Marine
Bass Strait was discovered following the wreck of the ship Sydney Cove in 1797 and one of the vessels engaged in the salvage operation, the sloop Eliza, went missing on her return voyage to Sydney. Hundreds of vessels up to the size of bulk carriers have come to grief in Bass Strait since that time through hitting reefs, running aground on the coastline or on river bars while entering port, or foundering due to stress of weather, some dozens being lost without trace.
Actual north-south (and vice versa) crossing of Bass Strait seldom occurred until after Melbourne was established in 1835. From 1838-1840, at least seven vessels were lost with all hands on their way to or from the new settlement, wreckage from only three being identified. Rumours that some of these vessels had fallen victim to wreckers appear baseless, the main cause probably being bad weather and poor charts. Over the next 100 years, dozens of other vessels have gone missing after entering the Straits, many without trace. One of the most significant disappearances was that of the British warship HMS Sappho in 1858, in which well over one hundred lives were lost.
Read more about this topic: Bass Strait Triangle, History of Incidents
Famous quotes containing the word marine:
“God has a hard-on for a Marine because we kill everything we see. He plays His game, we play ours.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)