The vessels listed have been lost in the South Pacific, not including New Zealand and the Coral Sea (separate listings).  Vessels lost in the Great Barrier Reef are listed under Queensland. All vessels have some connection to Australia. Those listed may not necessarily have been lost enroute to or from Australia, but it could be assumed that that is the case in most instances.

References:
There is no one specific source of data. Bateson [AS1], and Holthouse {HH1, HH2] provide most of the data. Villier [VPM] adds interest. Most authors mention these wrecks within their main research on vessels lost off the Australian coast. It should be noted that the authorative two- volume work by Captain F. Rhodes, Pageant of the Pacific, has not been referenced - yet.
[106 records]

Associated links:  NEW ZEALAND    MIDDLETON & ELIZABETH REEFS       CORAL SEA

Active. Schooner. Wrecked at Lacamba, Fiji Islands, 1837. [AS1]

Admiral Karpfanger. Four-masted steel barque, 2853 tons. Built as the Belgian training-ship L’Avenir in 1908. From Hamburg, Germany, as a German training-ship when lost. Master Walker. Sailed from Port Germein, Spencer Gulf, South Australia for Falmouth, Plymouth on 8 February 1938, but failed to arrive. She was carrying a cargo of wheat, and was last heard of in a radio communication on 12 March 1938. Steamship freighter Leuna searched in vain around Cape Horn. She had on board thirty-three young men aged from fifteen to eighteen years old. It is assumed that she foundered somewhere between New Zealand and Cape Horn.  [#VPM]

Adventure. British sloop. Under command of James Cook, on his second voyage to the South Seas, 1773. [HH2]

Anastasia. Barque, whaler, based in Sydney. Wreckage from her was picked up by the ship Mary, who later found the vessel abandoned between New Hebrides and Fiji. A note attached to her mast indicated that she had been dismasted on 31 December and that the crew had taken to a raft. There is no record of the crew making safety.   [AS1]

Astrolabe. French exploration vessel. Commander Jean-Francois Galaup, Comte de la Perouse. Sailed from Botany Bay, NSW, on 10 March 1788, in company with the vessel Boussole, with the intention of heading north, but disappeared. Their fate was finally discovered thirty-nine years later when Captain Peter Dillon, commanding the vessel St. Patrick, noted relics from the French vessels at Tucopia Island,  between new Henrides and Santa Cruz group of the Solomons. He returned in 1827 in the vessel Research and discovered that the surviving crew had landed on Vanikoro Island in the Solomon Islands, where they were probably massacred. One group apparently managed to built a boat from partsss of the wreckage, but they were never heard of again. It appears that the vessels had been anchored near each other and had both been driven ashore in a gale. A later expedition under Dumont d’Urville in a vessel named Astrolab, visited the Sant Cruz Islands in 1828 and confirmed Dillons report.  Perouse’s two vessels were located in 1962 by a New Zealander engineer and diver Reece Discombe, resident in Vanuatu. For his achievement he was awarded the National Order of Merit by President Charles de Gaulle. [AS1]

Australian. Ketch, 16 tons. Reg. Sydney, 1886. Foundered in Pacific, December 1887. [ASR]

Beagle. HMS. Included Charles Darwin in its complement on the world voyage of 1831-1836. Under the command of Captain J.C.Wickham in 1838, discovered King Sound in north-west Australia, and named Darwin after the famous evolutionist. On this voyage they saw th remains of the wrecked Dutch vessel Zeewyk in the Abrolhos islands, and named the Pelsart Group. [HH2],[HH1]

Bounty. British sloop, 215 tons. Commanded by Captain William Bligh, to take breadfruit plants from tahiti to the West Indies. Sailed from England on 23 december 1787, six months aftewr the departure of Governor Arthur Phillip with the first fleet taking convicts to establish a settlement at Botany Bay. Bligh’s second in command was Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian. The rest is well documented. The Mutiny on the Bounty saw Blight and eighteen others set adrift in a twenty- three foor boat. Christian and the Bounty ended up on Pitcairn Island, where the Bounty was destroyd by fire. See also Pandora.  [#HH2],[#HH1]

Boussole. French exploration vessel. See entry under Astrolabe.

