Another recent unusual find by the Shipping Reporter is a slim ,66 page , sun- bleached volume- Scuttled and Abandoned Ships in Australian Waters - by Ronald Parsons and Geoff Plunkett, South Australia , 1995, which gives the impression that it is another Bermuda Triangle .
State by state and the Northern Territory , it lists the many vessels that came to grief over the years .
Our waterfront roundsman said it was sad to see that the l905 Dutch built steamship Grace Darling, named after the famous young girl who saved shipwrecked mariners in 1838 , could not be saved herself and was sunk and abandoned in Port Adelaide some time after l931.
Darwin Harbour ,it said , was littered with wartime wrecks and vessels lost in Cyclone Tracy and artificial reefs were formed for recreational purposes from barges and several Vietnamese refugee boats . It seems there were so many confiscated wooden Chinese fishing boats scuttled that Darwin authorities gave them Aussie bird names such as Brolga, Cockatoo, Eagle , Galah, Heron, Jabiru and Kookaburra rather than the Chinese ones .
With all this talk about spending billions on AUKUS nuclear submarines ,it is surprising to learn that something like seven submarines built in the Royal Navy Dockyards in the early 20th century were scuttled in Victorian waters .
Looking through the alphabetical index it revealed that many vessels were named after woman , animals , birds .The tug named after the controversial Victorian premier Henry Bolte was scuttled in l988 after some parts had been taken out .
The Inca , registered in San Francisco, was dismasted during a wild storm in the Tasman Sea and towed into Sydney in December 1920, sold for hulking, burnt off Sydney Heads in December l926 as part of the film For the Term of his Natural Life .
There is mention of the Bee , owned by Robert Hayles , which ran aground at Picnic Bay ,Magnetic Island on March 16,1901. There was another small iron steamship of the same name purchased by a Port Douglas resident in 1882.
NOTE : The Magnetic Island Museum is currently working on a Christmas calendar which will feature some local shipwrecks .
