the South American coast and then never heard of again. Posted missing at Lloyds 21 November, 1888.  [AS6]

Rhymney. Collier. In 1929, scuttled due to a fire aboard off The Bluff at the entrance to Durban harbour and was later raised.  [AS6]

Richard Dart. Brig. From London to New Zealand ports was lost on Prince Edward Island, in the Southern Indian Ocean, on the 10 or 19 June 1849. There were only eleven survivors our of a complement of sixty-three. The island was uninhibited; survivors lived on candles, young albatrosses and sea elephants until 1 August when discovered by twelve men who were killing sea elephants for their oil. A schooner took them back to Cape Town on 2 September, after they had been marooned for seventy-two days.  [AS6]

Richard. Brig. Brought the passengers of the wrecked ship Sir Fowell Buston on to Australia from Brazil, 1852.   [AS6]

Rifleman. Brig, 303 tons. Wreckage found on the Auckland Islands south of New Zealand in 1834 was believed by some to be the remains of this vessel which left Hobart Town for England with a cargo of wool and was not seen again. Some said she was sailing home via Java. Another version claims that explorers discovered the remains thought to be the Rifleman at Cape Fouliverd, south of the Buller River on the west coast of South Island of New Zealand in March 1846.   [AS6]

Riverford. Steel ship, 1941 tons. Built in 1892 as the Iquique. Renamed Celtic Gem, then Riverford and finally Garthforce when lost off the Cape of Good Hope, 28 January 1922.  [AS6]

Rockhampton. After a passage of 127 days Liverpool to Moreton Bay in 1866, 28 people died out of 483, due to an ‘unidentified infectious disease’. A further twenty-three died whilst the ship was under quarantine.  [AS6]

Rockhampton. Wooden ship, 1065 ton. Built 1849. Sailing under the Black Ball flag, gained a most unsatisfactory reputation after having 29 deaths on a 116-day voyage from Liverpool to Keppel Bay (Queensland) in 1863, due to being ‘unsanitary and ill-ventilated .. and acts of immorality between the female passengers and crew’. After carrying immigrants to Queensland she transferred to the guano trade in 1867.  [AS6]

Rodenbek. Steel barque, 1736 tons. Built at Lubeck, Germany, 1892. Lbd 251.8 x 39.7 x 21.8 ft. Left Liverpool for Sydney and Newcastle in January 1906 but was not seen .  [AS6]

Roland. French whaler. Assisted in rescue - see barque India, destroyed by fire, 1841.  [AS6]

Roxburgh Castle. Wooden ship, 1121 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1852. Lbd 182.5 x 34.5 x 22.1 ft. Lost on the Goodwin Sands, Englaish Channel, 5 January 1872 while on her way out to Melbourne.   [AS6]

Royal Adelaide. Iron barque, 1320 tons. Lbd 232.5 x 38 x 22.5 ft. Built at Bristol, England, 1865.  Captain Hunter. From London to Sydney with thirty-five passengers, thirty-two crew, and a cargo which included hundreds of cases of spirits, ashore in a heavy south-westerly gale, wrecked, Chesil Beach, near Bill of Portland, on the English Channel, 25 November 1872. Loss of six lives. She quickly broke her back and the masts fell. The coastguard succeeded in firing a line over her and bringing some ashore in a basket; the few remaining on board were washed away one by one, while over three thousand people waited impatiently on the beach until the cases of spirits washed ashore as the ship broke up. By midnight, the sand was covered with several hundred people stretched out dead drunk, and by dawn, twenty  had died from excessive drinking.   [AS6]

Royal Archer. Barque, 214 tons. Built 1841. On a voyage from London to Port Adelaide sank following a collision south of the equator in the Atlantic, 19 December 1849.  [AS6]

Royal Bride. Ship, 526 tons. After arriving at Napier, New Zealand from London via Auckland on 10 June 1863, was driven ashore by a gale on 22 June and lost.  [AS6]

Royal Charter. Iron auxiliary steamship, 2719 tons. Built on the River Dee, south of Liverpool 1854. Lbd 235 x 41.5 x 22.5 ft. Owned by Gibbs Bright & Company. After a disasterous start to her career with several mishaps, reached Melbourne in the excellent time of just under sixty days. Her speed and splendid accommodation attracted great interest and she soon became one of the most popular ships to visit Australia. On 26 August 1859 under captain taylor, she left Melbourne for home with 500 passengers and crew, 68,397 ounces of gold and £48,000 in sovereigns. After a record run of fifty-five days she reached Queenstown, Ireland where thirteen passengers disembarked and eleven riggers from another ship joined her. Passengers requested she call at Holyhead to allow them to see the giant Great Eastern, at that time the largest ship in the world, and this delay was to prove fatal. As she left Holyhead rough weather was working up and when off Point Lynas (north Anglesey, Wales), hurricane force winds and giant seas forced her towards the rocky coast as she searched in vain for a pilot. For a while she used the engines to help her anchors hold her while the masts were cut away, but the cables parted, the rigging from her fallen masts tangled around her propeller shaft, and just before dawn on 25 October she went ashore in Moelfre Bay on the east coast of Anglesey, Wales. Only 27 men managed to reach shore before huge waves dumped the ship across rocks, breaking her in two and drowning 459 persons, including her master. A four sided memorial stone pedestal stands in the tiny church of Lianallgo in Angelsey, north-west Wales. Two months after the tragedy Charles Dickens visited Moelfre and adapted a story of the wreck for a tale in the Uncommercial Traveller. As John Lewis of Bristol who was the purser on the Royal Charter was lost with all his records, the exact number of persons on board was never known. Divers were sent down to recover bodies and the gold, in bags and iron chests, estimated to be about half a million sterling. Much was recovered. Some specie still remains on the treacherous wrecksite.  [AS6],[#DG]

Royal Charter. Steamer, 2720 tons. Operated by Bright Bros. & Co on the Liverpool- Australia run.  [WL]

Royal Edward. Iron ship, 1508 tons. Built at London, 1864. Lbd 223.5 x 36.8 x 24 ft. After sustaining heavy damage in rough weather, and having her cargo of salt dissolved by the sea, became unmanageable and in danger of foundering; abandoned, South Atlantic, 30 July 1886. Crew picked up by the barque Beltona.  [AS6]

Royal George. Ship, 486. From Sydney to England with a cargo of wool, was destroyed by a gale at Table Bay, South Africa, 21 July 1822.  [AS6]

