timlashbrook_photography
run aground
The S.S. Speke was a three masted steel barque of 2,876 tons and 93 metres, which was built in Wales in 1891. The Speke drifted broadside on to a reef to the east of Kitty Miller Bay on 22 February 1906 while en route from Peru via Sydney to Geelong to pick up wheat. The accident was attributed to faulty navigation by the captain who had confused a bushfire for a navigation light.
A lifeboat was quickly launched after striking the reef, but it capsized and one of the four occupants drowned. Those remaining finally reached the beach exhausted.
Both cargo and much of the Speke were salvaged although heavy seas battered the wreck for several days until it broke in two and rapidly disintegrated.
Wreckage from the Speke, including part of the bow, still lies high on the rocks, and more debris lies scattered along the edge of the reef in shallow water.
- See more at: www.phillip-island-balcony.com/Phillip-Island-shipwrecks....
run aground
The S.S. Speke was a three masted steel barque of 2,876 tons and 93 metres, which was built in Wales in 1891. The Speke drifted broadside on to a reef to the east of Kitty Miller Bay on 22 February 1906 while en route from Peru via Sydney to Geelong to pick up wheat. The accident was attributed to faulty navigation by the captain who had confused a bushfire for a navigation light.
A lifeboat was quickly launched after striking the reef, but it capsized and one of the four occupants drowned. Those remaining finally reached the beach exhausted.
Both cargo and much of the Speke were salvaged although heavy seas battered the wreck for several days until it broke in two and rapidly disintegrated.
Wreckage from the Speke, including part of the bow, still lies high on the rocks, and more debris lies scattered along the edge of the reef in shallow water.
- See more at: www.phillip-island-balcony.com/Phillip-Island-shipwrecks....