Spencer Gulf and Gulf St.Vincent claim most of the shipwrecks of South Australia, with Kangaroo Island (separate listing) of no less significance. Many hundreds of vessels have been lost since the appropriately named South Australian was blown ashore in a gale in 1837.  The inlet and river discovered in 1831 became the site for the City of Adelaide, and within a few years was accepting vessels of up to 500 tons. The prosperous cultivation of wheat and other grains on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas in the 1870s saw the construction of several huge jetties in the gulfs to provide access to the grain ships to load their valuable cargo for England, and Australian ports. Several of these 1000-ton plus sailing ships were lost, some off Wardang Island in Spencer Gulf. The 1242 ton Aagot was lost in 1907; Australian, 1912;  the 2646 ton Notre Dame d'Avor, 1920; the 2128 ton Songvaar, 1912. Note that these vessels were all lost in the early 20th century.

Other vessels were also lost in the Cape Jaffa to Guichen Bay region with the immigration of hopeful prospectors for the Victoria gold fields. Very few of these vessels, and others off the South Australian coast, were lost with any significant loss of life. The noteable exception is that of the 392 ton steamship Admella, wrecked on Carpenter's Reef, north west of Cape Northumberland, SA, 6 August 1859 with the loss of eighty-nine lives. That this was a terrible loss greater than the statistics is due to the fact that attempts to rescue the passengers and crew, so close to land, were thwarted by nature. It is a tragic story.

References:
The base listing is Loney [LS], although it must be stressed that the prolific work of South Australian-based historian Ron Parsons has not, as yet, been included. Bateson [AS1], and Gregory [DG] provide addition data. The loss of the Admella is covered in detail by Mudie [IM].
[528 records]

Associated links:  KANGAROO ISLAND

Acis. Steam tug, 27 tons. Built 1876. Lbd 59.9 x 13 x 6 ft.Captain Lemschow. Ashore west of Port MacDonnell, 31 January 1904. The lifeboat was called with gear in an attempt to refloat her, but when this failed and the weather worsened the Acis soon broke up.  [LS]

Adelaide. Schooner, 78 tons. Built 1831; reg. Melbourne. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, MacDonnell Bay, SA, 17 April 1861. No lives lost. [LS],[LPA]

Adelaide. Schooner, 61 tons. Lbd 72 x 15.8 x 8.3 ft. Originally built as a paddle steamer in 1849; altered to a two masted ketch 1861. Ashore on the Coorong, SA, after  a cargo of potatoes shifted, throwing her on her beam ends, in a gale, 1874. The mate drowwned in assissting to get a line to shore. [LS]

Admella. Steamship, iron, single screw, 392 tons. Built Glasgow, 1857. Lbd 193 x 24 x 14 ft. Captain Hugh McEwan. Wrecked on Carpenter's Reef, north west of Cape Northumberland, SA, 6 August 1859. Left Port Adelaide early on Friday, 5 August,1859, on her usual run to Melbourne with eighty-one passengers (nineteen were women and fifteen children) and a crew of twenty-eight; cargo consisted of ninety-three tons of copper, flour for the Victorian goldfields, general merchandise and seven horses, four of them racehorses. Three more passengers and one fireman were taken on at Semaphore, making the total complement one hundred and thirteen. Within fifteen minutes of striking rocks, the Admella had broken into three sections. Finally, the ship snapped apart at the bulk-heads, bringing down the rigging, chains and blocks and sweeping several passengers and crew into the sea.  Almost all the women and children were on the bow section while more than forty clung to the poop, held reasonably steady by the cargo of copper in the hold. Survivors on the fore section crossed to the poop when a rope was finally fastened;  fifteen men made the crossing, although three men and two children were lost. No women attempted to cross. They remained with their children and a few of the men also stayed. Their deaths came within a few hours when the forepart broke up. After two nights wuthout rescue, the sea had gutted all cabins and any places of refuge or shelter, forcing the survivors to climb into the rigging or cling to the side of the hull and steeply angled deck. Early on Thursday the 11th, lighthouse keeper Benjamin Germein attempted to launch his boat, but it too was swamped. Captain Quinn, on SS Corio, approached close to the wreck and finally decided to launch the pilot boat which she carried.  Manned by seven men, it battled the seas for almost an hour before being forced to land on the beach. The fifty-odd survivors left on the Admella set about building yet another raft only to see it also drift away. S.S.Lady Bird arrived from Portland, toing a lifeboat and whaleboat, while S.S. Ant also arrived from Robe. Many attempts to reach the wreck over the next few days failed but final;ly a few of those left on the wreck were rescued. Eighty-nine lives were lost.
[#LS],[#LA],[LM],[#NH],[#MJ]
@ Although she lies on a most treacherous reef, she has been dived and relics, including a magnificent brass cannon, have been raised from her. [LAH],[DD]
~ Relics from her can be found at the Beachport Museum and Millicent Museum, South Australia.

Aeolus. Barque, iron, 1610 tons. Built at Glasgow, Scotland, 1886. Lbd 259.1 x 38.2 x 23 ft. Captain C. Campbell.  Struck an outcrop of Carpenter's Rocks, known as Agnes Reef (named after the vessel wrecked there in 1876), and remained fast, 1 September 1894.  Within a week she went to pieces. Crew saved.  [LS]

Agenora. Two-masted schooner, 53 tons. Built 1855. Lbd 55.9 x 19 x 7.8ft. Drifted ashore at Port Willunga in calm conditions and eventually broke up, 14 January 1863. [LS]

Agnes. Barque,  wooden, 330 tons. Built at Baltimore USA, 1860. Lbd 126.3 x 27.6 x 12.1 ft. Captain H.Smidt Ashore near Cape Banks, SA, 18 July 1876. Four crew reached shore and set out for the Cape Northumberland lighthouse where they were given shelter while help was summoned. SS City of Hobart towed the Port MacDonnell lifeboat to the wreck which was breaking up in the heavy sea. All saved. [LS]

Agnes. Schooner, 82 tons. Badly damaged when she collided with the steamship White Swan in Backstairs Passage, off Cape Jervis. Was forced to return to Adelaide for repairs. [LS]

Agnes. Schooner. Built in Scotland, 1840; reg. Melbourne. Captain Taylor. Wrecked on Cape Jaffa Reef, 13 March 1865. Heavy winds and seas battered her after she passed Cape Willoughby, and she was eventually driven on to the reef and swept by high  seas. Only one of four crew saved. [LS]

Agneta. Cutter. Disappeared near Sultana Creek, SA, 9 July 1867. Two lost.       [LS]

Alancia. Cray-fishing boat. After being swamped by a freak wave, foundered between Carpenters Rocks and Port MacDonnell, SA, November, 1966. [LS]

Albatross. Cutter. Lost at Wedge Island, SA, 20 October 1937.  [LS]

Albatross. Cutter.Involved in rescue - see Arachne, 1848. [LS]

Albatross. Ketch, wooden, 77 tons. Built 1874. Lbd  79.3 x 20.2 x 7.1 ft. Struck Eclipse Reef near Port Victoria, SA, during a gale, 13 March 1913. All saved. [LS]

Albatross. Paddle steamer, tug. Towed stricken steamer Sorata to Adelaide for repairs, 1880. [LS]

Albatross. Tug. Involved in attempted salvage - see SS Tenterden, 1893. [LS]

Alexander. Schooner. Involved in recovery of cargo from the wrecked barqque Fides, 1859. [LS]

Alice. Yacht was wrecked at Brighton Beach on 20 January. [LS]

Alien II. Fishing boat. Capsized in rough seas in St.Vincents Gulf , 20 November 1990. The crew of two were rescued by the Anjeliers Gracht. [LS]

Alma. Woodem barque, 516 tons. Captain Ogelvie. In a gale, ran aground on rocks in Guichen Bay, SA, December 1861. After a line was fired to the stricken vessel, all twenty-four members of the crew came ashore, but during the night the Alma went to pieces and next morning only portion of the bow remained.  [LS],[LAH - 546 tons]

Alpha. Two masted wooden schooner, 35 tons. Built Augusta, WA, 1844; reg. Fremantle 2/1844; then Port Alediade on 6 May 1846. Wrecked in a gale, Encounter Bay, SA,  on 25 July, 1847. No loss of life.   [LS],[AS1]

Alternative. Type unknown, 15 tons Wrecked on rocks in Memory Cove, SA, 24 September 1884.  [LS]

Amelia. Schooner, 25 tons. Built 1858. Sank following a collision with the schooner Grace Darling off Four Hummocks Island, SA, 8 February 1883. Her crew of eight crossed to the Grace Darling and were later landed safely.  [LS]

Andiah. Prawn trawler. Destroyed by fire off Port Lincoln, 23 May 1991. Crew of three rescued. [LS]

Anjeliers Gracht. Type unknown. Involved in rscue - see fishing boat Alien II, 1990. [LS]

Annie Brown. Brigantine, wooden, 160 tons. Built 1867. Ashore in a gale at Spilsby Island in the Sir Joseph Banks Group, SA, 23 January 1903.  No loss of life. [LS]

Annie Watt. Cutter. Destroyed by fire at Port Germein, SA, 4 April 1886. [LS]

Ant. Steamer, 149 tons. Built 1854. Lbd 100.8 x 17.8 x 9.2 ft. Wrecked off Bream Creek, Victoria, 1866.  Involved in rescue - see Admella, 1859. [LS],[LA]

Aquainita. Fishing boat. Sank near Wedge Island, SA, 21 June 1976. [LS]

Aquarius. Prawn trawler. Caught fire and sank in Spencer Gulf, 28 October 1976  [LS]

Arachne. Barque, 319 tons. Built Devonport, 1809; reg. London. Captain Young. Ashore, wrecked, in a south easterly gale, near Streaky Bay, SA, late May or early June 1848. No loss of life. [LS],[AS1]

Ardencarig. Four-masted barque. Captain Thomas. Struck the barque Norma amidships, sinking her, 1907. [LS],[#NH]

Aretas. Barque. Involved in rescue - see barque Saturn, 1888. [LS]

Argyle. Steamer. Involved in rescue - see schooner Vale, 1900. [LS]

Ariel. Ketch, 46 tons. Disappeared with her crew of  three off the Althorpe Islands, April 1928; wreckage was later found near Cape Doningham. [LS]

Ariel. Schooner, 25 ton. Was lying off Wedge Island, SA, waiting to load guano when she dragged her anchors and went ashore, wrecked, 14 May 1898. [LS]

Ark. Ketch, 45 tons. Built 1813; reg. Port Adelaide. Abandoned in Spencer Gulf , 11 November 1881. Crew saved. [LS]

Athens. Cutter. Disappeared near Port Lincoln, SA, September 1887.  [LS]

Athol. Schooner, 215 tons. Built 1853; reg. Newcastle. In a gale, drifted into shallow water and eventually grounded on rocks near where the Commodore had been lost eight years earlier, Port Elliot, 1864. The schooner had been waiting more than a fortnight to load wheat and flour; the build up of shipping waiting to load at Port Elliot and the ‘scandalous rate of progress’ in the construction of the tramway were blamed by many as the major cause of the loss of the schooner. [LS]

Australian. Iron steamship, 352 tons. Built Dundee, 1879. Lbd 160.3 x 22.5 x 10.5 ft. Wrecked on Wardang Island, SA, 8 May 1912. [MR]

Australian. Schooner-rigged steamer, iron, 352 tons. Built at Dundee, 1879. Lbd 160.3 x 22.5 x 10.5 ft. Captain Gustafson.  After leaving Venus Bay for Port Victoria loaded with wheat, was wrecked on a reef on the south eastern corner of Wardang Island, 8 May 1912. Crew saved. [LS],[LI]
@ Wreeck is well flattened, in shallow water and covered in growth. Explosives have been used on her over the years. The boiler lies some distance from the main wrecksite. LAH]
~ Relics are on display at the Port Victoria Nautical Museum.

Ayrfield. Steel vessel,1140 tons. Built at Grangemouth, England, 1911. Lbd 230 x 34.7 x 13.9 ft. Previously known as Corrimal. One of the ‘Sixty Milers’ which ran in the coal trade from hunter River, NSW. Abandoned in Homebush Bay, South Australia. [LH]

Bandicoot. Schooner, 55 tons. Built 1838. Lbd 51 x 14.6 x 9.7 ft. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, near the wreck of the Jane Lovett,  MacDonnell Bay, SA, 18 April 1861.  [LS]

Banshee. Yacht. Lost at Wallaroo, SA, 16 December 1895. [LS]

Bernadene. Cray-fishing boat, 13m. Foundered near Port MacDonnell, SA, 21 November 1990. [LS]

Bitang Terang. Fishing trawler. Struck a rock, wrecked, off Venus Bay, SA, 1 July 1973. [LS]

Black Diamond. Steamer, 159 tons. Built at Pyrmont NSW, 1864. Lbd 122.1 x 19.1 x 6.1ft. Captain Howes. Wrecked on Walrus Rock while steaming from Moonta Bay to Wallaroo, SA, 25 May 1872. The steamer had previously tun ashore on Wilberta Reef between Wallaroo and Moonta, then after being refloated went aground a second time and was lost. [LS]

Blanche. Government cutter, 34 tons. Captain Graham. Ashore in a gale near the jetty at Port Wallaroo, SA, and was soon battered beyond repair by the heavy surf, 25 July 1865. One of the crew donned a lifebelt, took a line in his hands, jumped overboard and scrambled ashore. The line was fastened to a pile of an old jetty, enabling the remaining two seamen on board to reach safety. [LS]

Bombay. P.& O. liner. Passed close to the stricken steamship Admella, on Carpenters Rocks, 1859, but did not see the wrecked ship. [NH]

Bona Star. Fishing boat. Destroyed by fire near Port Lincoln, 6 August 1975. [LS]

Brazil Packet. Brig, 173 tons. Reg. London, UK. Master Richard Buckell. With the pilot in charge, aground on Torrens Island, South Australia, when leaving port Adelaide for Launceston, 2 May 1839. Reflaoted after about two weeks. [AS1]

Britannia. Ketch, wooden, 34 tons. Built 1896. Wrecked in Spencer Gulf,  June 1905. [LS]

Broughton. Ketch, 49 tons. Dragged her anchors and went ashore at Flint Point near Port MacDonnell, SA, 14 July 1947. Crew of three saved.  [LS]

Broughton. Ketch. Involved in search for survivors from the wrecked steamship Pareoa, 1919. [LS]

Buck. Cutter, wood, 15 tons. Foundered near Outer Harbour, Port Adelaide, 2 February 1920. [LS]

Buffalo. HMS. Assisted in the refloating of the schooner Emma, Glenelg, SA, 1838. [AS1]

Bunyip. Murray River paaddle steamer. One if its hulls was used in the construction of the schooner Waterlily, wrecked 1903. [LS]

 Burra Burra. Steamship, 122 tons. Badly damaged when she collided with the steamship White Swan off Cape Jervis, 3 November 1955. Repaired and returned to service. [LS]

Bustler Steam tug, steel, 268 tons gross. Built at South Shields, England, or Port Glasgow (?), 1909. Formerly named Heroic. bd 125.3 x 24.2 x 10.8 ft. Ended her days abandoned in Homebush Bay, South Australia, 1967. [LH]

Camilla. Brig, Hobart whaler, 262 tons.  Built 1827; registered  Hobart Town. Ashore in Streaky Bay, SA, in bad weather, 27 April 1843. The twenty-five crew saved with the assistance of the brig Maguasha, and taken on to Hobart.  [LS],[AS1]

Candida. Iron barque, 1279 tons. Built at Whitehaven, England, 1875. Lbd 226 x 36.1 x 22.1 ft. From Port Augusta to the British Isles, ashore on Wardang Island, 20 February 1898. Although eventually refloated on 10 April she was found to be too badly damaged to repair so was sold and converted to a coal hulk. [LS],[ASW6]

Cape Byron. Tuna-fishing boat. Formerly an R.A.N. lighter. Foundered near Rocky Island, Port Lincoln, 26 January 1981. [LS]

Cape Jaffa. Type unknown. Disappeared after leaving Kingston for Adelaide, 1973. Three lives lost. [LS]

Captain Cook. Two masted wooden schooner, 74 tons. Built Port Adelaide, 1847. Lbd 62.2 x 17.4 x 10 ft. Master E. Roberts. From Circular Head, Tasmania, to Adelaide, was blown into Cape Nelson Bay, SA, in a storm, and went on to rocks, 14 October 1850. All saved. [AS1]
In 1848, involved in rescue - see Arachne. [LS]

Carib. Whaler. A ficticious boat in the autobiography by a seaman named William Jackman,  titled "The Australian Captive". He was rescued by the crew of the Camilla, wrecked 1843. [LS]

Carleen. Fishing boat. Lost at Port MacDonnell, SA, 1959. [LS]

Carmelo. Barque. See Ethel.

