Wreck on Long Island The - Upstreampaddle

The
<strong>Wreck</strong> on Long Island
The Google Earth satellite photograph application (for PC) is a great navigation aid. It has the facility of not only showing clear images
as seen from space, but of being able to turn a flat image into a 3D profile. This works best when there is a range in elevation, such as a
mountain, as flat country stays flat when looked at in profile.
In the Spring 2007 Upstreampaddle magazine, we ran an article about the Spanish Galleon in 18 Mile Swamp on North Stradbroke
Island, and when I took a look at the Stradbroke Island Galleon webpages, written by Greg Jeffreys, I saw a link to Long Island, and
another mystery ship.
Greg tells the story in detail, but the interesting watercolour drawing of the wreck in Happy Bay on Long Island (Whitsundays) made
from the deck of the visiting HMS Fly in 1843, with the profile of 3 hills, made me wonder if Google Earth could find the same
viewpoint.
1843 watercolour by Edwin Augustus Porcher, HMS Fly. Image courtesy G. Jeffreys
2009 Google Earth profile view, Happy Bay
Upstreampaddle 43

L ong Island is that, just over 9 km long, 1.5 km at its widest, and barely 100 metres wide
at its neck. In 1843, the watercolour drawing showed a flat area between a grassy hill and the
left of three knolls. Today that low area is occupied by a Club Crocodile resort.
The wreck is commonly believed to be the Valetta, a merchantman trading Bengal rum, and new
season China tea, with the penal settlements of Tasmania and Sydney, shipwrecked in 1825.
Inconsistencies between the Valetta's Masters description of beaching the holed and sinking
vessel on a beach at Cape Gloucester, (80 km north) and the wreck located at Long Island, as
well as descriptions of the Long Island wreck as having been a warship with gunports, have
given rise to the mystery ship legend.
Certain aspects of the scenario are lost to us in time, but we are fortunate that with the
digitalisation of historical records, we can read, online, the weeky newspaper from Sydney of
1825, the Sydney Gazette, and its account of the events.
The text is fairly clear,
and while the OCR
(Optical Character
Recognition) software
on the website has
trouble with the old
type, the newspaper can
be read.
To save you the trouble,
a transcript, of the full
article, is below.
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
.
Thursday 15 September, 1825
LOSS OF THE VALETTA
This ship sailed out of our Port for Manilla on the10th of July, intending to go
through Torres Straits. She went on her passage safe for a month, when misfortune
overtook her, which ended in the wreck of this other fine vessel, as will be seen on
perusing the following account that has been kindly put into our hands.
July 9 ---- Anchored off an island near Cape Hillsborough; during high water, the
extent of the reef was not perceived, but at little water it shews. This Island is one of
the Cumberland Isles, and marked L. in Flinders' Chart.
July 10 ---- Weighed with the weather tide, but the wind suddenly shifting, and
having a long heave (26 fathoms) before the anchor could be hove up, the ship
struck on the rocks, and continued beating very hard all the night, till the tide left
next morning.
July 11.---- The wind off shore, which enabled us to land most of the provisions, the
ship at high water filled, when more than half the rice was was damaged before it
could be landed. During the night the ship lightened and came off; ran her without a
rudder, and the lower hold full of water, into 25 fathoms and anchored; people
employed at both pumps, but did not gain on the leaks; not even, next day.
July 12 --- At 4 pm got her dry; one pump keeping her free, and we had hopes of yet
being able to reach India; having a good blacksmith on board, got new pintals for the
rudder made, and on the 22nd having every thing re-shipped, sailed for the first port.
Upstreampaddle 44

