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The Melancholy Wreck of the Dunbar Terror and Pathos – an Episode in Australian Shipping and Social History Unrivalled in Tragic Sweep and Gothic Representation

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The Melancholy Wreck of the Dunbar Terror and Pathos – an Episode in Australian Shipping and Social History Unrivalled in Tragic Sweep and Gothic Representation The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar Terror and pathos – an episode in Australian shipping and social history unrivalled in tragic sweep and Gothic representation. Kieran Hosty, curator of ship technology and maritime archaeology, writes about the wreck and its unprecedented impact on Victorian Sydney, 150 years ago this August. Warning not heard or seen – no help at hand The wide dark bosom of the angry deep With irresistible and cruel force Received them all. One only cast alive Fainting and breathless on the fatal rocks To weeping friends and strangers afterwards Thus told his melancholy tale From A narrative of the melancholy wreck of the Dunbar, James Fryer, Sydney 1857 THE 1850s WERE years of great social and economic growth in Australia, spurred on by the Australian gold rushes and corresponding increase in population, agriculture, industry and commerce. As the demand for goods and services grew, so did the demand for passenger and cargo ships. This persuaded Scottish its fi rst visit to Port Jackson – where the OPPOSITE: Poignantly personal items shipowner and merchant Duncan Dunbar Sydney Morning Herald reported ‘The such as jewellery and gold denture plates to order a series of hardwood clipper Dunbar is a splendid vessel.’ are among the material retrieved from ships from the English shipbuilder James the rocky sea-bed where Dunbar Laing and Sons of Sunderland, England, On 31 May 1857 the ship departed disintegrated. Photographer J Carter ANMM to cater for the new Australian trade. Plymouth for its second voyage to ABOVE: Hand-coloured engraving of Credited with introducing the American- Australia, carrying 63 passengers, 59 Duncan Dunbar’s clipper for the style clipper ship to the Australian run, crew and a substantial cargo, including Australian run. ANMM collection Duncan Dunbar named the various dyes for the colony’s fi rst postage stamps, clippers after his family including Phoebe machinery, furniture, trade tokens Dunbar, Dunbar Castle, Duncan Dunbar (coins privately issued by traders and Thursday 20 August 1857, with a rising and the Dunbar. manufacturers as change and to promote gale and bad visibility. The Macquarie Light on the cliff top a mile south of The impact brought down the topmasts, South Head was seen between squalls, although the night was dark and the land mounting seas stove in the lifeboats and the was invisible. Shortly before midnight Captain Green estimated the ship’s Dunbar heaved broadside to the swells position off the entrance to the Heads Built in 1852, the 1,321 register ton, their business), cutlery, manufactured and changed course to enter, keeping the copper-sheathed, three-masted sailing and fi ne goods, food and alcohol. Macquarie Light on the port bow. ship Dunbar cost over £30,000. Many of the fi rst-class passengers were Captain Green then ordered a blue light to Constructed of British oak and East prominent Sydneysiders, local ‘currency’ be burnt to summon the Sydney Harbour Indian teak and held together by iron that had made it in the colonies and who, pilot. According to the only survivor – a knees, iron riders and iron and copper after a visit ‘home’ to England, were sailor on watch at the time who became fastenings, the 201.9-foot (61.53 m) returning to Australia. the sole source of information about events on board – the urgent cry of vessel, with a breadth of 35 feet (10.66 Dunbar’s master Captain Green was ‘Breakers ahead!’ was heard from the m) and depth of 22.7 feet (6.91 m), a veteran of eight visits to Sydney, second mate on the forepeak. Captain was designed to carry passengers and as fi rst mate aboard the Agincourt Green gave the order ‘Port your helm!’ to cargo quickly between England and and Waterloo, then as commander swing the ship to starboard while the Australia. However, the Dunbar was fi rst of Waterloo, and again commanding watch braced the sails. requisitioned by the Royal Navy for use Vimeira and Dunbar. After a relatively as a troop carrier during the Crimean fast voyage of 81 days Dunbar arrived It was already too late. Captain Green’s War, so it was not until 1856 that it made off Port Jackson on the night of orders instead drove the vessel broadside Page 34 SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007 SIGNALS 79 June–August 2007 Page 35 them to the scene of the disaster. As the Seventeen bodies, including some OPPOSITE: One of many pamphlets narrative of James Fryer (cited in the mutilated by sharks, were recovered on the published in Sydney shortly after the onto the 50-metre-high cliffs just south wreckage and dead bodies. From