Braq. Dutch vessel. See Limmen.

British Sovereign. Barque, 350 tons. Built Quebec, Canada, 1828; reg. London, then transfered to Sydney 25 August 38/1838, then 2/1842, 28/1845, 65/1845. Lbd 102-10.5 x 27-7.5 x 5-8 ft. Briefly owned in 1845 by Ben Boyd, founder of Boydtown, NSW. From Sydney to New Zealand and the South Seas, wrecked on the south side of Sandwich Island (now Efate), New Hebrides, (now Vanuatu), 22 April 1847. One seaman was lost at the time of her loss; most of the others were murdered by the natives. Only one seaman, a boy and ‘two or three native members of the crew’ were spared. The vessel Clarkstone and Isabella Anna assisted in their rescue. [AS1]

Brunner. Steamship, 586 tons. Built 1888. Formerly U.S.S.Co. Wrecled at Gilbert Island, Pacific Ocean, May 1915.  [DG]

Caroline. Schooner, 103 tons. Built and reg. at New Bedford. Sailed for New Bedford from Sydney on 29 March 1802 and never heard of again. It is possible she was wrecked on one of the Pacific islands. Eleven lost. [AS1]

Caroline. Barque, 330 tons. Master William C. Perry. From Hobart carrying Australians to the California goldfields, wrecked at the entrance to Honolulu Harbour, Hawaii, 26 March 1850. No loss of life. [AS1]

Castlereagh. Schooner, 78 tons.Reg. Sydney 93/1847. Lbd 61.4 x 16.8 x 10.2 ft. Captain Silver. Employed as a tender to HMS Bramble in surveying the Australian and New Guinea coasts. Wrecked in a hurricane at Lifu Island, Loyalty Islands, 13 February 1848.  [AS1]

Centaur. Steel motor vessel, 3222 tons. Built Greenock 1924; reg. Liverpool. Owned by Oceans Steamship Company Ltd. Converted to a hospital ship in 1943.  Torpedoed by a Japanese submarine about 65 kilometres east of Brisbane and sunk without warning, 14 May 1943. Was she complying with International Law  when she was torpedoed ? Was she carrying military equipment. Only sixty-four persons were saved as she disappeared before her lifeboats  could be launched; 268 died. Of those saved, only one was a nursing sister.  [LQ],[LAH],[#MJ]

Chicago. USS. Heavy cruiser, 9300 tons displacement; top speed of 31 knots and main armament of eight 8 inch guns.  Lost in the Solomon Islands in 1943. [LH]

Clarkstone. Vessel type not recorded. Involved in rescue - see barque British Sovereign, lost New Hebrides, 1847

Clyde. Vessel type not recorded. Involved in rescue - see brig Minerva, wrecked Tonga group, 1829.

Cornwallis. Whaler. Captain Bardo. Wrecked in attempting to leave Buka island, off the north- western end of Bougainville Island, 4 January 1837.  As she was in company with the American whaler Mechanic, the later rescued all crew of the Cornwallis and retuend them to Sydney. [AS1]

Countess of Wilton. Two masted schooner, 112 tons. Built at Essex, UK, 1834; reg. London, transfered to Sydney 6 December, 93/1841. Wrecked when leaving Papeete, Tahiti, August or September, 1845. [AS1]

Duke of Portland. (Possibly Portland). American whaler, about 400 tons. Master L.Melon. From Norfolk  Island, wrecked at Tongatabu, Tonga Islands, Pacific Ocean, June 1802. All men massacred, but one woman, Elizabeth Morey, was rescued in 1804 by the snow brig Union (qv), later wrecked in 1804. [AS1]

