This unidentified wreck was first mentioned by Edward John Eyre during his expedition from Fowlers Bay in South Australia to Albany. On 29 March 1841 he wrote that he had seen many pieces of wreck over the past two or three days but did not think they were recent. Two separate sources have related stories told to them by local Aboriginal people, who all told of a ship being wrecked and five people coming ashore. William Jackman published an autobiography in 1859 in which he claimed to have been on board the wreck. While he must have spent time in the area, aspects of his story are questionable. He wrote that the vessel was called the Carib, but there is no record of a ship of that name in Hobart when Jackman said it was there.
EYRE UNIDENTIFIED (pre-March 1841)
Wooden 400 ton two-masted vessel, New York, AD Edwards Collection, State Library of South Australia, PRG-1373-1-15
Description
Possibly two masted; possibly a whaler or sealer
Construction
Wood, iron deck knees
Size
Unknown, possibly around 400 tons
Built
Unknown
Owner
Unknown
Sunk
Before March 1841
Location
55 km east of Eyre; 46 km south and 16 km west of the Madura Roadhouse
Latitude/Longitude
(-, -)
Sinking
The circumstances of the wreck are unknown.
Underwater
There is wreckage over an 8-kilometre stretch of coastline (1989). At the main site several iron knees lie in the intertidal zone, and about two dozen iron hull fastenings are distributed in 2 m of water just to the south-west. One knee is 1.1 m along the horizontal leg and 1.6 m along the vertical. Another is 1.8 m long. All the material is heavily concreted. A 10 m length of the port side of a timber vessel with chain plates was found buried on the beach, and subsequently excavated. Other smaller timbers were found, some with treenails in place.
Gallery