Tuesday, May 25, 2010

 

Shipwrecked "Sirius"

One of the most important shipwrecks in Australian history happened just where the waves are breaking in the picture, taken from the beach at Slaughter Bay on Norfolk Island. This is where HMS "Sirius" was wrecked. "Sirius" was the flagship of the First Fleet which landed the first convicts and settlers in Australia on Jan 18, 1788. Soon after, "Sirius" was sent with a party of convicts to start another settlement on Norfolk Island. In February 1790, "Sirius" and "Supply" were taking supplies and convicts to Norfolk and on March 19, 1790, were caught by rough weather at the anchorage near Kingston. "Supply" escaped but "Sirius" was blown onto the reef and wrecked. Most of the supplies were saved and no lives were lost. Things got very tough on the island for a while. For over a year there was not enough food supplies for the people there. One way they survived was by eating seabirds, and they completely wiped out a colony of over 200,000 mutton birds before relief ships arrived. Divers have been recovering stuff from the "Sirius" wreck for over 20 years now, and you can see some of the things in a museum at Kingston, just near the wreck site. The photo shows one of the big anchors and two of the short-barreled cannons, but there are lots of smaller bits in the museum as well. In really calm weather you can even dive the wreck site, but it has never been calm enough when we are there.

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