Dundee Merchant. Schooner, 93 tons. Built Dundee, Scotland, 1834; reg. London, transfered to Sydney on 22 July, 22/1841. Lbd 60 x 19.3 x 11.1 ft. Wrecked on reefs at New Caledonia, 17 July 1846. She had been whaling out of Hobart and left there on 5 January 1846. With hr chronometer broken, the captains dead reckoning was 200 miles out. The crew took to three whaleboats, and eventually reached Keppel Bay where they were promptly attacked by aborigines, one man being speared. They all managed to escape and made for Moreton bay, arriving 3 August 1846 after a journey of 1200 miles. All fifteen crew survived. [AS1]

Eleanor. Barque. Ashore in a hurricane at Lifu Island, Loyalty Islands, 13 February 1848. Later refloated. [AS1]

Eliza.American brig, 135 tons. Built and reg. Providence, Rhode island, USA. Master E. Hill Corri. From Sydney, wrecked east of Vitu Levu, Fiji.

Fiado. Steamship, 985 tons. Built 1878. Formerly of Howard Smith Co. Left Sydney for New Caledonia, February 1901 but never reached her destination. Fate unknown. [DG]

Fijian. Steamship, 988 tons. Built 1886. U.S.S.Co. Wrecked on Tanna Island, New Hebrides, 13 May 1889. [DG]

Georgiana. Cutter, 11 tons. Built Prymont, NSW, 1846; reg. 67/1846. Lbd 30.5 x 9.6 x 4.6 ft. Wrecked in a hurricane at Lifu Island, Loyalty Islands, 13 February 1848. [AS1]

Harbinger. Brig. See Norfolk.

Harriet. Whaler. Left Sydney on a whaling cruise 18 January 1830; wrecked at Fanning Island, Line Islands Group, central Pacific Ocean, 20 September 1831. No loss of life. [AS1]

Heemskerck. Dutch vessel. In 1642, one of two ships (the other Zeehaan) under the command of Abel Janszoon Tasman, discovered and named Van Diemen’s land (later Tasmania), then went on to discover New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji before returning to Batavia from the north via the Solomons and New Guinea. [HH2]

Herald. HMS. Former twenty-six gun frigate, 500 tons; converted to an eight-gun surveying sloop. Captain Henry Mangles. With her tender, the paddle steamer Torch, surveyed the south-west Pacific up to 1861. [HH2]

Hero. Steamer, 985 tons. Built 1861. Gibbs, Bright & Co, then U.S.S.Co. Converted into a hulk. Stranded New Caledonia, 22 January 1901.  [DG]

I-25.  Japanese scouting submarine, 2584/3654 tons. Completed at Kobe in 1941.  Sunk by USS Paterson off Guadalcanal in the Solomons, 3 September 1943. Was a scouting submarine designed to serve as a flagship for a group of submarines. Armed with six torpedo tubes, deck guns, and fitted with an aircraft hanger and catapult. Saw action in Pearl Harbour, December 1941. Entered Bass Strait 1942. [LSW]
@ Vessel location known and has been visited by recreational divers.

Isabella Anna. Vessel type not recorded. Involved in rescue - see barque British Sovereign, lost New Hebrides, 1847.

Jane. Cutter, 34 tons. Built Sydney; reg. Sydney 14/1835. Lbd 41-1 x 14-1.5 x 6-11 ft. Master Charles Watson. Lost on Thea Thea Reef, Fijian islands, 1846. [AS1]

Jane Eliza. Ship, whaler, 419 tons. Built at Finsbury, Kent, UK, 1809; reg. transfered from London to Sydney on 5 October 1839, reg. Sydney 57/1841. Captain Bradley. Out of Sydney, wrecked on Tongatabu Island, Friendly group, 1845. No loss of life. Crew returned to Sydney by barque Orwell. [AS1]

John Bell. Brig. Captain Fraser. In 1875 on Cape York, rescued, or rather captured, a survivor from the French vessel St. Paul, wrecked in the Loisade Archipelago, eastern PNG in 1858. Twelve year old Narcisse Pelletier had loved with the aborigine people for seventeen year. See St. Paul. [HH2]

