Kitty Coburn (1875/12/03)

Barrack Point, Augusta

Kitty Coburn was built in the state of Maine in the United States, of oak, pine, pitch pine and hackmatack, and had two decks. At the time of this incident the vessel’s owners were John C. Smith and Joseph Ware of Melbourne (registered Melbourne 40/1874), and it was under the command of Captain W. Steele. After calling at Augusta the Kitty Coburn had gone on to Albany to collect eleven passengers (seven adults and four children) before returning to Augusta to take on a cargo of timber destined for Adelaide. This timber was from William Eldridge’s mill, and he was running late on the delivery date. Eldridge had been granted a fourteen-year lease over 75 000 acres of timber in July 1875. His cargo was not insured.
THE LOSS
Part of the cargo of jarrah, some 130 loads, had been taken on board when, on the evening of 3 December 1875, a strong south-east gale struck the Kitty Coburn, causing the hawse pipes to be ripped out and the cables of both anchors to part, and the vessel went aground near the mouth of the Blackwood River. It was considered to be a total wreck.
The Admiralty surveyor, W.E. Archdeacon, visited the bay in 1877, but his warning published in the sailing directions less than two years later came too late for the Kitty Coburn:
Flinders bay being exposed to the south-east, from which quarter strong gales blow during the summer, sending in a heavy ground swell, should not be entered at that season…(Archdeacon, 1879:46).
INQUIRY
A Court of Inquiry into the loss of the Kitty Coburn was held at Augusta on 12 December 1875 by the Resident Magistrate from Vasse, but the finding is not known.
INITIAL SALVAGE
On 9 December 1875 Captain Steele reported to the police that two days previously a number of items had been stolen from the wreck of the Kitty Coburn. These included a drum of paint, cask of colza oil (now called canola oil), boat sail, glass bookcase, bolt of canvas and a marble table.
On 6 January 1876 the wreck of the Kitty Coburn was sold by auction held at Mewers Hotel, Busselton, for £270 to a consortium of Fremantle business men. One of the buyers, William Owston, was a shipwright, a master mariner and, at one time, Lloyd’s surveyor in Fremantle. Owston examined the wreck and considered that it was possible to salvage the vessel, repairing it sufficiently for it to be taken to Fremantle for a complete repair and refit. A party of men under the supervision of W. Brown, with all the necessary gear, was therefore sent to Augusta on board the 48-ton schooner Brothers to undertake this task.
After discharging the timber, eleven months later they eventually succeeded in refloating the Kitty Coburn. On 1 November 1876, using an easterly breeze, Brown sailed in company with the Brothers for Fremantle. The following day a gale from the north-west struck the vessels off Cape Leeuwin and the pumps on board the Kitty Coburn, which had been adequate until then, could not cope. The sixteen crewmen abandoned the vessel at 4.00 a.m., being picked up with great difficulty by the Brothers. This schooner then attempted to make Fremantle, but the weather was so severe and since it was short of provisions and water for so many men, it turned and ran before the gale to Albany.
The Fremantle business men suffered a heavy loss. ‘It is estimated that the loss by the owners, including purchase money, will be about £1 400’ (Herald, 11 November 1876: 3d). The gear which had been used in the salvage of the Kitty Coburn, including a diving dress, anchors and chains, was on board the vessel when it sank.