‘City of Sydney’, 1862

The ‘City of Sydney’ was a 77-foot, 735-ton, iron, single screw steamer built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1853. It was the first screw vessel ordered by the Australasian Steam Navigation Company Ltd. The vessel had three masts and was barque rigged, so was an early ‘auxillary steamer’ that used a combination of steam and sail.

This is one description of its fateful voyage:

In October 1862, the ‘City of Sydney’ was on a voyage from Melbourne to Sydney under the command of Captain Robert T. Moodie. The voyage had been fairly uneventful. On the night of the disaster, the passengers had been enjoying a pleasant evening on deck watching the nearly full moon.

Captain Moodie retired at midnight when the Gabo Light had been spotted and left steaming directions to be followed. At about 2 am, with no warning, the vessel quickly began running into fog. The First Officer called the Captain to the bridge and was questioned as to the position of the vessel. In a gross error of judgement, the First Officer believed the City of Sydney to still be some three miles off Green Cape.

Captain Moodie decided to swing the vessel slightly more out to sea just to make sure they would clear the Cape. It was too late, breakers were sighted immediately ahead. Before Moodie could check the time, the City of Sydney crashed ashore as he shouted “Stop her, back her!”

Passengers were thrown off their berths and the lamps in the saloon were smashed to pieces. Every effort was tried to back the steamer off the rocks to no avail. At one stage, all the passengers were herded to the stern in an attempt to raise the bow.

Fearing that the swell was carrying the vessel broadside to the shore, an anchor was rowed out over the starboard quarter to keep the vessel facing the rocks. The strain was too much and the steamer swung around broadside, making water very fast.

The nearly one hundred passengers remained calm during the ordeal, except at one moment went the vessel made a sudden lunge. Boats were lowered and the women and children rowed along Green Cape and landed in a small indent on the shore.

As the steamer heeled over, waves washed completely over the semi-submerged deck.

Boatloads of survivors were removed from the vessel, the Captain, engineer, carpenter, steward, mate and two quartermasters being the last to leave. The Captain was so reluctant to abandon his stricken vessel that he had to be dragged into the lifeboat. Just as he was carried aboard, the ‘City of Sydney' “fell over onto the starboard side to seaward, filled and went down”.

The fine steamer settled beneath the waves with only part of the port bow and
topmasts visible. It sank so quickly that the last boat away was struck by the falling yards and the two quartermasters were washed overboard.

Fires were lit on the beach for the women and children to dry their clothes. At first light, all could see that the vessel had gone ashore some three kilometres west of Green Cape, well within Disaster Bay.

The boats were rowed around to Twofold Bay, arriving separately after seven or eight hours at the oar. Some were met part of the way by the steamer ‘Hunter’ which was dispatched to the wreck after the first boats arrived. The Customs boat, the Water Police and another whale boat proceeded to the scene of the wreck from Twofold Bay.

It was estimated that the City of Sydney and cargo was worth some £25,000…

The majority of passengers and crew lost everything with the wreck.