Camden, 1870

The 96-foot, 235-ton three masted wooden barquentine ‘Camden’ was built in Nantes, France, in 1850. She was sailing from London to Sydney with a cargo of 40 tons of pig iron and 2,909 deals (whatever ‘deals’ may have been!) when, at 10pm on 30th January 1870, she ran aground at Murramarang (south of Bawley Point near Brush Island) and quickly broke up. The weather at the time was described as very hazy and there was a fresh breeze blowing from the south-south-east.

This is a newspaper report from the time of the incident:

‘On the 30th ultimo, at 10 p.m., she was running with a fresh breeze from S S E , the night very hazy, when the lookout reported land ahead, and almost at same time the chief officer called out, "Land on the starboard bow”. Captain Sutton, who was on deck, at once put the helm about to heave her out, but, finding he could not weather the land, and conceiving there might, from the appearance, be some passage inside, put helm a-starboard, but she almost immediately struck the reef heavily. In two hours she was full of water, and finding, on sounding all round, that there was no possibility of getting her off, the crew at daylight landed, and, with the exception of the chief officer and two seamen who were left to save as much as possible, made for the Clyde River (the crew did not realise Murramarang was settled). The Camden was owned by Mr. W. H Sawyer, of the city, who was a passenger by her… the crew saved all their clothing and effects.’

The cargo was deemed worth salvaging. It seems four ships were sent to do so – two of them (the ‘Angus & Henry’, the 'Mary Cosgrove’) were wrecked in a southerly buster (it must have been some southerly!; ‘the heat of yesterday, prior to the southerly buster, was intense’) and two others (the ‘Flying Cloud’ and the “Silvanus’) were reported to have reached Ulladulla safely before the gale hit.