‘Alice Jane’, 1888

It seems the ‘Alice Jane’ was ‘wrecked’ three times – the third and final time at Tomakin on 11th January 1888.

The ‘Alice Jane’ was built at Cape Hawke, near Forster, in 1872. She was an 83-foot, 80-ton schooner designed for coastal transport of cargo. She was initially based in Maryborough, Queensland, from where she undertook several voyages to New Caledonia. In January 1874 she went missing on a voyage from Noumea to Sydney; her upturned hull was subsequently found at Port Hacking. The crew is presumed to have drowned.

It seems the ship was repaired and re-registered, and resumed trading along the NSW coast. However, on 5th July 1884, carrying a load of coal, she dragged her anchor in a severe gale and was beached in Trial Bay. Volunteers were able to help secure the vessel and eventually it was saved. On that occasion there was no loss of life. She was able to resume sailing as a coastal trader in September that year.

On 11th January 1888 the ‘Alice Jane’ was wrecked at Tomakin, ‘her back having been broken’. The ship’s master described the events leading up to her loss at a Marine Board of Enquiry: ‘She was lost on the 10th instant, when on a voyage from Tomakin to Sydney; on the night after the vessel’s departure from Tomakin. It came on to blow hard and as she was not making any headway she ran to an anchorage under Burrawarra Point. During the night the vessel got broadside to the easterly roll, and he heard the water washing about in the hold; he called all hands and it was ascertained that there was 2.5 ft. of water in the vessel; the pumps were kept going till the following night, when the weather appeared so fine that a start was made for Sydney. Shortly after leaving a southerly sprang up and the vessel was again headed for shelter but on nearing Tomakin the leak gained rapidly, and on getting inside she was almost level with the water. The schooner was then beached; he accounted for the leak by the fact that the schooner had been on the ground at Tomakin for five days, and that she must have strained herself…In February 1888 the master of the schooner applied for relief on the grounds that he had lost his clothes and effects in the wreck of the vessel at Tomakin.’