here Mailbags and other items washed ashore previous paragraph) put it: north shore of Sydney Harbour from the shipwreck. ANMM collection of the signal station at South Head, he climbed up out of the reach of the indicated that the vessel was the Dunbar. ‘The scene is described by parties Mosman Spit around to Taylors Bay. Some ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Gravestone of a midway between the Macquarie waves and remained on the cliff face Thousands were drawn to the scene of present to have exercised a sort of were identifi ed immediately by names on Dunbar victim, Newtown cemetery; Lighthouse and The Gap. The impact until being rescued on 22 August by the wreck over the ensuing days to watch hideous fascination, that seemed to bind their clothing or by personal appearance ballast pigs at the Dunbar wreck site; brought down the topmasts, mounting either the Icelander Antonia Wollier the rescue of Johnson, the recovery them to the spot … each determination but other were so badly mutilated they Hornby Light built at South Head the year seas stove in the lifeboats and the or the diver Joseph Palmer, depending of the bodies and the salvage of some to leave the fatal locality became could not be recognised. The Sydney after the disaster, marking a safer entry. Dunbar heaved broadside to the swells. upon sources. (After recovering from of the cargo. For days afterwards the overpowered by a desire for further Morning Herald reported: ‘Mr P Cohen, Photographs NSW Heritage Office, K Hosty/ANMM Lying on its side, the ship began to break the wreck Johnson became a lighthouse newspapers, journals and local guides knowledge, many dreading lest they of Manly Beach Hotel, saw two bodies up almost immediately. The mizzen and keeper near Newcastle, where by a were fi lled with graphic descriptions of should have to recognise the familiar fl oating and tried to recover them, but in Wales had such a traumatic and long-term main masts crashed over the side but the remarkable coincidence he helped to the wreck – and of the public’s interest in face of a friend or relative.’ consequence of the number of sharks, and effect on the people of the Colony. rescue the sole survivor from the 1866 the horrible ‘spectacle’. the ferocity with which they fought for foremast remained standing. For the Dunbar was not just another wreck of the PS Cawarra.) their prey, he was unable to do so.’ (22 The aftermath One crewman, James Johnson, found ‘The rumours as to the fact of a dreadful ship carrying unknown immigrants August 1857). himself in the poop clinging to the mizzen One of the fi rst on the scene was the small shipwreck having just occurred soon starting a new life in Australia. On The victims of Dunbar were buried at chains. Unable to cross the deck, which coastal steamer Grafton, whose master assumed distinct shape and certainty. board were many local residents At Middle Harbour the majority of the Camperdown Cemetery in O’Connell was being swept by each successive wave, Charles Wiseman had prudently decided At length it generally became known in returning to the colonies after a visit wreckage of the Dunbar appeared to have Town (now Newtown). The bodies of Sydney that numerous dead and mutilated some unidentifi ed victims were placed He realised that a large vessel had been wrecked bodies of men, women and children were Thousands were drawn to the scene to watch in a mass grave funded by the colonial to be seen fl oating in the heavy surf at government. Some 20,000 people lined when he sailed through masses of bodies, large the Gap thrown by immense waves at a the rescue of Johnson, the recovery of the George Street for the funeral procession quantities of timber, bedding and bales great height; and dashed pitilessly against bodies and the salvage of some of the cargo that consisted of the band of the artillery the rugged cliffs, the returning water companies playing Handel’s ‘Dead March he went below and made his way forward to stand off the coast during the heavy sweeping them from the agonised sight of to the old country, including eight drifted ashore, along with several bodies. from Saul’, a company of artillery, seven before climbing out of a cabin skylight weather of the previous night. Now as he hearses, four mourning coaches and a the horrifi ed spectators …’ (A narrative members of the Waller family; Mr and ‘The shore is literally white with candles, and onto the chain plates of the surviving approached the Heads of Sydney Harbour of the melancholy wreck of the Dunbar, long procession of carriages surrounded Mrs Peek; Mrs Egan, the wife of the and the rocks covered or so deep with foremast. When the foremast fi nally gave he realised that a large vessel had been James Fryer, Sydney 1857). by a guard of honour provided by the Sydney MP Daniel Egan; and Mr and articles of every kind – boots, panama way Johnson was hurled onto the cliffs wrecked when he sailed through masses Mounted Police Force.
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