WRECKS FROM THE PAST.

The Advertiser (Adelaide) Wednesday 5 April, 1911.

A WRECK OF THE PAST.

THE LOCH VENNACHAR DISASTER.

The tragic fate of the Yongala recalls

another marine disaster that occurred five

years ago, namely, the loss of the well

known Australian trader Loch Vennachar.

It may be remembered that the Yongala

spoke the Loch Vennachar on September 6,

1905. "all well," and was the last vessel

that saw the fine old clipper before she went

to her doom with all hands on the Young

Rocks, South Australia, a few days later.

A South Australian, Mr. William Barry,

was among the crew of the Loch Vennachar. 

His father is Captain Barry, of the Warrawee, 

which is at present engaged in trade between 

Port Adelaide and Yorke Peninsula.

A SURVIVOR OF THE. GOTHENBURG.

Mr. J. W. Falk, a resident of Reynolds-

street, Yatala, was an A.B. on the ill-fated 

steamer Gothenburg, when she was

wrecked off the Queensland coast in 1875.

He was much interested in reading the

account of that sad maritime catastrophe

published in "The Advertiser" of Tuesday.

Mr. Falk stated that Captain Pearce, the

commander of the Gothenburg, perished

with the vessel, being washed from his

position just outside the bridge by a big

wave as the vessel lav broadside on.

"When I saw him last." added Mr. Falk,

"he was standing bareheaded and bare-

footed." Mr. Falk was one of the four

who landed on Hermann Island in one of

the steamer's boats on the day following

the disaster. "I don't think." he said, "I

should have been saved had it not been 

for one of the others. He came to me as I

stood aft, and said I had better leave as

the engine-room was full of water, and

there was no hope of saving the vessel.

As we pulled over the reef to shore we

could see sharks and turtles beneath us.

The boat was smashed up eventually.'' For

three years after the loss of the Gothenburg 

Mr. Falk was employed as a light-house-keeper 

at the Bowen Lighthouse. The practice then 

was for steamers to anchor at night. He 

considered the coast, owing to the inlands and 

reefs, of such a dangerous character, that no 

vessel in bad weather could negotiate it with 

safety in the dark.

Mr. Falk, with significant experience at Bowen LIghthouse, reminds us that the coastline along which Yongala steamed, was dangerous at night in bad weather. It was generally accepted that under such circumstances steamers anchored for the night. This is what Captain Knight should have done instead of pushing his vessel into the heart of the cyclone, risking the lives of all on board.

Sir - Having travelled the Queensland

coast a good many times, and been a

passenger between here and Sydney in 

the ill-fated Yongala, I have read everything 

you have published with special interest, 

knowing the boat and the locality where she

was lost. My personal recollection

of the wreck of the Gothenburg

in the same locality is still strong. 

A party of us left a claim in the

Northern Territory to catch the steamer,

but the road being boggy the spring-dray

was delayed. Our two mates, David

H-- and Engineer Edgar, not being

cumbered with luggage, went on, leaving 

myself, wife, and family to come on by the

next steamer, which we did. The Gothenburg 

was foolishly lost through an error of 

judgment. Edgar was drowned, but David 

(belonging to Willaston), was among the 

few saved, and one of the first things I 

did after reaching Adelaide was to identify 

him for his share of the Gothenburg fund. 

From him I got all that could be known 

about the wreck. 

He said: "We had a splendid, quick trip 

from Port Darwin up to the afternoon, 

when Captain Pearce decided to leave 

the inside passage and pass through the 

Flinders opening into the open ocean and 

make a straight run for Sydney. We were 

going along very quickly, with the water as 

smooth as glass, just after dark, when the 

steamer ran up a flat reef. There was no 

panic, and the captain told us that we should 

get off all right in the morning. Most of the 

passengers went to bed, but I did not, as 

I noticed the after part was low in the water, 

and as I passed along the deck I looked 

down in the engineroom and saw that the 

machinery was partly covered with water. 

A few of us went as far forward as we could 

get. Towards morning Edgar left me to go 

below for his money, and I did not see him 

again. I said, inter alia-"Did it not strike any 

of you that the fact of your being in such

smooth water was a clear indication that

the steamer was under the lee of the reef

and not in the Flinders opening at all?"

He said. "No, everything was going along

as pleasant as could be, and we knew that

going through the opening would shorten

the trip a lot." When the panic arose

before daylight the next morning through

the vessel breaking her back, the loss of

life was awful and rapid." The Hon.Thomas 

Reynolds-who had been living for some 

time in Port Darwin with his wife was 

drowned, together with Judge Wearing, 

who with Whitby had been on circuit, and 

most of those who had made anything in 

the Northern Territory perished in the wreck. 

It was always my opinion that Captain Pearce 

could have saved his life had he cared to do 

so, but he must have been paralysed by the

disaster, and had probably erred by edging 

off east before he passed Cape Bowling 

Green, and not allowed enough for the 

constant set of the current. He knew what 

the current was, as on a former occasion when 

his steamer grounded farther north I was pulling 

with him in a boat, when we had the greatest 

difficulty to get back to the ship. The Queensland

coast has been pretty well charted afresh

since then, but still the wonder is not that

a vessel has been lost, but that so many

pass safely through such a maze. The loss

of the Gothenburg caused much sorrow

here, and damned the progress of the

Northern Territory to a great extent. The

present loss, too, affects us locally in the

case of young Gale, known to many of us

from the way in which he had worked himself 

up in his profession. I think we might 

reasonably raise a fund to mark the loss 

of those South Australians who are

gone. I am sure you, as usual, would

take charge of such, and enclose my mite.

-I am, &c.,

W.B.

[Our correspondent encloses 5/ as a

subscription towards the suggested fund.-

Ed.

Risk-taking was not unique and there does seem to be an element of getting steamers to their destinations as quickly as possible!

SS Gothenburg (courtesy wikipedia)