In about a minute, the ship was carried amongst the breakers; wrecks and and striking upon a coral head, took a fearful heel over onto reefs guano her larboard beam ends

The Australian National On 17 August 1803 the great navigator On the evening of 17 August the convoy and charter of the Australian continent, was under reduced sail after sighting Maritime Museum has Captain RN, was some reefs and a sand cay in uncharted completed a second successful shipwrecked on an isolated, uncharted waters that afternoon. was in the collaborative project with the coral off ’s east coast, while lead, on its port stern quarter and returning to England with the precious, Bridgewater on the starboard. The watch Silentworld Foundation as yet unpublished charts, journals and on Porpoise sighted breakers but the ship, – an archaeological expedition manuscripts of his epic Australian unable to come around under reefed in tropical waters to learn more voyages. Wreck Reefs, which gained their topsails, struck the southern edge of a reef name from the loss of the ship that was and was driven up onto its platform by about the site of Matthew carrying Flinders – HMS Porpoise, and an the prevailing weather. Flinders’ dramatic accompanying merchant ship Cato – are a group of low-lying coral reefs and sand …In about a minute, the ship was carried during his historic survey cays 18 nautical miles (25 kilometres) long amongst the breakers; and striking upon of the Australian continent. and lying 230 nautical miles (450 a coral head, took a fearful heel over onto This account comes from kilometres) east of Gladstone, . her larboard beam ends, her head being Flinders had not yet fully completed north-eastward… When the surfs permitted expedition leader and museum the survey of Australian coasts that had us to look to windward the Bridgewater curator and maritime been entrusted to him by the Lords and the Cato were perceived at not more of the Admiralty. His previous ship than a cable’s length distance; and archaeologist Kieran Hosty. HMS Investigator – on which he had approaching each other so closely, circumnavigated the continent and done that their running abord seemed masterful survey work – had become to us inevitable… perilously rotten and was unfit for further Matthew Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, voyaging. No suitable replacement was 1814 available in the colony, so he was returning to England to seek another Cato’s Captain Park, seeing Porpoise go up expedition ship. To get there, Governor onto the reef, had tacked to the east at the King had assigned him HMS Porpoise, same time Bridgewater tacked to the west, a 308-ton Spanish-built vessel captured by putting both vessels on a collision course. the Royal Navy in 1799 and commissioned Park ordered Cato to come off the wind, as a 10-gun sloop. Her master was but while this averted collision it resulted Lt Robert Fowler. His orders were to allow in further disaster, as Flinders relates: Flinders whatever time he needed to chart , and then to carry him to …the Cato struck upon the reef about two England by Flinders’ preferred route. cables length from the Porpoise, we saw On 10 August 1803 Porpoise left her fall over her broad side and the masts in company with two other ships. almost instantly disappeared… The 430-ton, English armed merchant ship Cato, John Park master, was bound Porpoise lay with its hull facing towards for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. the wind and seas, protecting the decks With them sailed a 750-ton, 32-gun and offering shelter to the crew and left: Toni Massey from Flinders University, SA, East Company Extra Ship passengers on board. The Cato, however, inspecting an old Admiralty long-shank anchor, one of three bower anchors carried by HMS Porpoise. Bridgewater, master E H Palmer, bound turned side-on to the surf and rolled into for Calcutta. Taking the outer route the direction of the prevailing wind, top: A Brown-face Boobie and its chick on Porpoise Cay, Wreck Reefs. All expedition photography by around the , the three exposing the decks to the pounding Xanthe Rivett vessels travelled in convoy. waves. The vessel quickly began to break

