Only two people survived the wreck of the Loch Ard on Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast

WHEN 18-year-old Eva Carmichael was shaken from her sleep aboard the Loch Ard she made her way to the deck only to be swept into the ocean and into a media frenzy.

An etching of the passengers and crew on board ship Loch Ard as they rush to get into lifeboats after the clipper ran aground off the coast of Victoria in 1878. Only two would survive — ship cadet Tom Pearce and passenger Eva Carmichael.

WHEN 18-year-old Eva Carmichael was shaken from her bunk aboard the clipper Loch Ard in the early hours of June 1, 1878, she had no idea what was going on. Making her way through the chaos below, she climbed on deck where the captain tied a lifebelt around her waist and fastened her to a spar (wooden pole which supports a sail). Washed overboard she bobbed in the waves for two hours hoping she would drift ashore. Exhausted, she cried for help.

Her call was heard by 18-year-old apprentice midshipman Thomas Pearce (or Pierce), who had already made his way ashore clinging to an upturned lifeboat. He swam out to the stricken woman and dragged her ashore, putting her into a small cave that looked out on the narrow rocky inlet.

Pearce then climbed the sheer cliff above the inlet to go for help. A local farmer, Hugh Gibson, owner of the nearby Glenample Homestead, not far from the Twelve Apostles, Victoria, was out looking after his cattle when he saw the bedraggled Pearce. He listened to the young man’s story and went back to his house to raise the alarm and get some rope to rescue any survivors. Pearce went back to check on the woman he had already saved.

Cadet Tom Pearce, who survived and saved passenger Eva Carmichael,. They were the only survivors when it ran aground off Victoria in 1878.

When Pearce returned, Carmichael was hiding in another cave, because she feared attacks by natives. When Gibson reached the shore he found dead bodies. Pearce and Carmichael were the only survivors of 37 passengers and 17 crew. Among the dead were Carmichael’s entire family; her doctor father, mother, three sisters and two brothers.

The tragedy would make the two survivors famous. The shipwreck would also give its name to the small cove where both survivors came ashore and the Loch Ard would become one of the most famous ships lost along Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast.

The Loch Ard was built in Glasgow for the Loch shipping line and launched in 1863. This three-masted, iron-hulled, 1369-tonne ship was one of the last generation of fast sailing vessels known as clippers, designed to compete with the speed of the steamships.

Built to carry cargo between Liverpool, England, and Melbourne, its maiden voyage in 1874 was almost a disaster. The ship twice lost its masts rounding Ireland and India, and was almost driven ashore at Sorrento, Victoria. On another voyage the captain died and the ship nearly ran aground on the way to Calcutta.

The Loch Ard.

The ship was wrecked on the left and the opening to the gorge is on the right.

A hand-tinted undated photograph of Loch Ard Gorge on the Shipwreck Coast in Victoria by the Rose Stereograph Company. Picture: State Library of Victoria

Engraving from the Australasian Sketcher of an attempt to recover bodies from the Loch Ard shipwreck in 1878. Picture: State Library of Victoria

The Loch Ard Gorge today. Picture: Getty Images

A cave at the Loch Ard Gorge near Port Campbell on Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast today.

Loch Ard’s final voyage began on March 2, 1878. from Gravesend, bound for Melbourne, under the command of Captain George Gibb. The ship was carrying a cargo that included building materials, copper, marble fireplaces, gaslight fittings, lead, railway iron, cement, confectionery, clocks and objects intended for display at the 1880 International Exhibition in Melbourne, including a large porcelain peacock.

Also aboard were a number of wealthy families hoping to settle in Victoria, among them the Carmichaels. Eva’s father Dr Evory Carmichael was moving to Australia hoping it would help with his recovery from tuberculosis.

The voyage went comparatively smoothly until the ship entered Bass Strait on May 31. Foul weather, high waves and thick fog made it difficult for the captain to see major landmarks or the Cape Otway lighthouse. When the fog lifted the captain realised he was too close to shore, headed straight for Mutton Bird Island. He tried to take evasive action but ran the ship onto a reef hidden beneath the water around the island.

Tom Pearce (top left), Eva Carmichael (top right) and Capt Gibb.

The crash brought down the masts, crushing passengers who had made their way on deck and making it difficult to launch lifeboats. The ship sank within about 15 minutes.

As the only survivors Eva Carmichael and Pearce became celebrities, their story recounted in newspapers around the world. The public in Australia took up collections for both and people inundated them with telegrams imploring the pair to marry. Carmichael would later reveal that Pearce had asked her, but she thought that since she was from a wealthy family and he was a maritime man they had little in common and politely turned him down.

Pearce was given £1000 and a gold medal for bravery and later returned to England to complete his apprenticeship. He was involved in another sinking aboard the Loch Sunart in 1879. He married, reached the rank of Captain before retiring from the sea and dying at home in Southhampton in 1908.

Carmichael later married Captain Thomas Achilles Townsend, who had migrated to Australia. The couple later returned to live in Ireland where she and her husband lived on another coastline prone to shipwrecks and were often called to tend the victims. According to one story Pearce and Carmichael (then Mrs Townsend) met again when his ship was wrecked near her home.

The Loch Ard was rediscovered by divers in 1967 and the wreck plundered by treasure hunters until the government stepped in to protect the remains.