Cato. Steamship, 1094 tons. Built in 1867. Lbd 245.4 x 29.5 x 16.2 ft.
In 1892, June, ran down and sank the ship Loch Vennachar in the Thames. The ship remained on the bottom for a month before being raised. [LM]

Cecelia. Ketch, 32 ton. Wrecked after dragging her anchors and going ashore at Port le Hunte, SA, 4 October 1946. [LS]

Champion. Steamer, 229 ton.. When on her delivery voyage to the Henty Brothers at Portland, was entering Backstairs Passage in gale, she collided with the paddle steamer Melbourne, bound from Port Elliot to Adelaide, 20 November, 1854 Although the Champion received only minor damage the Melbourne was so badly disabled that she was taken in tow by the Champion which returned her to Adelaide before continuing her voyage. Three years later the Champion was lost in a collision with S.S.Lady Bird off Cape Otway, Victoria. [LS]

Champion. Steamer. Collided with paddle steamer Melbourne, 1854.  [LS]

Charles Carter. Brig, wooden, 175 tons. Built 1833. Ashore on Troubridge Shoal near the wrecks of the Sultana and  Marion, 23 February 1854.  Salvage attempts were progressing favourably until bad weather early in March almost destroyed her.  [LS]

Childe Harold. Barque, 463 tons. Ashore at Holdfast Bay, SA, 2 June 1849. She had arrived from london and Plymouth, and has missed stays. A steam tug was sent to her assistance, and with the use of a kdge anchor, the barquee managed to free herself. [AS1]

Chimborazo. Orient Line steamer. Inward bound to Port Adelaide from London ran on to Marion Reef near Troubridge Shoal after confusing navigation lights in foggy conditions, 9 January 1881. She was refloated next day after some cargo had been removed. [LS],[ASW6]

City of Sydney. Brig, 88 tons. Built 1841. Lbd 69.3 x 18.4 x 9.6 ft. Wrecked 1868. [LM]

City of Adelaide. Lifeboat; a  unique water jet propelled vessel which arrived at Adelaide from England in 1896 . Built of galvanised steel, she was 52 feet long, and had a beam of 16 feet, with a total capacity of  80 persons. Following the wreck of the  Star of Greece in July 1888, the lifeboat service was placed under the control of the South Australian Colonial Navy. It was transferred to Beachport in 1896, but its propulsion system suffered some problems during its career, and while it did not attend a shipwreck it stood by several ships in distress and helped save many lives. The City of Adelaide has been declared an Historic Shipwreck under the South Australian Act, 1981, and is now on display at Port Lincoln. [LS]
In 1911, assisted the survivors of the steamer time, near Beachport. [NH]

City of Hobart. Steamer. Involved in rescue - see barqque Agnes, 1876. [LS]

Clan Ranald. Turret decked steamship, 3596 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1900; reg. Glasgow. Lbd 355 x 45.6 x 24.7 ft.  Captain Gladston. Rolled over and sank after the vessel listed sharply in rough seas off the Yorke Peninsula, 31 January 1909. Six Europeans, including the master, and thirty-four Asiatics, lost. During the inquiry into the tragedy it was disclosed that two fires had broken out in the coal bunkers during loading and had been extinguished using water from the fire hoses. About 170 tons of coal had been removed from the bunkers and stored on deck afterwards. This remained when she sailed and could have made her top heavy. Like twenty-six other Clan Line steamers, she was a turret decked vessel built for the carriage of bulk cargoes. Instead of her sides being straight from the waterline to the bulwarks, they curved inwards about midway up, giving her a ledge or shoulder about three metres below the bulwarks where the breadth was about six metres less than the hull where the inward curve began on both sides. The rounded hull and large hatchways allowed the ship to be easily filled. Above the turret deck the hull structure ran fore and aft and was called the harbour deck. When news of her distress was received in Port Adelaide from Edithburgh, the steamer Warooka was ordered to proceed and give assistance, but her captain decided against the run during the night, suggesting that better asistance could be given from shore. A second telegram advised that the shp had sunk. There was only one survivor.
[LS],[#NH],[LH mentions an anchor at Troubridge point, Yorke Peninsula],[DG]
@ The vessel was located in 1962, lying upsidde down in twenty-five metres off Troubriddge Point. [LAH]
~ An anchor from her is mounted at Troubridge Point.

Columbia barque 1871 1381 Wallaroo-Falmouth1906  [LAH]

Columbia. Barque, wooden, 1381 tons. Built 1871. Lbd 205.9 x 40 x 24 ft.  Left Wallaroo, SA, for Falmouth loaded with wheat but failed to reach her destination. 1906.   [LS]

Commodore. Schooner, wooden, 61 tons. Wrecked on rocks, in a gale, close to Rocky Point, Port Elliot, SA, 1 February 1856. Commodore Point received its name from this wreck.  [LS]

Copesfield. Barque. Involved in rescue - see barque Saturn, 1888. [LS]

Corio. Steamer, 129 tons. Built 1854. Lbd 100.5 x 17.5 x 9.5 ft. Wrecked off Wollongong, NSW, 1866.
In 1859, involved in rescue - see SS Admella.  [LA],[LM],[NH]

Corio. Steel steamship, freighter, 3346 tons. Built Newcastle, NSW, 1919. Lbd 331 x 41.9 x 23.6 ft. Huddart Parker. Ran on to Carpenter's Reef only a short distance from where the Admella had been lost eighty years earlier, 26 February 1951. She was only little more than a quarter of a mile offshore, but nothing could be done to save her; eventually broke her back, becoming a total wreck. The Iron Yampi took off her crew. [LS],[NH],[LAH]

Corrimal - see Ayrfield.

Cotopaxi. Steamship. Involve in salvage - see Sorata, 1880. [LS]

Countess. Schooner, 83 tons. Built 1875. Lbd 73 x 19 x 7.6 ft. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, at Port MacDonnell, SA,  16 August 1876. No lives lost. [LS]

Cowry. Steamship, wooden, 27 tons. Built 1879. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, near Normanville, SA, 5 June 1889. [LS]

Cygnet. Schooner, 74 tons. Built 1875. Lbd 19 x 20 x 7.8 ft. Lost near Rivoli Bay, 1876. [LS]

Dalrymple Star. Fishing boat. Destroyed by fire off Port Adelaide, 13 July 1988. [LS]

Darren Lee. Type unknown. Lost in SA waters, 26 February 1977. [LS]

Dart. Brig, wooden, 108 tons. Built Sunderland 1818. Captain Patton. Bound for King george sound, WA, sailed from Holdafst Bay, SA on 29 March 1838; ashore, wrecked (the first to do so), five hours later on Troubridge Shoal on the western side of St Vincent’s Gulf, SA,  29 March 1838. No loss of life.  [LS],[AS1]

Dart. Cutter. Lost at Myponga, SA, 28 March 1882. No loss of life.  [LS]

Dashing Wave. Ketch, 39 tons. Lost in Louth Bay, SA, 25 December 1926. [LS]
 

David Whitton. Brig, wooden, 271 tons. Built  1833. From Hobart and Port Phillip to Holdfast Bay, SA, ashore, wrecked, south of the entrance to the Onkaparinga River, SA, during a gale, 17 March 1839. Crew saved. [LS],[AS1]

Defiancee. Tug. Attempted to salvage the grounded barque Notre Dame d’Avor, 1920. [LS]

Degel. Tuna boat, wood. Lost near Port Lincoln, January 1974. [LS]

Denebola. Trawler. Involved in rescue - see Farid Fares, 1980.
  [LS]

Deslandes. Schooner, 143 tons. Built Jersey, 1837; reg. Jersey 8 March 31/1837. Master P. Bertram. From Adelaide for Singapore, encountered severe gales and driven ashore on Troubridge Shoal, SA, 3 May 1850. She suffered little damage and was refloated with the assiste\ance of men working on the lost ship Sultana. [AS1]

Diana. Steamer. Involved in rescue - see barque Mars, 1884. [LS]

Dianella. Schooner, wooden, 84 tons. Built  1872. Lbd  90 x 19.2 x 8.1 ft. Ashore in Moonta Bay, SA, after springing a leak in boisterous weather, 3 October 1909.  [LS]

Dimsdale. Ship, 1887 tons. Captain Jones. Struck the Wonga Shoal lighthouse off Semaphore, Port Adelaide, collapsing it into the sea, 17 November 1912. The bodies of the two lighthouse keepers were recovered. The master was charged with manslaughter but aquitted. After the accident, an automatic light was installed on what remained of the lighthouse piles. [LS],[#NH]

Dinjerra. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see trawler Glen Morry, 1967. [LS]

Dorothy H. Sterling. Six-masted schooner, 2526 tons. Built Portland, Oregon, USA, 1920. Lbd 267 x 49.6 x 25.2 ft. Arrived Australia in 1927, and broken up soon after. Scuttled in the North Arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide.  [LH]

Duilius. Three-masted barque, wooden,  327 tons. Built 1840. Captain Maxton. Wrecked in a gale at Guichen Bay, SA, 15 April 1853. [LS]

E.H.Prince. Tug. Was towing the barge Master Jack when the barge brokee free and was eventually lost, 1984. [LS]

Eagle. Brig or schooner, 93 tons. Built 1818. Sailed to Californian goldfields in January 1850. Wrecked off the New Zealand coast. [LM]

Eagle. Tug. Attempted to salvage the grounded barque Notre Dame d’Avor, 1920. [LS]

Ebor. Shark-fishing boat, 30 ft. Destroyed in 80 knot winds at Robe, 29 May 1948. [LS]

Eclipse. Auxiliary schooner, wood, 79 tons. Built at Footscray, Victoria, 1864. Wrecked on Wolff Reef in Spencer Gulf , 30 April 1929.   [LS]

Edith Haviland. Wooden brig, 264 tons. Built 1865; reg. Melbourne. Lbd 114.4 x 25.5 x 14.4 ft. Captain J. Roddy. From Adelaide to Sydney, wrecked in hazy weather on Carpenter’s Reef, SA, 18 June 1877. Five lives were lost, including the captain’s wife and her three children. A fifth casualty occurred when a member of the crew was carried out by the undertow after reaching the beach in a lifebelt. [LS],[NH],[LAH]

Edith. Cutter, 13 ton. With no one aboard, blew ashore in a gale at Wallaroo, SA, 21 October 1860. [LS]

Edith. Cutter. Wrecked when struck rocks off the Sir Joseph Banks Group, SA, 3 August 1897. [LS]

Educator. Liberty ship, renamed Mill Hill (qv), then Educator in 1951. [LS]

Elda. Barque. Involvd in rescue - see Glenpark, 1900. [LS]

Eleanor. Paddle tug. Involved in salvage of gear and sstores - see barque Fairfield, 1874. [LS]

Eleanor. Schooner, 116 tons. Built as an iron paddle steamer and converted to a three masted schooner. Lbd 130.3 x 20.2 x 101.1 ft. Wrecked on a reef off  the Sir Joseph Banks Group of Islands, 18 February 1930. [LS]

Eleanor. Tug. Involved in attempted salvage - see barque San Miquel, 1865. [LS]

Eleni K. Liberty ship, freighter, 7245 tons. Built at Baltimore U.S.A. in 1943. Lbd 441.5 x 57.1 x 27.9 ft, and originally named John Hopkins, then Thetis in 1946, Sanita Elena in 1952, and Elini K in 1960. Finally owned by the Greek Elini Shipping Company. Broke her back and settled in eight metres, nine kilometres off Ceduna, 29 Septeember 1966. All saved. On 17 November the vessel was refloated and beached near Goat Island, Nuyts Archipelago, Great Australian Bight, off Ceduna, South Australia, where she was declared a total wreck. [LS],[ASW6]

Eliza. Ketch, 29 tons. Lost north of Point Riley near Wallaroo, SA,  29 June 1903. [LS]

Eliza. Ketch. Involved in rescuee - see cutter Stranger, 1898. [LS]

Elizabeth. Cutter. Lost off Whiting Point, SA, September 1870. [LS]

Elizabeth. Schooner. Involved in rescue - see barque George Home, 1851. [LS]

Elizabeth. Two-mast wooden schooner, 52 tons. Built Hobart 1837; reg. Port Adelaide 6/1841. Lbd 49.2 x 14.7 x 10.3 ft. Master Thomas Tindall (Tyndale, Tindale). From Adelaide to Launceston, aground in a violent rain squall in Rivoli Bay, SA, June 1838. Crew saved. Eventually salvaged and returned to Adelaide in March 1841 for refitting. [LS],[AS1]

Elizabeth Annie. Ketch, 64 tons. Stranded near the Minlacowie jetty, 16 December 1909; later abandoned as a total loss. [LS]

Elizabeth Rebecca. Brig 99 tons. Built at Macquarie Harbour 1828; reg. Hobart Town. Ashore, wrecked, in a gale,  after losing her rudder in Trial Bay south of Streaky Bay, SA, 18 April 1845. Crew saved. [LS],[AS1]

Ellen. Steamship,  91 tons. Built 1883. Lbd  95.3 x 18.6 x 5.7 ft. Ashore, wrecked,  at Morgan’s Beach about one and a half miles north of Cape Jervis, SA, 12 December 1908. [LS]

Elsie. Cutter. Lost near Carrickalinga, SA, 1939. [LS]

Emma. Schooner. Possibly wrecked in Aldinga Bay, SA, August 1839. This was presumed after casks branded with the name were discovered. However no vessel named Emma was ever reported missing around the South Australian coastline, so perhaps she had been lost well out to sea. [LS]
Bateson lists an unidentified vessel which appeared to be a small British-built schooner, wrecked in Aldinga Bay, which the SA archivist suggested in 1929 to have been the Emma. However, the wreckage found included the figurehead of a naval officer in uniform, and he suggests that a vessel bearing a woman’s name is scarcely likely to have had such a figurehead.
Also listed:
Emma. Brig, 138 tons. Master John Nelson. In March 1838, ashore at Glenelg, SA, but saved, undamaged, by the crew of HMS Buffalo. [AS1]

Emu. Cutter. See cutter Kate, lost South Australia, 1844.

Emu. Schooner, 36 tons. Built in 1851. Lbd 52.4 x 15.5 x 7.1 ft.  Left Port MacDonnell, SA, for Lacepede Bay in December 1861, but disappeared without trace. Fourteen years later wreckage was discovered near the southern end of Rivoli Bay, SA;  close examination identified it as part of the Emu. [LS]

Emu. Schooner, 21 tons. Built 1847. Lbd 39 x 11.5 x 5.9 ft. Captain Evans. Wrecked at Port Elliot, SA, 1853. Probabl broken up on Frenchman’s Rock, about a quarter of a mile from the shore and about half a mile from where she had been moored. All four crew lost. [LS]

Enchantress. Fishing boat, 22 tons. Stranded at Port Adelaide, broke up, 19 September 1903. [LS]

Enterprise. Ketch, wooden, 61 tons. Built 1883. From Port Augusta to Port Adelaide with wheat, foundered after springing a leak off the Althorpe Islands,  6 March 1892. [LS]

Estelle Star. Trawler, wood, 85 ton. Built at Woy Woy,  1927; ran as a ferry in Port Jackson and Western Port before being sold and converted for fishing. Burned and sank off Gibbon Point, 15 May 1978. [LS]

Ethel. Three-masted iron barque, 711 tons.  Built at Sunderland, 1876, as the Carmelo. Lbd 177.4 x 30.7 x 18.5 ft. Norwegian owned. Bound from South African ports to Semaphore, the barque went ashore on Reef Head, close to Cape Spencer, 2 January 1904. One member of the crew who attempted to swim ashore with a line lost his hold and was drowned, but the remainder of the crew reached safety.  The wreck was first reported by SS Ferret, employed in the Port Adelaide-Spencer Gulf trade, when she arrived at Port Adelaide on 4 January. Attempts to free the Ethel failed and she became a total loss. Ironically, the Ferret was lost only a few metres away seventeen years later and the hulk of the Ethel was used to secure a lifeline to rescue the crew. [LS],[LH],[LAH]
~ Her stern lies slowly, but gradually, rusting away high and dry on the beach. Above, on the cliff edge, an anchor provides a permanent memorial.

