The Edith Byrne was sold to Robert Miles Sloman & Co. in March 1865, renamed Herschel and registered in Hamburg. Between 1871 and 1880 it carried emigrants to Queensland. The Adelaide Steamship Company bought the Herschel in February 1893 and converted it to a coal hulk for use at Albany. Fifteen years later the Herschel had reached the end of its useful life at 50 years of age.
HERSCHEL ex Edith Byrne 1857–1908
Sollecito, similar to the Herschel, State Library of Victoria, H99.220_1130
Description
Ship rigged
Construction
Iron; two decks, two bulkheads and cemented
Size
Length: 164.0 ft (49.99 m) Beam: 30.2 ft (9.21 m) Depth: 21.3 ft (6.49 m) Tonnage: 814 gross, 787 net, 685 under deck
Built
Thomas Brassey’s Canada Works, Birkenhead, England
Owner
Final owner was the Adelaide Steamship Company
Sunk
2 July 1908
Location
The site was unknown until discovered by abalone fisherman Marc Payne in 2019. The Herschel lies on the eastern side of Inner Island, north-west of Cape Vancouver.
Latitude/Longitude
(-35.0031, 118.1636)
Sinking
The Herschel was abandoned after a long and useful life. It was stripped of anything of value and on 2 July 1908 was towed by The Bruce to Inner Island and abandoned.
Underwater
A 2019 inspection by the WA Museum reports the following. The wreck is at a depth of 15–22.6 m. Most of the midships part of the wreck is on a rocky boulder slope at 15–16 m. The heavily constructed bow and stern triangle structures have broken away and fallen to the sandy seabed at 22 m. All of the lighter hull plating has collapsed. No anchors or other artefacts were visible. At least one section of mast was observed. The stem post exhibits the clipper bow shape, and has the opening of the port hawse pipe visible. The counter stern was clearly visible, along with remains of framing for a lower and main deck; broken frames continued up from the main deck to support what would have been the poop deck. The rudder was not attached to the sternpost.
Gallery