The secrets of the shipwrecks in Middle Harbour’s Wreck Bay

A SMALL cove at Middle Harbour has always piqued the interest of anyone who has kayaked past it. Here’s why.

The wreck of the Itata in 2015

• How one of Sydney’s best lagoons was destroyed
• How Sydney marked the 150th anniversary of Arthur Phillip’s arrival

IT might be on the wrong side of Middle Harbour but a small cove below Northbridge golf course has always piqued the interest of anyone who has kayaked in the area.

That’s because lying in shall water are the rusting remains of several vessels, which has led Salt Pan Cove to be known more commonly by locals as Wreck Bay.

It’s uncertain how may ships were taken there to be scrapped but they include a 19th century French corvette and a wooden steamship that was pressed into service during World War II.

The attraction for those wanting to scrap timber vessels there was the shallowness of the water and the isolation of the bay.

Ship-breakers would strip as much as they could wherever the ship was berthed or moored, then tow it to Wreck Bay at high tide and let it settle on the mudflat.

When the tide had gone out, the hull would be torched and the ship-breakers would recover any metal that had sunk in the shallow water.

But sometimes iron vessels were taken there to be broken up in shallow water or simply abandoned there and the elements left to do the rest.

The Morpeth on the Hunter River. Courtesy State Library of Victoria

One of the first vessels to end her days in Wreck Bay was the 360-ton Morpeth, an iron paddle-steamer built in England in 1862 for the Hunter River New Steam Navigation Company, which used it for the Hunter River trade.

She was sold in 1888 and converted to a collier and then sold again in 1891 and converted to a hulk.

By late 1899, the Morpeth was lying in Wreck Bay, where she was broken up.

Two of the men involved in her scrapping almost drowned in October 1899 when their boat sank near The Spit.

Another vessel to end her days in Wreck Bay was the 950-ton steel barque Itata, which is understood to have traded between England, South America and Australia.

In late December 1905, the Itata arrived in Sydney from Chile, discharged part of her cargo of saltpetre and then sailed to Newcastle to unload the remaining cargo.

The gutted hull of the Itata. Courtesy Newcastle Region Library

But in the early hours of January 12, 1906, a fire broke among the coal and saltpetre on board the ship and the Itata was driven ashore on a nearby beach before she could sink or the fire could spread to the dock where she was berthed or to other ships.

Saltpetre is one of the major components of gunpowder and when it exploded, it blew the ship’s timberwork to smithereens.

The charred hull of the barque Itata was offered at auction but the bidding for the hull was not keen and it was sold for just £6 to George Williams, of Sydney.

Williams planned to use the hull as a hulk, which was patched and emptied of water for the tow to Sydney, but the damage to the hull was so severe that it was abandoned in Wreck Bay.

The gutted hull of the Itata. Courtesy Newcastle Region Library

The next hulk to settle into the mudflat appears to the 1500-ton wooden-hulled former French corvette Thetis, which was built in the 1860s when some warships were still being built with metal-reinforced rams at their bows to pierce the timber hulls of enemy ships.

Unfortunately, the only hull the Thetis’ ram ever pierced was that of another French warship that had to be run ashore to prevent it sinking.

The Thetis was then sent to the Pacific, where she looked set to end her days in Noumea as a hulk for convicts but in 1905 she was towed all the way to Sydney by local stevedore William Brown to be scrapped.

Wrecks in Salt Pan Cove. Courtesy Willoughby City Library

The Thetis was moored at Kerosene Bay, Woolloomooloo Bay and finally Gore Bay, where she was stripped of her armour plating, masts, funnels, deck fittings and machinery.

She was then towed to Wreck Bay in January 1907 and torched so Brown could secure the copper used in her construction and the iron ram, which was said to weigh more than 20 tons.

Along the way, other vessels that ended their days at Wreck Bay are believed to include the steamer Western, a barge called the Jumbo, and vessels called the Tangier, the Phoebe and the Kellie.

The most recent ship to end her days at Wreck Bay was the 257-ton wooden steamship Cobaki, which was built in 1918 for Langley Brothers of Sydney.

The wreck of the Itata in 2015.

In 1926 she was bought by the North Coast Steam Navigation Company but sold soon after to the Illawarra & South Coast Steam Navigation Company, before being stripped of her engines and used as a store ship and then stricken from the register in 1937.

In 1939 the Cobaki was taken over by the Defence Department and used for training members of the docks operational unit and designated AB 431 but by 1946 her usefulness was over and she was towed to Wreck Bay to be torched.

The wreck of the Itata in 2015.

By now, however, there were more people living nearby and they protested against the plan but before she could be torched, in early April 1946 vandals set the Cobaki adrift and she went ashore in the bay, after which every man and his dog began stripping her of anything they thought had any value.

One newspaper reported that as many as 30 or 40 children could also been seen aboard the hulk, joining the adults in the “orgy of destruction”.

There was talk of towing the remains of the Cobaki out to sea to scuttle her but they came to nothing and she joined the rest of the rusting relics in the bay.

Today the skeletons of the Itata and the Cobaki are the most obvious remainders of this scrapyard flotilla.