2 Signals 90 March to May 2010 Signals 90 March to May 2010 3 up and by morning had almost mile journey in 12½ days, another of those disappeared, with just the bow and amazing open-boat ocean passages that foremast chains exposed above the surf. the resolute sailors of those days seemed Three crew had drowned. to undertake quite routinely, when the The East India Company ship necessity arose! Bridgewater missed the reefs and Captain For six weeks the rest of the survivors, Palmer made what some would call a half- under the command of Porpoise’s Fowler, hearted attempt to work back to subsisted on Porpoise Cay. With them windward to the reefs, to determine the was Flinders’ brother Samuel, a capable fate of the wrecked ships and their people. navigator who had accompanied the Instead of coming to their aid Palmer explorer to Australia, and who spent some continued to his destination India, where of his time accurately plotting the location some of the crew left the ship in protest of Wreck Reefs. Naval discipline prevailed over his actions. But fate had not finished and the men salvaged what they could with Palmer; Bridgewater disappeared from the two wrecks and began work with the captain and his remaining crew constructing two small, ‘rakish schooners’ on its very next voyage, somewhere in the from timbers salvaged from the wrecks. Indian Ocean. They completed one, which they named Before dark, five Back on Wreck Reefs, 18 August Resource, and used it to visit Bird Islet, the dawned with slightly more hope than the eastern-most cay in the group and a rich hogsheads of water, preceding desperate night. In the words of dietary source of sea-birds and eggs. some four of salt meat, Flinders, who was the senior naval officer Fortunately for the survivors it was not and quickly took charge of the survivors: the cyclone season, since a strong tropical rice and spirits were cyclone would have swept them from the landed, with such of the … with the daylight appeared a dry sand low sand cay. Instead, on 7 October, they bank, not more than half a mile distant, used their salvaged carronades to fire pigs and sheep as had sufficiently large to receive us all with a salute to Flinders who had returned what provisions might be got out of the to rescue them with not one but three escaped ship … At low water, which happened ships – the merchant ship Rolla and two about two o’clock, the reef was dry very colonial schooners, Francis and near to Porpoise, and both officers and Cumberland! Flinders called this men were assiduously employed in getting triumphal return ‘one of the happiest upon it provisions and their clothes … moments of my life’. before dark, five hogsheads of water, In the resourceful some four of salt meat, rice and spirits Flinders had secured the help of Governor were landed, with such of the pigs and King to contract the visiting merchant sheep as had escaped drowning … ship Rolla, bound for Canton, to sail via Wreck Reefs and rescue some of the Of equal or greater concern to Flinders shipwrecked men. Others would return were the precious charts, journals and to Port Jackson on the Francis, a small notes from his surveys in HMS schooner that was one of the first sea- Investigator, most of which he salvaged going ships built in the colony. The third although some were water-damaged. rescue vessel was the government Most of the Australian botanical schooner Cumberland, launched in Port specimens he was carrying back Jackson in 1801. Flinders had obtained to England were lost. The crews from both Cumberland to continue his voyage vessels set up camp on the small sand through Torres Strait to England. island that they named Porpoise Cay, The officers and crew ofPorpoise and erecting tents from spars and sails. Cato were distributed among the flotilla. On Friday 26 August, leaving his Rolla sailed on to China, Francis and the Australian survey charts sealed in boxes ‘rakish schooner’ Resource built on on Porpoise Cay, Flinders set sail for Port Porpoise Cay by the survivors returned to Jackson in the largest of the surviving Port Jackson, while Cumberland sailed for above: Matthew Flinders, lithograph, 1814. ANMM collection ship’s cutters, which they renamed Hope. England under the command of Matthew It carried three short, demountable masts Flinders, carrying most of his Australian opposite top: The survivors’ encampment on Porpoise Cay in 1803, with the hull of the wrecked and lugsails. With him were Captain Park survey materials. But unfortunately for HMS Porpoise on the reef at the left. Engraving of Cato and a dozen sailors – enough to him war had broken out between France by I Pye, based on the drawing by expedition artist provide two watches to man the six oars and England and when Flinders arrived , from Matthew Flinders’ A Voyage to Terra Australis, G & W Nicol, London 1814 when the wind failed or was adverse – in in December 1803 he was plus three weeks’ provisions and two half detained as a spy by the island’s right: A school of Blue Parrotfish, also known as Mini-fin Parrotfish, on the southern edge hogsheads of water. Under Flinders’ commander General Charles DeCaen of the Cato Gutter, Wreck Reefs. command they made the 760 nautical for seven long years – until June 1810!