Royal Standard. Auxiliary steam ship, 2083 tons. Built in Newcastle, England, 1863. Lbd 255 x 40 x 27.5 ft. When owned by the White Star Line; converted to sail. Captain Hugh Clarke. Left London for Melbourne on 12 August 1869; dismasted off the South American coast, 30 September. She tried to make Rio de Janeiro under jury rig but on 10 October stranded on a sandbank twenty-five miles off Cape de Sao Tome less than 200 miles from Rio de Janeiro. Within a week had broken her back and was settling in the sand. Eight lady passengers drowned. Three passengers and nine of the crew left the wreck on a raft and were later picked up and landed at Falmouth on 10 November 1869. The remainder of the passengers and crew were also eventually saved and landed at Rio de Janeiro while the ship’s hull and cargo were sold at auction on 23 October 1869.  [AS6]

Runnymede. Wooden ship, 720 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1854; reg. Bristol. Lbd 156 x 29.5 x 19.5 ft. In 1866, left Wallaroo, South Australia for Wales with copper ore but sprung a leak off Western Australian coast and was eventually forced to jettison some one hundred tons of ore near Mauritius. In April 1866, when off South Africa, the leak worsened in heavy weather forcing the crew to abandon her and land at Algoa Bay.  [AS6]

Sabine. Steamship. Union Castle Line. Searched for the liner Waratah, lost between Durban and Cape Town, July, 1909.  [AS6]

Saldanha. Three-decked ship, 1568 tons. Launched in Quebec, 1853. Lbd 192.5 x 33.5 x 29.4 ft. After a short time with Gibbs, Bright & Co, she passed into James Baines and Thomas Mackay’s Black Ball Line and made several passages to Melbourne, her last in 1860. Returning to England via a lengthy route that included Hong Kong, she had on board thirty-five cases of yellow fever, of which five died. Returning from her final voyage to Australia in 1863, was stranded ‘somewhere on the South Island of New Zealand’, refloated and eventually made it back to London. The damage however was such that surveyors condemned her as unfit for passenger voyages and she was sold out of the Black Ball Line after nine years of service.   [AS6]

Salier. Steamship, 3098 tons. Built 1875. Norddeutscher Lloyd. Pioneer stamer to Australia. Sunk in Bay of Biscay, December 1896, with great loss of life. [DG]

Salsette. Iron ship, 1702 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1886; reg. London. Lbd 259.4 x 38.2 x 23.2 ft. From London to Melbourne with general cargo, caught fire and was abandoned in the southern Indian Ocean., 1895.  Her crew were later picked up by the Miltiades. On 22 May the derelict was sighted by S.S. Waimate; a boarding party knocked a hole in her hull to scuttle her.  [AS6]

Salsette. Steamer, 1491 tons. Built 1858. Operated to Australia by P.&.O on the mail run. [DG]

Salween. Wooden ship, 286 tons. Struck Olinda Reef off the American coast in July 1868 while on voyage from Sydney to London. Towed to Pernambuco and condemned.  [AS6]

Samarang. Wooden barque of 378 tons, built at Boston in 1833.  [AS6]

Santipore. Three masted ship, 515 tons. Built 1847. Bound from London to Hobart Town, wrecked near Folkstone, England, 12 October 1853.  [AS6]

Sapphire. Wooden ship, 1140 tons. Built at Quebec, 1853. From Glasgow for Melbourne with one hundred and twenty passengers and thirty crew she was lost on Bair Point near Belfast, Ireland on the 4 November 1853 without loss of life.  [AS6]

Savoir-Faire. Iron ship, 1454 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1863. Lbd 216.8 x 36 x 25 ft. Renamed Mercator in 1885, then later reverted to original name. Left Geelong for the United Kingdom with wheat on 19 September 1893 but failed to arrive. Lloyds posted her missing on 18 April 1894.  [AS6]

Schiehallion. Iron barque, 602 tons. Built at Dundee, 1869. Captain Levock. Wrecked in the English Channel near the Ushant Light, France when on a passage from Auckland to English ports, 13 January 1879. Two drowned.  [AS6]

Schiffswerft. Ship of 905 tons, built in 1877.  [AS6]

Science. Ship, 235 ton. After sailing from Hobart for London on 9 May 1832, was almost overwhelmed by a huge sea on 21 June when about 650 kilometres west of Cape Horn. Four men, boats and other gear were swept away, while the main and mizzen masts were brought down. Five days later the whaler Warrens took off the fifteen survivors and she was abandoned.  [AS6]

Scindian. Convict transport. Bropught the first convicts to Fremantle, Western Australia, on 1 June 1850.  [AS6]

Scotland. Barque, 375 tons. Left Geelong for Falmouth with wheat but was not seen again. Posted missing at Lloyds in November 1881 after 230 days out.  [AS6]

Scotland. Barque, 375 tons. Built 1865. Disappeared having left Geelonh for England, 1881.  [LAH]

Selcirkshire. Saw the crushed ship Tewmplemore before she foundered, 1893.  [AS6]

Seminole.  Anglo-American Oil Company vessel. Collided with and sank the barque melbourne when off fastnet Rock, Ireland, 1932.  [AS6]

Servia. Involved in rescuee - see barque Merope, 1890.   [AS6]

Sierra Morena. Involved in rescue - see iron ship Strathmore, Apostle Island, 1874.   [AS6]

Siltonhall. Steel steamer, 6055 tons. Built in 1912 as the Nurtureton. Lbd 415 x 55 x 30.6 ft. Captain H. Harrison. Carrying a cargo of British coal from England to Port Adelaide, abandoned while on fire in the Indian Ocean, 2,000 miles form Perth, 21 September 1929. Crew rescued by the cargo steamer Anthea .  [AS6]

Simla. Iron ship, 2288 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1854. Lbd 330 x 39.8 x 26.7 ft. Bound from London to Sydney, sank off the Isle of Wight following a collision with the City of London near The Needles, 25 January 1884. Twenty crew lost. Survivors were rescued by the badly damaged City of London and the steamer Guernsey.  [AS6]

Singapore. Steamship, iron vessel of 1540 tons, built at Glasgow in 1874 on dimensions of 285.6 x 32.2 x 15.8 ft. She stranded on a reef near Mackay, Queensland in January 1877 and became a total loss.  [AS6]

