On a stormy December night in 1831, eleven desperate convicts seized a small ship at Moreton Bay and forced its captain to take them to a South Pacific Island. But as the prisoners turned pirates climbed aboard the vessel, little could they have imagined that most of them were escaping one reign of terror forContinue reading “The Caledonia’s perilous last voyage”
Category Archives: Australian history
The Appalling loss of the Grimeneza
On 3 July 1854, the Peruvian ship Grimeneza struck a reef at Bampton Shoals in the Coral Sea. The Captain, first mate, ship’s surgeon, and four sailors immediately abandoned the ship leaving the rest of the crew and about 600 Chinese passengers to their fate. Twenty-eight days later Captain M.H. Penny and five others reachedContinue reading “The Appalling loss of the Grimeneza”
The May Queen’s Long and Lucky Life
Launched in 1867, the May Queen is Australia’s oldest sailing ketch still afloat. During her century long working life she twice sank, survived several collisions and a myriad of other mishaps that could have been her demise. The 36-ton May Queen was purpose built for carrying timber, but over her long career she transported allContinue reading “The May Queen’s Long and Lucky Life”
The Tragic Loss of RMS Quetta
In 1890 Queensland experienced one of its worst maritime disasters when the passenger steamer Quetta sank in Torres Strait in just three minutes with the loss of 133 lives. The R.M.S. Quetta was a 3,300-ton coal-powered, iron-clad steamer measuring 116 metres (380 feet) in length and could travel at a top speed of 13 knotsContinue reading “The Tragic Loss of RMS Quetta”
The Norna and the Conman Commodore
In the early 1900s many hard-working sailing vessels saw out their days plying the waters between Australia and the islands of the South Pacific. Few, however, would have had such a fascinating history as that of the Norna. The Norna was built in New York in 1879 as a luxury ocean-going schooner rigged yacht. SheContinue reading “The Norna and the Conman Commodore”
Tales from the Quarterdeck 