A SEQUENCE OF EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE YONGALA DISASTER.

Flat Top to Dent Island.

Yongala departed Flat Top, Mackay, 1.40 p.m., Thursday, 23 March. She was in relatively light / tender condition (somewhat top heavy). Cargo weight amounted to 29% of maximum load and 164 tons of stabilising pig iron ballast had been removed because it caused a jerky recovery uncomfortable for passengers.

Captain Knight elected to depart for Townsville despite strengthening wind from the southeast and a falling barometer. I believe the decision was based on an assumption that the weather system was coming up the coast, rather than one into which they would be steaming. 

There was no cyclone warning.

Heading north to Townsville and believing they could outrun the weather, Yongala made an average of 16 knots assisted by a 2 knot current. Yongala passed Dent Island, inside passage, Whitsundays, at about 5 p.m. (erroneously reported as 6 p.m.) and was subsequently confirmed to be seen by residents (witnesses) of Cannon Valley Beach, an hour's steaming from Dent Island and which coincided with dusk, roughly 6 p.m.. This was the riskier but quicker, inside passage passing between Armit and Gumbrell Islands. 

via Cannon Valley, Inside Passage.

Having cleared the Whitsundays without mishap, Yongala headed northwest in open water parallel with the coast and the outer Barrier Reef. She cleared Nares Rock without difficulty and arrived at a position 11.5 miles out from Cape Bowling Green Light, 17.7 miles from where Grantala lay anchored to the west due to deteriorating weather conditions.

We know from the chronometer time, 11.45 p.m. (conclusive in my opinion) and a wreck site within the large steamer track, that the disaster must have been sudden and catastrophic. Also, the time and site matches a plausible average of 16 knots (favourable, 2 knot current confirmed by Captain Craig of the Yawata Maru).

My belief is that the intense cyclonic system +/- 15 miles in diameter was actually a hybrid cyclone (see image below) predominated by a gale from the south - the masters who experienced the storm reported gale force wind directions in keeping with this.

By the time Yongala was almost upon the eye of the cyclone, the gale would have shifted rapidly and violently from south to north, bringing the wind force to bear on the top heavy steamer's starboard bow and beam. 

Heading northwest, Captain Knight would have been confronted by an unfolding catastrophe and certain knowledge of Yongala's inability to recover quickly enough in such conditions. I believe he attempted to bring the steamer's bow into the gale. 

What followed must have been extreme and sudden in my opinion, Yongala capsizing within minutes. The rudder is still in the half to starboard position and the wreck lies facing north. If there had been enough time for recovery, I assume the rudder would have been corrected to maintain the heading.

An explosion was heard by residents south of the disaster site, suggesting that the furnaces burning under full steam reacted to the cold sea water rushing in or the explosion of a distress socket signal.

The main hatch was compromised as the steamer foundered and lighter cargo in hold 3 liberated into the tumultuous sea. 

Passengers would no doubt have been confined to cabins due to conditions, essentially trapped as the disaster unfolded. 

I choose to believe that Yongala foundered so quickly there was little time for protracted suffering and Yongala's 122 souls now rest in peace, cosetted by some of the Coral Sea's most illustrious and doting residents.  

Dent Island to wreck site.

wreck site about 11.5 miles off Cape Bowling Green.

Max Gleeson presents an engaging theory based on dive observations that lifeboats on the starboard side of Yongala were swung out in preparation for evacuation of the ship rather than a sudden, extreme event. This might very well have been the case, however:

A great deal of wreckage was subsequently discovered after the disaster spanning large swathes of the coast from Cape Bowling Green to Palm Island in the north. No lifeboat(s) or section thereof from the starboard side were discovered. Only a section of lifeboat 1 from the port side was found, suggesting that no one escaped Yongala. Also, if there were preparations to get passengers off the ship, bodies wearing lifebelts would likely have been discovered adrift. Historians believe that most of the human remains are trapped within the hull.

A possible reason for starboard davits being in the 'swung out' position could be precautionary or due to forces associated with Yongala coming to rest on her starboard side. 

The following extract gives us an idea of the forces unleashed by the cyclone:

Cairns Post, 17 October, 1911. 

Captain McKenzie further stated that 

between Cape Upstart and Cape Bowling 

Green there is now visible in the bush the 

track of the awful south-west tornado, which

it is believed drove the Yongala out onto

Broadhurst Reef. For a width of fifteen miles

the whole of the trees, including many immense

ones, being torn out by the roots and levelled.

It is clear from this description that Yongala was subjected to an intense, narrow, system of formidable force, causing her to capsize rapidly. One could argue that such a force would have destroyed even the most 'stable' of vessels.


The Week, Brisbane, 31 March, 1911.

A veteran master mariner firmly adheres

to the belief that the vessel turned turtle

in the cyclone, and explains the fact that

the cargo mentioned had come ashore by

pointing out that it was quite likely that the 

cargo of the overturned vessel falling upon 

the hatches, would burst them open, the 

lighter portion finding its way to the surface.


courtesy Trove

For all readers with an in interest in this subject Max Gleeson's online video, 'Mystery of a Generation' is compelling and beautifully compiled.

http://www.maxgleeson.com/

courtesy Google Earth.

SS Yongala - courtesy Wikipedia

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