SS Alert
 SS Alert | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Australia | |
| Name | 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 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
[edit | edit source]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 Despatch was being refitted.
During a gale, the ship set out from Lakes Entrance bound for Melbourne via Port Albert.[1] She 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
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External links
[edit | edit source]- 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)
- Project Gutenberg: "Battling with Waves and Lawyers" compiled by John Arbuckle Reid (an account of the wreck, aftermath, and litigation; published 1895)
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