Euro. Steamer, 461 tons. Built 1814. Lbd 165.4 x 23.2 x 10.5 ft. Captain Dowell. Sank after striking  rocks near Beachport, SA, 24 August 1881. Only one life lost despite heavy seas.  [LS]

Euro. Tug, steel, 255 tons. Built at Dundee, 1897. Lbd 130 x 22.5 x 12.2 ft. [LM]
In 1920, attended the wrecked steamer Ferret, 1920. [LS]

Excelsior. Barque, wooden, 399 tons. Built 1861. Lbd 128.5 x 27.1 x 16.3 ft. Ashore off Salt Creek, SA, 9 May 1898. Was refloated and taken back to Port Adelaide where the estimated cost of repairs was so high she was converted into a hulk. [LS]

Excelsior. Steel vessel, 301 tons. Built at Dundee, 1897. Lbd 131 x 24.2 x1 1 ft. Broken up in 1937 and abandoned at Mutton Cove, Port River, Adelaide. [LH]

Experiment. SChooner, wooden, 55 tons. Built 1814; reg. Port Adelaide, Capsized in a squall off the Althorpe Islands, SA, 8 May 1881. Two lives lost. [LS]

Explorer. Cray-fishing boat, wooden. Lost near Cape Jaffa, SA, 1 February 1977.  [LS]

Fairy. Steamer, 18 tons. Destroyed by fire at Port Pirie, SA, 9 January 1926. [LS]

Falcon. Tug. Collided with ketch John Robb which sank, 1954. [LS]

Fanny. Schooner. Master James Gill. From Hobart to King George Sound, WA, ashore in a squall, wrecked, near Cape Jaffa, SA, 22 June 1838. A line was fastened to the shore and all soon reached safety where friendly aboriginals helped them light fires and showed the location of permanent waterholes. All hands saved. Two men who journeyed overland to the Fanny to recover valuables were not seen again and were presumed to have been killed by aborigines. [LS],[AS1]

Fanny Wright. Schooner, 103 tons. Built at Brisbane Water, 1873; reg. at Port Adelaide. Ashore in a leaking condition, damaged beyond repair, abandoned, Waterloo Bay, SA, 7 August 1877. She had called at Waterloo Bay to pick up cargo salvaged from the Freebridge, when she accidentally struck one of the  wrecked vessel’s anchors and commenced to leak. [LS]

Farid Fares. Steel motor vessel, livestock carrier, 8697 tons.Built 1950 as the refrigerated cargo liner Lions Gate, then converted to a livestock carrier by her Lebanese owners in 1973.   Lbd 478.6 x 64.1 x 26.2 ft. Abandoned on fire about 160 kilometres off the South Australian coast, 27 March 1980. The Polish trawler Denebola rescued the crew of seventy-two from the lifeboats, but one member of the crew and 40,605 sheep were lost. The tug Sir Roy Fidge also hurried to the scene but the ship had sunk. A Federal Government Inquiry decided that oil spraying from a broken generator supply line had probably ignited and caused the fire. [LS],[LAH]

Ferret. Steamer,  iron, 460 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1871. Lbd 170.9 x 23.2 x 12.7 ft. Captain Blair. Adelaide Steamship Co. Ashore, wrecked, at  Reef Head close to Cape Spencer, SA, only metres from the wrecked Ethel (1904), 13 November 1920.  A line was secured to the Ethel and all twenty-one crew landed safely, with the tug Euro in attendance. In 1880-81 the Ferret achieved notoriety after being stolen during a voyage from Cardiff to Marsailles. Renamed India, the vessel entered Port Phillip in April 1881, and was recognised as possibly being the Ferret which had mysteriously disappeared. The thieves were arrested at Melbourne and the Ferret remained in Australian waters, aquired by the Mount Gambier Steamship Company.  [LS],[#NH],[LH],[VPM],[LAH]
In 1904, reported seeing a vessel ashore at Cape Spencer. It turned out to be the Norwegian barque Ethel. Sixteen years later, the Ferret was wrecked nearby.

Ferret. Steamer, 445/347 tons gross. Built Glasgow, 1871, for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was chartered ostensibly for a pleasure cruise but was taken to Brazil, renamed India, and then steamed to Cape Town with a valuable cargo of coffee. She arrived in Melbourne where an observant wharf policeman noticed the faint name of another vessel under the lettering ‘India’. She was proved to be the Ferret; her operators were arrested and the steamer sold to the Adelaide Steamship Company.  [WL],[#DG]

Fire Fly. Cutter, 51 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1855. Lbd 49.3 x 14.3 x 9.5 ft. After alterations in 1861 she was of 33 tons on dimensions of 52 x 15.2 x 8.4 ft. Captain Messervy. Ashore, wrecked at Anxious Bay, SA, 20 October, 1866.  [LS]

Firth of Clyde. Barque. Built in 1882. Renamed Aagot (qv) when she went under the Norwegian flag. [LI]

Flinders. Government schooner, 103 tons. Built 1863. Lbd 88.2 x 20.7 x 8.2 ft. Captain McLachlan,
Vessel beached after she sprang a leak and began to sink, while anchored in Port MacDonnell Bay, July 1873. Vessel broke up. Crew saved. [LS]

Flinders. Iron steamer, 948 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1878. Lbd 227.1x 28.3 x 20. 1 ft.   Served in Western Australian, South Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian waters. Owned by Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, and the Union Steam Ship Company of NZ. Caught fire at Port Adelaide in 1911 and converted to a hulk; dismantled in 1927 and scuttled in the North arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide. [LH],[LPA],[DG]

Flinders Star. Cray-fishing boat. Caught fire and foundered near Flinders Island, SA, 5 March 1976. [LS]

Florence. Cray-fishing boat. Wrecked on a reef on the west coast of SA, 3 November 1976. [LS]

Florence. Fishing boat. Lost off the Eyre Peninsula, 1961. [LS]

Flying Cloud. Brig, 235 tons. Built 1867. Lbd 105.9 x 26.5 x 13.6 ft. Captain T. Urquhart. In a blanket of fog, wrecked on a reef off Cape Banks, SA, close to the remains of the Admella,  4 April 1870. Crew saved. [LS]

Flying Dutchman. Brig, wooden, 89 tons. Built 1845; reg. Hobart Town. Ashore on the bar near the Port Adelaide River, 28 July 1851.  After her cargo was removed the sea and high winds forced her into deep water and she sank. [LS],[LPA]

Flying Dutchman. Fishing boat, 15 tons. Lost off Wedge Island, SA, 20 May 1958. [LS]

Flying Fish. Brigantine, wooden, 111 tons. Built at Hobart Town, 1843. Lbd  83.4 x 18.9 x 10 ft. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, Port Elliot, 3 December1859. The nine members of the crew reached safety along a line after drifting a buoy with a light line attached ashore where a youth named Dent showed great courage by wading out into the huge breakers and bringing it ashore. [LS]

Forbes Brothers. Trawler. Renamed Leprena when lost in 1964. [LS]

Four Brothers.Barge, wooden,  43 tons. Built 1851. Lbd 54 x 18 x 5.7 ft. Sprang a leak and foundered at Port Wakefield, 26 March 1879. She was refloated and towed around to Adelaide, but was apparently too badly damaged to be returned to service. [LS]

Four Winds. Auxiliary two-masted schooner, 21 tons. Burnt off Port Adelaide, 1 March 1928. [LS]

Frances. Cutter, 7 tons. Built Encounter Bay, SA, 1839. Lbd 24 x 8 x 4.5 ft. Captain Richard Bear. Left Memory Cove on a sealing voyage but was wrecked on one of the Neptune Islands, at the entrance to Spencer Gulf, 29 August 1840.  Crew reached shore and lived for fifty days on eggs, mutton birds and limpes. Seeing no sign of rescue, the master and one crew set out for Port Linccoln in a dinghy, fifty miles distant, which they reached safely. The remaining crew were subsequently rescued.  [AS1],[LS]

Freak. Brig. Ashore , wrecked, on Cape Jervis, SA, 27 March 1864. No lives lost. [LS]

Freebridge. Schooner, wooden, 92 tons. Built 1850; reg. Port Adelaide. Ashore while sheltering in Waterloo Bay, 12 June 1877. Passengers and crew reached safety. [LS],[LPA]
In 1877, an anchor from the wrecked vessel penetrated the hull of the schooner Fanny Wright. [LS]

Free Selector. Ketch, 46 ton. Wrecked at Outer Harbour, Port  Adelaide, 5 September 1942. [LS]

Galatea. Brigantine, 178 tons. Built at Bremen, 1860. Lbd 92.7 x 21.5 x 11.9 ft. Captain Garson. Ashore on the beach east of the jetty, in a gale, wrecked, Port MacDonnell, SA, 31 March 1876. Crew saved. [LS]

Garibaldi. Motor fishing vessel, 46/31 tons. # 172917. Built Sydney, 1941 as the Olga Star (qv); reg. Sydney 3/1941.  Requisitioned for war service shortly after registration, and her register closed. Gave service as the Garibaldi; destroyed by fire about ten miles off Pearson Head, South Australia, 25 January 1984. [TS2]

Garthneill. Barque, steel,1470 tons. Built 1895. Lbd 238 x 36 x 21.7 ft. Arrived Melbourne in 1925; sold to Yorke Peninsula Company. Dismantled in 1935 and scuttled at North Arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide. At one time called Inverneill. [LH]

Gazelle. Schooner, 17 tons. Built 1847. Wrecked near the mouth of the Murray River, 1848. [LSS]

Gazelle. Two masted wooden sschooner, 17 tons. Built Bunbury, WA, 1847; reg. Fremantle, then transfered to Port Adelaide, April 1848. Lbd 32 x  12.7 x  5.5ft. Ashore on the Coorong, SA, eight miles north of Salt Creek, between 1 and 11 September 1848. [AS1],[LS - cutter, November 1849]

Geltwood. Barque, iron, 1056 tons. Launched at Harrington, England, January 1876; intended for the Australia-San Francisco trade. Captain Harrington. Lbd 215.7 x 33.9 x 21.1 ft. Struck by a storm when off the south eastern coast of South Australia, disabled, then driven  ashore, 14 June 1876. She had  left Liverpool, England on 23 March with twenty-seven passengers, also 1000 tons of general cargo for Sydney and Melbourne, and had been 75 days at sea when lost on her miden voyage. Settlers apparently saw distress rockets far out to sea but as nothing could be done to help dismissed the incident and then forgot to report it to local authorities. Some time later a boundary rider stumbled across wreckage and human remains in the sand fourteen miles from Millicent, SA. The hull could be seen rising up and down in a cleft in the reef about 1000 yards from the shore. Inland from the beach  tracks of bullock drays were found in the scrub, and a cache of sixty boxes of tobacco and a seaman’s chest; settlers had been involved plundering the wreck, apparently caring little for the scene of death and terrible destruction as they loaded their wagons with goods and set out for their homes. A settler, Fred Barrien, was fined £10 in default two months imprisonment, while Louis Spehr, tanner of Millicent also appeared charged with stealing cargo.  [LS],[ASW6]
@ Wrecksite known and surveyed. [LAH - wooden barque]
~ Items from the vessel may be seen at the Beachport and Millicent museums.

Geltwood. Barque, 1056 tons. Lbd 215.7 x 33.9 x 21.1 ft. [LSS]

General De Sonis. French barque. Dragged her anchors and went ashore off Wardang island, SA, 12 March 1913; was refloated after most of her cargo had been unloaded into a lighter. She visited Saigon, Geelong, San Francisco, then completed several voyages to French Guiana and the West Indies before being broken up at Bruges in 1932. [LS]

Glaucus. Iron steamer,1363 tons gross. Built at Sunderland, 1878. Lbd 238.5 x 34.2 x 18 ft. Operated in Australian waters until hulked in the 1920s, then broken up and scuttled in the North arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide. [LH]

Glenelg. Motor launch. Lost at Rapid Bay, SA, June 1938. [LS]

Glenelg. Steamer. Sighted unidentified wreckage, 1882. [LS]

Glenelg. Steamer. Involved in stores and equipment salvage - see ketch Rose, 1874.  [LS]

Glen Morry. Fishing trawler. Hit rocks and sank off Port Lincoln, 10 June 1967. Crew of four rescued from life rafts some hours later by SS Dinjerra. [LS]

Glenpark. Steel ship, 1959 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1897. Lbd 265.8 x 40 x 23.6 ft. Captain H. Griffiths. Struck a rock about six kilometres off Wedge Island and sank rapidly, I February 1900. Crew picked up by barque Elda. [LS]

Glenrosa. Iron barque, 869 tons. Built Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 203.7 x 32.3 x 20 ft. Captain E. Kerr. Bound from England to Brisbane with a general cargo when she ran ashore in a heavy fog a few miles east of Cape Banks, SA, 18 January 1890. All efforts to refloat her failed, and eventually heavy seas battered her to pieces although most of her cargo was salvaged. [LS],[ASW6],[LAH]

Gloridia V. Cray-fishing boat. Lost on North Neptune Island, SA, 12 March 1977. [LS]

Governor Musgrave. Steamer. Involved in the search for the bucket dredge Posidonia, 1914. [LS]

Governor Musgrave. Government steamer. Searched unsuccessfully for the Loch Vannachar, 1905. [LS]

Governor Gawler. Wooden ketch, 15 tons.  Built Adelaide. Lbd 35 x 8.8 x 5.9 ft. Captain Emanuel Underwood. Wrecked after striking a submerged rock near Revesby Island, SA, 1 August 1847.  [LS],[AS1]
On 14 June 1845, broke her anchor, ashore on a patch of sand between rocks, Rivoli Bay, SA. Refloated using a team of bullocks, and repaired. [AS1]

Grace Darling. Schooner. Collided with and sank the schooner Amelia, 1883. [LS]

Grace Darling. Steel steamer, 622 tons. Built at Hardenfveld, Holland, 1905. Lbd 175 x 27 x 12.8 ft. Scuttled in the North arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide. Register closed in 1931. [LH]

Grecian. Barque, wooden, 518 tons. Built Sunderland, England, 1841; reg. London. Lbd 117.5 x 29 x 19.9 ft. Wrecked in a gale on the bar of the Port Adelaide River,  13 October 1850. She was near completion of her journey from England to Adelaide. One passenger was apparently washed overboard and drowned, but the remainder and the crew reached safety on Torrens Island [LS]
@ Wrecksite known and surveyed. [LAH]

Grenada. Brig, 156 tons; reg. Liverpool. Stranded at Port Willunga on 21 June 1856; refloated only to go ashore again a few days later and become a total wreck. [LS also indicates this as a schooner]. [LS]

Guldax. Norwegian barque, 556 tons. Built in Norway, 1878. Lbd 149 x 21.1 x 18.3 ft. Dragged her anchors in a gale and went ashore near Normanville, SA, 2 September 1887. Heavy seas battered the wreck and she appeared in imminent danger of breaking up. The tug Yatala arrived next day and eventually all the crew were taken off. On 14 September rough weather forced the Guldax closer in shore where she broke up after much of her cargo had been salvaged. [LS]

Gwydir. Barge, 161 tons. Built 1817. Foundered in Spencer Gulf north west of Tiparra Light while under tow to the tug Eleanor, 1900. Three lives lost. [LS]

H.P.Bates. Unknown type. Caused the loss of the ketch Daring, 1884. [LS]

Halcyon. Brig, wooden, 192 tons. Built 1848. Lbd 97.3 x 21.5 x 13.4 ft. Captain Patterson. Wrecked six mile south from the mouth of the Murray River, SA. [LS]

Harriet. Fishing boat. Disappeared at sea in South Australian waters, May 1887.    [LS]

Harry. Brig, 199 tons. Built 1842; reg. Port Adelaide. Ashore near Commodore Point, Port Elliot, 1856.  [LS]

Heather Belle. Auxiliary ketch, 50 ton. Destroyed by fire at Wallaroo, SA, 15 May 1937.   [LS]

Heather Christine. Fishing boat. Lost near Grey, SA, November 1967. [LS]

Heinz. Originally the French barque Jean Bart, stranded and abandoned to underwriters off Wardang island, 1913. [LS]

Helen. Steam launch. Wrecked at Carpenter’s Rocks, SA, 9 February 1882. No loss of life. [LS],[NH]

Helen. Type unklnown. Lost near Port Lincoln, March 1974. [LS]

Helena. Schooner, 24 tons. Lost near Whittelby Point, SA, 4 September 1925. [LS]

Henry and Mary. Cutter, 16 tons. Built 1852. Lbd 38.8 x 12 x 5.7 ft. Struck a reef, wrecked,  when off Port Willunga, SA, 1861. All saved. [LS]

Hero. Lost at Glenelg, SA, 20 January 1884. [LS]

Heroic - see Bustler.