Sir Fowell Buxton. Ship, 500 tons. Built 1850. Captain Woodcock. From London to Geelong and Port Phillip with 230 on board, she struck Tapioca Shoals off the coast of Brazil, north of Cape San Roque, 16 December 1852. All reached shore, but suffered from thirst on the barren shore; eventually reached Pernambuco, and later continued their voyage on the brig Richard.  [AS6]

Sir Thomas Munro. Vessel of 331 tons. Bound from London to Sydney via Hobart, wrecked on Boa Vista Island in the Cape of Verde Islands on 10 December 1834. Some references date this wreck 1831. Her complement totalling fifty-six landed safely by boat.   [AS6]

Sir Walter Raleigh. Iron ship, 1579 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1876. Lbd 243.4 x 38.9 x 21.9 ft. Left Sydney for London on 10 November 1888 with a large cargo of wool; lost near Cape Gris Nez on the French coast, 29 January 1889. Five lives lost.  [AS6]

Siren. Iron ship, 1555 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1881. Lbd 248 x 38 x 23 ft. Made a number of fast voyages between England and Australia, her last being eighty-one days from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1883. Inward bound to London from Sydney, rammed and sank by H.M.S. Landrail in the English Channel, south west of Bill of Portland, 11 July 1896. After the collision the Landrail backed off, allowing the sea to rush in to the Siren, sending her to the bottom in a few minutes, while the crew escaped in the boats.  [AS6]

Skaregrom. Wheat ship. Built 1903. Dismasted off Maderia and condemned. [LM]

Slievemore. Iron ship of 1668 tons, built in 1877. Destroyed by fire in June 1885.  [AS6]

Smyrna. Iron barque, 1372 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1876. Lbd 232.2 x 38.5 x 22.2 ft. Bound from London to Sydney, sank at the Needles, western tip of the Isle of Wight, after a collision with SS Moto, 28 April 1888. Twelve of her crew including the captain lost their lives. The seventeen survivors were rescued by the steamship and landed at Southampton.  [AS6]

Sobraon. Composite ship of 2131 tons, built at Aberdeen in 1866 and designed originally as a steamer. Very popular with passengers between England and Australia, and with a crew of 69, about 90 first class passengers, 40 second class passengers, and cargo, she completed a voyage each year, leaving England at the end of September and arriving Sydney early February. Purchased by the well known company of Devitt & Moore in 1870, then a reformatory ship for the New South Wales Government in 1891 and a training ship for the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, (H.M.A.S. Tingira). Paid off in 1927 and broken up in 1941. Although never hard driven she registered some good times. London to Cape Otway in 60 days; London to Melbourne in 68 days; London to Sydney in 73 days.  [AS6]

Socotra. Steel steamer, 6009 tons. Built 1897. Lbd 450 x 52.2 x 30.5 ft for the P.& O. Line. From Brisbane to London stranded near Le Touquet, France, 25 November 1915. No loss of life.  [AS6],[DG]

Somersetshire. Iron steamship of 2342 tons. Built Thames,1867 for Money, Wigram's Australian run. Lb 271 x 41 ft. Converted to sail in 1881 and name changed to Prince Edward.  [AS6],[DG]
On 28 October 1873, left Melbourne for England, encountered heavy weather near Cape Horn, and was partly disamasted. near Cape Horn. During the height of the storm, two crew were washed overboard and drowned. Several others were injured, one later dying. Set course for Valparaiso, where the ship was repaired and continued on to England.

Sophia Jane. Side-paddle steamer, 126 ft. Left London for Sydney on an epic 148-day journey, the first steam-ship to make the Australia Run, thus establishing the first steam link between Britain and the colonies.   [AS6]

Sophia Joakim. Barque, 1984 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1864. Lbd 204.8 x 32.8 x 21 ft. From Adelaide to London, put in to Tamatave, Madagascar in April 1879, dismasted. After temporary repairs she continued her voyage but was later condemned at Mauritius.  [AS6]

Spes. Norwegian barque, 716 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1870. Lbd 188.5 x 31 x 18.5 ft. From London to Fremantle, ran into gales while sailing down the English Channel and apparently foundered, 1903.  [AS6]

St Michael. Brig. Disappeared between England and Australia, 1856.  [AS6]

St Mungo. Steel ship, 1955 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1892. Lbd 272 x 40 x 23.6 ft. Owned by A. Mackay & Co. Bound from Liverpool to Sydney, found to be on fire on 10 October 1906 and abandoned off the Brazilian coast. All the crew reached Bahia safely.  [AS6]

St. Mawee Castle. Steamer, 25 tons. Built at Hayle (St. Ives Bay, St. Georges Channel, England). Lbd 82 x 15.1 x 6.2 ft. Left for Fremantle on 14 March 1896, called at Cape Town, left on 11 July, then not seen again. Lloyds posted her missing in mid December 1896.  [AS6]

St. Paul. American steamship. Involved in a collision with the ship Ben Lee off the english coast, 1916.  [AS6]

St. Vincent. Ship, 834 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1863. Captain  J. Barron. After arriving at Wellington on 1 January following a voyage of 120 days from Cardiff with coal, unloaded then left for Lyttelton on 13 February to load wool for England. On the following day when off Cape Campbell she was struck by a south easterly gale and forced ashore in Palliser Bay after her anchors failed to hold. Enormous seas quickly broke her up drowning twenty of her crew. There were only two survivors.  [AS6]

St. Vincent. Convict ship. The last to bring convicts to Van Diemen’s Land, arrived in Hobart on 26 May 1853.  [AS6]

St.Leonards. Ship, 1054 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1864. Lbd 204 x 34 x 20.3 ft.  Captain Todd. On her thirteenth voyage to New Zealand, run down during a fog, in the English Channel, off Start Point, 25 miles south-east of Plymouth,  by SS Cormorant, 1883. In the space of about eight minutes, all the emigrants and crew, totalling sixty, had been taken on board the Cormorant which landed them at Dartmouth, east of Plymouth, on the Devon coast.   [AS6]

Star of Canada. Steel steamer, 7280 tons. Built 1909. Lbd 470.3 x 58.4 x 31.6 ft. Owned by the Star Line Limited. Loaded with a general cargo from New Zealand ports to London, dragged her anchors during a gale and was forced on to Kaiti Beach near Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand, and eventually became a total wreck after breaking her back.  [AS6]

