‘Lillian’, 1882

On June 20th 1882 the 32-ton ketch ‘Lillian’, with 3 people and a cargo of timber on board, sprung a leak. The skipper beached it on Grasshopper Island (to the east of Depot Beach) ‘to save life and property’. The vessel became a total wreck.

A subsequent Marine Board of Enquiry severely censured the captain and suspended his master's certificate for three months. He was found negligent of ‘not making use of the pumps more freely than he did when the vessel commenced to leak, and also for not informing his owners of the condition of the vessel before he went to sea.’ The captain conceded he ‘considered the craft unseaworthy, but did not tell her owners of this, because he feared he would have "lost his billet", and ‘asserted that there were men in Sydney who would take command of a vessel if it were a basket with two masts stuck in it’.