Hertford. British freighter. Hit a mine laid by the German raider Pinguin, at the entrance to Spencer Gulf, 7 December 19840. After temporary repairs at Port Lincoln she was eventually towed to Adelaide for further repairs, then to Sydney. The ship was not ready for sea until 20 January 1942, all to no avail as she was torpedoed and lost on her homeward voyage to England on 29 March 1942. [LS]

Hirondelle. Cutter, fishing boat. Sank near Reef Head, SA, November 1971.  [LS]
Hougomont. Four-masted barque, steel, 2428 tons. Built at Greenock, Scotland in 1897 for John Hardie of Glasgow. Lbd 292.4 x 43.2 x 24.1 ft. Named after a battlefield of the Napoleonic Wars. Added to Captain Erikson’s fleet in 1924. She had an extraordinary career, with several mishaps which sshould have seen her end. In July 1908, during a short voyage in ballast between the South American ports of Coquimbo and Tocopilla, expected to take five days, she disappeared and three months later arrived unexpectedly at Sydney, more than 6000 nautical miles from her planned destination. Adverse winds had caused this remarkable voyage. John Hardie sold her to the famous Captain Erikson in 1924, and from 1926 she was seen regularly in Australian waters. While outward bound to Melbourne in 1928 she was dismasted in the North Atlantic but was towed to Lisbon and refitted. The Hougomont loaded wheat at Port Lincoln in 1929 and Wallaroo in 1931, then was returning to load again at a South Australian port in 1932 when disaster struck south of Cape Borda. After a few years service as a breakwater for the Waratah Gypsum Company at Stenhouse Bay, the hulk of the old four masted steel barque Hougomont soon broke up and disappeared. [LS],[ASW6],[LAH]

Hygeia. Yacht, 56 tons. Was hit by the steamship Penola off Cape Jervis, night of 21 December 1874. Her fate is not recorded. [LS]

Ida. Brig. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, at Port Willunga, SA,  15 January 1857.  [LS]

Iline. Yacht. Involved in rescue - see MV Yandra, 1959. [LS]

Illossis. Steamer. Shelled by the German submarine U.862 when off Kingston, SA, 1944. She escaped when the approach of an Australian aircraft forced the submarine to dive. [LS]

Ina. Ketch, wooden, 56 tons. Wrecked on Spilsby Island in Spencer Gulf, 10 November 1917. [LS]

India. Entered Port Phillip in April 1881, and was recognised as possibly being the Ferret which had mysteriously disappeared in 1881 after being stolen during a voyage from Cardiff to Marsailles. The thieves were arrested at Melbourne and the Ferret remained in Australian waters, aquired by the Mount Gambier Steamship Company. [#NH]

Industry. Cutter, 8 tons. Built 1852. Lbd 26.5 x 7.7 x 5 ft. Ashore, wrecked, in a gale, Yankalilla, SA, 18 August 1854. Crew saved. [LS]

Inverneill - see Garthneill. [LH]

Investigator. HMS. Cutter. Lost whilst under the command of matthew Flinders, whilst  exploring the coastline in the vicinity of present day Port  Lincoln, 21 February, 1802. A water party, comprising two officers and a crew of six left the ship to land on the mainland and was not seen again. [LS]

Investigator. Steamer, iron, 605/584 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1882. Lbd 210.3 x 28.3 x 12.5 ft. Adelaide Steamship Co. Captain T.Gustafsen. Ashore on the south west tip of Wardang Island, SA, 24 April 1917. With a large hole torn in her side she soon broke up in rough weather.. The crew and the two passengers reached Port Victoria in one of the lifeboats. [LS],[LAH],[DG]

Iron Barge No.2. Lost in Spencer Gulf , August 1920. [LS]

Iron Yampi. Steamship. Involved in rescuee - see freighter Coria, 1951. [LS]

Iron Age. Barque, 361 tons. Built at Stockton, England, 1854; reg. London. Captain Brown. From Liverpool to Portland with a general cargo, ashore near Cape Banks, SA, 15 February 1855. Running before the wind she ploughed across a reef and remained intact long enough to enable the crew to reach safety. Divers who visit the wrecksite have recovered bricks from her cargo and a few fittings. [LS]

Iron King. Three-masted ship, iron, 871 tons. Built 1867; reg. London. Captain White. Lbd 196.7 x 31.5 x 19 ft. In the final hours of her voyage from London to Adelaide with thirty-two passengers and a general cargo, wrecked on Troubridge Shoal, SA,  11 December 1873. All saved. After being stripped of all fittings the hull was abandoned.   [LS],[ASW6]

Isabella. Whaler. Ashore in heavy weather on the sandy beach between Rivoli Bay and Cape Northumberland, SA, November 1843. Wreckage was found by the cutter Jane Flaxman, searchinmg at the time for the missing cutter Sophia Jane. . [LS - crew saved],[AS1 - no sign of crew]

Ismyr. Iron barque, 610 tons. Built at Liverpool, 1868. Lbd 171.8 x 27.9 x 17.5 ft. Disappeared after leaving Port Pirie, SA, 16 February 1879, bound for England with wheat. After 241 days out, was posted missing at Lloyds. She had grounded twice during the year; the damage probably caused her to founder in heavy weather.  [LS],[ASW6]

Jadran. Prawn boat. Burnt near Corny Point, SA, 6 October 1975. [LS]

James and Margaret. Cutter. Destroyed by fire at Telowie Beach, SA, 6 December 1878. [LS]

Jane Flaxman. Two masted schooner, 11 tons. Built Port Adelaide, 1839. Lbd 31.7 x 9.7 x 4.9 ft. Master William Henry Thompson. From Adelaide to Port Lincoln, SA, with timber, was lost, presumed capsized. Eight passengers and a crew of four lost. [AS1]
In 1844, found the wreckage of the whaler Isabella ashore in South Australia, 1844. [LS - cutter]

Jane Lovett. Schooner, 138 tons. Captain Broadfoot. Ashore a short distance east of Cape Northumberland when sailing between Melbourne and Adelaide, 19 September 1852. The captain remained on board but the crew and passengers walked to Portland; his body was found in his bunk with his throat cut. Two shepherds who had been plundering the wreck were arrested for murder, but while awaiting trial one escaped from custody, and was blamed by the other. The confessor, Stephens, was taken to Adelaide, but was freed some months later as Crawford was never re-captured. [LS],[#LM],#MM]

Jane. Barque,208 tons. Ashore at Cape Bridgewater, 1863.  [LM]

Jane & Emma. Cutter, 33 tons. Built 1835. Lbd 37.9 x 14.8 x 7.3 ft. Ashore, wrecked, on the bluff at Encounter Bay, SA, May 1852. No lives lost. [LS]

Jane Flaxman. Cutter, 15 tons.  Built 1839. Lbd 31.7 x  9.7 x 4.9 ft. Left Port Adelaide in fine conditions on 2 May 1850 and was seen next day drifting, deserted and on her side. No sign was found of the passengers and crew and it was assumed all were washed overboard when she was pooped by a big sea. Eight pasengers amd crew lost. [LS]

Jean Bart. French barque. The crew had the unusual experience of being shipwrecked twice in a week. On 7 March, 1913, the Jean Bart, from Antwerp to Wallaroo, SA, with coke stranded on the western side of Wardang Island. She was eventually refloated, but while her crew were awaiting salvage operations, they were transferred to the big French barque General De Sonis which had just finished loading at Port Victoria. On 12 March, during a heavy gale the General De Sonis dragged her anchors and went ashore with crews of both vessels still on board. The Jean Bart was eventually refloated, (as was the General de Sonis) but was abandoned to the underwriters; later sold to German interests and renamed Heinz.  After an eventful career she was finally wrecked in the Bristol Channel in October 1916. [LS]

Jennifer, Shark-fishing boat, 45 ft. Destroyed in 80 knot winds at Robe, 29 May 1948. [LS]

Jessie Darling. Steamship.Struck the submerged wreck of the barque Norma, and sank on top of her. 1907. Later refloated, repaired, and resumed trading. [LS]

Jessie Darling. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see barque Notre Dame d’Avor, 1920. [LS]

Johanne - see Ullock.

John Hoplins. Liberty ship. Renamed Eleni K when lost in 1966. [LS]

John Pirie. Two-masted wooden schooner, 106 tons. Built Aberdeen, Scotland, 1827; reg. London 41/1836, then transfered to Port Adelaide 31 July 1844, 4/1845. Ashore, but later refloated, during severe gales in Rosetta Harbour, Encounter Bay, SA, December 1837. [LS],[AS1 - stranded Aldinga Bay, 23 September 1841 - this may have been a separate incident]

John Omerod. Brig, 187 tons. Built 1826; reg. Sydney. Lbd 87.6 x 22.3 x 15 ft..Captain Sevior. Forced on to her beam ends by a sudden squall when about fifty miles off Cape Northumberland, SA, October 1861. With the steward already drowned, the crew clung to the ship’s rails fearing she would capsize as giant waves swept over her washing away the mate and several of the crew; by dawn only the captain and two seamen remained. With masts cut away and now on an even keel, the brig drifted close to Cape Northumberland and eventually the three men were rescued by the pilot boat which was visiting the lighthouse. The derelict continued to drift and was boarded again near Cape Douglas when the body of the drowned steward and personal effects were recovered. Some time later the wreck washed ashore about thirty miles west of Portland. [LS]

Josephine L'Oizeau. Brigantine,  94 tons. Built 1841; reg. Port Adelaide. Captain Mennie. Ashore in a gale, abandoned, Port Elliot, 10 July 1856. Crew and passengers saved. [LS]

Joseph Lee Archer. Cutter, 35 tons. Built 1848. Lbd 44.6 x 13.5 x 7.4 ft. Captain Buckmater. Wrecked in a gale when her anchor cable parted, Guichen Bay, SA, 1855.Crew saved. [LS]

Juno. Steel steamer,241 tons. Built at Greenock, 1903. Lbd 129.9 x 23.2 x 8.5 ft. Owned by Coast Steamships ltd, then Coast Steam Ship Company. Scuttled in North arm graveyard, port of Adelaide; reg. closed 1931. [LH]

Kadina. Collier. Ashore in a gale while lying at Wallaroo, SA, 11 May 1874.
Wallaroo. Collier. Ashore in a gale while lying at Wallaroo, SA, 11 May 1874. Her chains parted and she drove across the bow of the Kadina, smashing her own bowsprit and jib-boom, then losing the top of her foremast before going hard aground. The Kadina was also put ashore.  [LS]

Kadina. Hulk. Built as a barque, 661 tons,  in 1853. Lbd 149 x 31 x 21.7 ft. She had been wrecked at Wallaroo four years earlier, then refloated and hulked. Destroyed by fire at Port Adelaide, 20 April 1879. [LS]

Kanaris. Liberty ship, renamed Mill Hill (qv), then Kanaris in 1961. [LS]

Kapara. Steamer, steel, 846 tons.  Built at Sunderland, 1914. Lbd 195 x 32.1 x 12.5 ft.  Ran on to a reef off the south eastern corner of Flinders Island, SA, and was badly holed, 13 November 1942. Abandoned, remains sold.  [LS],[LAH]

Karangi.  HMAS. Boom working vessel, 768 tons displacement. Built 1941. Lbd 178.5 x 32.3 x 14.  Decommissioned in 1965. Abandoned in Homebush bay, South Australia. [LH]

Kate. Cutter, 15 tons. Unregistered. Broke her moorings in Spencer Gulf  while the crew were ashore and stranded high on the beach, wrecked, June 1844. The cutter William Henry attempted to refloat her but she became a total wreck. [AS1][LS - lost 1843]
Bateson indicates that she may have been called, originally, the Emu.

Katey. Prawn boat. Foundered near Ceduna, SA, 24 September 1976. [LS]

Kebroyd. Barque, wooden, 353 tons. Built 1866; reg. Port Adelaide. Sprang a leak on 13 February 1887 while on her way to Western Australia and run ashore in Anxious Bay; refloated, and towed to Port Adelaide, where she was converted into a hulk.  [LS]

Kingston. Steamer, wooden, 12 tons. Built in 1818. Lbd 55.5 x 13.2 x 5.8 ft.  Ashore in a gale after losing her cables and was almost buried under sand and seaweed, Port Caroline, 1895. A later inspection showed her to be beyond repair. [LS]

Koenig Willem II. Dutch barque, 800 tons.  Captain Giezen. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, east of Robe on Long Beach, Guichen Bay, SA,  30 June 1857. She has arrived from Hong Kong and her Chinese passengers landed before bad weather set in. Of twenty-five crew who left the ship, only nine managed to reach shore. The captain was stranded on the ship, but later managed to reach shore. For days wreckage and bodies washed ashore, the human remains were in such a decomposed state that it was thought better to bury them on the spot. Plunderers stole cargo, fittings, and also broke open chests belonging to the unfortunate seamen as they washed ashore. The wreck was later dismantled; two cannon were later salvaged and placed on the Flagstaff Hill in Royal Circus (Robe).  Vandals destroyed one and the second was removed to a private home where it remained for many years before being returned to Flagstaff Hill.  [LS],[LM],[LAH]
~ Signal cannon is on display at Flagstaff Hill, Robe.

