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Robert Bruce, Wreck of the A.S.N. Company's steamship Auckland on the Ninety-Mile Beach, 1871, engraving. Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria.
Shipwrecks offer us a unique insight into history. The locations of wrecked ships and items found on the sea floor tell us a lot about the life and times of the people on board. We can learn how, why and where they were sailing.
Australia's maritime history is particularly rich and interesting. Since the 1600s, European mariners made their way to our shores to explore and to trade. Some trading ships were going to the East Indies for spices and lost their way in high winds and seas - literally 'bumping' into Australia's west coast. From 1788, English ships brought convicts and settlers to the colonies.
Why did so many ships become wrecks? The answer lies in our coastal geography and the weather, the initial lack of lighthouses, as well as the huge number of vessels coming to the region from Europe.
The route through Bass Strait (shorter by 600 nautical miles than the voyage around the south of Tasmania) was studded with islands, shoals, reefs and un chartered rocks. It was not until 1841, the first of several inquiries, that navigational aids and the construction of lighthouses was recommended.
A difficult journey
European mariners sailed wooden ships, which were tiny by today's standards. For power, they relied on the wind to catch their sails. To navigate, they used the stars, sextants and the most up to date charts they had, which were often unreliable and inaccurate. Large sections of coastline were not mapped and blank spaces appeared on maps where we know islands, reefs and continents exist today. Lighthouses were an important part of navigating the often treacherous coastlines, especially around Australia.
A reproduction of HMAV Bounty in 1988. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
The route the ships often travelled from Europe took them down the north west coast of Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean to ports on the east coast of of South America, such as Rio de Janeiro, where they could re-supply and repair their ships. From South America, they travelled back across the Atlantic to the southern tip of Africa, known as the Cape of Good Hope.
From the Cape, ships continued up the east of Africa before heading across the Indian Ocean towards the Islands of present-day Indonesia, which were known as the Spice Islands. Here the Europeans purchased spices such as cloves, nutmeg and pepper as well other items that were in demand at home.
The strong trade winds that helped ships make the journey from Africa to Indonesia were known as the 'roaring forties'. The roaring forties were both a blessing and curse. Their strong winds made wind-powered sailing fast, yet dangerous.
Later, ships carrying settlers and convicts to Australian penal colonies made the same journey, but let the winds of the roaring forties take them further east, along Australia's southern coast to Hobart and then around the eastern seaboard to Sydney, or further North.
Often, these winds blew ships off course and into uncharted or dangerous waters. Lighthouses were not in place to warn ships of reefs, islands or our mainland coastline. Many of the people on board these ships drowned, as ships were not equipped with satisfactory lifeboats and passengers couldn't swim well. As a result, our vast coastline is a graveyard for over 6,500 wrecked ships. That's one for every nine kilometres of coast.
The transportation of convicts to the British penal colonies in New South Wales lasted many decades and increased both the number of ships and people en route to our shores.
The coast of Western Australia
Australia's first known shipwreck is of the Trial, a ship of the English East India Company that was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1622. But perhaps our most infamous early shipwreck is The Batavia.
The Batavia
The Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company who set out on her maiden voyage in 1629. Destined for the Spice Islands, she was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands.
The story of the ship is a shocking one, as it involved mutiny, murder and extremes of human behaviour. After an attempted mutiny on board, the ship ran aground and over 100 passengers and crew were offloaded onto a nearby island. A few of the crew left them and went to their company's headquarters in the city of Batavia (now known as Indonesia) for help in two of the ship's small boats. While the passengers waited for help, the mutineers, who were going to be hung before the ship was wrecked, killed 125 women, men and children. Trying to defend themselves, survivors built a fort on one of the islands. The remains of this fort can still be seen today.
The wreck was recovered and is now in the Western Australia Museum, along with a number of artefacts it was carrying and a skeleton of one of those who was murdered.
Bass Strait
The Shipwreck Coast
The south west coast of Victoria is known as the Shipwreck Coast. There are over 80 shipwrecks along a 130 kilometre stretch coast from Port Fairy to Cape Otway. This section of coastline is made up of cliffs, reef, islands and outcrops of rocks. The winds of the roaring forties and often stormy seas made sailing these waters very dangerous. 'I have seldom seen a more fearful section of coastline', wrote Matthew Flinders, the explorer who first mapped the coast of Australia.
The Mahogany Ship
Searching for the Mahogany Ship in the sand dunes along the Shipwreck Coast. Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia.
More legend than fact, the famed Mahogany Ship was first sighted by two men in 1836 who were walking along the beach after (unsurprisingly) their whaleboat capsized nearby in high seas. They claimed they sighted the large wreck of a ship made of a dark timber, like mahogany, in the sand dunes.
There has been great interest in the ship ever since. The identity of the old wreck has never been confirmed and the wreck itself hasn't been seen since the 1880s. There were many ships wrecked along this coast, so why did this one draw so much interest despite any recent evidence of its existence?
In 1836, the wreck already appeared very old as it was well up in the sand dunes and not on the water's edge, suggesting it had been there for a long time. The possibility that the ship was made of mahogany indicates a link with the Dutch and Portuguese exploration ships of the 1500s .
Recent discovery of oak samples raises questions as to whether it could be the first hard evidence that Portuguese navigators discovered the East Coast of Australia before Captain James Cook.
The Loch Ard
The wreck of the Loch Ard near Sherbrooke River. Image courtesy of State Library of Victoria.
Near Port Campbell, part of the 'shipwreck coast', is the wreck the Loch Ard. The ship was wrecked on the sheer cliffs off Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878. It was carrying over fifty people on board when it hit rocks and broke up just a few days short of its three month voyage from Europe. Only four bodies were ever recovered and just two people survived.
The survivors were Tom Pearce (a member of the crew) and Eva Carmichael. Both just 18 at the time, Tom's account brings the terrifying experience alive:
The ship commenced to roll, and was fast sinking, the sea breaking aboard her on both sides... The ship went down within 10 minutes or quarter of an hour after striking the bluff.
Protection
Under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act of 1976, all shipwrecks that are over 75 years old are protected by Australian law. Details on all of these are listed in the National Shipwreck Database. Today, maritime archaeologists explore, research and preserve the sites of shipwrecks.
Related Culture and Recreation Portal Stories
- Lighthouses
- Lighthouses - design, construction, preservation and restoration
- European discovery and colonisation of Australia
- Early explorers
- Convicts and the English colonies in Australia
- Modern Australian poetry
- Australian folklore
More information on shipwrecks
- Interesting shipwreck stories
- Australian National Maritime Museum
- The history of maps of Australia
- Australian Association of Maritime History
- Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology
- Heritage Victoria - Protecting shipwreck heritage
- Wrecked! Tragedy and the Southern Seas - Exhibition at the South Australian Maritime Museum
- South Australian Migration Museum
The Trial
The Batavia
The Mahogany Ship
The Shipwreck Coast and the Loch Ard
- Shipwreck Coast Tourism
- Shipwreck Coast Walking Tour
- Parks Victoria
- History and heritage in the Great Ocean Road
- Loch Ard Gorge Short Walks
- Great Southern Tourist News – Port Campbell
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Last updated: 7th August 2008
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