John Bull. Ship or brig, 178 tons. Captain Barkus. Sailed from Sydney on 12 May 1830, for a whaling voyage, but never returned to port, and after eighteen months was assumed lost at sea. In 1837 the Duke of York called at Pleasant Island (now Nauru), and heard that two Irishmen, convicts from Norfolk island, had taken the ship which was wrecked, probably off Pleasant island. [AS1]

Joyita. Inter-island trader, 70 tons. Based in Honolulu. Disappeared on a routine passage between Samoa and Tokelau in October 1955. Number of passengers uncertain - between nine and twenty- five. Her hull was found adrift off Fiji several weeks later.  [VPM]

Jupiter. Brig, 114 tons. Captain A. Thompson. Had been a trader between Hobart and Sydney. Sailed from Sydney for China via Tahiti on 5 June 1824; was wrecked ‘on the island of Ateu, 400 miles east of Tahiti’. No loss of life. [AS1]
Bateson adds that the locationn of her loss was probably the island of Atiu, 300 miles west by south of Tahiti.

La Boudeuse. French ship. Commandered by Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, crossed the Pacific by way of Strait of Magellan raching Tahiti, Samoa, New Hebbrides and the eastern coast of New Holland, 1768. [HH2]

La Boussole. French ship, under the command of Comte de la Perouse. Sailed from Botany Bay on 10 March 1788 with L’Astrolabe. Both ships were wrecked on Vanikora Island in the Santa Cruz Group of the Solomon Islands. They were discovered by th Irish sea-captain peter Dillion in the 1820s, and rediscovered and surveyed by New Zealander reece Discombe in 1958. The two ships were one kilometre apart. Discombe was awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the National Order of Merit. When President Charles de Gaulle hung the meda; around Discombe’s neck, he is reported to have said, “What a pity you are not a Frenchman...” [HH2]

Lady of St Kilda. Schooner, 136 tons. Captain Lawrence. Arrived at Hobsons Bay from Plymouth, 6 July 1841, having been seriously damaged when off Cape of Good Hope. After a drunken brawl at williamstown, the vessel was anchored elsewhere and a t one stage drifted ashore on a sankbank off what then became known as St.Kilda’s beach, thus giving rise to the name of Melbourne’s interesting, and oft infamousl, beach suburb. Whilst in Port Phillip she was advertised for sale ‘in exchange for sheep’ but was eventually sold in Sydney, re-registered in 1843. Her register indicates ‘wrecked in Tahiti, date unknown’. [NH]

Le Duroc. French naval vessel. Wrecked on Mellish reef, Pacific Ocean. See Duroc.[LI]

Le Geographe. French vessel. Commanded by explorer nicholas Baudin. Sailed for the Pacific in October 1800. [HH2]

Leuna. Steamship, freighter. Searched in vain for the missing barque Admiral Karpfanger, 1938.

Loch Long. Built 1876. Loch Line of Glasgow. Not sighted after leaving Melbourne for New Caledonia 1903, presumed all hands lost when wreckage picked up on Chatham Islands.

Loch Ryan. Iron clipper ship, 1200 tons. Built 1877. Ran in the Australian wool trade for thirteen years, then as a boy’s training ship, anchored off Geelong. Renamed John Murray, she was in 1917 refitted as a cargo vessel for use in World War I. Wrecked on Maldon Island, Pacific Ocean, 1918. [LC]

Lord Liverpool. Cutter, about 70 tons. Captain Buckle. From Sydney to the Eastern Isles (Society Islands) on 12 February 1833, arrived safely in New ZealanD and on 3 March sailed for the South Seas. Went ashore, wrecked in the Tongan Group, 1833. [AS1]

Los Tres Reyes Magos. Spanish launch. One of three ships commanded by  Pedro Fernandez de Quiros during his 1606 expedition across the Pacific Ocean, [HH1]

