Whitsunday Wrecks

Compared to many other parts of the world, the waters of the Whitsundays are quite benign. The many islands and their mountain peaks provide prominent landmarks to guide vessels safely around the numerous hazards that potentially exist. However, for a variety of reasons such as bad weather, carelessness and outdated charts in the past, there have been victims over that last two centuries.

Previous editions of this paper have related the stories of the “Heroine”, SS “Llewellyn”, “Valetta” and the Whaler tragedy. This week’s story describes the fortunes, or should we say the misfortunes, of the “Veleiro”, a Portuguese Barque under the command of Captain Lorenzo Fullaondo, which left Port Douglas on January 20, 1880, bound for Melbourne and carrying a cargo of cedar.

Eleven days into her journey, as she sailed in the Whitsunday area, she encountered what the ship’s notes described as “boisterous weather”. Endeavouring to reach Pioneer Point for shelter, she struck Pioneer Rock and held fast, though taking water badly.

The decision was made to abandon ship and the captain and his eleven crew took to two boats and headed for Bowen. Upon their safe arrival, enquiries into the incident were difficult – none of the crew spoke English and no one in Bowen spoke Portuguese!

The ship remained fast on Pioneer Rock but subsequent to a report from Captain Lake of the “Katoomba” that she had disappeared, the government cutter from Bowen was despatched to the scene only to find that the “Veleiro” was still on the rock. Perhaps it was the hazy weather that had misled Captain Lake.

The vessel had, however, been stripped of everything moveable. It was evident to the crew of the cutter that the “Veleiro” was so firmly wedged that she was destined to stay there until she fell apart.

On March 8, prominent Bowen merchant and importer, Donald Millar, sent three men to the scene in his boat “The Frenchman”, and they camped on Pioneer Point until the salvage was to be completed. During the next few days, the men boarded the wreck several times but on March 11, in a severe rip around the rock, the punt in which the men approached the wreck capsized and one of the men, Harry Martin, was drowned. His body was never found. Martin had been one of a party which carried out one of the earliest surveys of the Proserpine River in 1879.

It is unclear as to whether the cargo of cedar was recovered but the “Port Denison Times” (July 30 1881) reported that a man had been sent to the wreck to burn it. It is most likely, therefore, that the cedar was recovered. Burning of a wreck was usual practice as this facilitated removal of metal fittings and also removed the hulk to avoid investigation by passing vessels.

Survey charts of Port Molle from HMS “Alert” following her visit two months earlier in May 1881 had shown the wreck still on Pioneer Rock but it seems it must have been shifted in its entirety in one way or another. No doubt the strong currents would have carried it away quite rapidly. Divers who have investigated the area around Pioneer Rock say that there are no recognisable remains.

And so, another vessel was despatched to a watery grave – somewhere!

Story and photo courtesy Proserpine Historical Museum. Information sourced from Ray Blackwood’s article “Coastline Calling” August 1990.

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Map showing Pioneer Point

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