Queensland History – Tales from the Quarterdeck

Surviving the Centaur sinking.

On a quiet Saturday afternoon on 15 May 1943, the senior Royal Australian Naval officer in Brisbane received a message stating that a USN destroyer had picked up survivors from the Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur. This was the first anyone knew of the tragedy that had unfolded a short distance off the Queensland coast.Continue reading “Surviving the Centaur sinking.”

The Loss of the Duroc and the rise of la Deliverance

On the night of 12-13 August 1856, the French Naval steam corvette Duroc was wrecked on Mellish Reef about 800kms off the Queensland coast. The Duroc was returning to France from New Caledonia where she had been stationed for the previous three years or so. After the ship ran aground, some seventy people made itContinue reading “The Loss of the Duroc and the rise of la Deliverance”

Bato to the Rescue – 1854

In 1854 the Dutch ship Bato, rescued not one, not two, but three separate parties of shipwreck survivors whose ships had come to grief in separate encounters with the Great Barrier Reef. In the space of a few weeks, these three ships all ran aground trying to negotiate the dangerous reef strewn waters leading toContinue reading “Bato to the Rescue – 1854”

The Loss of the Saint Paul and its Horrific Aftermath– 1858

In September 1858 the French ship Saint Paul was wrecked off Rossel Island east of New Guinea with as many as 370 people on board. Of those, fewer than a dozen men escaped with their lives. One of whom was Narcisse Pelletier who escaped to Cape York and lived with the Uutaalnganu people for theContinue reading “The Loss of the Saint Paul and its Horrific Aftermath– 1858”

Narcisse Pelletier: An Extraordinary Tale of Survival.

In April 1875 the pearling schooner John Bull’s crew happened upon a man clearly of European heritage living with a group of Aborigines on Cape York Peninsula. Mistakenly thinking that the man was being held against his will, they took him onboard their vessel and delivered him to the Government outpost at Somerset. His nameContinue reading “Narcisse Pelletier: An Extraordinary Tale of Survival.”