L’Astrolabe. French ship, under the command of Comte de la Perouse.  See La Boussole. [HH2]

L’Avenir. Four-masted steel barque, 2853 tons. Belgian training-ship. Solt to Gustaf Erikson, the Finnish sailing-ship owner, during the depression in the 1930s, and ran in the Australian grain trade, visiting South Australia regularly, and was frequent Cape Horner. Sold to the Hamburg- America line in 1937 as a training ship, extensively refitted and renamed Admiral Karpfanger. [VPM]

L’Etoile. French storeship. Sailed with La Boudeuse, Commandered by Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville; crossed the Pacific by way of Strait of Magellan reaching Tahiti, Samoa, New Hebrides and the eastern coast of New Holland, 1768. [HH2]

Maitai. Steamship, 393 tons. Ex Miowera. Built 1892. U.S.S.Co. Wrecked on a corl reef off Rarotonga. Cook Islands, December 1916.  [DG]

Maitai. Stemaship, 3393 tons. (Sister Warrimoo). Built 1892. Formerly Miowera. From San Francisco, stranded on a reef at Rarotonga, Cook Islands, December 1916. Gradually broke up.  [TS2]

Mambare. Steamship, 759 tons. Built 1900. Burns,Philp & Co. Wrecked at Tutuba Island, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), 31 August 1902.  [DG]

Margaret. Brig, 121 tons. Built and reg. London 1799. Ten guns, crew of fifteen. Captain John Buyers. Left Sydney 5 June 1802; wrecked in the Society Islands (Fiji), 17 April 1803. [AS1]

Mary. Brig, 195 tons. Master John Beel, or Bell. Sailed from Sydney on 19 November 1847 for Manila, wrecked on an uncharted reef off the northern end of New Caledonia, 2 or 3 December 1847. One seaman later drowned when the jollyboat capsized. The remaining crew, in the longboat, were rescued by the schooner Bramble off Wide Bay, Queensland on 12 December 1847. [AS1]

Mary. Ship. Based in Nantucket, USA. Captain Thomas Coffin. Located wreckage from the barque Anastasia, and later found the vessel abandoned between New Hebrides and Fiji. A note attached to her mast indicated that she had been dismasted on 31 December 1836 and that the crew had taken to a raft. There is no record of the crew making safety.   [AS1]

Matoppo. Steamship, 3947 tons. See Wairuna.

Mawhere. Steamship, 554 tons. Built 1883. U.S.S.Co. Wrecked 'South Sea Islands', June 1902.  [DG]

Mechanic. American whaler. Involved in rescue - see whaler Cornwallis, lost Buka Island, 1837. [AS1]

Mindini. Steamship, 2065 tons. Ex Iberia. Built 1905. Burns, Philp & Co. Wrecked on Mellish Reef, South Pacific, March 1923.  [DG]

Minerva. Brig. Captain Peter Bays. Wrecked on Nicholsons reef, in the Tonga Group, September 1829.  The survivors made Turtle Island in the Fiji Group, were captured as slaves, ransomed, and finally rescued, with the assistance of the vessels Clyde and New Zealander. [AS1]

Monique. French motor-vessel, composite vessel, 240 tons. Built 1945. Based in Noumea. Captain Charles Ohlen. With a crew of nineteen and 101 passengers, disappeared on a passage from Mare in the Loyalty Islands to noumea, New Caledonia, since 31 July 1953. [VPM]

Nambucca. Wood twin screw steamer, 489 tons. #157636. Built at Tuncurry, 1936, for N.C.S.N.Co. Lbd 153 x 35.1 x 9.9 ft. Her machinery came from SS Kinchela (via previous vessel Nambucca built in 1922?). Saw service as a mine sweeper; lost by fire while serving with US Army in (Pacific) islands. [MR]

New Zealander. Vessel type not recorded. Involved in rescue - see brig Minerva, wrecked tonga group, 1829.

