'Ly-ee-Moon', 1886

The Green Cape Lighthouse - the second tallest on the NSW coast, with its light visible 40km out to sea – had been operating for three years when the Ly-ee-Moon was wrecked on rocks, virtually at its base.

71 of those on board lost their lives.

The tragedy is among the least explainable in Australian maritime history.

The Ly-ee-Moon was a well-appointed, comfortable, fast, 282-foot, coal-fueled passenger steamer. On 30th May 1886 she was sailing north from Melbourne towards Sydney. At 9.30pm, on what was a clear, calm night, she simply ran into (or was steered into) the rocks at a comparatively high speed of 11.5 knots. Within ten minutes the hull had broken completely in two – the stern remaining fast on an outer reef whilst the bow was driven by the waves towards the shore.

It seems Captain Arthur Wynne Webber had retired to his cabin at 7.45pm or 8.30pm (depending on which source is to believed) and had instructed his Third Officer, who was responsible for the ship at the time, to call him at 9.45pm or when the ship approached Green Cape. Captain Webber evidently re-appeared on deck just a minute or two before the vessel hit the rocks and, realizing it was headed for the rocks, attempted – in vain – to put the engines into reverse.

Both Captain Webber and Third Officer Fotheringhame (along with 13 others – all males and all from the bow section of the ship) survived the wreck. Fotheringhame claims that he had tried several times from around 9.10pm to summon Captain Webber from his cabin, without success; Webber denied this occurred. (There were suggestions that Webber may have been drinking and/or was ‘being entertained’ by a lady passenger in his cabin.)

The lighthouse keepers at Green Cape, to quote the Monument Australia website, ‘heroically rescued 16 (other sources say 15, ten of whom were Ly-ee-Moon crew) people from the sea, and were left to listen to cries for help though the night of other people who could not be saved. The mother of Blessed Mary MacKillop, the first Australian to be beatified by the Catholic Church, was one of those lost during the night.’

24 bodies were ultimately retrieved and, with the exception of one (that of Flora MacKillop; her body was taken to Sydney for burial) were buried in a small cemetery about 100 metres from the lighthouse. Few of these bodies could be identified.

An inquest in Eden on 1st and 2nd June 1886 at Eden concluded that "gross neglect has been shown, but there has not been sufficient evidence before us to point to the guilty person or persons". (Neither the helmsman nor the lookout on the ship at the time, who may have been significant witnesses, survived.)

Captain Webber and Third Officer Fotheringhame were subsequently charged with manslaughter but neither was convicted. Webber was also charged with gross negligence, but a jury could not agree whether he was guilty or innocent of the change, and the Crown then dropped further legal proceedings against him.

Webber did not return to sea. Some years later he was destitute, so was awarded £50 by the Shipwreck Relief Society, for whom he worked for 28 years.