Kyarra. Sreamship. Assisted in rescue - see SS Time, 1909. [LS]

Lady Bird. Steamship, 420 tons. Built 1851. Lbd 151.2 x 22.2 x 19 ft. Hulked. In 1859, under Captain Greig, involved in rescue - see Admella. [LS],[LA],[NH]

Lady Daly. First lifeboat in South Australia. Launched in 1867 for use at Adelaide replacing a whaleboat named Rescue which had served the growing port since 1861. In 1905, Port Victor (Victor Harbour), received the Lady Daly from Adelaide, and it and the stations at Beachport and Port MacDonnell continued to function until 30 June 1931 when they and fifteen rocket  stations were abolished. [LS]

Lady Jervis. Possibly a lifeboat, certainly used as such, at Robe, SA.  A headstone in the Robe cemetery recalls a lifeboat accident near there on 23 June, 1883 when the Lady Jervis overturned in the surf while at practice, drowning two members of the crew. [LS]

Lady Wellington. Brig, 142 tons. Built Little Falmouth, Cornwall, UK, 1813; reg. London 356/1831, reg. Sydney 14 October 1837, reg. Sydney 11/1838. Lbd 77 x 20.5 x 12 ft. Master- part owner Arthur Devlin. From Sydney to Adelaide, wrecked at Port Addelaide when she was run in too close to shore to facilitate offloading; broke her back when stranded on the mud flat at low tide, 13 August 1838. Was raised, condemned and used as a storeship, then light ship. [AS1]

Lady Anne. Cray-fishing boat. Lost near Port MacDonnell, SA, 24 March 1975. [LS]

Lady Denison. Brig, 200 tons. Built at the Tasmanian convict settlement of Port Arthur, 1847. Captain Hammond. Left Adelaide 17 April 1850 for Hobart but failed to arrive. It was suspected that a number of convicts who were on board may have seized her and sailed to San Francisco to join the Californian gold rush, but her arrival there was never reported. A sealer claimed about three months after she disappeared he had seen wreckage identified as coming from her scattered along the beach near Arthur River on the west coast of Tasmania. When she left Adelaide she was carrying sixteen passengers, eleven male and female convicts and three constables, in addition to her crew of seven or eight. In 1853, a policeman at Ovens in New South Wales identified a woman at an inquest as one of the convicts who had embarked on the Lady Denison. Has she foundered at sea, the loss of life would be about forty. [LS],[#AS1]

Lady Ferguson. Cutter, 17 tons. Built 1868. Lbd 35.3 x 11.6 x  5.8 ft. When entering Aldinga, was found to be taking water; the crew barely had time to take to the boats before she sank. [LS]

Lady Kinnaird. Barque, iron, 680 tons. Built at Dundee, 1877. Lbd 190 x 30.4 x 17.8 ft. Captain A. Laws.  After leaving Port Pirie, South Australia, for the United Kingdom on 19 January, 1879, ashore, wrecked, on Cape Burr in Spencers Gulf after being buffeted by a southerly gale. She lay about half a mile off shore with her stern immersed at high water and the whole of her cargo of 35,508 bushels of wheat ruined. Crew saved. Underwater survey teams have examined this wreck closely in recent years; in March 1979 her main anchor was recovered and prepared for display. [LS],[ASW6]
@ Site known, in seven metres, and has been surveyed. She is wedged in a reef with wreckage widely scattered. An anchor has been raised. [LAH]

Lady Of The Lake. Barge,18 tons. Ashore in a gale, wrecked, at Port Victor, SA, 3 October 1877.  [LS]

Land of Cakes. Barque. Arrived at Guichen Bay, Robe, South Australia, 17 January 1857 carrying 264 chinese for the gold fields. [LM]

La Paloma, Shark-fishing boat, 45 ft. Destroyed in 80 knot winds at Robe, 29 May 1948. [LS]

Lapwing. Cutter, 62 tons, Built 1808. Ashore in a gale, abandoned, Port Elliot, September 1856. Two men who returned to the vessel for personal effects after she had been abandoned were drowned. [LS]
[LM lists a cutter, Lapwing, 33 tons, built Sydney 1835].

Latvia. Tuna boat. Caught fire and abandoned near Port Lincoln, 28 March 1979. She had been steaming to assist the disabled cray boat Westward. [LS]

Lemael. Three-masted schooner, 98 tons. Built 1892. Lbd 101.7 x 26.3 x 7.7 ft. Captain Thomas Holyman. Lost in a gale near Cape Banks, SA, 21 July 1920. Two of the seven crew drifted ashore on a plank and set out for help, but the remainder waited until the vessel began to break up before leaving her. All reached safety but suffered badly from exposure. [LS],[RW]

Leprena. Trawler, 109 tons. Built 1912 as the Forbes Brothers. Destroyed by fire off Point Moorowie on the Yorke Peninsula, 12 February 1964. [LS]

Letty. Brigantine, wooden, 158 tons. Lbd 99.9 x 24.9 x 12.7 ft. Originally a paddle steamer at Williamstown, Victoria; converted to sail and registered at Port Adelaide. Towed to Port Augusta and broken up after running ashore at Red Cliffs near Augusta, SA, 11 November 1866.
. Refloated, she was found to be too badly   damaged to repair so was. She was a [LS]

Lialeeta. Ketch, 82 tons. Built 1913. Lbd 78 x 22.8 x 6.6 ft. Left Balgowan, SA, bound for Melbourne, on 11 April 1925 but was not seen again after calling at Semaphore for provisions. Crew of five lost. [LS]

Lillie Hawkins. Ketch, wooden, 84 tons. Built at Port Huon, Tasmania, 1875.  Ashore after dragging her anchors at Port Gibbon in Spencer Gulf , 6 April 1917. [LS]

Lillie May. Ketch, wood, 43 tons. Foundered off Cape Elizabeth  in Spencer Gulf , 6 June 1920. Five lives lost.  [LS]

Lincoln Star. Tuna boat. Disappeared off Rock Island near Port Lincoln, SA, 27 February 1961. Seven lives lost. [LS]

Lindy Lou. Cray-fishing boat. Aground and broke up in Sceace Bay on the west coast of SA, 2 November 1976. [LS]

Lions Gate. Cargo liner. Renamed Fared Fares, and sank in 1980 when perating as a livestock carrier. [LS]

Little Orient. Steamer, wooden, 23 tons. Built at Sydney, 1879. Lbd 54.8 x 12 5.3 ft. Blew up at Adelaide while steam was being raised, 20 November 1883.  [LS]

Livingstone. Barque, 531 tons. Captain J. Prynn. Ashore on Long Beach, Guichen Bay, SA, not far from the remains of the barque Alma wrecked the previous day, December 1861.  [LS]

Loch Tay. Built 1869. Loch Line of Glasgow. Sold to Huddart Parker for a coal hulk at Port Adelaide 1910. Broken up 1958.

Loch Vennacher. Ship, 1485 tons. Built 1875. One of the famous Loch Line.  Built 1875.  Wrecked off Kangaroo Island 1905. The hero of the Loch Ard disaster, Victoria, 1877, Tom Pierce, lost one of his sons when the Loch Vennachar was wrecked.  [LO],[MM]

Lord Roberts. Cutter. Ashore in a squall near the Myponga jetty, SA, 1 June 1902. [LS]

Lorraine. Type unknown. Reported lost west of Port Lincoln, SA, November 1973. [LS]

Lotus. Ketch, wooden, 91 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1814. Wrecked when a gale parted her anchors, Port MacDonnell, 23 June 1892. Crew saved. [LS]

Louise. Schooner, 29 tons. Broke her moorings at Port Rickaby, SA, wrecked, November 1878. [LS]

Lowestoft. Schooner, 114 tons. Reg. London on 22 March 1836, #117/1836. Master either J.R. Francis or Captain Sursted. From Launceston, aground at Port Adelaide, 1 April 1838. Refloated.

Lubra. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see Marion, 1862. [LS]

Lucretia. Schooner, wooden, 67 tons.  Built 1885. Thrown on to a reef off Spilsby Island, SA, 10 September 1899. Abandoned after attempts to refloat her were frustrated by bad weather. [LS]

Lurline. Schooner-rigged auxiliary ketch, 59 tons. Built 1813. Lbd 19 x 18.5 x 7.1 ft.  Ashore, wrecked, on Sellick’s Beach near Rapid Bay, having first been disabled in a squall and then dragging her anchors for several miles, March 146. She was well known for many years around the South Australian coast where she engaged in coastal trading and fishing. [LS]

Macintyre. Schooner, 127 tons. Built at Echuca,1877, as a river boat and later converted to a steamer at Port Adelaide. Lbd 109.8 x 21 x 7.5 feet. While sailing in gusty conditions from Port Victoria to Wallaroo with wheat, got into difficulties off the southernend of Wardang Island and wrecked on a reef, 1 April 1927. [LS]

Maguasha. Whaler, brig. Involved in rescue - see whaling brig Camilla, lost South Australia, 1844.

Maid of the Valley. Brigantine, 128 tons. Ashore at Port Willunga, SA, 13 November 1857. Evidently not worth repairing. [LS]

Maid of Australia. Schooner,  45 tons. Ashore, wrecked,  on the western side of Wardang Island, 8 July 1899. [LS]

Maid Of The Mill. Cutter. Ashore, wrecked, near Onkarparinga, SA, 27 February 1856. [LS]

Mako. Type unknown. Caught fire and foundered at Franklin Harbour, SA, 9 December 1975. [LS]

Maldon Lewis. Schooner, wooden, 51 tons. Destroyed by the sea after being beached in Stenhouse Bay, SA, 3 September 1917. [LS]

Malvina Maud. Vessel of 51 tons. Built at Battery Point on the Tamar River, Tasmania, 1815; reg. Launceston. Destroyed when gunpowder on the deck of the vessel exploded after a fire had broken out on board while she was anchored at Port Pirie, SA, 20 February 1876. The captain and crew jumped overboard a short time before the schooner blew up, but the captain was not seen again.  [LS]

Mangana. Iron schooner, 772 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1876 for Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company. Purchased by Huddart Parler Ltd in 1900.  Lbd 208.3 x 27.1 x 19.3 ft. In 1901 towed to Adelaide; abandoned in the North Arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide, March 1931. [LH],[DG]

Manhou. Unknown type, probably ship. Refloated but later broken up after she ran on to a reef off Port Willunga, 15 August 1857. She was 114 days out from Hong Kong on her way to Guichen Bay with 338 Chinese.  [LS]

Marco Polo. Cutter, crayboat. After leaving Robe, SA, on 4 November 1960  was not seen again.  [LS]

Margaret Brock. Barque, 245 tons. Built at Hobart Town, 1848. Lbd 91.5 x 23.6 x 13.6 ft. Captain McMeikan. Struck an offshore reef, now bearing her name, south of Guichen Bay, SA, 23 November 1852. Crew and passengers landed safely, and with some hardship, made their way back to Adelaide. This was the same reef that claimed the Maria twelve years earlier. [LS],[NH]

Margit. Three-masted barque, iron, 1241 tons. Built at Londonderry, 1891. Lbd 226 x  36.4 x 21.9 ft.  Ashore on the Coorong, about thirty-four miles north of Kingston, SA, 10 November 1909. A few days before she was due to sail from Victor Harbour  her master disappeared. He left the ship early one morning to secure a pilot earlier than had been arranged, but he was not seen gain, his boat being found bottom up on the beach.  After some delay a new master was appointed and the ship sailed, only to run ashore on the same day. The Margit was abandoned to the underwriters who sold her to a salvage company confident she could be refloated. Work was progressing favourably when tragedy struck. Two men, working near the pumps were overcome by fumes from the rotting wheat and lost their lives. Further attempts to refloat the barque failed. She was stripped of all valuable fittings and abandoned.  [LS],[ASW6],[LH],[LAH - steel barque]

Maria. Brigantine, 136 tons. Built Dublin 1823; reg. Hobart 12/1840. Lbd 70.2 x 21 x 10.9 ft. From Adelaide to Hobart, foundered near Cape Jaffa in 1840. The 25 passengers and crew set out for Encounter Bay along the sands of the Coorong, SA, but when about 30 kilometres from the mouth of the Murray, hostile aborigines fell upon them with spears and waddies.Their bodies were found by searchers in several locations in the year after the massacre. The passengers carried about 4,000 sovereigns and early searchers followed a trail of golden coins to the scenes of the tragedies. Two natives were hung for their part in the murders. Some members of the original search party returned to the scene of the massacres and apparently returned with a large quantity of gold and silver coins. Over the years many people found coins scattered in remote parts of the Coorong, and in 1945 two fishermen on the Coorong, found an 1837 sovereign in the gut of a Butter fish, reviving memories of one of South Australia’s most intriguing tales of mystery and treasure after more than 100 years. [#LM],[LS]

Maria. Cutter. Disappeared near Port Adelaide, 16 June 1879. Some wreckage was recovered on the beach at Semaphore, but the mystery was never solved..  [LS]

Maria. Wooden brig, 136 tons.  Built Grand Canal Docks, Dublin, Ireland, 1823. Lbd 70-2 x  21  x 10-9 ft. Master and part owner William Strick Smith. Left Port Adelaide on 20 June 1840 with 27 on board, including the captain’s wife, and six children; wrecked off the Coorong, on a reef extending four miles westward from Cape Jaffa. All crew landed safely, with a box containing 4,000 sovereigns. Aborigines stalked and massacred all twenty-seven passengers and crew after they had reached the barren sand-dune coast. News of the massacre eventually reached Encounter Bay and an expedition under Captain Pullen left to investigate the report and look for survivors. The wreck was located, and some of the victims were uncovered. Troopers were despatched to round up all aborigines in the area; two of the killers were hanged before the assembled tribe. Some of the sovereigns, buried near the wreck were recovered but some believe that a hidden fortune lies buried in the drifting sands of the Coorong, awaiting some lucky finder.
[#NH], [LS - wrecked July 1839],[AS1 - brigantine],[LAH]

Marian H. Fishing boat. Was towing the barge Master Jack when the barge brokee free and was eventually lost, 1984. [LS]

Maria Stella. Type unknown. Lost at Westall Point, Streaky Bay, SA, 24 April 1975. [LS]

Mariner. Launch. Wrecked at Rapid Bay, SA, 21 July 1964.    [LS]

Marion. Ship, emigrant, 919 tons. Captain Kissock. Struck Troubridge Shoals and was lost near the western shore of the Gulf of St.Vincent, 29 July 1851. She had left Plymouth, England for Australia on 24 March 1851 with 350 passengers and a general cargo. Early next morning the tug Yarola and her tender arrived at the wreck, finding her upright and deserted on the shoal. They took some of the migrants across to Adelaide while the remainder travelled overland and a few even decided to settle in the area. It was during the journey across country to Adelaide that the sole loss of life occurred - a woman passenger was crushed when a dray overturned. [LS],[ASW6]

Marion. Steamer, 197 tons. Built 1854. Ashore in foggy conditions, wrecked, near Cape Spencer, SA, 11 July 1862. The fifty passengers and crew were landed safely and later taken to Port Adelaide by the S.S.Lubra. [LS]

Marleesh. Fishing boat. Lost near Robe, SA, 1961.  [LS]

Marquis of Salisbury. Renamed South Australian, lost 1837. [LS]

Mary Ann. Cutter, 20 tons. Built River Tamar, Tasmania, 1834; reg. Launceston. Lbd 37 x 13 x 6.5 ft. Owned by the South Australia Co. Master John Chauveneaux. From Adelaide to Port Lincoln, developed a leak and was repaired at her destination, February 1842. She sailed again, however the repair did not aappear to be effective and she threatened to founder. The captain brought her in to Coffin Bay, east coast Eyre Peninsula, South Australia where she was abandoned. She was brought back to Adelaide for further repairs, and made two voyages befor being laid up at Adelaide, September 1842. [AS1]

Mary Ellis. Ketch, wooden, 89 tons. Built in 1868. Lbd  54.8 x 14.8 x 6.1 ft. Captain Neuman. Wrecked at Sleaford Bay about 30 kilometres from Port Lincoln, after being dismasted in a gale during a voyage from Port Adelaide to Venus Bay 6 April 1907. All saved. [LS]

Mary. Cutter, 17 tons. Built 1856. Lbd 38 x 12.4 x 6.3ft. Wrecked, in a gale, off Port Willunga, SA, 11 February, 1859. Crew saved. [LS]

Mary Ann. Cutter. Reg. Port Augusta. Sprang a leak when cruising down Spencers Gulf , December 1884. All hands manned the pump but they were forced into the dinghy when about fifteen miles south-west of Mount Young. [LS]

Melbourne. Paddle steamer, 153 tons. Lbd 134.5ft x 17 x 8.3ft. Captain Barber. Wrecked crossing the bar at the mouth of the Murray River where it enters the sea near Goolwa, SA, 16 November 1859. In 1854 while sailing between Port Elliot and Adelaide, she collided with S.S.Champion in Backstairs Passage and was badly damaged. [LS]

Melbourne. Paddle steamer, 115 tons. Sverely damaged when she collided with SS Champion in Backstairs Passage, 20 November 1854. She was  taken in tow by the Champion which returned her to Adelaide. [LS]

Melbourne. Steamer. Involved in rescue - see Nashwauk, 1855. [LS]

Mercury Star. Type unknown. Reported as lost in SA waters, 3 June 1977. [LS]

Mercy. Cutter. Built from the timbers of the Sultana, wrecked 1849. [LS]

