Wreck Reefs - Known Shipwrecks On The Reef

Known Shipwrecks On The Reef

• Bridgewater East Indiaman, 750 ton. Captain Palmer. Was accompanying the vessels Porpoise, and Cato, when they were wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, 1803. The Bridgewater, which may well have seen the stranded men, put about and sailed to Batavia (Jakarta) where she reported the loss of the Cato and Porpoise with all hands. When she left Batavia for England she was never heard of again. (Loney)

• HMS Cato. A Wooden vessel of 430 tons, Built Stockton, England. Captain John Park. Left Sydney 10 August 1803, bound for Bombay or China, in company with HMS Porpoise and ship Bridgewater. Ran on to a shoal now known as Wreck Reef, Great Barrier Reef, wrecked, 17 August 1803 (as was the Porpoise). For reasons never satisfactorily explained the Bridgewater made little effort to rescue them and later reported both lost with no survivors. Crew eventually rescued by the ship Rolla and the schooner Cumberland. (Loney)

In 1965 after extensive research and only fifteen minutes of actual diving Ben Cropp found the wreck sites of the Cato and Porpoise.

• Francis. Schooner. Captain James Aickin. Involved in rescue of crew from the wrecked Porpoise and Cato on Wreck Reef, Great Barrier Reef, 1803. (Loney)

• Hope. Decked cutter. Matthew Flinders and thirteen others reached Sydney on 8 September 1803, a journey of over 1000 kilometres in the open boat, after the loss of the Cato and Porpoise on the Great Barrier Reef. (Loney)

Marcia. Schooner. Captain James Aickin. Returned to Wreck Reef, Great Barrier Reef, in April 1804 to salvage was he may from Matthew Flinder’s vessel Porpoise and Cato, wrecked the previous year. (Loney)

• HMS Porpoise. Colonial sloop, ten guns, 308 tons. Originally the Infanta Amelia, taken from the Spaniards in 1799. The vessel measured 93 x 27-11 x 12–3 ft. Captain Robert Fowler. Left Sydney 10 August 1803 in company with ship Cato and ship Bridgewater. Ran on to a shoal now known as Wreck Reef, Great Barrier Reef, wrecked, 17 August 1803 (as was Cato). For reasons never satisfactorily explained the Bridgewater appears to have made little effort to rescue them and later reported both ships lost with no survivors. Matthew Flinders was on board, returning to England with his charts and logbooks. Flinders and Captain Park, master of the Cato, decked a cutter which had been saved from the wreck, named it Hope, and completed a hazardous voyage back along the coast to Sydney to seek assistance for the survivors still marooned on the reef who were eventually rescued by the ship Rolla and the schooner Cumberland. (Loney)

In 1965 after extensive research and only fifteen minutes of actual diving Ben Cropp found the wreck sites of the Cato and Porpoise.

• Lion 4 December 1856 The American whaler Lion, was lost on Wreck Reef, on 4 December 1856 Five open boats left the seen succeeded in reaching Wide Bay, after being four days in the boats. The Waratah, on a trip down from Wide Bay she picked up a boat with part of the crew of the American whaler Lion and subsequently she fell in with four more boats containing the captain and the remaining portion of the crew the crew (40 in number) were all landed safely at Maryborough. The captain and great many of them then transferred onto Sydney. The vessel was constructed in Providence (Rhode Island) as a whaler and lost while whaling the master was WH Hardwic

• Lone Star On 10 September 1870 the Schooner Lone Star stuck Wreck Reef and within an hour after striking she became a total wreck. The crew from the whaling station on Bird Island helped salvage her gear then on the 27th the captain and 3 members of the crew set out for Keppel Bay.