Shipwrecks

The Mahogany Ship

The story of the famed Mahogany Ship has captured the imagination of old and young since the early days of European settlement in Victoria. Many searches have been undertaken, some with sophisticated electronic equipment, others with picks and shovels, but to date no evidence has been found to substantiate the existence of this unknown vessel. So is it fact or fiction?

The legend begins…..

The year was 1836 and three seamen based in Port Fairy were attempting to come ashore near the mouth of the Hopkins River. Their boat capsized and one of the three drowned. The other two, known as Wilson and Gibb, buried their mate and began the long walk (about 29km) back to Port Fairy. They followed the shoreline crossing dunes swamps and rocky outcrops until they happened across the wreck of an unusual vessel in the dunes in the approximate area of Tower Hill. Upon their return to Port Fairy they reported their find to Captain John Mills who did not sight the wreck himself until a few years later. It was Captain Mills who first described the wood as “in hardness and colour not unlike mahogany”.

Over the following years (1836 – 1880) there were about 40 sightings of the wreck, with 27 of them officially recorded. These included sighting by:

• Captain John Mills – Port Fairy Harbour Master
• Captain John Mason – Architect and captain of the Belfast Militia
• Mr H C Donnelly – engineer and surveyor
• Mrs T C Manifold – later the wife of the Warrnambool Magistrate
• Mr S Furnell – Inspector of Police

The origins of the wreck have also caused conjecture. Some believe the wreck was simply an old whaling punt, a flat bottomed vessel that been built by the whalers. Others think it may just have been one of the many small vessels known to have come ashore between Port Fairy and Warrnambool in the early years of settlers, whalers and sealers.

There is, however, another possibility; a possibility that will change Australian history. That is that the boat was in fact a Portuguese caravel.

The Portuguese were great explorers and for centuries historians have marvelled at the sophistication of the maps that have been left behind by these master mariners, using what we would consider only crude and basic instruments. Maps that show the east coast of Australia were produced in the 16^th century and early copies are now in the collection of the British Museum.

Further Reading

The Mahogany Ship – A Survey of the Evidence  - J W Powling

The Mahogany Ship  - Jack Loney

The Secret Discovery of Australia  - K G McIntyre

Port Fairy – The First Fifty Years  - J W Powling