‘Juniper’, 1850

The 340-ton wooden barque ‘Juniper’ left Liverpool in England in February 1850 and travelled to Oporto in Portugal where it was loaded with ‘a full cargo of wines in casks and cases’. It was headed for Sydney. Rounding the south-eastern tip of Tasmania it started to encounter ‘very thick weather and variable winds’.

On September 1st, the ship was just south of Jervis Bay where there were ‘heavy squalls from the south-east and east…the ship labouring very much’. Unfortunately, the ‘Juniper’ had sailed into Wreck Bay (it acquired this name after the ‘Juniper’ came to grief there) which was something of a trap for vessels sailing close to the coast and heading north. Once in the bay, there is little or no room to manoeuvre, so strong, unfavourable winds would invariably drive ships into the coast.

At around 10.15pm on September 1st, breakers on the shore of Wreck Bay were sighted. Efforts to rapidly turn the ship were unsuccessful, she struck rocks, and was then run ashore so lives and cargo would be saved.

A sailor who had been on board the ‘Juniper’ later recorded ‘the waves dashed over her with great force, sometimes to the height of twenty feet and forced her gradually towards the beach.

By 5am she had settled down in the sand…It being then daylight, one of the sailors, named James Hamilton swam ashore. Another seaman attempted to do the same with the long line and would have drowned but for the assistance of Hamilton, who at the risk of his own life, again dived into the waves and bought his shipmate ashore.

Communications being thus established with the beach, they managed to not only save all those on board but, subsequentially, to land most of the cargo.’

Another report indicated the ‘Juniper’ ‘lies near St. George's Head, near the spot where the Hive, convict ship, and the schooners Backbird and Medina, were lost. (We would appreciate receiving details about these ships and how they were lost.) There is very little probability of her being got off, as she has seven feet of water in the hold, and is buried in the sand ten feet.’

Several vessels later retrieved, or attempted to retrieve, some of the cargo from the ‘Juniper’. One was the ‘Blackbird’ that was wrecked attempting to do so, and another was the steamer ‘William the Fourth’, Australia’s first steam powered ocean-going paddlewheel ship that worked the NSW coast from 1831 to 1863. Another report indicates (an unnamed) ‘schooner on board of which the cargo thus saved was shipped for Sydney foundered off Black Head, a little to the south head of Kiama. The lives of her crew were saved, but all the cargo went to the bottom in her’. (And, again, we would appreciate receiving further details about this incident).