HMS Roebuck (1690) - Conjecture About The Whereabouts of The Wreck

Conjecture About The Whereabouts of The Wreck

Though made famous by its association with Dampier the position of the wreck became lost over time mainly because early literature provided conflicting evidence as to its whereabouts. Dampier himself added to the confusion when he wrote to the Earl of Pembroke, President of the Privy Council indicating that his ship may have drifted back out to sea: 'The World is apt to judge of every thing by the Success; and whoever has ill Fortune will hardly be allow’d a good Name. This, my Lord, was my unhappiness in my late Expedition in the Roe-buck, which founder’d thro’ perfect Age near the Island of Ascension'. Many expeditions went in search of the wreck after the advent of SCUBA diving, but all proved unsuccessful partly as a result of this confusion and conflicting arguments in favour of South West Bay or North –West (Clarence Bay) as the location of the wreck. In 2000, after deciding to try to locate the wreck of Roebuck and L’Uranie, transport of the lovers Rose and Louis de Freycinet, who were three of the most important explorers on the coast of Western Australia, specifically Shark Bay, the Western Australian Museum led by Dr M. McCarthy of the Department of Maritime Archaeology commissioned a search of the primary sources in England. Conducted by contract researcher Hanah Cunliffe, the many primary sources located and copied for the Museum proved that the wreck of the Roebuck lay in the shallows in Clarence Bay. Others had searched there previously, but had proved unsuccessful partly due to the size of the bay and an extensive cover of mobile sand throughout.