Merle. Ketch. Burnt at Port Adelaide, 2 January 1929.  [LS]

Miami. Three masted barque, 229 tons. Built 1848; reg. Sydney. Lbd 91.2 x 23.7 x 13.6 ft.  Ashore in a gale, MacDonnell Bay, SA,  and broke her back, 24 May 1861.The crew struggled ashore and a short time later her hull washed up on to the beach where a public auction of the remains and cargo was held. [LS]

Milford Crouch. Auxiliary schooner, 165 tons. Capsized and sank near Franklin Harbour, Spencer Gulf , 27 October 1959. Six crew lost. Was eventually salvaged and returned to service in 1961. [LS]

Mill Hill. Ex Liberty ship, 7210 tons. Built as the Sameden in 1944 the vessel was renamed Mill Hill in 1947; Educator in 1951; Kanaris in 1961; Splendid Sky in 1966. Abandoned after a cargo of pig iron shifted in heavy weather when off off Cape Radstock, SA, developing a dangerous list, August 1950. The Huddart Parker tug Foremost and the South Australian Harbours Board tug Tancred began the hazardous tow to Port Lincoln. She was broken up in Belgium in 1970 after being badly damaged when she ran  aground near Antwerp. [LS]

Minnie. Yacht. Lost at Glenelg, SA, 22 April 1886. [LS]

Miriam. Barge, 99 tons. Lost at Goolwa, SA,   February 1904. [LS]

Miss Echo. Fishing ketch. Lost at Victor Harbour, SA, 1948.  [LS]

Miss Kilmansegg. Brig, wooden, 229 tons. Built at Dumbarton, 1863; reg. Port Adelaide. Ashore in a gale near Semaphore, 29 September 1882. So badly damaged that she was not repaired after being refloated. [LS]

Monarch. Three-masted schooner, wooden, 132 tons. Built in 1871. Lbd 109 x 33.9 x 7.6 ft. Ashore, wrecked,  a kilometre west of Cliff Point, Wardang Island, SA, 1 April 1909. [LS]

Moorara. Fore and aft schooner, powered lighter, 100 tons. Built in 1909 as the Echuca; used as a Murray River barge until 1930, then converted to an auxiliary schooner before finishing her days as a lighter.. Lbd 111 x 21 x 5.3 ft. Sank off Wardang Island while lying almost derelict, August 1975. When lost she was owned by the Aboriginal Lands Trust and was used occasionally to carry fresh water from Port Victoria to Wardang Island. [LS],[LI],[LH]

Morning Star. Ketch, wood, 17 tons. Lost at Glenelg, SA, 16 November 1923. [LS]

Mortlake Bank. Steel steamer , 1371 tons. Built 1924. Lbd 235.1 x 36.1 x 17.5 ft. One of the ‘Sixty Milers’ which ran in the coal trade from th hunter river, NSW. Probably abandoned in Homebush Bay, South Australia.  [LH]

Mozambique. Barque, wooden,  402 tons. Built 1832. Ashore, wrecked,  on the Coorong, SA, 1854. All passengers and crew survived the wrecking, however one passenger later died from his privations. The ship had left London for Melbourne with 24 passengers and a crew of 22.
[LS],[LAH - 398 tons, built 1833]

Nadgee II. Fishing boat. Abandoned in St. Vincents Gulf after springing a leak during her maiden voyage, 12 March 1974. Crew of six were rescued by  M.V.Troubridge. [LS]

Naracoopa. Tuna boat, 294 tons.  Built 1940. Lbd 120.4 x 26 x 8.4 ft;  used as a coastal trader for many years. Lost by fire  after an explosion in the engine room which forced the crew of three to abandon her off Cape Bolingbroke, 25 June 1968. [LS]

Nashwauk. Ship, 765 tons. Captain MacIntyre. Out from Liverpool with nearly 300 Irish emigrants, including 130 single girls, ashore, two miles south of the mouth of the Onkaparinga River, SA, 12 May 1855. A light on shore was mistaken for the lightship. Passengers and mails were landed next morning shortly before the weather changed. The  steamers Melbourne and Yatala anchored off the wreck and some passengers were taken up to Adelaide. Others preferred to walk overland to the town, while a few took jobs in the district. A gale eventually destroyed the ship. [LS]

Nelcie. Cray-fishing boat. Overwhelmed by a huge wave off Port  MacDonnell, SA, 15 March 1986. [LS]

Nene Valley. Barque, wooden, 333 tons. Captain R.C.Baldwin. Inward bound from London to Portland, was wrecked close to Cape Northumberland, SA, 19 October 1854. Four lost; the captain, passengers and other survivors walked thirty miles to the mouth of the Glenelg River, where horses were obtained and the captain rode to Portland to report the disaster. [LS]

Neptune. Fishing boat. Left Grey, SA, for Port Fairy, Vic,  in November 1969 and disappeared south-east of Cape Banks. Four crew lost. [LS]

New Arrival. Schooner, 24 tons. Built at Portland, 1875. Stranded, wrecked, at Wallaroo, SA, 26 June 1906.  [LS]

Nimrod. Cutter, 12 tons. Built Port Adelaide, 1866. Owner/master William Nelson. Foundered near the Port Adelaide lighthouse, 26 July 1874. Captain lost. The submerged wreck was a danger to other vessels until it finally broke up in January of the following year. [LS]

Nora Criena. Brigantine, 172 tons. Built 1834; reg. Melbourne. Lbd 82.6 x 20.4 x 14.2 ft. Captain Lowe. A few hours after leaving Guichen Bay, she struck what appeared to be a shoal, and when freed filled rapidly and sank in deep water within thirty-five minutes, 1 January 1859. Passengers and crew took to the boats and returned safely to Robe.  [LS]

Norma. Four-masted barque, steel, 2122 tons. Built in 1893. Lbd 278 x 41.2 x 24.1ft. Sank as the lay at anchor off Semaphore preparing to sail for Europe with a cargo of grain, when rammed amidships on the port side by the four-masted barque Ardencraig, inward bound to Port Adelaide from England, 21 April 1907. The Norma sank immediately drowning one of her crew. As she lay submerged only a few metres below the surface, the 289 ton steamer Jessie Darling, inward bound to Port Adelaide passed over the top of the sunken Norma and one of her spars ripped through the steamer’s bottom, leaving the crew barely time to escape before the steamer  sank squarely on top of the sunken barque. On the following morning SS Palmer, running to Adelaide from the stranded Willyama also struck the wreck and narrowly escaped disaster. While plans were under way to salvage the Norma's cargo the SS Port Chalmers also struck her and was holed. During the first week of January 1908 the Jessie Darling was raised, and following repairs resumed trading, but attempts to raise the Norma failed and after several years the remains were removed by dynamite - for obvious reasons. The wrecksite is a mass of iron work - frames and ribs, plating, fittings, machinery, together with masts and other ships’ fittings make for an interesting dive in 12-15 metres of water. [LS],[NH],[ASW6]
@ Wrecksite well known, and a popular dive for its location and dive interest.

Notre Dame d'Avor. Barque, steel, 2646 tons. Built at Nantes, France. Lbd 1902 276.8 x 40.4 x 22.5 ft. Inward bound from Rochefort to Port Victoria, SA, to  load wheat when she grounded on Wardang Island, 20 March 1920. The light placed on Wardang Island in 1909 was incorrectly marked on the chart and this probably contributed to the wreck. After unsuccessfully trying to free her the crew of twenty-five left next day on the S.S.Jessie Darling, leaving the tugs Eagle and Defiance to attempt to tow her off after 1400 tons of ballast had been taken out. On the night of 1 May the wreck was gutted by fire after one of the salvage crew accidentally dropped a kerosene lamp, and the resulting fire spread to a store of paint and oils. [LS],[LI]
@ Wrecksite known but very little of interest remains. [LAH - iron barque]

Nyora. Tug, 306 tons. Foundered in heavy seas off Cape jaffa, South Australia, whilst towing an American schooner from Port Pirie to Sydney. Fourteen of her crew of sixteen drowned. [LC]

Nyora. Tug, 309 tons.  Built 1909. Lbd 135 x 25.1 x 13.5 ft. Was towing an American schooner from Port Pirie to Sydney when struck by heavy seas; one enormous wave struck the small tug, and she foundered a short time after, about twelve miles off Cape Jaffa, SA, 1917. Twenty-four hours later, ;ightkeepers on Margaret Brock Reef, off Cape Jaffa noticed two men in a waterlogged boat about half a  mile out to sea.A  fierce wind and rain squall was sweeping the but the men quickly lowered their sixteen foot dinghy, and after a terrific battle, reached the boat just as it was being dashed against the rocks, to save the captain and a seaman. The lightkeepers received medals from the Royal Humane Society following their rescue of the only two survivors from the lost. [LS]

O.G.. Sloop, 9 tons. Built 1840. Lbd 28 x 10.5 x 4.5 ft. Lost in Yankallila Bay, SA, when forced ashore after her anchor dragged, May 1854. [LS]

Olga Star. Motor fishing vessel, 46/31 tons. # 172917. Built Sydney, 1941; reg. Sydney 3/1941.  Requisitioned for war service shortly after registration, and her register closed. Gave service as the Garibaldi; destroyed by fire about ten miles off Pearson Head, South Australia, 25 January 1984.

Omeo. Two-masted schooner, wooden, 40 tons. Built at Melbourne, 1854. Lbd  44.3ft x 15.3ft x 6.6 ft. Captain Wills. Disappeared off the Yorke Peninsula, SA, July 1866. Wreckage identified as belonging to her were picked up off Corney Point. [LS]

Osprey. Ketch, wooden, 38 tons. Disappeared after leaving Edithburgh, SA, 11 September 1903.  [LS]

Pacific Gull. Type unknown. Burnt off Ceduna, SA, 6 August 1975. [LS]

Palmer. Steamship. Struck the submerged wreck of the Norma, damaged but not sunk, 1907. [LS]

Panama. Ship. Stranded on Troubridge Shoal, SA, 31 October 1850. She was refloated, and although damaged, was patched up sufficiently to make Port Adelaide. [AS1]

Parara. Cutter, 35 tons. Built 1814. Ashore in a gale near Point Lowly in Spencer Gulf, 10 July 1882.  [LS]

Pareoa. Steamship, steel, 650 ton. Built 1896 for the Canterbury  Steam Shipping Company, and named Breeze; purchased and renamed by the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1900, then sold to W.A. Firth of Sydney in 1911. Lbd 180 x 29.2 x 11.1 ft. Captain McFarlane. Wrecked on the Althorpe Islands due to faulty navigation, 19 September 1919. Grazed a reef about a kilometre west of the islands before striking a rock known locally as The Monument, was swept by heavy seas and broke up quickly. Eleven lives lost including he master. A relief boat was sent from Port Adelaide while the ketch Broughton and cutter Zephr headed a land and sea search for survivors and those missing. [LS]

Parsee. Barque, wooden, 349 tons. Built at Dumbarton, Scotland, 1831; reg. London. Master J. McKellar. From Hobart, where she had recently arrived from London, wrecked on Troubridge Shoal, SA, 17 November 1838. The twenty-seven passengers were taken to Port Adelaide on the Rapid. [LS],[AS1]

Pelamis. Fishing boat. Sank near Liguanea Island, SA, 28 April 1965. [LS]

Penang barque 1905 2019 Port Lincoln-Cork1941  [LAH]

Penguin. Fishing boat. Sank near Port Lincoln while under tow to Cape Byron, 13 August 1973. [LS]

Penguin. Steamer. Involved in the search for the bucket dredge Posidonia, 1914. [LS]

Penola. Steamer, 414 tons. Only slightly damaged shen she collided with the 56 ton yacht Hygeia off Cape Jervis on the night of 21 December, 1874. [LS]

Percy. Llifeboat. Opewrated from Port MacDonnell , SA, from 1861. The last boat at Port MacDonnell arrived in 1908  and remained until 1930 . [LS]

Perseverance. Passenger steamer. Left the Glenelg River in February, 1898,  to trade on the Murray River when she struck a sandbar and lost her propeller.  Her crew reached safety but she soon became a total wreck. [LO]

Phaeton. American ship, wood, 1032 tons. Captain Morrison. On only her second voyage, arriving from Hong Kong with a general cargo and 260 Chinese, was wrecked off Cape Dombey, Robe, SA, 1 February 1857. The crew set to making a raft to land the passengers as the surf was considered too heavy for the boats; all passengers landed safely. [LS],[LM],[LAH]

Pinguin. German raider. Laid mines at the entrance to Spencer Gulf and on 7 December 1940 the British freighter Hertford was badly damaged by one of these. [LS]

Pioneer. Fishing boat. Was sheltering from a gale in Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula when forced ashore and lost, 24 July 1886.  [LS]

Polly. Fishing cutter. Lost near Cape Jervis, 3 November 1894. [LS]

Port Chalmers. Steamship. Struck the submerged wreck of the Norma, holed but not sunk, 1907. [LS]

Portonian. Ketch, wood, 36 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1876. Traded around the Australian coast until converted into a fishing cutter in 1924. Ashore, wrecked, on Troubridge Island, SA, 26 October 1924. [LS]

Posidonia. Iron bucket dredge. Vanished in the Great Australian Bight late in January after leaving Port Pirie for Fremantle, Western Australia, 1914. Twenty-two lives lost. The steamers Governor Musgrave and Penguin searched the ocean and entire coastline without finding any trace of her. Some believed she may have foundered in rough weather when only about forty kilometres south of Rottnest Island, off Fremantle, Western Australia. [LS]

Post Boy. Schooner, 62 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1874. Foundered in St. Vincents Gulf about eleven kilometres west of Glenelg, SA, with the loss of six lives, December 1816; raised, repaired and returned to service. In 1895, went ashore at Port Minlacowie, northeast of Point Turton in Spencer Gulf but was refloated. Her register closed in 1907 with ‘wrecked’ this final time apparently in Arno Bay on the western shores of Spencer Gulf. [LS]

Premaydena. Ketch, 50 tons. Built 1870. Lbd 69.2 x 18.2 x 5.5 ft. Left Port MacDonnell for Adelaide
in August 1860 but was not seen again. [LS]

Prince of Wales. Iron brig, 238 tons. Built at Aberdeen, 1845; reg. Sydney. Ashore in a gale, lodged on the reef between the wreck of the Orwell and Pinchgut Reef,  MacDonnell Bay, SA, 20 June 1873. Crew saved by local lifeboat. [LS]

Rambler. Schooner, 24 tons. Built in Tasmania, 1871. Known to have operated to Victorian waters in the 1870s. Ashore, wrecked, while on a voyage to Wool Bay, SA, 19 January 1877.  [LS],[LPA]

Ranger. Sloop, 8 tons. May have been lost in Encounter Bay, SA, 1843. [LS]

Rapid. Cutter. Lost on the Althorpe Islands, SA, 19 September 1937. [LS]

Rapid. Involved in rescue - see barque Parsee, 1839. [LS]

Red Rover. Cutter. Disappeared near Port Lincoln, SA, September 1887.  [LS]

Renown. Cutter. Lost in a gale at Glenelg, SA, 11 April 1948.  [LS]

Rescue. Whaleboat. Used as a lifeboat at Adelaide from 1861 to 1867 when it was replaced by a purposely designed lifeboat, Lady Daly. [LS]

Resource. Cutter, wooden, 13 tons. Built at Encounter Bay, SA, 1842. Lbd 33.6 x 10.6 x 6.9 ft.
In October 1846, reported lost at Encounter Bay, but only stranded, no loss of life. [AS1]
In September 1850, ashore in Rivoli Bay, SA, and lay there for six months before being abandoned and sold,  September 1850.  She was repaired and refloated, but had only been in commission for a short time when forced ashore again nearby, becoming a total loss. [LS],[AS1]

Resource. Cutter. Found her wreckage of the missing cutter Sophia Jane fifty miles south of the mouth of the Murray River.

