Thursday, December 7, 2017

So how'd the sails get blown out? Either poor quality or late in furling them.



S.S. Hereward aground.
She was a full ship iron clipper built in 1877.  It was shipwrecked on Maroubra Beach, Sydney on Thursday 5 May 1898. 
 The Hereward was wrecked while travelling from Sourabaya, a port in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) to NewcastleNew South Wales where it had to take on a load of coal for South America. While travelling north along the New South Wales coast on 5 May, it encountered a large storm with wind speeds as high as 47 miles per hour (76 km/h). The winds destroyed the sails of the ship and blew it towards the shore leaving the captain, Captain Gore, unable to avert the disaster. The Hereward was forced onto the northern end of Maroubra Beach, however it avoided the two rocky reefs present there. All 25 crew members were safely brought ashore and made their way to the nearby wool scouring works to make the shipwreck known.

5 comments:

  1. Hauled coal?!?!! How much could it haul? What was the cost of the coal once it got to port? 25 men? Whoa, must have paid them next to nothing if the coal price was low!!!

    Steve

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    1. Times were different. I guess if you used the wind for fuel, it could work economically.

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  2. They had to get coal to 'coaling stations' for the coal burning ships without using it all to get there and home. Navy operations in that era were teathered to coaling stations.

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  3. Captain Gore? Surely not Albert. Darn. Done in by global warming again.

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  4. He had his gallant's and spinniker (spell) set to try and keep way...and keep her off the shoal.--Ray

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