Star of Japan. Steel steamer, 6236 tons. Built 1906. Lbd  440.3 x 55.3 x 30.3 ft. Owned by the Tyser Line. Wrecked on a reef in Saint Cyprians Bay near Pedro de Galle, on the North West coast of Africa, south of the Canary Islands on 7 April 1908, while en route from London to Hawke Bay, New Zealand with a general cargo.  [AS6]

Star of Tasmania. Ship, 632 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1856. Whilst loading wool for Engalnd, ashore in a storm, wrecked, Oamaru, New Zealand, 3 February 1868. Five lives lost.  [AS6]

Star of Erin. Wooden barque, 950 tons. Built at Belfast, 1862. Lbd 200 x 32 x 21.9 ft. Left Bluff, New Zealand, for London on 6 February 1892, only to go ashore about two kilometres north of Waipara Point lighthouse, where she became a total wreck.  [AS6]

Star of the East. Wooden clipper of 1219 tons register, built at St. John, New Brunswick, Canada in 1853. Bought by the Golden Line, her first voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne took 78 days, and her second 77 days. Reports confirm that she often exceeded fifteen knots. During her lifetime she traded between England, Australia, India and China. Wrecked off the South African coast in 1861.  [AS6]

Star of Japan. Steamship, 6250 tons. Tyser Line. Wrecked on the African coast, April 1908.  [DG]

Stars and Stripes. Four-masted sailing ship. Built at Southampton, 1858, originally as an iron screw auxiliary, and named Northam. Lbd 274 x 34.7 x 26 ft. Outward bound to Sydney, abandoned on fire, December 1878. (See Northam for further details).   [AS6]

Stoneleigh. Steel barque, 2243 tons. Built at Greenock, Scotland, 1892. Lbd 281.6 x 42.3 x 24.6 ft. Left Melbourne for London on 27 February 1895 and was last sighted in the Tasman Sea when spoken by the Dunsyre. Lloyds assumed her posted as missing on 18 September 1895. On 19 October the New Zealand Government steamer Hinemoa returned to report wreckage and remains of what appeared to be a cargo of wool scattered through the Auckland Islands.  [AS6]

Strathmore. Iron ship, 1550 tons. Built at Dundee, 1875. Lbd 243.3 x 37.4 x 23.3 ft. Captain MacDonald. Sailed from London for Otago on 17 April 1875 with fifty-one passengers and a crew of thirty-eight. Struck Apostle Island at the north western end of the Crozet group, 1 July 1874. The whole of the vessel was under water with the exception of the foc'sle head. Several people were on the roof of the deck house, and others clung in the rigging. The captain and the mate were washed overboard. and drowned; the second mate and several others got the gig and dinghy off the deck house and made several trips, taking off passengers and crew. Distress signals from shore were sighted on 14 January 1875 by the American whaler Young Phoenix, which lowered two boats and agreed to take the castaways off. The Young Phoenix  met the Sierra Morena bound for the Dutch East Indies on 26 January, and transhipped twenty. The Sierra Morena put in to Galle in Ceylon. The Young Phoenix was bound for Mauritius, but before reaching there, met the ship Childers to which she transferred the rest of the castaways. Most of the survivors were landed at Southampton on 5 April 1876.  [AS6]

Strathnairn. Vessel of 717 tons. Built 1876. Lbd 176.6 x 30.5 x 18.3 ft. On 13 February 1880, a few hours after leaving London for Adelaide, collided with with SS Edith Hough about thirty- seven miles west of Ushant on the north-west French coast, and sank. The barque disappeared with seven minutes taking all crew.  [AS6]

Stuart Star. Steel , turbine-engine powered vessel, 11928 tons. Built 1926. Lbd 475.8 x 67.3 x 45.2 ft.. Owned by the Blue Star Line. Left Liverpool on November 20, 1937, with fifteen passengers and a crew of ninety-three, for Melbourne, via South African ports; on 17 December was making for East London, South Africa, in a thick fog when she ran ashore about a quarter of a mile from the Hood Point lighthouse.  [AS6]

Sudmark. Steamship, 6579 tons. Renamed - see SS Clan Mackay, lost off Sierra Leone, 1934.  [AS6]

Suevic. Twin screw, steel liner of 12531 tons, built in 1900-01. Maiden voyage from Liverpool to Sydney via the Cape of Good Hope. Badly damaged after stranding near The Lizard, 17 March 1907. Converted to whale factory ship in 1928 and named Skytteren. Scuttled in 1942.  [AS6],[DG]

Surat. Ship, 1000 tons. Built at Jarrow, 1863. Lbd 201.5 x 32.1 x 21.7 ft.  Captain Johnson Left Gravesend for New Zealaand on 28 September 1874 with  two hundred and seventy-one emigrants and thirty-six crew, nd a valuable cargo to New Zealand. Run ashore, wrecked, at Catlins River, east of Bluff, New Zealand, after striking a reef, 31 December 1874.  No loss of life. commenced to sink she was where she became a total wreck, without loss of life. The captain was found guilty of gross carelessness and receiving two months imprisonment.  [AS6]

Surrey. Wooden ship of 443 tons, built in 1811.  [AS6]

Surry. Convict ship. Captain Paterson. Made eighteen voyages from England to NSW between 1814 and 1840. On her first voyage fifty-one crew, convicts and soldiers, including the captain, died of typhus.  The ship Broxbornebury assisted to bring the vessel in to Port Jackson. [#NH]
In 1821, found survivors of the wrecked Nantucket whaler Essex on Henderson Island.

