‘Henrietta’, 1880

The 29-ton ‘Henrietta’ was a wooden schooner, built at Brisbane Waters in 1871. She was owned by Walter Pashley, a timber merchant.

On a voyage from Sydney to the Shoalhaven, ‘in ballast’ (i.e. returning empty, probably intended to be loaded with a cargo) and whilst attempting to enter Crookhaven Heads at 11pm on February 4th 1880, the wind dropped and ‘the sea forced them broadside on to the rocks’. The four on board escaped. The captain later told a Board of Enquiry his ‘intention had been to drop anchor at the entrance to the channel, and get up the river next morning’. The captain, however, was found guilty of ‘attempting to take his vessel into the Shoalhaven River at night time, when there was not sufficient wind to enable him to do it safely’, and his captain’s certificate was suspended for three months.