4 Signals 90 March to May 2010 Signals 90 March to May 2010 5 left to right: Silentworld Foundation dive Since much archaeological work had University and the Department of supervisor Kate Thompson with Olive-green already been conducted there, our Environment, Water, Heritage and the Sea , Bird Islet Reef. primary aims were to survey several areas Arts. We had worked with many of these Shawn Arnold from Flinders University, SA, not previously examined, attempt to pin people during our earlier Mermaid recording artefacts recovered from Porpoise Cay. down the location of Cato, survey the expedition, but in December we were also Silentworld Foundation volunteer Andrew Turner guano workings and associated joined by Dr David Booth and Ashley in the surf break near the Cato Gutter at Bird Islet, and try to solve Fowler, two marine biologists from the one other interesting and puzzling Sydney Institute of Marine Science maritime riddle that Flinders had (SIMS), as well as Jennifer McKinnon, recorded on that very first night cast Toni Massey and Shawn Arnold, three up amid the breakers of Wreck Reefs. marine archaeologists from Flinders University in South Australia. In searching for something wherewith After the teams had been organised, to make a fire on the first night of our permits acquired, equipment tracked landing a spar and a piece of timber, down, hired and/or serviced, medical worm eaten and almost rotten, were found supplies (including vials of incredibly and burnt. The timber was seen by the expensive sea snake antivenom) sourced master of the Porpoise, who judged it to and emergency procedures arranged and have been part of the stern post of a ship tested, the two expedition vessels Nimrod of about 400 hundred tons … Silentworld and Silentworld II left Matthew Flinders, A Voyage to Terra Australis, Gladstone for the voyage to Wreck Reefs. London 1814 We punched into steady easterlies for more than 35 hours before West Islet, the This was also recorded by the captain first of the Wreck Reefs sand cays, of HMS Porpoise, Lieutenant Fowler. appeared on the horizon as a dash of Before the timber remains were burnt brilliant white sand among foaming Wreck Reefs after Flinders Searching for site indicated a vessel of a much later date on that cold winter’s night they were breakers. Hope Cay and Porpoise Cay terminology – along with numerous than 1803. It was hypothesised that Cato copper-alloy hull fastenings, sheathing Following Flinders’ departure Wreck identified as being part of a stern post and appeared shortly afterwards and the two lay further towards the east. nails and hull fittings. Reefs were visited infrequently by beche- something wherewith the quarter galleries of a large, European- expedition vessels were soon moored up The magnetometer boat and two teams de-mer fishers from the colony, until May In 1990 crew from the dive charter built ship, possibly a frigate. Both Fowler on the northern side of Porpoise Cay in 15 to make a fire on the of divers commenced their survey 1854 when the reefs claimed another ship, vessel Boomerang reported a cluster of and Flinders interviewed the sailors who metres of crystal-clear water. the 250-ton Mahaica. The position of the first night of our shipwreck material consisting of a single found the wreckage and later passed on To survey the large areas of seabed work along the exposed outer edge of the reefs – lying across the main outer iron cannon, Spanish coins and casuarina the information to Sir . at our target locations, our plan was to use reef looking for any signs of the pre-1803 shipping route from Sydney to China – landing a spar and logs approximately 400 metres east of the Even when under house arrest in magnetometers – towed submersible shipwreck, as well as the wreck site of the along with growing traffic and increasing a piece of timber, Porpoise site. This suggested an Mauritius, Flinders reported the discovery electronic devices that measure changes Cato. Although the surf was high the activity in the South Seas whale fishery association with Cato, which was carrying of the wreck to his French captors since in the earth’s magnetic field caused by divers located several reef gutters – led to further shipwrecks in 1856, 1861, worm eaten and a cargo of Australian timber. The cannon he believed that it may have been the presence of iron artefacts such as valleys in the filled with sand 1870, 1879, 1882 and 1886. was raised in 1991 by a team from the associated with one of the ships from cannons or anchors. Such instruments and coral rubble – which could possibly Bird Islet at the eastern end of Wreck almost rotten, were Queensland Museum. It was later La Perouse’s expedition that had had been used to great effect on the earlier be the site of the Cato wreck. Reefs was occupied from the mid-1860s found and burnt identified from the trunnion marks as disappeared after departing Mermaid expedition. Unfortunately for us neither of the two to the early 1900s by the Tasmanian-based having been manufactured by the Carron in March 1788. The fate of La Perouse had Our personnel were briefed, small magnetometers that the expedition had Anglo-Australian Guano Company. It Iron Foundry at Falkirk in Scotland been one of the great mysteries of that boats were fuelled and the various teams brought appeared to be functioning quarried the metre-thick