Sutlej. Wooden ship, 783 tons. Built at Dundee, 1854. Touched ground when leaving Dundee for Melbourne on 31 March 1858 on Abertay Sands and sank shortly after she commenced to take water.  [AS6]

Swallow. Wooden ship, 1435 tons. Built at East Boston, 1854. Lbd 210 x 38.6 x 23.6 ft. Captain Walsh. After a varied career in the China tea trade and around Cape Horn to California, ended her days being abandoned at sea when bound from Liverpool to Sydney, after leaking badly, 1885. All hands were taken off by a passing vessel.  [AS6]

Sydney. Auxiliary steamer, 817 tons. One of the vessels owned and operated by the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company on a two-monthly service between London and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.  [WL]

T. Harrison. Ship. Sank in the English Channel sometime in October, 1834 while bound from London to Tasmanian ports.  [AS6]

Tacora. British barque. Captain Ullathorne. Assisted the stricken steamer Waikato in the Indian Ocean, 1899. She proceeded to mautitius to report the situation. [NH]

Tamar. Type unknown. Involved in rescue - see barque Despatch, destroyed by fire in the Tasman Sea, 1839.   [AS6]

Tamaris. French vessel. Ran on to desolate Pengiun Island, one of the Crozet group, when on a voyage to Noumea, 11 March 1887. Six months later an albatros was found near Fremantle with a piece of tin around its neck and the message ‘Thirteen shipwrecked Frenchmen are refugess on the Crozets, August 4'. A French whaler was despatched to the Crozets but the castaways had moved on to Possession Island, however the provisions and hut at Possession island had not been used, the castaways having disappeared. [NH]

Tamoris. Iron barque of 463 tons, built in 1868.  [AS6]

Tasman. Steel steamer, 1543 tons. Built 1901. Lbd 250 x 40 x 20 ft. Owned by Koninklyle Paketvaart, Amsterdam. Left London for Melbourne on 21 February 1913; capsized in the North Sea.  [AS6]

Tay. Iron barque, 1664 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1885. Lbd 257 x 38.2 x 23.2 ft. Carrying railway iron from Middlesborough, England, to Melbourne, she ran on to Hasborough Sands, in the North Sea, on 23 June 1888.  [AS6]

Tayleur. Iron ship, 1750 tons. Built at Warrington (Mersey River, inland from Liverpool), 1853. Lbd  225 x 39.4 x 27.6 ft - the largest sailing ship built in Britain up to that time. Captain Noble. On 19 January 1854 left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Australia carrying 496 passengers and a crew of eighty. The compasses had not been checked sufficiently to compensate for the iron ship and their false readings lured her to destruction two days later on the rocks of Lambay Island off the east coast of Ireland, (just north of Dublin, in the Irish Sea) during a gale and heavy fog. As she began to sink by the stern, a rope and spar were floated on to the beach, and by this means a number of lives were saved. The efforts of those on shore and aboard ship attempting to save lives were hampered by panic among the crew, mainly Chinese and Lascars. There were however many acts of heroism. This disaster cost a total of 380 lives, and of the 216 women on board only three were saved. Her remains lay undiscovered until 1959 when members of the Irish Sub-Aqua Club discovered the final resting place of a tragic ship.  [AS6],[#HS]

Teddington. Iron steamship, 2017 tons. Built at Newcastle on Tyne, England, 1880. Lbd 287 x 36.1 x 23.9 ft. On a voyage from Australia to United Kingdom, struck on uncharted rock in the Red Sea and sank, 9 June 1887. SS Cairo rescued the crew.  [AS6]

Templemore. Steel ship, 1717 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1890. Lbd 258.7 x 38.2 x 23 ft. From Wallaroo to British ports, crushed between two icebergs north of the Falkland Islands, 3 March 1893. Some of her crew were drowned while the rest, including the captain and his wife, were picked up by the Dundoyne after being in an open boat for five days, and landed at Montevideo. Six days after she was abandoned, the master of the Selcirkshire boarded her and found about water a metre deep in the main hold, and the following day she foundered.   [AS6]

Terpsichore. HMS. Searched in vain for the lost ship Milton Park, 1903.  [AS6]

Terror, (HMS).  Wooden vessel of 326 tons, launched in 1813. Fitted with a steam engine and propeller in 1845. Abandoned in the Arctic in 1848.  [AS6]

Tessore. Ship. Bound for Melbourne from England, rammed by the Consett  and sank 250 kilometres off Cape Clear, 10 October 1877. No loss of life.  [AS6]

Thermopylae. Ship, 948 tons. Built 1868. Sunk off Lisbon, 1907. [LO]

Thermopylae. Three masted clipper-bowed steamer, 3711 tons; carried yards on the foremast and often used sail. Built at Aberdeen for the Aberdeen White Star Line, 1891. Lbd  362.1 x 44.4 x 23.6 ft. Homeward bound from Australia, ashore during a thick fog on Green Point, at the western entrance to Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, 11 September 1899. Beside a large number of passengers, all saved, the ship carried a valuable cargo including nearly 8000 copper ingots, 5000 bars of bullion and 10 boxes of gold valued at £50,000, and racehorses.  [AS6],[WL],[DG]

Thirlmere. Iron three masted ship, 1652 tons.Built in 1874, Renamed - see Irmgard, lost off chile, 1910.  [AS6]

Thomas Lowry. Ship, 409 tons. Built Dartmouth, UK, 1835; reg. Liverpool. Captain J. Graham. Sailed from Sydney for England on 13 Noveember 1844, struck sunken rocks off Dartmouth when in charge of the pilot, run ashore in a damaged condition, 27 March 1845. The following day the pilot hang himself. The ship was raised, patched-up and towed to London. [AS1]

Thor. Swedish ship. Involved in rescue - see ship Helen, 1857.  [AS6]

Thorne. Iron barque, 905 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1878. Lbd 194.3 x 33 x 19 ft. From Liverpool to Adelaide, went ashore in Douglas Bay on the Isle of Man, Irish Sea and became a total wreck, 25 January 1890.   [AS6]

Three Bees. Convict transport, 459 tons, built in 1813. Sailed from Cork. Ireland, on 27 October 1813 with 219 convicts. Seven died of disease before the vessel reached Sydney and fifty-five soon after. Whilst moored in Sydney Cove, caught fire due to a carelessly used candle, and with great concern as there were thirty casks of gunpowder on board, was cut adrift. Instead, she moved closer inshore, then her loaded guns began to explode sending broadsides into nearby houses. (Dawes Point, in Port Jackson, is the southern point where the Sydney Harbour Bridge is now located). The Three Beeseventually  grounded on Bennelong Point (current location of the Opera House) and it was not long after this that the gunpowder exploded, destroying her completely. [#NH],[AS6]

Thurland Castle. Ship, 1301 tons. Built at Belfast, 1876. Lbd 226.1 x 34.8 x 21.5 ft. Went missing between New Zealand and London. Another report suggests she left Newcastle, New South Wales, and disappeared.   [AS6]

Ticonderoga. Wooden four masted ship, 1089 tons. Built in 1849.  [AS6]

Tjisadane. Steel steamship, oil fired vessel, 9228 tons. Built at Amsterdam in 1931.  [AS6]

