Written by Dr Maddy Fowler, Museum of Tropical Queensland

As the recently appointed Senior Curator Maritime Archaeology, I have faced the challenge of familiarising myself with the maritime archaeology collection, predominantly housed at the Museum of Tropical Queensland. The HMS Pandora artefacts are justifiably the most well-known of this collection, due to both their international value and significance, and their substantial quantity. The collection, however, also includes artefacts from at least 16 other named shipwrecks located across Queensland’s coast and rivers. The maritime archaeology collection can therefore be seen as a cross-section or a sample of the total shipwreck resource in the State, and a brief analysis of these sites can inform significance and research potential.

Vessel name	Year built/launched	Type of vessel	Gross tonnage	Registered port or owner	Built	Primary employment
Aarhus	1875	Iron barque	691	J.H. Christiansen	Hamburg, Germany	Transport, general cargo
Annie	1843	Wooden brig	645	Peterhead, Scotland	Quebec, Canada	Transport, general cargo
Brinawarr	1890	Wooden single screw steamer	119	Sydney, Australia	Shoalhaven, NSW
Cato	1799	Wooden ship	430	London, UK	Stockton, England
Channel Rock Lightship				Marine Department, Brisbane		Port services
Coolangatta	1843	Wooden brigantine	88	Sydney, Australia	Shoalhaven, NSW	Transport, cedar cargo
Foam	1882	Wooden schooner	164	Maryborough, QLD	West Cowes, Isle of Wight	Transport, indentured labour
Gothenburg	1854	Iron single screw steamer; barque	737	Melbourne, Australia	London, UK	Transport
Maida	1857	Wooden barque	519		Moulmein, Burma/Myanmar	Coal hulk until 1930s
Mecca	1872	Iron single screw steamer		Sunderland, England	Sunderland, England	Transport, immigrants
HMCS Mermaid	1816	Wooden schooner	84	London, UK	Calcutta, India	Transport, ore cargo
HMS Pandora	1779	Wooden ship	516	Royal Navy	London, UK	Naval defence, prisoners
HMS Porpoise	Captured 1799	Wooden ship	308	Royal Navy	Spain	Naval defence
Scottish Prince	1878	Iron barque	850	London, UK	Aberdeen, Scotland	Transport, general cargo
Thomas King	1826	Wooden barque	346	London, UK	London, UK	Ballast cargo
Valetta	1821	Wooden ship	317	Calcutta, India	Calcutta, India
Yongala	1903	Iron single screw steamer		Adelaide Steamship Co.	Newcastle upon Tyne, England	Transport

The majority of ships represented in this collection were built in the 19th century. Pandora, Porpoise and Cato are therefore particularly significant for their pre-1800 construction. Many ships were built in the UK; however two, Coolangatta and Brinawarr, were built in Shoalhaven, New South Wales. Of the 2,786 colonial-built vessels wrecked in Australian waters, and the 271 that have been relocated (Nash 2004:95), published archaeological surveys are only available for 15 of these (Davison 2014:9). Coolangatta is particularly significant as it falls within the ‘early’ period of Australian wooden sailing vessels (Coroneos 1991:7). The collection represents both wooden- and iron-hulled vessels powered by sail or steam. Gothenburg, however, is a rare example of an early iron vessel – also barque-rigged – as the transition from wooden to iron shipbuilding only intensified in the mid to late 1800s.

Interestingly, only one of the ships, Foam, was registered to a Queensland port at the time of its loss (although, Channel Rock Lightship was owned by the Queensland Government). In addition, the port of origin or planned destination of roughly one-third of these ships for the voyage on which they wrecked was overseas, including the USA, UK, and a number of locations in the South Pacific, East and Southeast Asia and Oceania. This highlights the remarkable cosmopolitanism of vessels travelling in Queensland waters, particularly during the 19th century. This diversity is represented further through the people travelling on-board these ships, such as the South Sea Islander indentured labour on Foam and Chinese immigrants on Mecca.

