The Admella Shipwreck - 150 anniversary: Ron inspects the preparations for the anniversary on the Limestone Coast in the South East region of South Australia
The Limestone Coast is a wild and windswept coastline and one rightly feared by any sensible mariner. At Carpenter's Rocks a monument stands to an event that shook the young colony of South Australia to it's very core. Few tales of maritime misery can match the saga of the Admella - a cargo carrying passenger steamer operating between Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston.
Laden with copper bars from Kapunda, a team of racehorses bound for Victoria's spring carnival and passengers and crew, the Admella left Port Adelaide for Port Melbourne when she came to grief near Carpenter's Rocks on the morning of August 6th, 1859. The ship broke up leaving 113 people clinging to the wreck for a week. Only 19 people survived.
With the loss of so many lives the wreck of the Admella ranks as one of the worst maritime disasters in Australian history. There was a design fault in the iron hull of the ship and it broke up in fifteen minutes leaving the passengers and crew exposed on the reef and within sight of land.
Frantic efforts were made to reach a nearby Lighthouse and raise the alarm. But communication in this remote area being what it was - it took days before a rescue craft large enough could make its way from Portland to this part of the South Australian coastline.
In the words of one life boat captain, they were more like statues than human beings, their eyes fixed, their lips black from want of water and their limbs swollen through exposure to the relentless surf.
Russell Peate, Grant District Council: "You only need to look at the surf, you only need to look at the coastline. Some tried, some died, some slipped down into the sea from starvation. Certainly it stopped the nation, it stopped the houses of parliament in Adelaide and it was an absolute saga that was a great story of people being rescued and surviving here."
Another monument to the Admella stands hundreds of kilometres away in Timpson Street, Port Adelaide. The Navigator Memorial, as it's known, was recently refurbished and moved to Timpson Street from it's first home in nearby Saint Vincent Street and now takes pride of place at Queens Wharf.
John Williams, Historian: "There's a imbedded in the pavement as if to draw us to the seafloor and the rocks are symbolic of carpenter's rocks. The broken compass fragments are alluding to loss and tragedy."
The compass fragments recall the direction the Admella was taking when she slammed into the reef beginning a shipwreck tale which former merchant seaman John Williams says rivals any in history.
John Williams, Historian: "I'd regard it as a more colourful and tragic story than the Titanic sinking in the Atlantic. It went over a period of days - 6-8 days. And some of the harrowing tales that came from that of people clinging to the rigging of the vessel for six days and dropping off - they were dropping off like flies and on the beach down there people were watching all this unfold. It was just the most remarkable tragedy."
From 11am on Thursday September 3rd (2009) as part of Merchant Navy Day - marchers will head off from Lighthouse Square at Port Adelaide along Queens Wharf to the Navigator Memorial for a commemorative service.
A number of other activities are also planned for the Limestone Coast. For details log onto their web site. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
SS Admella Commemorative Events
Merchant Navy Day March Sept 3rd
Commercial Road to The Navigator memorialPublished 9th August 2009
