‘David Blake’, 1934

The ‘David Blake’ was described as both a fishing vessel and coastal steamer. She was a 35-metre, 203-ton steel screw steamer that had been built in 1918 in Aberdeen, Scotland, for the British Admiralty.

She had left Sydney eight days before encountering trouble, and had started fishing south of Gabo Island and was working her way back to Sydney. She had nearly 600 cases of flathead and bream on board.

At 10.55pm on 15th March 1934, in thick rain, heavy fog and no moon, she hit a rock about ¾ mile off Mimosa Head and 2½ miles from where the ‘Charlie Cam’ had been wrecked. She was badly holed and the engine room and hold rapidly filled with water. Eight of the crew of 12 took to the ship’s lifeboat and fired distress flares that were sighted by another trawler, the ‘Goolgwai’. They were taken aboard that trawler and delivered to Tathra.

The four men who stayed aboard the ‘David Blake’ were picked up soon thereafter by a launch when it became obvious that the vessel would not be able to be saved. (A previous owner of the ‘David Blake’ subsequently spent £500 trying to refloat her, but without success.)