Marine Archaeologists Hunt Shipwrecks Near Apollo Bay In Australia

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                                Marine archaeologists hunt shipwrecks near Apollo Bay






Jeff Whalley
GEELONG ADVERTISER
February 24th, 2009

THE tale of the swift Geelong schooner the Miranda may not be exactly like a Dirk Pitt novel but it is still exciting.

It is 1881 and loaded with 600 bags of potatoes the Melbourne-bound boat took to calm oceans but soon hit a storm and ended up in Davey Jones' locker.

The crew survived.

The spuds were never seen again.

This is one of the tales marine archaeologists from Heritage Victoria hope to learn more about during a journey to waters around Apollo Bay.

They are seeking out 12 shipwrecks from between 1854 and 1958.

Heritage Victoria maritime team leader Peter Harvey said the wrecks could tell the region a lot about its history.

"Everything from the small fishing boats to some of the fastest ships tell interesting stories," Mr Harvey said.

He said divers would deploy both sonar equipment and magnetometer devices to scour the ocean floor.

"This was the time before a reliable road system so the ocean was the best way of getting things from these small settlements to Geelong and Melbourne," Mr Harvey said.

The Argus reported in 1881 that the Miranda set off in fair weather but soon struck an enormous swell.

"Her hapless crew could do nothing other than cling to the rigging for their lives as seas broke over the deck," The Argus reported.

Mate William Cousins told the Steam Navigation Board Inquiry that the boat was dragged onto the rocks.

Mr Cousins then described the nail-biting escape.

"The people ashore had been looking at us. The captain got on to the jibboom, and cast a line ashore, which the people caught, and we got ashore by climbing along the line," he said.

Then there is the story of the Christian, which in 1857 was loaded with timber sleepers to be used on the Geelong to Ballarat railway when it to met with ugly oceans.

It was damaged when the anchor chain caught around the bowsprit when the vessel pitched into the sea.




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