Toanui. Steamer, 103 tons. Designed for towage and salvage work, and specially built in Scotland for the Gisborne Meat Company, New Zealand. Left the Clyde on 14 April 1913 bound for Melbourne, only to disappear with all hands. Wreckage from her washed ashore on the Cornish coast.  [AS6]

Torrens. Composite ship of 1335 tons, built at Sunderland in 1875. Owned by A.L. Elder & Co. until sold to Italian interests in 1903 and broken up at Genoa, Italy in 1910. Fastest voy-ages; 65 days, Plymouth to Adelaide in 1880-81; 67 days, Plymouth to Adelaide in 1887-88.  [AS6]

Tottenham. Steamship. Sighted boddies in the sea off East London, south-east Africa, possibly from the liner Waratah, lost between Durban and Cape Town, July 1909.  [AS6]

Trafalgar. Emigrant ship. From Liverpool to Sydney, ashore, wrecked, at Three Anchor Bay, in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 21 February 1839. Her anchors failed to hold in near calm conditions and the crew attempted to wear ship; the masts were cut away but she was soon a total wreck. One lady passenger was killed by a falling spar, but most of the others continued on to Australia as soon as possible, leaving a few waiting for a passage back to England.  [AS6]

Trafalgar. Iron barque, 1768 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1877. Lbd 271.5 x 39.3 x 23.4 ft. Wrecked on the coast of Brazil while bound from Sydney to Falmouth with wheat, November 1904. In 1893 the Trafalgar was the scene of an heroic feat by William Shotton, 18, who navigated the ship from Batavia to Melbourne with the assistance of Hugh Kennedy the sailmaker, after all the officers including the captain, and most of the crew, had died of Java Fever.   [AS6]

Trafalgar. Wooden barque, 717 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1845. Lbd 133 x 31.5 x 21.2 ft. Owned by Duncan Dunbar and registered at London. Bound from Australian ports to London when she sprang a leak and foundered in the Atlantic, May 1860. One boat with survivors was picked up but the others were not seen again.  [AS6]

Tremountain. American vessel. Involved in rescue - see Loch Earn and Viile du Havre, English Channel, 1873.   [AS6]

Trevelyan. Iron barque, 1042 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1863. Lbd 203.6 x 33.4 x 21.2 ft. From Glasgow to Port Chalmers, was posted missing after 202 days out. A life buoy from her was found some time later on the north coast of Africa and she was believed lost 3 June 1888..  [AS6]

Trevessa. Steel steamer, 5004 tons. Built as the German ship Imkenturm in 1909. Taken over by Great Britain at the close of World War 1. When lost, was owned by the Hain Steamship Company. Lbd 401 x 52.5 x 28.2 ft.Captain Foster. Left Fremantle on 25 May 1923 for British and Belgian ports carrying a cargo of zinc concentrates; sank in the Indian Ocean during rough weather, 23 June 1923. Two boats launched. One made Rodriguez Island on 26 June 1923, and all landed safely after twenty-three days at sea. The other boat however experienced a tragic passage. Water ran short and despite repeated warnings, four Indian members of the crew drank sea water and died. The second engineer fell overboard during rough weather, and another crewman died two hours before land was sighted. This boat missed Rodriguez Island and sighted Mauritius on 28 June. The survivors were so exhausted by this time they had to be carried ashore, and the chief cook died soon after arrival. Captain Foster and the mate were awarded Lloyd’s Silver Medal for their splendid seamanship and courage, and were received by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace.   [AS6],[NH]

Tural. Steel steamer, 3530 tons. Built at Middlesborough, 1907. Renamed Carawa, lost in the Galapagos Islands, 1920.  [AS6]

Tuscany. American whaler, 299 tons.  [AS6]

Tyrone. Steel steamship, 6664 tons. Built at Belfast, 1901. Lbd 450.5 x 55.2 x 30.6 ft. Owned by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. From England, wrecked just south of Otago Heads, New Zealand, 27 September 1913.  [AS6]

Umbilco. Steamship, 1232 tons. Bound for Port Natal, collided with and sank the barque Ethel in the English Channel, 1890.   [AS6]

Unden. Swedish steamer. Assisted the stricken Garthforce to Port natal after hitting an iceberg, 28 January 1922.  [AS6]

Underley. Iron ship, 1292 tons. Built 1886. Lbd 225 x 37.1 x 23 ft. Captain Tidmarsh. Left London on her third voyage to Melbourne carrying thirty emigrants and a general cargo, forced ashore in a gale near Dunnose Head, wrecked, 25 September 1871.  One life lost.   [AS6]

Union. Brig. From London to Launceston, was lost near Cape Verde Islands, 5 December 1854.  [AS6]

Urania. Wooden ship, 467 tons. Built Chepstow, UK, 1834. From Liverpool to Sydney with two hundred and eight emigrants, was wrecked at the entrance to the River Dee south of  Liverpool on 9 October 1841. Lifeboats rescued all passengers and crew before she broke up. [AS6],[AS1]

Van Stravel. French vessel, 2349 tons. Built Nantes, 1901. Lbd 276.7 x 40.3 x 22.5 ft. Captain Quemper. From Glasgow to Hobart via San Francisco, wrecked in a gale on Monarch Island in the Hebrides, 1 February 1903. Twenty-seven lives were lost.  [AS6]

Velocity. Schooner.Owned by Ben Boyd and used on the first Australian blackbirding expedition to the south sea islands, along with the brig Portunia. [NH]

Venus. Brig. Captain Chase. Sailed from Port Jackson for Port Dalrymple and Hobart at the end of April 1806, intending to continue on a saling voyage. Having ‘become enamoured’ witn a female convict onboard, the first mate, Kelly,  took the opportunity of seizing the vessel whilst the master was ashore, making for New Zealand, after first setting adrift five loyal seamen. The mate and convict decided to settle near the  Bay of islands, and the Venus was taken over by another seaman who kidnapped a few Maori girls before departing. The long shot is that kelly was captured and returned to England as a prisoner on the Britannia, whilst the schooner Mercury reported that the Venus had been captured by Maoris, the mutineers killed, and the brig burnt. [NH]

Victoria. Auxiliary steamer, 1120 tons. One of the vessels owned and operated by the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company on a two-monthly service between London and Australia via the Cape of Good Hope.  [WL]

Victoria. Wooden vessel, 85 tons. Only survivor from Magellan’s fleet of 5 ships which set out from Europe in 1519 and eventually circumnavigated the world, arriving home in 1522.  [AS6]