Vessel name	Year wrecked	Location of wreck	Port of origin	Destination	Cause of loss	Number of records*
Aarhus	1894	Smith Rock, off Cape Moreton	New York, USA	Brisbane, Australia	Foundered	41
Annie	1853	Cockburn Reef	Hobart, Australia	Singapore	Stranded	3
Brinawarr	1918	Pioneer River, Mackay			Foundered (cyclone)	65
Cato	1803	Porpoise Cay, Wreck Reefs	Sydney, Australia	Batavia/Jakarta, Indonesia	Stranded	11
Channel Rock Lightship	1899	Channel Rock, near Cape Melville			Violent storm (cyclone)	8
Coolangatta	1846	Tweed River	Brisbane, Australia	Tweed River, NSW	Broken up, gale	1
Foam	1893	Myrmidon Reef	Dungeness, QLD	Solomon Islands	Stranded	227
Gothenburg	1875	Old Reef, entrance to Flinders Passage	Darwin, Australia	Melbourne, Australia	Stranded	3
Maida	1900 (possibly 1949)	Bishop Island, Moreton Bay			Burnt and dumped	2
Mecca	1878	Mecca Reef, Torres Strait	Hong Kong	Sydney, Australia	Foundered	68
HMCS Mermaid	1829	Flora Reef, Great Barrier Reef	Sydney, Australia	Port Raffles, NT	Stranded	32
HMS Pandora	1791	Pandora entrance, Great Barrier Reef	Tahiti	Portsmouth, England	Foundered	5500
HMS Porpoise	1803	Porpoise Cay, Wreck Reefs	Sydney, Australia	England	Stranded	10
Scottish Prince	1887	Southport bar, Stradbroke Island	Glasgow, Scotland	Brisbane, Australia	Stranded	55
Thomas King	1852	Cato Reef	Sydney, Australia	Manila, Philippines	Stranded	5
Valetta	1825	Long Island, Whitsunday Islands	Sydney, Australia	Manila, Philippines	Deliberately beached	10
Yongala	1911	Off Cape Bowling Green	Brisbane, Australia	Townsville, QLD	Foundered (cyclone)	68

*The ‘number of records’ refers to the number of individual entries recorded against each shipwreck in the Museum’s database. It does not quantify the number of individual artefacts, as some records relate to more than one object.

The majority of ships also wrecked in the 19th century. All 17th-century shipwrecks in Australia occurred on the western coast. Pandora, as the Museum’s only 18th-century example of shipwreck is comparable on the east coast with the loss of HMS Sirius in 1790 at Norfolk Island. Maida, Yongala and Brinawarr wrecked in the 20th century; however, the absence of Second World War shipwreck artefacts is conspicuous. The majority of wrecks are also located at sea, with Brinawarr and Coolangatta being the only riverine examples. Recent investigations into river and lake networks (particularly in NSW and SA) are beginning to redress the lack of archaeological knowledge regarding Australia’s navigable rivers. Of those ships wrecked on the coast, the majority stranded on reefs foregrounding the impact the Great Barrier Reef has had on shipping casualties in Queensland waters. It also reflects the archaeological bias in shipwreck investigations towards those accessible within recreational diving limits. Channel Rock Lightship, Brinawarr and Yongala were all wrecked due to cyclones, again revealing the unique conditions which hampered maritime activities on the Queensland coast. This collection is therefore characteristically ‘Queensland’, however exposes the State’s role in global maritime systems.

If you are interested in learning more about the artefacts from the shipwrecks listed here, please contact the Museum of Tropical Queensland +61 (0) 7 4726 0600 or info.mtq@qm.qld.gov.au. Look out for The Maritime Archaeology Collection: Part 2 Islands and Reefs blog coming soon.

References:

Australian National Shipwreck Database http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/historic-shipwrecks/australian-national-shipwreck-database

Coroneos, C. (1991) One interpretation for the short working lives of early Australian wooden sailing vessels in Victorian waters. Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology 15(2):7-14.

Davison, L. (2014) Picking up the pieces: The story of a shipwreck. Master’s thesis, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide.

Nash, M. (2004) The Australian-built schooner Alert (1846-1854). Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology 28: 91-96.