Norfolk. Brig, 56 tons. Built at Quebec, 1797, originally registered in London as the Harbinger. Purchased by Governor king in May 1801 and renamed Norfolk. Commandered by Matthew Flinders in his explorations around the south-easter coast of Australia, late 1790s. Ended her days when she was driven ashore, wrecked, at Matavai Bay, Tahiti, during a hurricane, 25 March 1802. No loss of life. [AS1], [HH2 - British sloop, 25 tons.]

Orwell. Barque. Involved in rescue - see whaler Jane Eliza, wrecked Tonga, 1845.

Phoebe. Brig, around 24 tons. Wrecked on ‘Mioke Island’, Society Islands (now French Polynesia), May or June 1828. On 14 or 15 December 1827 she had been seized at Crookhaven near the mouth of the Shoalhaven river, NSW, by fifteen convicts with the intention of sailing her to America. With provisions running low, one man was thrown overboard and three other marooned on an island in the group. The remaining convicts landed safely when wrecked, but were not well behaved on the island, having killed two and wounded othersFive men were captured by officers from HMS Satel;ite, but the ringleaders escaped.  [AS1]

Pilot. Schooner, 90 tons. Built 1847. Known to have operated in eastern Victorian waters in 1850s. Wrecked at New Caledonia, 1870.  [LPA]

Portland. American whaler. See Duke of Portland.

Queen Christina. Steam ship, British, 3596 tons. Built 1896. Ashore in a cyclone on the Lihou Reefs, 230 miles outside the Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Ocean, 23 December 1899. No loss of life.  [LQ]

Rangitira. Steamship, 460 tons. Built 1863. A.S.N.Co. Wrecked at Noumea, New Caledonia, 31 May 1875.  [DG]

Research. French exploration vessel. Under Captain Peter Dillion, discovered the fate of Commander La Perouse and his two vessels Astrolabe and Boussole in 1826. See entry under Astrolabe.

Resolution. British sloop. Under command of James Cook, on his second voyage to the South Seas, 1773. William Bligh, only twnety-one years old, was master of the vessel.  [HH2]

Rover’s Bride. Cutter, 49 tons. Built Cabbage Tree Bay, NSW, 1838. Lbd 48-5 x 15-6 x 8-2 ft. Left Sydney in 1845 on a sandalwood expedition to the New Hebrides; driven ashore at her destination in 1845 or early 1846. She was got off, repaired and altered from a cutter to a ketch and sailed to the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia, then on to Sydney. Her rig remained as a ketch. ]AS1]

Sabine. Brig, 175 tons. Owned and registered in USA. Wrecked at Upolo, Samoa, 26 January 1850. Master George Barmore. Loss of life. [AS1]

San Pedrico. Spanish vessel, 40 tons. Captain Luis Vaez de Torres. One of three ships commanded by  Pedro Fernandez de Quiros during his 1606 expedition across the Pacific Ocean. [HH1]

San Pedro y Paulo. Spanish ship, 60 tons. Commanded by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros during his 1606 expedition across the Pacific Ocean, during which he reached the New Hebrides, and thinking that he had discovered the great south land, named the region Austrilia del Espiritu Santo. His two other vessels in the expedition were the San Pedrico, and the Los Tres Reyes Magos. [HH1]

Sarah. Brig, 202 tons. Built Moulmein, 1837; reg. Sydney 14/1841, 70/1842, 72/1842, 7/1844, also on 1 March 1847. Lbd 87.5 x 20.6 x 13.4 ft. Captain Seagrove. Wrecked in a hurricane at Lifu Island, Loyalty Islands, 13 February 1848. No loss of life. [AS1]

Scamander. Brig, initially a whaler, 192 tons; reg. Sydney 7/1849. Master Richard Rule. Sailed from Sydney for Isle of Pines, New Caledonia; wrecked in a hurricane at her destination 27 January 1849. Seventeen lives lost. Captain saved. [AS1]