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
.
Thursday 15 September, 1825
LOSS OF THE VALETTA
July 23 --- At 6 p.m. anchored at the entrance of Whitsunday Passage, a heavy swell
running, obliged us as at 9 p.m. to release more cable, the jerking of which, it appears,
caused a broken piece of coral rock to fall out of her bottom for the ship commenced
leaking most alarmingly; all hands to the pumps, and could scarcely keep her free.
July 24 ---- Weighed and made sail for the first place that appeared sheltered, for the
purpose of laying her on shore, as her people could not possibly much longer continue at
the pumps; near Cape Gloucester we found a good harbour, and smooth water; after hard
pumping for several days, and landing everything we could, the ship was laid on the
ground, on a bed of mud and sand, the people being so fatigued, they could not for
another day have kept her free.
At low water found the keel brake in two places, the scarf of the stern tore asunder, and
two large holes in her bottom, and pieces of coral fortunately sticking in them; had they
fallen out; the ship must have gone down before even a boat could have been in
readiness.
After getting the ship on the ways of fir wood, and working for three weeks in the hopes
of repairing her, that we might proceed to the nearest port, found it useless, and began
decking the long-boat, which Captain Dacre had proffered to proceed in to Sydney.
Having lost the greater part of the rice on the 10th and 11th July there remained little to
subsist on; and, for the present, half a pound of rice per man per diem, is served as the
ration; at this ration they have 2 months stock ; 11 persons proceed in the launch, and 46
remain; the live stock mostly all drowned.
The longboat, under the command of Captain Dacre, with the second mate and 9 hands
arrived late on Friday night, all well after a passage of 21 days from the leaving of the
wreck.
0000000000000000000000000
A week after the long boat arrived in Sydney, ( 22nd September, 1825) the wreck and
stores was advertised as for sale by auction. Note the Long Boat was "as she lies in the
Cove" (Sydney Cove) The sloop Brisbane sailed north on the 24 September to the Valetta
to salvage goods, and the ship Prince Regent also on the 30 November 1825. For the next
six months or so, salvaged marine stores from the Valetta would appear in the Sydney
Gazette's classified advertisements.
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In 1983 the Maritime archaeology section of the Queensland Museum excavated the Long Island wreck site (photo above).
Readers may recall the description in the Sydney Gazette, of " getting the ship on the ways of fir". This referred to laying logs
on the sand, cross-wise under the keel, for support. The Museum excavation found logs of she-oak (casuarina) under the keel
remnants of the Happy Bay wreck..
image:© Courtesy Queensland Museum
Happy Bay,
Long Island,
Whitsundays.
photo:
anthony maw
Upstreampaddle 46

above: Queensland Museum workers use a taped grid to excavate, sift and record the Long Island site, at low tide.
image:© Courtesy Queensland Museum
Is the declaration that the wreck in Happy Bay, Long Island is that of the Valetta, definitive?
Ray Blackwood, in his book Whitsunday Islands: an Historical Dictionary mentions that in 1815 HMS Kangaroo under the
command of Lieutenant Charles Jefferys visited the area, and named the water immediately west of Happy Bay, Port Molle.
No mention was made of a wreck nearby.
As for the description by Captain D'Acre of the ship being beached at Cape Gloucester? On his return to the ship in the sloop
Brisbane, he wrote that the sloop was " off Cape Conway at 10 am, on Friday 28 October, and entering the inner passage (or
sound) at 2:00 pm." That is a fair time for 26 kilometres sailing to Long Island, but impossible for Cape Gloucester over 80
kilometres away.
And yet, like all good mysteries, some things remain unaccounted for. A treasure hunter with a metal detector, who bought the
location of the wreck to the attention of the Queensland Museum in 1983, found a copper coin while searching along an animal
trail on one of the hill tops to the north of the resort (the grassy hill in the watercolour). The coin was identified as a Spanish
dinero of the Kingdom of Aragon 1452-1516, embossed on one side with ":Ferdinand" and "Aragonum UH" on the other.
Greg Jefferys found several lead musket balls in
2003 in the same general location as Andy
Peregrina found his coin.
Many thanks to Greg for the use of photos.
Upstreampaddle 47