deposits of between 1770 and 1780. great age of Pacific exploration. were away almost as soon as the two main properly, although both units had been sea-bird excrement known as guano, and Since La Perouse’s ships were later expedition vessels had moored up. serviced and tested before departure. The Silentworld–Australian National exported thousands of tons of the dried found off Vanikoro in the Solomon Warren Delaney, a member of the Over the next few days, while the Maritime Museum expedition and bagged fertiliser to Melbourne, recorded in 1966, 1967 and again in 1983 Islands, and no pre-1803 vessels are Maritime Archaeological Association magnetometer teams battled with their Sydney, Launceston and Hobart where when divers from the Maritime In 2008 the Australian National Maritime known to have been wrecked off this part of Queensland and formerly with the recalcitrant equipment and sourced it fetched £8 a ton. Archaeological Association of Queensland Museum began a fruitful collaboration of the Queensland coast, the wreckage Queensland Museum, had visited Wreck a replacement from Western Australia, From the early 1900s the reefs and cays relocated the two wrecks near Porpoise in Australian maritime archaeological seen by the survivors in 1803 presented an Reefs on several earlier expeditions, and our divers continued searching for the were largely undisturbed until the early Cay, along with a third wreck found projects with the Silentworld Foundation, intriguing mystery. Was it a Spanish he quickly located and buoyed the site remains of the Cato and also began 1960s when a growing interest in at Bird Islet that was tentatively identified part of the Australian-based shipping vessel blown off course on a voyage to one of HMS Porpoise on the southern side surveying the remains of the 1803 Australia’s maritime past, together with as the 151-ton brigantine Harp wrecked company Silentworld Ltd. Our first joint of Spain’s Pacific colonies? Or an early of the Porpoise Cay lagoon. encampment on Porpoise Cay. This was the development of recreational scuba in 1861. expedition that year located the wreck of American or British whaling vessel that Although more than two centuries where the 90 survivors had built their diving, saw a series of private expeditions Divers from the Queensland Museum Lieutenant Phillip Parker King’s survey had disappeared into the vastness of the had passed since HMS Porpoise went up shelters, erected a flag pole, planted a visit the reefs searching for the remains and the Maritime Archaeological vessel, HMCS Mermaid, lost on an Pacific Ocean? Our archaeologists would onto the top of the reef, the site is liberally garden with oats, maize and pumpkins, of shipwrecks. pioneers led Association of Queensland visited Wreck uncharted reef south of Cairns in 1829. be alert for any clues to the identity of this strewn with the remains of the ship. dug a saw pit for cutting timber, by Ben Cropp visited in 1965 and quickly Reefs and the site of HMS Porpoise In December 2009 the museum and the mystery shipwreck on Wreck Reefs. A large, old-style Admiralty-pattern established a forge for working metal and found the remains of HMS Porpoise on in May 1987 and again in May 1988. Silentworld Foundation came together The team to carry out our land and sea anchor lies palm down in the breaking set aside an area on the north-eastern side the reef top in shallow water directly east A bronze bell – unfortunately lacking once again in another collaborative survey in December 2009 comprised surf, while a second lies 30 metres or of the cay to build their two schooners. of Porpoise Cay. a name – was raised. It was during these expedition – this time to locate and survey archaeologists, historians, students and so back from the reef edge in one or two The divers also located another wreck visits that the earlier identification of the the remains of HMS Porpoise and the volunteer divers from this museum, the metres of water. Surrounding the anchors … from this time on hands are employed, approximately 400 metres to the west second shipwreck site as that of Cato was merchantman Cato, which played such Silentworld Foundation, Oceania and stretching northwards for several some about our new boat whose keel is laid of HMS Porpoise, which they took to be questioned, since the presence of copper an important role in the dramatic story Maritime, the Maritime Archaeological hundred metres are dozens of iron ballast down 32 feet, others employed in getting Cato. Further visits to Wreck Reefs are sheathing and the style of anchor at the of Flinders’ encounter with Wreck Reefs. Association of Queensland, blocks – kentledge in 18th-century anything serviceable from the Wreck;

6 Signals 90 March to May 2010 Signals 90 March to May 2010 7 ANMM senior curator Dr Nigel Erskine Hands are employed, with the gudgeon (rudder hinge fitting) probably from the merchantman Cato. some about our new Expedition photographer Canthe Rivett boat whose keel is laid down 32 feet, others employed in getting anything serviceable from the Wreck

