DUNBAR

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DUNBAR

Post by shipstamps » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:25 am


Built as a Blackwall frigate by the yard of James Laing & Sons at Sunderland for Duncan Dunbar, London.
30 November 1853 launched, named after the owner of the ship.
Tonnage 1.321 gross, 1.980 tons burthen. Dim. 201.9 x 35 x22.7ft.
Carried a British lion as figurehead.
Completed 1854. Building cost £30.000.

She was built of British oak, and planked, decked and masted with East India teak. At that time she was the largest vessel built at Sunderland.
Copper fastened and strengthened throughout with enormous iron knees.

After delivery first used as a troopship in the Crimean War.
At that time there was an enormous social and economic growth in Australia, after the gold-rush from the early 1850’s and demands for shipping was very high.
After the war the DUNBAR under command of Capt Green was put in the service to Australia.
1856 She made her first voyage to Port Jackson, staying for 3 months in Sydney before she headed home again...
31 May 1857 she sailed from Plymouth for her second voyage to Australia, under command of Capt, Green with on board 63 passengers and a crew of 59 and a general cargo valued of £72.000.
She made a quick passage without any mishap, in the night of 20 August arrived off Port Jackson during poor weather, increasing wind and seas in a dark night the light was sighted of the South Head on the entrance to Port Jackson.
Shortly before midnight it was thought that she was about six miles off the entrance. All hands were called on deck, and extra lookouts posted, the DUNBAR was running before the wind by an onshore wind. Between the squalls the light of the South Head was visible.
Then one of the lookouts jelled “breakers ahead” which brought a prompt response as the helm was put hard a-port to try to claw off the land, but it was to late a few minutes later she struck the rocks with her port bow, and was hurdled almost broadside on the cliffs just north of the signal station.
Immediately after she struck her topmasts were carried away and huge seas swept over her starboard side, smashing bulwarks carrying away the men on deck. The passengers below deck did not have any change and drowned below deck, within 5 minutes the DUNBAR commenced to break up.
Only one man the Irish sailor James Johnson who with three other sailors was washed away, clinging to a plank when the ship broke up, Johnson was lucky he was hurled on to a rocky ledge, Johnson climbed higher and out of the reach of the waves.
He was seen from the top of the sheer cliffs and hauled to safety 36 hours later.

He told:
I was eventually washed off the wreck, and driven up under the cliffs, where I succeeded in securing hold of a projecting rock. I remained there until such time as the ship broke up. Up to this time the DUNBAR acted as a breakwater, but as she broke up I had to clear out. I managed to scramble from one ledge of a rock to another, till I reached one 20 feet high from where I washed up. It was about midnight on a Thursday when I first caught the rock, and I remained there until noon on the following Saturday. On the Saturday the sea went down, and I dropped from one ledge of rock to another till I could see the top of the cliffs overhead. I saw one man there in the morning, but before I could attract his attention I was forced to return to my retreat owning to three big seas following one another, looking as if they would wash me away.

When news reached Sydney that a ship had wrecked it was first thought that she was the emigrant ship VOCALIST which had been lost. All doubts were dispelled after a mail bag with the name DUNBAR was found.

Many of the bodies found were heavily mutilated by the heavy seas pounding the corpses against the rocks, and the bodies were interred in a mass grave at St Stephens Cemetery in Newton.

In the inquest held a few days later, Captain Green and his officers were cleared, there may have been an error of judgement, but the ships was probably to close inshore that noting could be done.

In 1910 anchors, cable, copper bolts, coins and other items were raised from the wreck. An anchor of the wreck is incorporated in a memorial standing on the cliff overlooking the scene of the disaster.

Source: Australian Shipwrecks Volume 2 by Jack Loney. The Blackwall frigates by Basil Lubbock. True Australian Sea Stories by Jack Millar. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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