Victorine. Schooner, 70 tons. Built at Mauritius; reg. Hobart. Master William Risk. Left Sydney for Mauritius on 24 August 1822, but never arrived, presumed foundered with seven or eight people. [AS1]

Viking. Wheat ship. Built 1907. Preserved at Gothenburg, Sweden. [LM]

Ville du Havre. French Atlantic mail steamer, 3950 tons. At that time the largest passenger vessel in the world. It is not often that sail comes off better than steam in a collision, but such was the case when the iron fully-rigged ship Loch Earn collided with the Ville du Havre in the English Channel, 22 November 1873. The steamer sank within fifteen minutes with the loss of two hundred and twenty-six. See Loch Earn for further details.   [AS6]

Vineta. Woden barque, 684 tons. Built 1887. From London to Fremantle, badly damaged by a storm in the South Atlantic and forced to put in at Cape Town where she was condemned on 22 May 1890.    [AS6]

Viscountess of Brittany. French merchantman. Involved in rescue - see frigate Guardian, lost 1790.

Volusia. Brig, 145 tons. From Sydney to Scotland, was lost on the South American coast, 13 October 1830.  [AS6]

W. Gordon. Brigantine, 286 tons. Disappeared between Cape Town and Adelaide during a voyage from the Clyde to Australia, 1875.  [AS6]

Waikato. Steamship, 4767 tons. Captain Weston. Departed London for Wellington via the Cape of good Hope on 4 May 1899. With the Cape some 180 miles astern, fractured her tailshaft and immobilised. Thus commenced an incredible series of events emphasising the support that is received by a disabled ship on the high seas. First the British barque Tacora attempte to tow the stricken steamer but she wqs unable to do so in the rough seas. HMS Melpomene was despatched from India to search and assisst but could not find the Waikato. The British barque Alice arrived and send across supplies. By now the Waikato had drifted some two thousand miles. Finally the steamer Asloun arrived, Captain Barnet, who took the Waikato in tow for no less than 2521 miles, arriving in Fremantle after several mishaps on 8 October 1899. It was an incredible voyage in gales and less than pleasant weather, takin twenty-two days. [#NH]

Waimate. Stemship. Located the ship Salsette, abandoned after fire, and scuttled her in the southern Indian Ocean, 1895.   [AS6]

Waitara. Full rigged ship, 883 tons. Buiilt at Port Glasgow in 1863 as the Hindostan. Lbd 182.4 x 31.4 x 20.9 ft. Sold to the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1873 and renamed Waitara the following year. After stranding, lengthened to 191 feet in 1881. Captain Webster. The Waitara, bound for Wellington, and the Hurunui, for Dunedin, collided in the English Channel off Bill of Portland, in hazy weather, 23 June 1883. The Waitara sank in about four minutes, taking twenty- five of her passengers and crew . Sixteen, including the master, and chief officer were saved by the Hurunui, which was also owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company.    [AS6]

Wakefield, Steamship, 4,000 ton. Chartered to search for the lost pasenger/cargo liner waratah, lost after leaving Durban for Cape town, 1909. [LH]

Wakefield. Steamer. Searched for the liner Waratah, lost between Durban and Cape Town, July, 1909.  [AS6]

Wallarah. Steel steamer, 3505 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1891. Lbd 360 x 44.5 x 26 ft. On her first voyage out to Adelaide, Sydney and Rockhampton from London, wrecked on Dassen Island, about 30 kilometres south of Soldanha Bay in the Cape Colony, 1 August 1891. Passengers and crew reached Cape Town safely.  [AS6]

Wanata. Wooden ship, 1442 tons. Built at New Brunswick, 1851. Lbd 174.8 x 37.8 x 21 ft. Bought by J. Baines in January 1860. Captain Dodd. Left Liverpool for Melbourne, was run down in the Bay of Biscay by the Queen of Beauty, a 1238 ton clipper, which survived the collision, 6 February 1866.  [AS6]

Waratah. Barque. Captain Volum.  Master A.D.Volum. Bound from England for Sydney, lost off Ushant, France, in a gale, 16 February 1848. Thirteen lives lost.  The Norwegian barque Preciosa rescued some survivors but after forty-eight hours in the gale, had to leave, having suffered some damage.  [AS6],[AS1]

Waratah. Steel steamer, 9339/6004 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1908. Lbd 465 x 59.4 x 27 ft. Owned by Blue Anchor Line. Captain J. Ilbery. On her second trip between England and Australia, sailed from Melbourne on 1 July 1909 for Durban, Cape Town and England. Left Durban for Cape Town n 26 July with two hundred and twenty aboard, and disappeared. Last sighted by the cargo steamer Clan MacIntyre. Several ships send to search for her retunred having seen no trace of the missing vessel. In September, the Sabine of the Union Castle Line conducted a search which extended for nearly three months, and ranged from as far south as the desolate island of St. Paul down into the high latitudes, but failed to find any trace. On 15 December the Waratah was officially posted missing, but then in February 1910, following a public meeting in Melbourne, SS Wakefield conducted another search for three months, without success. Two officers on SS Tottenham claimed they saw bodies in the sea off East London, but this was never confirmed. SS Insizwa also reported bodies floating off Banshee River. The Waratah’s mysterious disappearance has continued to fascinate and theories are still being presented. An extensive search is being conducted by Emlyn Brown of the National Underwater and Marine Agency.
[AS6],[#VPM],[DG]

Waratah. Twin-screw steamship, 9339 tons. Built 1908. Carrying 93 passengers and 10,000 tons of cargo, mainly flour and frozen meat, called at Durban on her second homeward voyage from Adelaide on 25 July 1909. After replenishing her bunkers, sailed the next day for Cape Town, and disappeared. The steamer Wakefield was chartered to search from South Africa to the Antarctic ice, but reported no sign. In England, the Board of Trade opened an inquiry in December 1909 - in February 1911 reported that the Waratah was “... lost in a gale of exceptional violence, the first great storm she had encountered, and capsized”. [#NH],[AWS6]

Warrens. Whaler. Involved in rescue - see ship Science, 1832.  [AS6]

Warrior. American privateer. Intercepted the convict ship Frances and Eliza in the southern Atlantic, 1815. [NH]