our guns and carriages we got from the had more luck. As both wrecks broke up and the survivors’ campsite. We surveyed Wreck and placed them in a half moon a plume of material had been swept into and assessed two other mid-19th-century form close to our flagstaff… on the 4th of the lagoon by the prevailing weather and shipwrecks, the Mahaica and the Annie, October was launched and gave her the . The heavier material was deposited located and surveyed the inner mooring name Resource, on the 7th we loaded her closer to the reef edge and lighter material field of the guano settlement at Bird Islet, with wood in order to take it over to the such as rigging components was carried and conducted an archaeological survey Island … to make charcoal, for our smith hundreds of metres across the reef top of Bird Islet itself. to make the iron work for our next boat… until it snagged on the coral bottom The participation of two marine Journal of Samuel Smith, HMS Porpoise or became waterlogged and sank biologists from the Sydney Institute in the lagoon. of Marine Science also provided valuable Referring to the original drawings of One such find was a 600 mm-long information on the health of the marine William Westall, the artist with Flinders’ copper-alloy gudgeon – a cast rudder environment of the Wreck Reefs, one expedition, it would appear that time, hinge fitting – found more than 300 of Australia’s most remote coral reef cyclones and winter storms, the prevailing metres inshore from the Cato Gutter Site. systems. This work is most important, wind and the actions of nest-building sea- It is more than likely that this heavy since coral reefs are early indicators of birds and turtles have altered the shape fitting was still attached to part of the global warming. Although analysis of and size of Porpoise Cay considerably; stern post of the vessel when it floated their data is still ongoing, some of their it is now about 50 metres shorter, and into this position and eventually sank. initial observations – particularly in further to the west, than it was in All the timber has subsequently relation to the low population density Flinders’ time. Nonetheless, the survey disintegrated, but the presence of copper of certain fish species – is surprising given team immediately started to find fastenings in the vicinity of the gudgeon the area’s remoteness. It highlights the numerous artefacts associated with supports this scenario. Artefacts such need to conduct further work in this area. the survivors’ camp. as this gudgeon can provide accurate The archaeological, historical and The concreted remains of cannon balls information on the nationality, size and environmental information obtained were located on the eastern end of the cay age of a wreck. It is currently being from the Wreck Reefs Project will be used along with furniture fittings, a uniform conserved in the museum’s conservation by the museum, in consultation with button, the eye-piece of a navigational laboratory along with a number of other the Department of Environment, Water, instrument and ship’s fastenings. At the recovered artefacts. Heritage and the Arts and National south-western end were found a lens of With a third magnetometer brought in Marine Parks, to develop conservation burnt material and fragments of coal, from the mainland on our resupply vessel, management plans which will assist in possibly associated with the signal fire we quickly confirmed that a significant planning future research, interpretation, and forge that had been erected down- iron anomaly existed in the Cato Gutter public access and management on the wind from the survivors’ tents. Site. Divers with hand-held metal Porpoise and Cato shipwreck sites along Without the larger towed detectors combed the site again and this with wrecks and sites associated with magnetometers, the dive teams searching time located an iron cannon heavily guano settlement on Bird Islet.  for the remains of the Cato and the pre- concreted into the northern wall of the 1803 shipwreck used a less powerful gutter, in three to four metres of water. hand-held magnetometer, supplemented A second anomaly, possibly another by several hand-held metal detectors, cannon, was located adjacent to the first. The Wreck Reefs Project would not have looking for indications of these two It is apparent that this gutter is more than been possible without the contribution wrecks. The team located a series of likely the main wreck site of the Cato. of our sponsor and collaborative partner significant anomalies in a gutter some The museum and Silentworld the Silentworld Foundation, and the valuable 250 metres east of the Porpoise site, in the Foundation were pleased with this assistance of Oceania Maritime, The Maritime area where an iron cannon and Spanish progress in identifying the last resting Archaeological Association of Queensland, coins were recovered by the Queensland place of Cato, one of the earliest colonial James Cook University, Flinders University, Museum in 1991. We called this the Cato merchant vessels lost in Australian the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Gutter Site. Here we found fragments waters. Although the pre-1803 mystery the crew of Nimrod Silentworld and of lead and shards of blue glass. shipwreck has eluded us this time, Silentworld II, and all our enthusiastic divers Snorkel divers working inshore from we collected significant archaeological and snorkellers from Victoria, New South both the Porpoise and the Cato Gutter Site information on the Porpoise wreck site Wales, Queensland, ACT and the USA.

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