Reseach
In the early stages of my project I was switching between possible topics, working to hard to find information on the history of Western Port Bay, before realising how broad that topic would be to research. I ended up settling on the more direct topic of Western Port Bay Shipwrecks, however due to my late decision making on the topic, the research stage of my project got off to a very late start. I was very rushed for time trying to find information quickly, so I could conduct some kind of research over the weekend. I found two possible places to conduct research on the topic both museums in Western Port Bay, the Victorian Maritime Centre in Hastings and the Museum of HMAS Cerberus, I emailed both of these locations asking is there was any information either at the museum or elsewhere that was available to me. I heard back from Max of Victorian Maritime Centre who put me through to a lady named Di Maloney, who very enthusiastically invited me down to the museum letting me know she has brought in a book titled Western Port Wrecks and Maritime Mishaps which was written by a friend of hers Arthur E. Woodley, who has sadly passed away. So that weekend I made my way to the museum with my family, I was greeted immediately by Di, who let me borrow her book, which held a great deal of sentimental value to her, being signed by Arthur. I was also given a sheet of paper with many different references to books containing information and also various facts about different wrecks in Western Port Bay.
Findings
In my findings section I will talk about some of the caused for the amount of wreckages in Western Port Bay but I will mainly talk in depth about a few of the major wreckages which occurred in Western Port Bay.
Causes
While many of the wrecks were caused by what we would expect, such as running into rocks or becoming beached, in my research I found out that there are some cases of shipwrecks in western port bay being caused by nothing more then the boat being unwanted or abandoned, such as the Redbird. The Redbird is one of the more visible shipwrecks, being located just off the Hastings Jetty (as seen in the image to the right), the Redbird was built at Williamstown in 1915 and was a steel, steam tugboat, originally titled Anzac. However at the end of WW1 the name was changed to Redbird, due to new regulations which had been introduced, in 1938 the boat was moved to Hasting in an attempt to be converted into a commercial fishing boat. While the redbird wasn't requested for WW2 (due to the fact she was engineless), the wreck came when she became grounded during gale force winds and the owner simply lost interest in the rehabilitation of the vessel, leaving it abandoned in Hastings. This is one example of my findings about the causes for the shipwrecks, which was a lack of care and interest.
Causes
While many of the wrecks were caused by what we would expect, such as running into rocks or becoming beached, in my research I found out that there are some cases of shipwrecks in western port bay being caused by nothing more then the boat being unwanted or abandoned, such as the Redbird. The Redbird is one of the more visible shipwrecks, being located just off the Hastings Jetty (as seen in the image to the right), the Redbird was built at Williamstown in 1915 and was a steel, steam tugboat, originally titled Anzac. However at the end of WW1 the name was changed to Redbird, due to new regulations which had been introduced, in 1938 the boat was moved to Hasting in an attempt to be converted into a commercial fishing boat. While the redbird wasn't requested for WW2 (due to the fact she was engineless), the wreck came when she became grounded during gale force winds and the owner simply lost interest in the rehabilitation of the vessel, leaving it abandoned in Hastings. This is one example of my findings about the causes for the shipwrecks, which was a lack of care and interest.
Some of the earlier wrecks and ships being stranded was around Seal Rocks at the opening of Western Port Bay, at the west end of Phillip Island just off the 'Nobby'. This area is where the earliest recorded shipwrecks in Western Port Bay occurred, this was mainly due to the sealing activity in the area, however the area was hazardous for boats as it was still dangerous to land on on the calmest days, which is why it was such a vast history. Ships like the Active which was the first recorded incident at Seal Rock, was lucky as it was only temporally stranded on the rocks and after some repair was relaunched out. The very first total wreckage was recorded in September 1843, where the vessel Sally crashed into the rocks resulting in the death of all 4 crew members onboard the boat.
These weren't the only deaths to occur in the area of Seal Rocks, the wreck of the Coramba is what many consider to be the most tragic wreckage in the Western Port Bays history. On the 29th November 1934 the Coramba, a 530 tones, coastal steamer, set out from Warrnambool for Melbourne, it was set to be a fairly straight forward trip, even with the now infamous storm battering Victorias coast. However on the morning of the 30th came and no one had seen the vessel and the ship couldn't be contacted due to radios being down because of the storm, so a crew set out to search the coast line for any sign of the ship. Items from the ships such as lifebouy's bearing the name Coramba, oars and other items which were undoubtable form the ship, later that day the first body from the wreck was found around Cape Woolami. Through that night locals walked the shore lines trying to find a sign of survivors, finding only one more body, nearly a week after the crash another body was found, one more was spotted out at sea (but unable to be recovered) and one more body was discovered however it was unidentifiable due to the damage, mangling his face. These were the only body's found from the 17 lives which were lost, the location of the vessel was found by a study of the tides and current positions on the night of the wreck, where it was confirmed to be located off Seal Rocks, however due to the depth on the water it couldn't be salvaged.
These weren't the only deaths to occur in the area of Seal Rocks, the wreck of the Coramba is what many consider to be the most tragic wreckage in the Western Port Bays history. On the 29th November 1934 the Coramba, a 530 tones, coastal steamer, set out from Warrnambool for Melbourne, it was set to be a fairly straight forward trip, even with the now infamous storm battering Victorias coast. However on the morning of the 30th came and no one had seen the vessel and the ship couldn't be contacted due to radios being down because of the storm, so a crew set out to search the coast line for any sign of the ship. Items from the ships such as lifebouy's bearing the name Coramba, oars and other items which were undoubtable form the ship, later that day the first body from the wreck was found around Cape Woolami. Through that night locals walked the shore lines trying to find a sign of survivors, finding only one more body, nearly a week after the crash another body was found, one more was spotted out at sea (but unable to be recovered) and one more body was discovered however it was unidentifiable due to the damage, mangling his face. These were the only body's found from the 17 lives which were lost, the location of the vessel was found by a study of the tides and current positions on the night of the wreck, where it was confirmed to be located off Seal Rocks, however due to the depth on the water it couldn't be salvaged.