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Cawarra Went Down 80 Years
Ago Yesterday
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H?E LNTER COLONIAL steamer
Cawarra was wrecked at the en
trance to Newcastle Harbour on July
12. 1866.
Her loss was one of the great traged
ies in Australian maritime history.
Fifty-nine of the 60 people on board
lost their lives. These included the
Miaster, Henry Chatfield.
The one survivor was Frederick
Valentine Hedges. A.B., who was
rescued, exhausted, by James John
son-himself the sole survivor from
the wreck of the steamer Danbar,
nine years before, near Sydney Heads.
The Dunbar, from London, had just
completed hier voyage of 13,000 miles.
The master, Captain Green, mistook
the Gap for the entrance, and his
ship was lost within sight of the
harbourl
Johnson had been hurled by the
beas to safety on a rock-ledge, and
remained there for 36 hours before
he was seen and lifted to safety.
He was given an appointment in
pIh lighthouse service at Newcastle.
his he held when, on the afternoon
qf July 12, 1866, the Cawarra made
her fatal, final run and passed Nobbys.
Johnson and Hedges became life
long friends. Both died in Sydney.
HIedges is buried there, and .Tohnson
in Sandgate. Hedges lived to 83, John
son to 78.
Had Paddles and Sails
The Cawarra, built on the Clyde,
was an iron paddle-steamer of 520
'ons. She was owned by the Aus
ralasian Steam Navigation Company.
he had traded to the RHunter River
efore her transfer to the Sydney
Queensland run. The manager of the
company, Samuel Clark. invariably
spoke of the vessel as "full-powered
and seaworthy." 1She was of 150 herse
power, her paddle-driving wheels be
g supplemented by sails on both
coasts.
Whlen the Clswarra left Scotland, a
new ship, she was drawineg llft.,
and a little more, when, on the night
of July 11, 1866, she clipped her lines
Iat the wharf in Syduey. She paso
ad through the HI-eads an hour later.
bound for Rocklhampton. Within 20
hours, she was lying, a battered
wreck, on the bed of Newcastle Har
bour, with her masts and funnel rip
ned out
That the Cawarra was overloaded
was 'proved at the inquiry held by
the Steam Navigation Board.
No Primsoll Mark
Samuel Plimsoll-"friend of the
seaman"-was at the time not known
in these seas. lie was born in Bris
tol: so was Hedges.
Plimsoll was elected to the House
of Commons two years after thie Ca
warra tragedy, and it was mainly
through his activities that the Her
chant Shipping Act became law 10
years later.
Loaded as she. was, the Cawarra
could never have gone to sea had the
Act been in force in 1866. It pro
vided, among other things, that
every owner should mark upon the
sidea of his ship amidships a circu
lar disc 12in. in diameter, with a
horizontal line 18in. long, drawn
through its centre, this line and the
centre of the disc to mark the mnaxi
mum load-line; that is, the line down
to which the vessel might be loaded
in salt water. 13y an Act of 18741
the fixine of the load-line-to-day uni
v-ersally known as the Plimsoll Line
-was taken oult of the owners' dis
cretion and made a duty of the Board
of Trade.
The Cawarra sailed without this
safeguard.
At the inquest, the Coroner (Dr.
. C. Knanggs) said the one thing
to invetigate was the actual cause
of sthe Iwreck. HIe blamed no one.
His verdict, shorn of all the verbi
a;e used to help legal decisions to
be understood, or not understood,
was : "lseceased were found drowned
and exhcusrted in consequence of the
wreck o0 the steamer Cawarra at the
entrance to Newcastle Harbour.
"Droaned" "and exhausted." No
thing could have been clearer!
Jurymson who deliberated with Dr.
Knaggs suggested that an inquiry be
held into' the lifeboat which, with its
crew, had been suffered to stand idly
by in the teeth of the storm that had
overtakeeh the ship. To that recoin
mendation effect was given.
But nothing was done. Nothing
could be' done. The behaviour of the
lifeboat hnd those responsible re
mained d mystery, adding nothing to
our national prestige as a sengoing
people.:
The. Avigantion Board, too, absolved
everyone,
'"Smothered"
"The Ckwarra was smothered," said
a witness. She was loaded down to
her paddle-centres, with the water a
bare six inches below the ports in
the forecabin.
Captaih James MIonro. Marilie SuIp
erintendent of the company, was one
of the witnesses at the inquiry ord
ered by the authorities. Asked as to
the precautions taken for the safety
of the vessel, he told the board he
did not think there would be any dif
ficulty irn having steamboats leaving
port marked with a proper water-line
beyond x'hich they could not be !oad
ed: that' it would be a very good
thing.
- The Chief Engineer (TJohln Founr
tain) thought the ship "a bit down
by thile head" as she lay at the wharf.
The filling of the forepart of the rea
sel was shown later to have been the
cause of Ithe catastrophe.
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