When the SS Cheviot steamed out of Melbourne headed for Sydney, 130 years ago today, the crew and passangers were expecting an uneventful trip. But wild wind and ocean would conspire against the ship.
When the steamer lost its propeller it was dead in the water.
Attempts to regain control by setting sails were thwarted when the ship was pushed on to rocks and started breaking up.
Despite a valiant rescue effort launched from ashore, 35 people perished that day, in a tragedy that remains Victoria’s worst maritime death toll.
After less than an hour the ship struck rocks and began to break apart. The forward section sank, taking with it steerage passengers and most of the crew
The disaster had such an impact at the time that the shore on which the ship was wrecked was later named Cheviot beach.
It would once again come to national attention when prime minister Harold Holt went missing there in December 1967.
The Cheviot was built in Newcastle, England, in 1870 by Charles Mitchell and Co.
It had sails but its primary source of propulsion was the coal-fired 120 horse power vertical direct compound steam engines built by T. Clark and Co.
It was 70m long, and 1226 Gross Registered Tonnes. It was built in an era of fierce competition between steamships and traditional sailing ships.
Cheviot eventually made its way to Australia and was working as a tramp steamer by 1874, transporting coal and taking Chinese to the goldfields.
Plagued by mechanical problems, in 1876 it was saved from the scrapyard when it was bought by and registered to Melbourne shipping firm Wm. Howard Smith & Sons.
The Cheviot’s engines were overhauled, the boilers strengthened, a new propeller fitted, and the passenger quarters enlarged.
But by 1886 there were serious problems with its propeller. In March it slid back on its shaft and a blade dropped off.
In December the propeller shaft broke.
After repairs the steamship was deemed seaworthy by insurance company Lloyds and continued its voyages.
But disaster was looming.
On October 19 it left Melbourne carrying a shipment of metals, wine, foodstuffs and “sundries” to the value of about £8000, along with 21 passengers.
The captain, Thomas B. Richardson, had more than a decade of experience in the intercolonial shipping trade and had already made two journeys to Sydney and back on the Cheviot without incident.
But all the competence in the world counted for nothing when the weather turned rough.
Biting winds lashed the steamship as it headed out of Port Phillip Bay, passing between the heads at Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean at about 8pm.
The ebb tide was flowing out from the bay, pushing the ship through the heads, while a gale-force wind from the southwest made smooth navigation impossible, even under the power of steam.
According to one account the waves lifted the ship so far out of the water that the propeller was exposed.
Without resistance from the waters it spun furiously and when it hit the surface of the ocean again the blades broke off.
Other accounts say the propeller simply dropped off under the strain of the current.
With no means of being controlled the ship drifted toward the shore under the force of the wind and waves.
Captain Richardson immediately set the sails, but although they were capable of moving the ship under normal conditions, they were too small to pull it away from the lee shore under the blast of such a gale.
The crew could only light blue distress flares and watch helplessly as they drifted toward the shore.
After less than an hour the ship struck rocks and began to break apart. The forward section sank, taking with it steerage passengers and most of the crew.
Four people dumped into the water managed to swim to land.
By then the alarm had been raised on shore and the Queenscliff lifeboat was dispatched but couldn’t get near the ship because of terrible conditions.
In the early hours of the morning rescuers managed to attached a rocket propelled lifeline to the ship and brought ashore the remaining 24 passengers and crew (the last to leave was the captain) before the ship finally sank beneath the waves. The final death toll was 35.
An inquiry into the loss of the Cheviot exonerated the captain and commended him for his actions. The sinking was blamed on the accidental loss of the propeller.
Victorian governor Henry Loch later presented Captain Richardson with a purse of 500 sovereigns for his bravery.
When Holt disappeared while swimming off the beach where the ship was wrecked in 1967, conspiracy theorists claimed he was cursed for taking away Cheviot relics.
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