Rivals. Unknown type. [LS] states - References to the loss of the have been difficult to locate. Some old Australian Directories of last century mention her as striking the Margaret Brock Reef, while the Australian Encyclopedia says she was wrecked to the west of Cape Bernouilli (Cape Jaffa) about 1840. [LS]

Robbie Burns. Tug. Lost near Corny Point, SA, 1939. [LS]

Roma Star. Tuna boat. Destroyed by an explosion and fire near Wedge Island, SA, 5 August 1975. [LS]

Rooganah. Auxiliary schooner, wood, 99 tons. Built 1909. Lbd 95 x 25.1 x 7 feet. Was carrying a general cargo into Whyalla which included cases of benzine when her petrol engine backfired and set her alight, 19 August 1927. The crew left quickly. [LS]

Rosalind Star. Tuna-fishing boat. Lost south of Ceduna, 24 January 1984.  [LS]

Rose. Ketch, 43 tons. Built 1875. Lbd 64 x 18 x 6 ft. Capsized when off Normanville, SA, having left Port Adelaide for Yankalilla, 10 December 1874. No lives were lost. The steamer Glenelg later located the vessel partly submerged but little was salvaged. [Something wrong here - built the year after she was wrecked??] [LS]

Rose. Schooner, 40 tons. Built 1853. Disappeared between Black Point on the Yorke Peninsula and Adelaide, April 1858.  [LS]

Ruby. Ketch, 21 tons. Built 1871. Lbd 53 x 16.1 x 5 ft. Disappeared between Salt Creek and Adelaide, July 1890. [LS]

Saint Michele. Fishing boat. Wrecked on South Neptune Island, SA, 30 March 1965.    [LS]

Salve. Brigantine. Possibly  beached, wrecked, at Port Pirie, SA, 25 October 1878. [LS]

Sameden. Liberty ship, renamed Mill Hill (qv). [LS]

Sanita Elena. Liberty ship. Renamed Eleni K when lost in 1966. [LS]

San Miquel. Barque, iron, 535 tons. Built 1864; reg. Liverpool. Ran on to Tipara Reef enroute Adelaide to Wallaroo, SA, 7 May 1865. The tug Eleanor from Adelaide tried unsuccessfully to free her, but a gale removed hopes of salvage. [LS]

Sanspariel. Schooner. On a voyage from Melbourne to Adelaide with cargo and mails, wreckd on a reef extending south-east from Cape Jervis, SA, 30 January 1855.  [LS]

Santa Anna. Prawn trawler. Lost near Cowell, SA, 11 December 1976. [LS]

Santiago. Iron barque, 460 tons. Built in Scotland, 1856. Lbd 160.6 x 25.9 x 17.4 ft.  Sailed under the Norwegian flat until bought by the Adealide Steam Tug Company in 1900; then Adelaide Steamship Company in 1918. Remained in service until 1945 when she was partly dismantled and scuttled in the North Arm graveyard, Port Adelaide. [LH]

Saori. Fishing boat. Ashore, wrecked, at the foot of 200 metre cliffs on Wedge Island, 3 June 1975. The boat was thrown high up on a ledge. [LS]

Sarah. Sailing barge. Run ashore after springing a leak while crossing from Point Lowly to Port Pirie, SA, 21 December 1876. [LS]

Saturn. Wooden barque, German, 484 tons. Built at Stralsund, Prussia, 1877. Captain Maas. Destroyed by fire whilst at Port Pirie, SA, 7 January 1888. All three boats were damaged and sunk by the crew who panicked and rushed into them with their luggage. Fortunately, boats from the barques Copesfield and Aretas took all to safety. The stricken vessel was towed to Cockle’s Spit and left to burn to the water’s edge. [LS],[ASW6],[LAH]

Savor. Shark-fishing boat. Lost east of Cape Gantheaume, SA, 11 June 1982. [LS]

Scamp. Fishing boat. Sank at her moorings at Beachport, 25 March 1978. [LS]

Schnieder. Barge. Sank at Port Elliot, 1856. [LS]

Sea Hawke. Tuna boat. After being badly damaged by fire west of Ceduna,  was under tow when she sank, 19 January 1975. [LS]

Sea Hero. Cray-fisging boat. Sank near Kingston, SA, 6 January 1985. [LS]

Secret. Cutter, wooden, 19 tons. Built at  Hobart, 1851. Lbd  41.5 x 12.3 x 7ft. Wrecked three miles north of Point Bollingbrooke, SA, 20 July 1873. [LS]

Shannon. Cray-fishing boat. Lost off the Eyre Peninsula, SA, 10 May 1988. [LS]

Sigrid. Yacht. Swamped near Port MacDonnell, SA, 1974. [LS]

Silver Gull. Type unknown. Sank while crossing the Murray River bar, November 1968. [LS]

Sir Charles MacCarthy. Brig, 188 tons. Registered in London. Master J.F.Duff. Arrived from Launceston at Holdfast Bay, Glenelg, SA on 8 October 1837; as she had anchored too close to shore and out of the good holding ground, she drove ashore in a gale, in November 1837. The brig was refloated, but condemned, and after being used as a storeship, was sold to the government.

Sir Roy Fidge. Tug. Involved in attempted salvage of livestock carrier Farid Fares, 1980.  [LS]

Sir Wilfred Lawson. Ketch, wooden, 41 tons. Lost near Point Moorowie, SA, 20 March 1908. [LS]

Smada. Tuna-fishing boat. Foundered south of Port Lincoln, SA, 7 February 1963. [LS]

Solway.  Vessel of 337 tons. Built Sunderland, UK, 1829. Owned by the South Australian Company. Master (possibly) W. Proctor. Whilst moored, lost during severe gales in Rosetta Harbour, Encounter Bay, SA, 21 or 22 December 1837. She had arrived in SA from Hamburg with fifty-two German Immigrants. [LS],[AS1]

Somerset. Steamship. Assisted in rescue - see SS Time, 1909. [LS]

Songvaar. Three-masted iron ship, 2128 tons. Built at Stockton, England, 1884, as the Barcore. Norwegian owned. Lbd 278.6 x 40.8 x 24.5 ft.   Whilst at the outer anchorage between Point Pearce and Wardang Island loading wheat, settled on the seabed with her decks awash after one of her anchors had cut a hole in her hull up forward, 14 April 1912. After several unsuccessful salvage attempts were abandoned, she was sold in May, and eventually blown up as she was a shipping hazzard. [LS],[LI]
@ An anchor remains on the scattered site in eight metres. [LAH]

Sophia Jane. Cutter, 15 tons. Built 1840. Lbd 33 x 11.4 x 5.7 ft. Disappeared near the mouth of the Murray River, 1844. [LSS]

Sophia Jane. Cutter, 13 tons. Built Encounter Bay, SA, 1840. Lbd 33 x 11.4 x  5.7ft. Disappeared off the south eastern coast South Australia, October 1843. The cutter Resource found her wreckage fifty miles south of the mouth of the Murray River. There was no trace of the crew, presumed drowned. [AS1],[LS - 15 tons, lost 1843, ‘despite an extensive search at sea and along the coastline no trace of her was discovered’]

Sorata. Steamship, 2573 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1872. Lbd 401.3 x 42.8 x 34.1 ft. Made her first appearance in Australian waters in April 1879 when the Orient Line introduced fortnightly sailings to Australia. Scrapped in 1895.
On 3 September 1880 she arrived at Adelaide from London, via Cape Town, in 37 days, then left for Melbourne with 368 passengers and a cargo which included exhibits for the International Exhibition, soon to open at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. A strong ebb tide forced her unexpectedly on to the Yatala Shoal, about 3 kilometres south of Cape Jervis. When SS Woonona hove in sight, all female passengers and some males were transferred across. Water began to rise in several compartments and a diver went down to examine the hull. He found little apparent damage, but as the Sorata continued to take water into the hold. Diver Ericson who had successfully completed salvage on the barque Geltwood was hastily summoned, while the Orient Line sent out a salvage expert named Armit, and his gear, on board SS.Cotopaxi. Ericson sealed the holes in her hull, and when Armit arrived, his powerful steam pumps soon had her afloat. The paddle tug Albatross towed her to Adelaide for temporary repairs, then she proceeded to Melbourne and entered the Alfred Graving Dock on 9 December, the largest vessel to enter it up to that time. [LS],[LM],[#NH],[ASW6]

South Australian. Steamship, 716 tons. Adelaide Steamship Co's first steamer. Converted to a hulk, 1910.  [DG]

South Australian. Steamer, 716 tons. Built on the Clyde, 1876 for the Adelaide Steamship Company on the Melbourne-Adelaide run.  [WL]

South Australian. Barque, 236 tons. Built 1819 as the Marquis of Salisbury.. Arrived from Plymouth on 21 April 1837. The South Australian served in the Royal Navy between 1824 and 1836 as H.M.S. Swallow, until purchased by the South Australian Company and renamed. Captain McFarlane. Lost on a reef during severe gales in Rosetta Harbour, Encounter Bay, SA, 8 December 1837. No loss of life. [LS],[AS1]

Southern Cross. Barque, 435 tons. Built in 1851. Lbd 144 x 26 x 14 ft. Wrecked on an outlying reef near Cape Douglas, 7 January 1879. Fortunately the sea was moderate and the crew left safely in the boats. Her remains are still visible on the beach.  [LS]

Speedwell. Prawn boat. Involved in rescue - see Ulonga, 1976. [LS]

Spindrift. Ketch, wood, 71 tons.  Built 1873. Lbd 79.6 x 21.6 x 6.9 ft. Captain Brown. Ashore while sheltering from a gale in Port le Hunte, SA, when the ketch dragged her anchors, 1927. Crew of four reached safety. [LS]

Splendid Sky. Liberty ship, renamed Mill Hill (qv), then Splendid Sky in 1966. [LS]

St.Kevin. Fishing boat. Sank in  50 metres while under tow near Point Sinclair, SA, 1971. [LS]

St.Marc. French barque, 269 tons. Captain Joycin. Ashore in a gale near Cress Creek, Port MacDonnell, SA, 28 September 1876. A lifeboat went off and succeeded in rescuing the crew of fourteen shortly before the barque broke in two. The efforts of the lifeboat crew were recognised by the French Government who later presented them with medals and certificates of appreciation [LS]

St.Vincent. Cutter, 12 tons. Built 1839. Lbd 32 x  9.7 x 5.5 ft. Disappeared from her moorings at Encounter Bay, SA, in September 1843, and was eventually found wrecked an the beach near the mouth of the Murray River. [LS]

Star Lily. Steamship. Involved in rescue - see Ulonga, 1976. [LS]

Star of Greece. Three-masted ship, iron, 1257 tons. Built at Belfast, 1868. Lbd 227 x 35 x 22.2 ft. Captain H. Harrower.  Wrecked in high seas off Port Willunga, SA, 13 July 1888. Eleven of twenty-eight seamen lost their lives, even though only 200 metres from shore. The ship broke in two amidships, and the after section, with eight men clinging in the rigging, disappeared. Men began leaping into the sea. Some reached the shore but three of these died from exhaustion after landing. Others disappeared in the raging seas. Vessels sent from Port Adelaide were powerless while bad roads, poor telegraphic communications and difficulty in procuring a good vehicle and horses delayed the arrival of the rocket gear until it was too late. For days the search for bodies was carried out along the beach which was littered with wreckage, provisions and cargo. Later, the press strongly criticised the rescue operations, but the widespread indignation and shame did stimulate support for a fund opened to assist those saved and the dependants of the victims. Constable Tuohy of Willunga, who played a prominent part in rescue operations, received the Royal Humane Society's silver medal and a gold medal presented by the South Australian Government.  [LS],[ASW6]
@ Being close to shore, with a stump of a mast showing, and her beams covered in growth attracting fish and other marine life, she is a popular di ve, and has been extensively surveyed. [LAH]

Storm Eagle. Cray-fishing boat. Lost in SA waters, 21 November 1975. [LS]

Stranger. Cutter, 17 tons. Lost at Wedge Island when she broke her moorings near the wreck of the Ariel and went ashore, June 1898. Crew of four swam to safety, and later, when crossing to the mainland in the cutter’s dinghy they were picked up by the ketch Eliza.   [LS]

Success. Barge, 49 tons. Lost on the Troubridge Shoal, SA, May 1917 . [LS]

Success. Ship, 621 tons. Built Moulmein, 1840. When she arrived in Melbourne on 31 May 1852 with immigrants; crew deserted to go to the goldfields. Purchased by the Victorian government and converted to a prison hulk, then from 1858, as an explosives hulk. Sold 1870 and fitted out as a convict ship, and was exhibited as such in Australia, England, United States, but never carried convicts.
On 6 April 1848, ashore near the entrance to the Port River, having arrived with immigrants. [AS1]

Sultana. Ship, 349 tons. Built Whitby, UK, 1837; reg. Liverpool. Captain Longford. Struck the Troubridge Shoal, SA, 28 September. 1849. She lifted her off the reef into deeper water but gales early in January 1850 destroyed any hopes of salvaging the ship and she was eventually broken up where she lay. No loss of life.  [LS],[AS1]

Sultana. Wooden ship, 588 tons. With a general cargo and Chinese passengers from Hong Kong, struck on Cape Dombey at the entrance to Guichen Bay, SA, wrecked, 27 April 1857. All saved. The vessel was under command of the mate as the captain had died on the voyage out.  [LS],[LM],[LAH]

Sunbeam. Fishing boat. May have been lost in SA waters, 20 May 1977. [LS]

Sunbeam. Iron barque, 442 tons. Built in Scotland, 1857. Lbd 141.5 x27.1 x 16.8 ft. Hulked in Melbourne in 1886; borken up in 1909 and abandoned in the North arm graveeyard, Port of Adelaide. [LH]

Susanna. Fishing boat. Sank near Memory Cove, SA, while under tow to Port Lincoln, January 1965.   [LS]

Swallow. HMS. Initially Marquis of Sailsbury, and later South Australian, wrecked, 1837. [LS]

Swallow. Schooner, from Swan River, WA. Damaged when she collided with the schooner Valentine Helicar which was lying at anchor. leaving in Encounter Bay, SA, 1857. [LS]

Swift. Wooden schooner, 73 tons. Built in Tasmania, 1896. Lbd 84.8 x 20.5 x 7.3 ft. Wrecked on a reef near shore in the Great Australian Bight, 1896. Buried deep in the sand at Twilight Cove, Great Austrlin Bight. [LH]

Swordfish. Schooner. Ashore in a gale, later recovered, Port Elliot, September 1856. [LS]

Tarna. Cutter. Believed lost off the Yorke Peninsula,  June 1948.   [LS]

Taroona. Type unknown. Burnt near Cape Jaffa, SA, 24 February 1976. [LS]

Tattler. Fishing boat. Lost during a gale in SA waters, 1 June 1977.  [LS]

Telstar. Fishing boat. Lost off Beachport, 1 November 1974. The owner drowned. [LS]

Tenterden. Iron steamshp, 1339 tons. Built on the Tyne, UK, 1883. Lbd 246.5 x 33.5 x 19.9 ft.  Captain McEacharn. Ran on to Breaksea Reef west of Port MacDonnell near Cape Northumberland, SA, 23 December 1893. Heavy seas began to break over the vessel later in the day forcing the officers and crew to abandon ship. The tug Albatross was sent from Melbourne but once it was seen that the task of refloating her was hopeless, cabin fittings and all moveable equipment was landed. [LS],[DG],[LAH]
@ Wrecksite has been blasted by amateur divers seeking relics.

Thetis. Liberty ship. Renamed Eleni K when lost in 1966. [LS]

Thistle. Schooner,  29 ton. Uncofirmed report that she was lost near Cape Jervis, SA,  during 1866. [LS]

Thomas & Annie. Wooden ketch, 15 tons. Built at Port Cygnet, Tasmania, 1874. Lbd 52.8 x 16.1 x 4.8 ft. Abandoned at North Arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide; reg. closed 1945. [LH]

Thompsons. (Thompson, Thomson). Cutter, wooden, 37 tons. Built Darling Harbour, Sydney 1847. Lbd 46 x 14.3 7.7 ft. Captain Wilkinson. From Adelaide to Robe, ashore, foundered, three miles south of Guichen Bay, SA, during a gale, 10 September 1849. Twenty-two lives lost.  [LS],[NH - refers name as Thompson, wrecked near Cape Jaffa],[AS1 - built 1837]

Thomson. See Thompsons.

