General Grant was a 1,005-ton three-masted bark built in Maine in the United States in 1864 and registered in Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Ulysses S. Grant and owned by Messers Boyes, Richardson & Co. She had a timber hull with a length of 179.5 ft, beam of 34.5 ft and depth of 21.5 ft. While on her way from Melbourne to London, General Grant crashed into a cliff on the west coast of main island of the Auckland Islands of New Zealand, and subsequently sank as a result. Sixty-eight people drowned and only 15 people survived.
The Dunbar was a full-rigged ship designed and built from 1852 to 1853 by James Laing & Sons of Deptford Yard in Sunderland, England and used for maritime trade, as a troop ship and transport. The Dunbar was wrecked near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, Australia in 1857 with the loss of 121 lives. The wreck of the Dunbar ranks as one of Australia's worst maritime disasters, with the event still retained in the social history of Sydney and New South Wales.
Booby Island is located 45 km (28 mi) northwest of Muttee Heads at the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. This island is in the Torres Strait, 32 km (20 mi) west of Thursday Island and 23 km (14 mi) west of Prince of Wales Island. Booby Island is also known as Ngiangu by the Kaurareg people of the western Torres Strait, its traditional owners, named for the giant Ngiangu who was forced from a neighbouring island It has been called Booby Island by a number of European explorers, including Captain Cook, for the presence of the booby birds.
Lammermuir was an extreme clipper ship built in 1864 by Pile, Spence and Company of West Hartlepool for John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis & Son, London. She was the second ship to bear the name. The first Lammermuir had been the favorite ship of John Willis, and was wrecked in the Gaspar Strait in 1863.
SS City of Launceston was a 368 GRT steamship operated by the Launceston and Melbourne Steam Navigation Company from 1863, which had an early role in colonial steam shipping as the forerunner of the modern Bass Strait ferry service between Tasmania and Victoria. It was sunk in Port Phillip Bay after a collision with another ship on 19 November 1865.
RMS Quetta was an iron-hulled steamship that was built in Scotland in 1881 and wrecked with great loss of life in the Torres Strait in 1890. She was operated by British India Associated Steamers (BIAS), which was controlled by the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISN). She was wrecked on a previously unknown rock, which has been called Quetta Rock ever since. The Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 protects the wreck.
Tuaikaepau was a twenty-ton cutter, 51 feet (16 m) length, clipper bow, keeler, designed by Archibald Logan and built by Logan Brothers of Auckland, New Zealand and launched in 1903.
Kenn Reef is a submerged coral atoll off the Pacific coast of Queensland, Australia. It is about 15 by 8 km and appears as either a backward facing "L" or a boot. The reef covers an area of approximately 40 km2, with an islet in the Southeast part of the reef called Observatory Cay which is approximately 2 m above the high tide level
SS Comet was a steamship that operated on the Great Lakes. Comet was built in 1857 as a wooden-hulled propeller-driven cargo vessel that was soon adapted to carry passengers. It suffered a series of maritime accidents prior to its final sinking in 1875 causing the loss of ten lives. It became known as the only treasure ship of Lake Superior because she carried 70 tons of Montana silver ore when it sank. The first attempts to salvage its cargo in 1876 and 1938 were unsuccessful. Comet was finally salvaged in the 1980s when the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society illegally removed artifacts from the wreck. The artifacts are now the property of the State of Michigan and are on display as a loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The fate of her silver ore cargo is unknown. Comet's wreck is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.
SS London was a British steamship that sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard. The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.
The Fitzroy was a steel-hulled steamship built in 1912 at Old Kilpatrick, Scotland in 1912. Thirty-one people were killed when Fitzroy capsized in a gale whilst carrying a general cargo between Coffs Harbour and Sydney off Cape Hawke, New South Wales on 26 June 1921.
The Koonya was a wood carvel screw steamer built in 1887 at Hobart, that was wrecked when it stuck the shore at Doboy reef whilst carrying passengers & cargo between Moruya and Sydney and was lost off Cronulla Beach, Port Hacking, New South Wales on 25 January 1898.
La Hogue was a wooden full-rigged ship built by James Laing, Sunderland and launched in 1855 for Duncan Dunbar. She was used in the passenger and cargo trade to Australia and New Zealand. Her figurehead was a lion rampant supporting a shield with the St Andrew's Cross.
Torrens was a three-masted clipper ship that was built in England in 1875 and scrapped in Italy in 1910. She was designed to carry passengers and cargo between London and Port Adelaide, South Australia, and was the fastest ship to sail on that route. She is notable as the last sailing ship on which Joseph Conrad served before he began his writing career.
SS Oceana was a P&O passenger liner and cargo vessel, launched in 1887 by Harland and Wolff of Belfast and completed in 1888. Originally assigned to carry passengers and mail between London and Australia, she was later assigned to routes between London and British India. On 16 March 1912 the ship collided in the Strait of Dover with the Pisagua, a 2,850 GRT German-registered four-masted steel-hulled barque. As a result Oceana sank off Beachy Head on the East Sussex coast, with the loss of 17 lives.
Slavonia was a 10,606 GRT passenger ship that was built in 1902 as Yamuna for the British India Line. She was sold to the Cunard Line in 1903 and renamed Slavonia. In 1909, she ran aground in the Azores and was declared a total loss; all on board were rescued. Notably, Slavonia sent an SOS after the grounding, the first time a ship used this code.
The SS Schomberg was a clipper built in Aberdeen by Alexander Hall & Co. for "the Black Ball line" for carrying large cargoes and steerage passengers, and to "outdo the Americans". When built, she was regarded as the most luxurious and well-built clipper of the period.
The Newcastle was a clipper ship of the Green Blackwell line that operated on routes from England to India and Australia in the late 19th century. Built in 1857 in Sunderland, England, she was wrecked near the northern tip of Queensland, Australia, in 1883.
Agincourt was built by James Laing & Sons and launched at Sunderland in 1844. She immediately transported convicts to Norfolk Island. Thereafter she traded widely, sailing to Australia, Aden, and South America. Her homeport changed to Spain at some point prior to 1870 and thereafter Lloyd's Register carried stale data until it ceased listing her in 1886.
Sir James Laing (1823–1901) was a British shipbuilder and founder of James Laing & Sons in Sunderland.