Wasdale. Iron ship, 1284 tons. Built 1872. Lbd 227.7 x 36.3 x 22 ft. Run down and sank off Cape Horn in June 1878 by the Craig Mullen while outward bound to Australia. No lives lost.  [AS6]

Waterloo. Convict ship, 414 ton. Built at Bristol, England, 1815. Captain Ager. First took convicts to Port Jackson in 1829 and then made five more voyages to Australia. She left London on her seventh voyage on 1 June 1842 carrying 219 convicts. Although classified AE 1 by Lloyds she leaked like a sieve when passing through the rain squalls in the tropics, and with her seams opening up it became necessary to pump her regularly. After a few weeks at sea scurvy broke out forcing the captain to call at Cape Town to load fresh supplies, and when she anchored in Table Bay he went ashore leaving the mate in charge. A severe storm swept in and she dragged her anchors, ashore, wrecked, at Table Bay, South Africa, 28 August 1842. Boats helped rescue some survivors, others swam ashore through raging seas, but the loss of life was enormous, particularly among the convicts who were kept below decks until the last moment; 143 drowned, with fourteen members of the crew, fifteen of the 99th Regiment, four soldiers’ wives and fourteen soldiers’ children. The convict survivors continued their cruise to Hobart in the Cape Packet. The  loss resulted in an inquiry into the recently established Lloyd’s system of classification. [#NH}  [AS6]

Wave Queen. Barque, 853 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1861. Lbd 190 x 30 x 20.8 ft. From London to Glasgow to load for her sixteenth voyage out to New Zealand, run down by a steamer off Dublin.  [AS6]

Wellington. Barque, 480 tons. Lost on the coast of Monrovia on 24 July 1854 while on a voyage from London to Hobart.  [AS6]

Wendur. Iron four-masted ship, 1982 tons. Built 1884. Lbd 292.7 x 42 x 23.8 ft. Owned by A. Mackay & Co, she was one of the fastest four masted vessels ever built and set several sailing records around the world. Captain Blackstock. Left Port Pirie for England with wheat on 12 November 1911; foundered near Lands End on 12 March 1912. Of three boats launched, one capsized, and three of its occupants. Others landed at Penzance.   [AS6]

West Riding. Iron ship of 953 tons, built at Glasgow in 1875 and registered at Liverpool.  [AS6]

West Riding. Iron barque, 953 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 2203.9 x 33.6 x 19.9 ft. Left London for Fremantle on 1 February and was last spoken on 8 March in the Atlantic Ocean, then disappeared.  [AS6]

Westland. Vessel of 1116 tons. Built at Port Glasgow, 1878. Lbd 222.8 x 35.1 x 21 ft. Lost on St Alban’s Head in the English Channel while bound from Otago to London.  [AS6]

Wild Deer. Composite ship, 1016 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1863 for the Albion Shipping Company. Lbd 211 x 33.2 x 20.7 ft. Originally a tea clipper, then after 1871 entered the New Zealand trade. Left Glasgow for Port Chalmers on her twelfth voyage when she went ashore on North Rock, off Cloughey, County Down, Ireland, 12 January 1883. All the three hundred emigrants on board were taken off safely. Those rescued were billeted at Cloughey before returning to Glasgow where they embarked again for New Zealand on the Caroline.  [AS6]

William Brown. Wooden barque, 403 tons. Outward bound for Nelson, New Zealand, caught fire when off Madeira, 2 October 1861. Twenty-two passengers and crew were rescued next day by the brig Hedwig Charlotta. Only one life lost.  [AS6]

William Gladstone. Brig, 252 tons. Left Moreton Bay for London with tallow on 24 June 1852 but was never seen again. It is presumed she was destroyed by fire.  [AS6]

William Nicol. Ship, 409 tons. Built 1834. While returning from Australia to England, was dismasted in the Indian Ocean, 18 May 1842. She struggled in to Port Louis for repairs but went on to a reef and was condemned after survey.  [AS6]

William Rogers (Roger). Wooden barque of 496 tons.  [AS6]

Wiltshire. Steel, twin screw, five masted steamer, 12160 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1912. Lbd 526.5 x 61.4 x 33.3 ft. Owned by the Federal Steam Navigation Co. Captain Hayward. From Liverpool to Auckland, wrecked ashore on the south end of Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, 31 May 1922. All saved in a dramatic rescue.  [AS6]

Windsbraunt. Renamed - see Columbia, lost 1906.  [AS6]

Windsor. Wooden ship, 1009 tons. Built at Quebec, 1850. Captain Gold. From London to Sydney, lost on the Cape Verde Islands, 5 December 1857. A letter signed by five seamen against the master that he deliberately wrecked her were dismissed.   [AS6]

Wolverine. Built 1863 as a British wooden screw corvette of 2430 tons. Lbd 212 x 39.8 x 24.3 ft. After service on the Australian station, was used as a drill ship for New South Wales naval volunteers before being sold for £2200 in 1893 and converted to a barque of 1226 tons. Left Sydney for Liverpool via Cape Horn on 24 February 1895 but commenced taking water in a north westerly gale when south west of New Zealand and put into Auckland for repairs, however abandoned and sold to be converted to a hulk. Dismantled and burnt in 1912.   [AS6]

Woodall. Vessel type not recorded. From London to Sydney via Calcutta, was being towed down the Thames on 24 April 1844 when she was found to be on fire, so was scuttled off Tilbury without loss of life. It has not been discovered whether she was salvaged.  [AS6]

Woodlark. Whaler. Involved in rescue - see barque Despatch, destroyed by fire in the Tasman Sea, 1839.   [AS6]

Xenophon. British sloop, 25 tons. Renamed Investigator (qv). [HH2]

Yatala. Composite ship, 1127 tons. Built by Hall of Aberdeen, 1865,  for the Orient Line of clippers. Lbd 203.4 x 34.6 x 21ft. Her seven voyages out to Adelaide averaged seventy-seven days, her best being sixty-five days. On 18 December 1872, left Port Adelaide for London in company with the Beltana but on 27 March 1873 she went ashore near Cape Gris Nez. Most of the wool cargo was salvaged but the ship could not be saved.  [AS6]

Young Phoenix. American whaler out of New Bedford, USA. Captain Gifford. Involved in rescue - see iron ship Strathmore, Apostle Island, 1874.   [AS6]

Zadok. Iron barque, 620 tons. Left Port Germein, South Australia for England with wheat on 21 March 1888 but was not seen again.  [AS6]