Innes National Park - Ethel Beach #5 The boiler of The Ferret
View on black please
Ethel Beach is named after the 'Ethel', a 711 ton, three-masted iron barque that sank in 1904. She was built in Sunderland in England in 1876 and was en route from South Africa to Semaphore when she ran aground Reef Head, close to Cape Spencer on the 2nd January.
A crew member tried to swim to shore with a line but drowned. The remainder of the crew reached shore safely. The wreck was reported by SS Ferret in Adelaide on the 4th January but attempts to free the Ethel failed and she was totally lost. All that remains today are some parts of her iron hull rusting away on the beach as a memorial.
The SS Ferret was a steamship built in Scotland in 1871. It had a chequered past, having literally been stolen and assumed wrecked in 1880 before showing up in Melbourne mouths later. Ironically, she sank just a few meters away from the Ethel 17 years later in 1921, and the hulk of the Ethel was used to secure a lifeline to rescue the crew. Her boiler protrudes from the sand just metres from the Ethel. The Ferret's crew managed to reach the shore but the Steamer’s cargo of Christmas grog never reached its final destination thanks to the workers at nearby Inneston. When it was wrecked alcohol kept washing into the shore which was a bit tempting for the local workers and apparently the absenteeism at the gypsum mines had never been higher than when the Ferret's loot was washing up on the beach.
Innes National Park - Ethel Beach #5 The boiler of The Ferret
View on black please
Ethel Beach is named after the 'Ethel', a 711 ton, three-masted iron barque that sank in 1904. She was built in Sunderland in England in 1876 and was en route from South Africa to Semaphore when she ran aground Reef Head, close to Cape Spencer on the 2nd January.
A crew member tried to swim to shore with a line but drowned. The remainder of the crew reached shore safely. The wreck was reported by SS Ferret in Adelaide on the 4th January but attempts to free the Ethel failed and she was totally lost. All that remains today are some parts of her iron hull rusting away on the beach as a memorial.
The SS Ferret was a steamship built in Scotland in 1871. It had a chequered past, having literally been stolen and assumed wrecked in 1880 before showing up in Melbourne mouths later. Ironically, she sank just a few meters away from the Ethel 17 years later in 1921, and the hulk of the Ethel was used to secure a lifeline to rescue the crew. Her boiler protrudes from the sand just metres from the Ethel. The Ferret's crew managed to reach the shore but the Steamer’s cargo of Christmas grog never reached its final destination thanks to the workers at nearby Inneston. When it was wrecked alcohol kept washing into the shore which was a bit tempting for the local workers and apparently the absenteeism at the gypsum mines had never been higher than when the Ferret's loot was washing up on the beach.