Sisters. Cutter, 61/48 tons. Built Sydney, 1840; reg. Sydney 79/1841. Lbd 49 x 16.3 x 8.2 ft. Totally burnt at Mare Island, southernmost of the larger islands in the Loyalty Group, October 1843. Seven crew were killed when attacked by natives, brough on by an idiscretion of the cpatin in giving the chief a flogging. The remaining four crew were taken captive, to be killed later. Kegs of gunpowder taken from the vessel to a meeting house exploded, killing the chief and a number of natives. [AS1]

Snapper. Schooner. Sailed from Sydney for the Tonga Group on 9 January 1832. In June, was opvertaken by natives who murdered the Captain and mate. The vessel drifted ashore and was lost. [AS1]

St. Patrick. French exploration vessel. Under Captain Peter Dillion, discovered the fate of Commander La Perouse and his two vessels Astrolabe and Boussole in 1826. See entry under Astrolabe.

St.Paul. French vessel. Carrying 327 Chinese gold-seekers from Hong Kong to Sydney, hit a reef near Rossel Island on the eastern tip of the Louisade Archipelago, off the ‘tail’ of eastern Papua New Guinea, 30 September 1858. All safely ashore. The captain and nine white crew left in a boat and after a journey o some 1000 km made the Australian coast, leaving behind the ship’s twelve year old boy Narcisse Pierre Pelletier (Pellatier, Pallatier) who had wandered off alone, and was found and cared for by aborigines. He was ‘rescued’ by force in 1875 by Captain Fraser of the brig John Bell, and taken to  Somerset on Cape York, as a prisoner. Pelletier had no wish to leave his adopted people, but he was sent back to his native France. No longer regarding himself a Frenchman, he worked his passage back to Australia and rejoined his people. His shipmates were picked up at sea. The French vessel Styx was sent to Rossel Island to seek the Chinese but only one was found. [#HH2]

Styx. French vessel. Involved in rescue - see French vessel St. Paul, wrecked in the Louisade Archipelago, eastern PNG, in 1858. [HH2]

Tambo. Steamship, 732 tons. Built 1893. Huddart, Parker & Co. Then Burns, Philp. Wrecked at Gilbert Islan, Pacific Ocean, September 1919.  [DG]

Titus. Steamship, 760 tons. Built 1878. Burns, Philp & Co. Wrecked at New Hebrides, Pacific Ocean, March 1919.  [DG]

Union. Snow brig, 99 tons. Built at Barnstaple, UK; reg. New York. Master Daniel Wright. From Sydney, wrecked in Fiji, 12 November 1804.
Early 1804, under Capain John Pendleton, called at Tongatabu, one of the Tongan (Friendly) Islands, where eight crew including the captain went ashore in search of sandalwood. All eight were killed by natives. The first mate, Daniel Wright, held off boarding attempts on the vessel. The natives brought out a woman in a canoe in an effort to entice an invitation to board, but she called out that the boat’s crew had been murdered, and managed to swim to the Union under protection from gunfire from the brig. She was Elizabeth Morley, the sole survivor of the Duke of Portland, lost there in 1802. [AS1]

Victoria. The only one of three ships that left Spain under the command of Ferdinand Magellan, himself killed in the Philippines in 1521, that returned home after circumnavigating the world, the first ship recognised to have done so. [HH2]

Wairuna. Steamship, 3947 tons. Ex Matoppo. Built 1904. U.S.S.Co. Captured and sunk by the German raider Wolf, near Kermandee Group, South Pacific, June 1917.  [DG]

Waitotara. Steamship, 4717 tons. Built 1916. U.S.S.Co. Destroyed by fire in the South Pacific,  and abandoned, 14 June 1917.  [DG]

William Woolley. Brig. Possibly involved in rescue - see barque Isabella, lost Caroline Islands, 1841. [AS1]

Winterhude. Three-masted barque. Owned by Gustaf Erikson. Had been mistaken for the missing four-masted barque Admiral Karpfanger, lost in the south-east Pacificc, 1938. [VPM]

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