In August 1711 the Zuydorp sailed from the Netherlands bound for Batavia (Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). However, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship vanished without a trace. For more than 200 years the fate of the ship and all those on board her remained a mystery. The Zuydorp wasContinue reading “The Mystery of the Zuydorp”
Category Archives: Australian history
The CSS Shenandoah: Victoria’s link to the American Civil War.
On 25 January 1865 a large foreign warship unexpectedly dropped anchor in Hobson’s Bay off Melbourne causing considerable consternation in the colonial government. The ship proved to be the 1160-ton, eight-gun auxiliary steamer CSS Shenandoah of the Confederate States of America and had pulled in to make urgent repairs. Five years earlier the Southern statesContinue reading “The CSS Shenandoah: Victoria’s link to the American Civil War.”
The Plague Ship Ticonderoga
In November 1852 a migrant ship dropped anchor in Port Phillip Bay with some 700 passengers, many of them gravely ill. The 1,200-ton American Clipper Ticonderoga had been chartered to bring immigrants out to start a new life in Australia, but the three-month journey to their new home proved a nightmare for many of theContinue reading “The Plague Ship Ticonderoga”
Von Mucke’s Great Escape
Before the German Cruiser Emden was engaged by HMAS Sydney, a fifty-strong party was sent ashore at Cocos Island to destroy the telegraph station linking Australia to South Africa. As the two ships exchanged shells in a battle that lasted ten hours, the shore party could do little but watch on and hope for theContinue reading “Von Mucke’s Great Escape”
HMCS Protector 1884 – 1924
There lie the remains of an old ship on the Southern Great Barrier Reef which holds a fascinating story spanning almost 140 years. The rusting hull now serves as a breakwater protecting the entrance to the boating channel accessing Heron Island, but its history goes back to 1884. Her Majesties Colonial Ship (HMCS) Protector wasContinue reading “HMCS Protector 1884 – 1924”
Tales from the Quarterdeck 