405_April_24

Shipwreck Topics with Steve Reynolds

Image credit by TIM HILL

The wreck of SS Nemesis was found in 2021, about 117 years after sinking south of Sydney in July 1904 when it was caught in a storm off Wollongong. Subsea Professional Marine Services, a remote sensing company, stumbled across the wreck whilst trying to locate lost cargo containers. According to https://www.msn.com/en au/news/australia/century-old-mystery-of-lost-ship-solved-by-accident al-discovery/ar-BB1iQfTl?ocid=nl_article_link , “The ship was found undisturbed about 26km off Port Kembla”. It is located at a depth of approximately 167m (unfortunately) off Port Kembla.

Paul Scully, the Member for Wollongong said, " With only 105 of the more than 200 shipwrecks off the NSW coast having been discovered, this is an important find ." (It also means that there are now less than 100 undiscovered wrecks off the NSW coast remaining.)

It was good to learn a little bit about the Speke shipwreck on a recent episode of What's Up Down Under - S14 Ep. 27. The Speke is a 1906 shipwreck at Phillip Island, Victoria. According to The wreck of the Speke , the Speke , the biggest, 3-masted, fully rigged ship in the world at the time, crashed on to the rocks at Kitty Miller’s Bay on the south coast of Phillip Island. I have now written about The Wreck of the Speke myself in a blog on the SA Archaeology Society (formerly SUHR) website. The article features many photos, mostly screenshots.

This is what the Speke looked like in a painting shown on Channel 10’s What's Up Down Under S14 Ep. 27:

The SS Nemesis Source: https://scontent.fadl5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808 6/429673802_10231423284786614_3022544297341894059_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_ sid=c42490&_nc_ohc=40eRIz9NX_YAX_geVjt&_nc_ht=scontent.fadl5 1.fna&oh=00_AfDGgpt9rVaEzHRNcFtS_-seZlUmH0XB_jqWBLpUZN91XQ&oe=65E1AF53

This is what remains of the Speke’s rusty bowsprit and anchor chamber section remains on the shore, as shown on Channel 10’s What's Up Down Under S14 Ep. 27:

The SA Department for Environment, Water & Natural Resources (DEWNR) store at Netley is going to close due to a forthcoming housing redevelopment. Some boxes of Tigress shipwreck material from the store has been transferred to the Willunga National Trust You can see relics from the Zanoni wreck at the Ardrossan Museum on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. The Zanoni was a 3-masted barque which capsized and sank when it was hit by a squall on 11th February 1867. Although no lives were lost, the wreck was only found in 1983. A permit is required for visiting this protected shipwreck 13km SE of Ardrossan. It was good to hear that Pearl Harbor Wounded Veterans participated in the 82nd Pearl Harbor commemoration and the "live-dive" at the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial on 9th December as part of the 2023 Pearl Harbor Wounded Veterans in Parks project. Mark Tozer has been diving the wrecks of the Booya and the Darwin Princess in Darwin and doing lots of research on them recently. He found a mast from the Booya in the Darwin Princess debris field. Mark wrote about some of his findings at Diving into History: Unraveling the Tale of the " Darwin Princess" and " Booya” . He has since suggested that the rope tangled around the prop of the Darwin Princess is also from the Booya . He was thinking of taking a sample up from the Princess to get measurements (compare?). I last wrote about the Booya at

The SS Nemesis berthed opposite the old Jervois Bridge in Port Adelaide 1903 Photo courtesy of Mark Churchman https://scontent.fadl5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808 6/429674399_10230475851455819_5784871866682927626_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_ sid=3635dc&_nc_ohc=8ZvLvXMmkVwAX8xJK_s&_nc_ht=scontent.fadl5 1.fna&oh=00_AfDCZqhHIoTwEwOR8xHW-m_LHWsTf8u1IAqGZafy83fj-w&oe=65E34BBB

Follow-up on the Schooners Lemael & Booya. There are numerous comments of interest at the end of that online article. I had previously written several articles on the topics, as outlined in the above-mentioned article. These can be found at the following links: - April 2005, July 2005, June 2007, January 2008.

Underwater imagery captured by CSIRO has now confirmed that it is the SS Nemesis . The imagery has also revealed just why it sank. It is thought that the engine became overwhelmed in the storm and the ship was hit by a large wave. A present day photograph showing the same location - opposite the old Jervois Bridge in Port Adelaide Photo taken by Mark Churchman Source: https://scontent.fadl5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808 6/428635969_10230475848855754_6151413600867356061_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_ sid=3635dc&_nc_ohc=d3ijZYvxAaAAX9-ZOi9&_nc_ht=scontent.fadl5 1.fna&oh=00_AfDN0rTQVqSQq8y1Viw3jTXBdCODfBMnhHVrqufjvPVKJw&oe=65E340D6

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DIVE LOG Australasia #405 - April ‘24