Cataraqui

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cataraqui
Beaching of the Cataraqui in 1845 off King Island, Tasmania
Beaching of the Cataraqui in 1845 off King Island, Tasmania
Ship data
flag United KingdomUnited Kingdom (trade flag) United Kingdom
Ship type Sailing ship
home port Liverpool
Shipping company William Smith & Sons
Shipyard William Lampson, Quebec
Launch 1840
Whereabouts Stranded on August 4, 1845
Ship dimensions and crew
length
42.06 m ( Lüa )
width 9.14 m
Draft Max. 6.71 m
measurement 802 GRT
 
crew 41 men
Rigging and rigging
Rigging Barque
Number of masts 3

The Cataraqui was a 1840-built barque which for the in Liverpool based company William Smith & Sons passengers and freight from the UK to Australia brought and thereby mainly emigrants transported who wanted to settle in Australia. On August 4, 1845, the Cataraqui was thrown onto the cliffs of King Island in a storm in Bass Strait . 399 passengers and crew died in the worst shipping accident in Australian history. Only nine people were able to save themselves.

The ship

The 42 meter long wooden barque Cataraqui was built in 1840 in the shipbuilding yard of William Lampson, one of the most famous shipyards in Quebec . The name of the ship was derived from the term Katerokwi, the old name of the First Nations tribe Mississaugas for the area in Ontario in which the city of Kingston is located today .

The Cataraqui was used as a cargo ship for five years before William Smith & Sons bought the ship in March 1845, had it registered in Liverpool and used it for emigrants from England to Port Phillip near Melbourne in the colony of Victoria .

The ship classification society Lloyd’s Register of Shipping classified the Cataraqui in its highest possible category, 1A. Just two weeks before its last departure, the ship was overhauled and inspected, and it was certified as being in excellent condition.

Downfall

On Sunday, April 20, 1845, the Cataraqui left Liverpool for her first crossing to Australia. There were 41 crew members and 369 passengers on board, including numerous women and children. In command was Captain Christopher William Finlay, a ship commander with years of experience who had previously worked for Brooke & Wilson. Thomas Guthrie was the chief officer and Charles Carpenter was the ship's doctor. During the voyage, on July 4th, the seaman Robert Harvey went overboard and could no longer be rescued. Five children were born on the way while six died. This means that at the time of the accident there were 408 (living) people on board the Cataraqui .

In the early morning of August 4th, a Monday, the ship reached the entrance of Bass Strait , a strait that separates Tasmania from southern Australia. There the Cataraqui got caught in a heavy storm . At around 3 a.m., Captain Finlay reckoned it would only be 60 to 70 miles to King Island , an island on Tasmania's northwest coast. At around 4:30 a.m., however, the ship ran onto the rugged cliffs of Fitzmaurice Bay on the coast of King Island without warning . Large amounts of seawater immediately seeped into the hull . Most of the stairs and ladders were torn away by the force of the impact, but the crew still managed to get most of the passengers on deck.

The evacuation attempts were hampered by the high waves and the stormy wind. Countless people were caught in the waves breaking over the ship and washed overboard. The surf hurled them against the rocks on the bank. About an hour after she hit the ground, the Cataraqui lay on her side, throwing even more people into the troubled sea. The masts were cut to stabilize the ship , but the water-filled sailor did not react. At daybreak, about 200 passengers were still on the stranded wreck and clung to it. Ropes were tied everywhere so that the castaways could hold onto them. In the hours that followed, the Cataraqui gradually broke apart. The stern collapsed. The remaining people were decimated more and more and fell into the water. The last lifeboat that tried to leave the ship around 10 a.m. was filled with water and sank.

Eight crew members managed to hold on to pieces of the wreckage and reached the bank where they met Solomon Brown, the only surviving passenger. The nine men spent five weeks on King Island before being picked up on September 7th by the cutter Midge and taken to Melbourne. By then they had buried 342 dead in four mass graves . A man named David Howie, who was hunting on the island, had meanwhile assisted the survivors.

consequences

One of the mass graves, sketch from 1845

The news of the disaster caused great excitement in Melbourne, which had been the target of emigrants. Public events were held to collect donations that would benefit survivors and their rescuers. In 1846, by order of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe, a memorial was erected at the site of the accident, which rusted over time and was replaced by a stone one in 1956.

The wreck of the Cataraqui is at position 40 ° 1 ′ 37 ″  S , 143 ° 52 ′ 49 ″  E, coordinates: 40 ° 1 ′ 37 ″  S , 143 ° 52 ′ 49 ″  E at a depth of four meters and was frequently visited by divers . Numerous objects were recovered from it. Since all of the wood has disappeared over the decades, not much is left of the ship. Many of the recovered artifacts are on display at the King Island Museum in Currie . With 399 deaths (according to other sources also 405 or 414), the sinking of the Cataraqui is the worst civilian shipwreck in Australia and also the eighth largest catastrophe in the history of Australia (measured in terms of deaths).

literature

  • Andrew Lemon, Marjorie Morgan: Poor Souls, They Perished. The Cataraqui, Australia's Worst Shipwreck. Hargreen Publishing Company, North Melbourne 1986, ISBN 0-949905-28-3 .

Web links