‘Solon’, 1860

The Solon was a 37-metre long, 565-ton barquentine (a 3-masted sailing vessel, square-rigged on the fore- and mainmasts, and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzenmast), built near Bremen, Germany, and launched on 12th April 1855.

On 15th December 1858, she sailed from Bremerhaven to Sydney via Capetown and Morton Bay. She left Germany with 145 German immigrants on board. Leaving Moreton Bay, she was stranded on Moreton Island but was freed safely.

On 24th May 1860 she departed from Sydney with a cargo of 35 tons of coal, 35 tons of hay and a quantity of ships stores for the ‘Armin’, then in Melbourne. For the next few days she made slow progress down the NSW South Coast with a heavy easterly swell, very heavy wind squalls, thunder, lightning and rain.

Around 27th May, the captain seems to have become unaware of his position because the sun had not been seen for several days, and the ship had become largely unmanageable because the conditions meant she was unable to carry much sail.

Then, around 3am on the 28th May 1860, the crew found the vessel was on the rocks on the south side of Crookhaven Head. ‘Endeavours were made to claw her off the land, but her fate was set, and shortly after she lifted bodily onto the rocks…The ship was driven heavily onto the rocks three times and swept over the outer reef into the deep water, but she was still some distance from the mainland. The vessel broke up rapidly, the crew with great difficulty saved their lives, with the exception of one lad, named Louis Last, a native of Bremen, who was unfortunately drowned.’