‘Brooklyn’, 1912

The ‘Brooklyn’ was an 81-foot, 77-ton wooden coastal steamer that had been built in Balmain, Sydney, in 1910. She was owned by the Nowra and Jervis Bay Shipping Company and mostly traded between Sydney and Jervis Bay.

She had left Sydney at 10.35am on 16th December 1912 with 40 tons of Newcastle coal for the Nowra gasworks and ‘general cargo including Christmas store goods, furniture, and supplies for Yalwal mines’. There were 10 people on board including the manager of Nowra and Jervis Bay Shipping Company.

At 9.30pm that night, she was attempting to enter the Crookhaven River and evidently struck a Bombora near the entrance before striking rocks on a point jutting out from below the Crookhaven Lighthouse. The impact ripped a sizeable hole in the vessel’s hull.

‘The night was very dark, with a thick haze over the land, which prevented the captain distinctly making the steering lights.’ The conditions, in fact, were such that a Marine Court of Enquiry concluded that wreck ‘was caused by the wrongful act of the master of the Brooklyn in attempting to enter the river at night when the atmospheric conditions were such that it was dangerous to do so, and when evidently it was impossible to pick up the white light or the leading light’ at the entrance to the river.

Those on board stayed on board until daybreak, by which time a strong westerly gale was blowing.

Much of the cargo was salvaged and the ship’s boiler and engine, propeller and stern shaft were retrieved. The rest of the vessel subsequently broke up.