Thomsons. Cutter, 37 tons. Built at Sydney, 1837. Wrecked near Guichen Bay, SA, 1849. [LSS],[LPA]

Thunderbird. Fishing boat. Lost at Cape Jaffa, SA, 10 December 1964. [LS]

Tigress. Brig, 218 tons. Captain Guthrie. Ashore at the mouth of the Onkarparinga River, SA, 26 September 1848. The captain and a passenger were drowned when they attempted to swim ashore but as the weather moderated those left on board were landed in a whaleboat. Note: Captain Guthrie may have been the mate on the emigrant ship Cataraqui when she was wrecked on King Island in 1845. He was one of only nine survivors of a disaster which cost 399 lives; his true identity has been questioned by some historians. [LS],[ASW6]

Time. Steam ship,  2575 tons. Built on the Tyne, UK, 1890. Lbd 300 x  41 x 19.6 ft.  Wrecked when she struck a reef in a gale, near Beachport only about a mile from where the Euro had been lost thirty years earlier, 13 January 1911. Her distress rockets were unanswered so a boat was launched to seek assistance at Beachport. Two ships, SS Somerset and SS Kyarra, stood by the wreck and managed to take off some of the crew  until the lifeboat arrived to complete the rescue. [LS],[NH],[LAH],[DG]

Tipara. Steam launch. Foundered near Wardang Island, SA, 2 September 1877. [LS]

Trader. Schooner, wooden, 151 tons. Built in 1854; reg. Port Adelaide. Lbd 95.7ft x 24ft x 8.8 ft. Ashore at Willunga, SA, 6 September 1866.   After an  unsuccessful attempt to salvage her, she becaame a total loss.  [LS]

Treasure Trove. Cutter. Lost at Kingston, SA, 21 May 1884. [LS]

Triton. Motor launch. Burnt off Point Victor, SA, 12 January 1908. [LS]

Triumph. Ketch, wooden 19 tons. Foundered somewhere  between the Yorke Peninsula and Adelaide, around 17 September 1908. [LS]

Triumph. Schooner, 46 tons. Built 1863. Lbd 64.7 x 15.3 x 7.7 ft. Mystery surrounds the fate of the small which left Port MacDonnell, SA,  in October 1874, headed eastwards, but was not seen again. It is supposed she was lost near the mouth of the Glenelg River, although another report says she was lost near the Murray River entrance. [LS]

Troas. Barque, wooden, 663 tons. Built at Sunderland, 1857. Captain Desborough. Lbd 152 x 31 x 20.5 ft. Ashore near the northern end of Lake Bonney, SA, and soon broke up, 14 May 1865. Apparently the mud ballast she loaded in Adelaide became wet when the vessel leaked, then shifted in heavy seas making her almost unmanageable. [LS]

Troubridge. Motor vessel. Involved in rescue - see fishing boat Nadgee II, 1974. [LS]

Trucanini. Ketch, wood, 40 tons. Lost near Point Malcolm, SA, 5 January 1923. [LS]

Turton Star. Fishing boat. Disappeared off the far west coast of SA on 8 October 1992. Two crew lost. Wreckage was later recovered at several points. [LS]

Tusker. Tug. Attempted to salvage MV Yandra, 1959. [LS]

Ullock. Iron barque,815 tons. Built at Aberdeen in 1875. Lbd 187.3 x 32 x 18 ft. At some time, named Johanne.  Purchased by Huddart Parker Ltd in 1911 and used as a hulk; broken up 1937 and abandoned in the North Arm graveyard, Port of Adelaide. [LH]

Ulonga. Iron vessel, 119 tons. Built at Moana, New South Wales, 1910 as a Murray River paddle steamer, she.was converted to an auxiliary ketch in 1949. Lbd 111.5x 22 x 6.9 ft. While steaming from Kangaroo Island to Adelaide with gypsum, sank in St.Vincents Gulf, 6 July 1976. Crew of five rescued by SS Star Lily, then transferred to the prawn vessel Speedewell. [LS]

Valentine Helicar. Schooner. Damaged when hit by the schooner Swallow, Encounter Bay, SA, 1857. [LS]

Vanguish. Brigantine, wooden, 128 tons. Built 1846. Captain Leddra.  Ashore in foggy weather on Cape Jervis, SA,  and filled rapidly, December 1864. No lives lost. [LS]

Varoon. Ship, 598 tons. Built 1853; reg. at Aberdeen. Captain Robertson. Bound from Manilla to Sydney with a cargo of sugar, cigars, tobacco and rope; wrecked twenty miles west of Cape Northumberland, SA, January 1856. The wreck was only discovered after a number of bodies were found on the beach near Cape Bridgewater in Victoria.  [LS]

Velebit. Tuna boat, 70 tons. Lost near Point Bell on the west coast of SA, 11 January 1984. [LS]

Venus. Cutter. Lost on North Neptune Island, SA, 14 June 1946. [LS]

Veronica. Trawler. Went missing between Port MacDonnell, SA,  and Portarlington in Port Phillip, July 1967. [LS]

Victor. Schooner, 32 tons. Lost on Balgowan Reef, SA, January 1925.  [LS]

Victoria. Danish  twin screw steamer, 4500 tons. Built 1928. Lbd 384 x 54 x 24 ft. Ran off course in Backstairs Passage and struck rocks fifty metres off shore near Porpoise Head about six miles east of Cape Jervis, SA, 1932. Three tugs despatched from Port Adelaide  failed to refloat her so a line was fastened ashore and the vessel abandoned. Salvage crews often worked in rough conditions to remove fittings from the vessel which eventually broke her back and went to pieces before work on her was completed. [LS],[LAH]

Victoria. Schooner, 28 tons. Built at Hobart Town, 1837. Lbd 44.6 x 14 x 6 ft. Foundered near Cape Jaffa, SA, 1846. [LSS]

Victoria. Two masted wooden schooner, 28 tons. Built 1837. Lbd 44.6 x 14 x 6 ft. Owned by the South Australia Company. Captain Emanuel Underwood. From Port Adelaide to Port Lincoln, then Rivoli Bay, capsized in a gale off Cape Jaffa, SA, during a voyage from Adelaide to Rivoli Bay, 9 June 1846. Two men lost. [LS],[AS1]

Vivid. Auxiliary ketch, 45 tons. Disappeared between Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln, April 1932. Crew of three.  [LS]

Vixen. Type unknown. Sank off Droughty Point, SA,  27 November 1939. One
of her crew lost.  [LS]

Vulcan. Schooner, possibly 345 tons. Captain Williams. Ashore, wrecked, Flinders Island, Investigaator Group, south west SA coast, 22 April 1845. The crew took three weeks to build a boat of lbd 22 x 7 x 4-5 ft using materials from their wrecked vessel and eventually reached Coffin Bay and walked overland to Port Lincoln.  [LS],[AS1]

Waitemata. Wooden schooner, 59 tons. Built at Auckland, 1852. Lbd 62.5 x 18 x 7.4 ft. Captain Harris. Run ashore in a leaking condition, on St Francis Island, SA, 20 May 1859. No lives lost. [LS]

Walrus. Schooner, 88 tons. Sailed from Port MacDonnell on 21 February 1862 and is believed to have foundered at sea. [LS]

Walter & John. Cutter, 15 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1870. Reported lost off Point Bolingbroke, SA,  21 February 1870. [LS]

Wanderer. Cutter. Lost in the Backstairs Passage, SA, 1907. [LS]

Warooka. Steamer. Ordered to assist the distressed Clan Ranald at the entrance to the Gulf of St Vincent, but delayed her departure, 1909. [NH]

Wata. Tug. Involved in rescue - see steamship Port aldn Maru, 1935. [LS]

Waterlily. Schooner. Constructed from one of the twin hulls of the Murray River paddle steamer Bunyip. Sank off Point Malcolm in Lake Alexandrina, SA, 1903. [LS]

Wave Queen. Barque, 250 tons. Built 1861. Captain Heslop. Lbd 118 x 24.x 14.7 ft. Ashore in Rivoli Bay, SA, 21 August 1874. All saved; despite rough seas three hands reached the shore, but the master, officers and crew remained on board until the main deck was under water.   [LS]

Wavy Street. Yacht, 12 metre. Gutted by fire at Port Adelaide, 10 January 1991. [LS]

Welling. Fishing cutter. Lost near the Althorpe Islands, SA, July 1892. [LS]

White Swan, Steamship 322 tons. Badly damaged when she collided with the steamship Burra Burra off Cape Jervis, 3 November 1955. Repaired and returned to service. On the night of 19 January, 1857, the White Swan was in another collision in Backstairs Passage, again off Cape Jervis, this time with the 82 ton schooner Agnes which was forced to return to Adelaide for repairs. [LS]

Wildflower. Cutter. Capsized off Port Adelaide, 11 November 1877. Two crew drowned. [LS]

William. Cutter, 20 tons. Master William Wright. From Tasmania under charter to the South Australia Co., ashore and lost in Aldinga Bay, SA, August 1838. [LS],[AS1]

Willyama. Steel steamer, 2705 tons. Built in 1897. Lbd 325.5 x 45.1 x 21 ft. Adelaide Steamship Company. From Newcastle to Port Pirie with coal, struck a rock at Rhino Head in Marion Bay on the Yorke Peninsula, 13 April 1907. A tug, with three lighters and a diver attempted to free her but rough weather damaged her so badly she was abandoned. [LS],[LAH - built 1898],[DG]
Previously, broke her tail shaft off Albany, WA, and towed back to port. No date recorded.
Grounded at Shark Bay, WA. No date recorded.
In1902, came to the assistance of the chief officer and a small crew in a lifeboat, from the stricken steamer Boveric. The Willyama found the lifeboat only ten miles out of Fremantle after a journey of nearly a thousand miles in twenty-six days. The Boveric was independently found and towed back to Fremantle.  [DG]

Wilpena. Ketch, wooden, 12 tons. Foundered off Port Jarroid, SA, 11 November 1909. [LS]

Witness. Schooner, 121 tons. Captain McKenzie. Wrecked on Cape Northumberland, SA, 1 May 1853. High seas washed the schooner over the reef , saving the crew who remained on board until daylight when a boat was launched. [LS]

Woonona. Steamship, iron, 643 tons. Built at Glasgow, 1875. Lbd 195.4 x 28.2 x 14.9 ft. . Involved in rescue - see Sorata, 1880. [LS],[LM]

Yalta. Steam tug, wood, 64 tons. Built at Nowra, 1877 as the James Comrie; bought by the Adelaide Steam Tug Company in 1909 when her name was changed. Beached after developing a leak near Point Turton, SA,  later abandoned, 29 May 1926.  [LS]

Yandra. Motor vessel, steel, 990 tons. Built at Copenhagen, 1928. Lbd 211.1 x 35.2 x 11.9 ft. Ran aground in dense fog on a rocky island in the Neptune Group, near the entrance to Spencer Gulf, 25 January 1959. The crew of twenty-three used a breeches buoy to abandon the vessel, and reached the island safely, leaving her rolling and bumping heavily on the rocks. The yacht Iline, a competitor in the annual Neptune Island yacht race answered a radio call and assisted, while the tug Tusker battled rough seas to investigate the possibility of saving the stranded steamer, but she could not be refloated.
[LS],[LAH]

Yare. Brig, 266 tons. From Adelaide for London on 13 February 1845, grounded on Troubridge Shoal. She was warped off , returned to Adelaide for inspection, and made a second start for London on 23 February 1845.

Yarola. Tug. Involved in rescue - see emigrant ship Marion, 1851.  [LS]

Yasmine. Cray-fishing boat. Capsized and sank while under tow near West Island, SA, 24 March 1975. [LS]

Yatala. Government schooner, wood, 65 tons. Built at Port Adelaide, 1848. Damaged while carrying out survey work off Northern Australia, 1864. Sent to Timor for repairs but condemned and sold. [LM]
In 1849, located wreckage from the schooner Young Hebe, 1849. [LS]
In 1855, involved in rescue - see Nashwauk, 1855. [LS]
In 1859, involved in rescue - see Waitemata, 1859. [LS]

Yatala. Tug.
In 1887, involved in salvage attempt - see barque Guldax, 1887. [LS]
In 1897, involved in a salvage - see Duncow, 1897. [LS]

Yongala. Steamship. Last to sight Loch Vennachar, 1905. [LS]

You Yangs. Steamship, 457 tons. Built 1856; reg. Sydney. Wrecked South Australia, June 1890. [ASR]

Young St.George. Schooner, 15 tons. Wrecked at the Althorpe Islands, SA, 3 January 1878. [LS]

Young Surveyor. Ketch, 23 tons. Built 1811. Sprang a leak  on her way to Port Adelaide, sank, 2 November 1899. Crew saved. [LS]

Young E.B. Ketch, 23 tons. Wrecked near Marino Rocks, SA, 30 June 1888. [LS]

Young Foster. Ketch, wood, 24 tons. Foundered near Outer Harbour, Port Adelaide, 21 October 1919. [LS]

Young Hebe. Two-masted wooden schooner, 39 tons. Built Moulmein; later reg. Melbourne. Lbd 52.9 x 12.4 x 6.7 ft. Purchased by the government and commissioned in the Royal Navy in 1840; sold out of service January 1847. Sailed from Adelaide on 17 March 1849, to Hummock Harbour, (a name now lost, somewhere near the head of Spencer Gulf), and disappeared. Ten lost. Later wreckage was found  among rocks about 20 miles east of Cape Spencer.  [LS],[AS1]

Young Lion. Ketch, 31 tons. Built 1874. On a voyage from Port Victoria to Moonta, SA, wrecked on the Cape Elizabeth Reef, 18 October 1882.  [LS]

Young Recruit. Cutter. Foundered at Port Gawler, SA, 4 November 1902. [LS]

Zadar. Tuna boat. Began taking water and was abandoned off the west coast or SA, 27 April 1977. [LS]

Zadok barque 1868 620 Pt Germein-Eur.1888  [LAH]

Zanoni. Three-masted barque, composite, 338 tons. Built at Liverpool. Lbd 139.2 x 23.4 x 14.6 ft.  After loading the bulk of her cargo at Port Wakefield and departing for England, a violent storm struck with little warning throwing the barque on her beam ends, then rolling her over, near Ardrosasan, SA, 11 February 1867. As she sank the crew of thirteen escaped after righting a lifeboat that had drifted clear and were rescued that evening and taken on to Adelaide. Efforts to locate the wreck proved unsuccessful and its whereabouts were to remain a mystery for more than a century.  In April 1983 retired fisherman Rex Tyrell took divers Ian O'Donnell and John McGovern to investigate what appeared to be a reef near Ardrossan. It was indeed the Zanoni, still relatively intact. Now protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act it is visited regularly by divers and archaeologists carrying out surveys and excavations.  [LS]

Zephr. Cutter. Involved in search for survivors from the wrecked steamship Pareoa, 1919. [LS]

Zephyr. Cutter. Lost in a gale at Glenelg, SA, 11 April 1948.  [LS]

UNIDENTIFIED

Unidentified. 1876. On the 23 October 1876, a farmer living south of Millicent heard gun shots from the direction of Carpenter’s Rocks, SA. Four days later a body was found washed up on the beach and in early November the heel of the lower mast of a small vessel of about 40 tons drifted ashore near the Cape Northumberland lighthouse.   [LS]

Unidentified. 1882. The hull of a vessel of about 60 tons was sighted by S.S.Glenelg about nine miles north west of Cape Jaffa, SA.  [LS]

Unidentified. 1885. Small boat. Two men were lost when their small boat disappeared along the rugged SA coastline towards the Remarkable Rocks; the damaged boat was later discovered in Hanson Bay, several kilometres to the east. [LS]

Unidentified. 1968. Fishing boat. Lost on Spencer Gulf 1968. [LS]

Unidentified. 1968. Fishing boat. Lost in Coffin Bay, SA, 1968. [LS]