Divers lay wreath at Booya shipwreck to remember five who drowned during Cyclone Tracy

Divers have laid a wreath at a shipwreck deep in Darwin Harbour to honour the lives lost when it sank during Cyclone Tracy 50 years ago. See the photos from the ceremony.

The Booya sank in Darwin Harbour during Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Pictured here in 1949, when she was then named The Argosy Lemal and the Ametco. She was a three-masted auxiliary schooner with a steel hull and a 130bhp engine, pictured undergoing a refit on a slip at Bulimba in Brisbane's eastern suburbs.

Divers have laid a wreath at a shipwreck deep in Darwin Harbour to honour the lives lost when it sank during Cyclone Tracy 50 years ago.

Ruth Nazmeena Vincent, a 24-year-old bartender with three children, was one of five people aboard the Booya, missing until the wreck was discovered by chance in 2003.

Two of her children, Georgia and Tony Vincent, attended the wreath-laying this month.

“We want our kids to know (and) our grandchildren to know what happened and where she is,” Georgia told the ABC.

“It’s very significant.”

Georgia and Tony had with them one of their mum’s only possessions able to be recovered from the wreck – an opal ring they believe she put in her purse for safekeeping when the storm got bad.

“That’s all we’ve got left of her, is what came out of the boat.”

Georgia Vincent with her mother’s ring recovered when the wreck of the Booya was first found. Divers have visited the wreckage of a boat that sank during Cyclone Tracy 50 years ago to lay a wreath for five people on-board the Booya who died during the storm, including Ruth Nazmeena Vincent. Picture: Supplied.

The Booya was built in 1917 in the Netherlands, a 35.8m, 255 tonne, three-masted ship described as one of the finest schooners to ever ply Australia’s waters.

Brought to Australia in 1923, she was sold to the Commonwealth in 1942 and served as a radio communication ship in the Arafura and Timor Seas during World War II.

In 1971 the ship was purchased by a transport company and worked taking cargo between Darwin and Dili.

On Christmas Eve 1974, the day Cyclone Tracy struck, the Booya was tied up at Fort Hill Wharf.

Booya victims Gerald Thompson, Graham Dearden, skipper Terry (Jack) Westwood, and Ruth Vincent.

According to a first person account published by this masthead in 2007, the Booya was only there because skipper Terrence ‘Jack’ Westwood – on his last journey before retirement – had asked on behalf of the crew to spend Christmas Day on shore; they had no official business in Darwin but had been away from home for months.

With the storm bearing down, all able vessels were ordered away from the wharves and Captain Westwood departed about 8.30pm for safe anchorage, along with crew Gerald Thompson, Graham Dearden, and Raymond Curtain, and Ruth Vincent as a guest.

Records show 25 boars were wrecked or missing during the storm, and 16 people lots their lives on Darwin Harbour during the cyclone.

Alan Westwood (son of Booya skipper, Jack Westwood) and Georgia Vincent (daughter of Ruth Vincent) sift through items recovered from the ship in 2005. Picture: PATRINA MALONE

The Booya was counted among the missing boats until October 2003, it was discovered about 9km from shore.

A thorough search by police divers failed to find any human remains, however some personal items – including Ruth’s ring, makeup and perfume were discovered.

An enduring bond has formed between the divers and the Vincent family, with divers regularly checking on the wreck and reporting back.