‘Martha & Elizabeth’, 1855

The ‘Martha & Elizabeth’ was a 67-foot, 81-ton schooner that was built on the Clarence River in 1843. During the early 1850s she worked the timber trade off Wilson's Promontory.

In April 1855 she left Melbourne to sail to Newcastle. At 5.30pm on April 26th, Cape St George (the southern peninsula to Jervis Bay) was sighted. At that time it was windy with heavy showers of rain and it seems a heavy swell was running that pushed the vessel towards Point Perpendicular (the northern peninsula to Jervis Bay). It appears an attempt may have been made to enter Jervis Bay, but it became necessary to turn the vessel and tack back out to the north-east. Around 8.50pm the wind dropped but the ship was driven by the heavy swell towards land.

Ten minutes later ‘finding the vessel close to the cliff, with no possibility of saving
her’ a boat was launched but it filled with water and parted from the ship. A single hand was on board. He caught a rope thrown to him and was hauled back on board the ‘Martha & Elizabeth’.

About 9.30pm the vessel hit rocks and was driven by the swell into a small gully. There ‘the vessel struck instantly, the sea breaking furiously over her’.

‘Finding she could not last many minutes, we endeavoured to get a line ashore by means of a small grappling (hook); finding the grappling would not hook the rocks, one of the hands, Robert Jelliear, got footing by swimming from in the stern, while
another, John Rogers, jumped from the bowsprit, which instantly afterwards parted from the vessel. The remaining hands were slung and hauled ashore from the bows by those ashore.’

‘The crew, the captain's wife and sister had scarcely any clothing, and not a shoe to their feet; and, we had scarcely secured a footing on the slippery rocks ere the vessel, broke up, and was, at 11 o'clock, in small pieces’.

The party spent the night on a small ledge buffeted by a strong easterly wind and incessant rain. Then, come the morning, they climbed the cliffs and walked about 18 miles through high scrub and swamps, having ‘the good fortune to fall in with Mr. Kinghorn's station, where we were most kindly received by that worthy man. After remaining there for the night, (we) proceeded to Shoalhaven where we were heartily made welcome by Captain Noel of the steamer ‘Nora Creina’, and received from him a passage from thence to Sydney, at which place we arrived at about midnight of the 30th, not only grateful for our lives, but to those from whom we have received so much
kindness.’