‘Lady Darling’, 1880

The 73-metre, 895-ton iron steamer ‘Lady Darling’ hit a reef south of Montague Island on 10th November 1880. A large hole in the vessel’s side, described as ‘the size of a garbage can lid and about 2.5 metres under the waterline’, was the result. The captain immediately ordered the ship be steered towards shore.

However, within five minutes, the water in the engine room was almost up to the boiler so (to avoid a catastrophic explosion) all steam was released and the engine was shut down. Immediately the pumps ceased functioning. So, the lifeboats were launched and the ship was abandoned. The captain and crew watched from a lifeboat as the ship disappeared stern first.

The ‘Lady Darling’ had been built in Liverpool, England, in 1864. She was an iron-hulled steam-powered general cargo vessel with three masts. (Many early steamships carried sails, particularly if they were to travel long distances – London to Sydney, for example - because supplies of coal were then not readily available at all convenient refuelling ports.) A single coal-burning boiler generated the steam to power a simple 140-horsepower two-cylinder engine.

Soon after being launched, the ‘Lady Darling’ sailed for Melbourne. She then made at least one voyage to New Zealand before setting out for Gladstone in Queensland. On that voyage she ran aground, on 26th May 1866, near Green Cape, south of Eden, so returned to Melbourne for repairs. These completed, she returned to England where she was lengthened by 50 feet.

Over the next few years the ship worked the English coast, sometimes travelling to the Mediterranean and St Johns in Canada.

Around this time, the number of steam-powered ships requiring coal was dramatically increasing. And, therefore, more ships were needed for the transport of coal from, for example, Newcastle to Melbourne. One company that catered for that demand was Patterson and Company. Initially it used sailing vessels; the SS ‘Lady Darling’ was to become its first steam ship. So, the ‘Lady Darling’ returned to Melbourne, arriving in May 1874.

Over the next six years the ‘Lady Darling’ plied between Newcastle and Melbourne, with an occasional stop in Sydney, without incident.

On 8th November 1880, the SS 'Lady Darling' left Newcastle with a crew of 26 and a load of coal bound for Melbourne. On 10th November she passed Narooma on a line between Montague Island and the mainland. Around midnight she struck Aughinish Rock, a reef about 2½ kilometres south-west of Montague Island and one of two reefs in the area. The vessel was doomed and, about half an hour later she sank (just a few hours before Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne).

The crew rowed the lifeboat to Montague Island where they knew there were men constructing a new lighthouse. They arrived there at 4 am. At about 5 am, the SS 'Kameruka' sighted the masts of the sunken ship, then continued to Tathra where the captain reported their sighting. Later that same morning, the SS 'Kiama' also came across the wreck before its crew saw signals from Montague Island. The captain of the 'Kiama' was asked to pass on information about the sinking to Sydney. The pilot steamer 'Captain Cook' was sent from Sydney and, when it arrived, collected the crew who were finally taken back to Sydney.

A Court of Marine Inquiry subsequently found that no blame could be found in the captain or crew as the ‘Lady Darling’ appeared to have hit an uncharted reef.

The wreck of the ‘Lady Darling’ then 'disappeared'. It was not rediscovered until August 1996 when the net from a Bermagui fishing trawler became entangled on something off Cape Dromedary that turned out to be the missing wreck.