SS Alert
 | |
| Career (Australia) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Alert |
| Owner: | Huddart Parker |
| Port of registry: | Melbourne, Australia |
| Builder: | Robert Duncan & Co., Port Glasgow |
| Launched: | 1877 |
| Identification: | Official number: 76169 |
| Fate: | Sunk, 28 December 1893 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type: | Steamship |
| Tonnage: | 243 tons[2] |
| Length: | 169 ft (52 m) |
| Beam: | 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) |
| Depth: | 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) |
| Propulsion: | Rankin & Blackmore compound steam engine, 90 nhp, 1 screw |
SS Alert was a steamship that sank off Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia on 28 December 1893.[1][3][4] The ship was built for the gentle waters of Scottish lochs and was almost 51 m (167 ft) long and weighed 247 tonnes.
After the Alert sank the ship laid for 113 years on the ocean floor until being rediscovered in June 2007 by a team from Southern Ocean Exploration.
History
The Alert was built at Port Glasgow in 1877 and later sailed to Australia as a three-masted schooner with her funnel and propeller stowed in the hold.[2] After a few years on the Melbourne-Geelong route she temporarily replaced the SS Despatch on the Gippsland-Melbourne run in 1893 whilst the Despatch was being refitted.
During a gale, the ship set out from Lakes Entrance bound for Melbourne via Port Albert.[1] It encountered hurricane-force southerly winds and mountainous seas and sank about four miles[3] off Cape Schanck.[3][5] Of the 16 people on board, the only survivor was Robert Ponting, the ship's cook, who was washed ashore at Sorrento"back" (ocean) beach after clinging to a portion of cabin door. He was found and revived by locals using brandy and the body heat of a St. Bernard dog.[6] Two bodies were also washed ashore at Sorrento back beach.[7]
An inquiry was held and attached no blame to the lighthouse keeper or the captain[8] but, after years of litigation, compensation was awarded to Ponting and the wife of one of the deceased.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Alert Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number S17". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 2012-02-05.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Shipwrecks of Victoria".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "THE FOUNDERING OF THE S.S. ALERT.". Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo and Omeo Chronicle (Vic. : 1882 - 1918) (Vic.: National Library of Australia). 13 January 1894. p. 4 Edition: morning. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ↑ Doherty, Ben (2007-06-12). "Deep thrill for Alert adventurers". The Age.
- ↑ "Jubilee Point, Vic: Shipwreck in Gale". EMA Disasters Database. Australian Government.
- ↑ "Foundering of the s.s. Alert.". Wellington Times and Agricultural and Mining Gazette (Tas : 1890 - 1897) (Tas: National Library of Australia). 4 January 1894. p. 3. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ↑ "WRECK AT THE HEADS.". Fitzroy City Press (Vic. : 1881 - 1920) (Vic.: National Library of Australia). 29 December 1893. p. 3. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ↑ "THE FOUNDERING OF THE S.S. ALERT.". The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) (Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia). 20 February 1894. p. 2. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ↑ "THE S.S. ALERT.". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) (Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia). 24 May 1897. p. 7. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
External links
- State Library of Victoria: "The Foundering of the S.S. Alert Vic." (illustrations)
- The Age Newspaper: "A Scottish secret surfaces" 12 June 2007 (contains illustration of Alert in Storm)
- "SS Alert". Southern Ocean Exploration. 2007.
Coordinates: 38°31′34.23″S 144°52′29.35″E / 38.5261750°S 144.8748194°E