Lass of Geraldton (1867/03/25)

Murray River 0–11 miles south of Robert Point

The 2-masted schooner Lass of Geraldton was built by William Garrard at Geraldton from timber and fittings taken from the wrecked ship African. He purchased the material from Lionel Samson who, having bought the wreck for £70, employed Daniel Chapman to break it up. The Lass of Geraldton had one deck and a square stern. Garrard also built two other vessels from his purchase of African timbers bought from Samson—the schooner Mary Ann (O/No. 36551), 33.28 registered tons, and the sailing lighter Albatross.
Lockier Burges in his book The Pioneers of the Nor’-West Australia described the schooner on an earlier voyage:
The Lass of Geraldton was a strange looking craft. Being first built as a cargo boat, she was subsequently added to aft in order to carry passengers. If not weighed down heavily forward she had a habit of cocking her bow straight up, then making a dive forward and burying herself up to the bulkheads in every sea. The captain and myself had to move about 140 bags of wheat and two tons of lead ore forward to steady her (Burges quoted in Henderson, 1988: 71).
In his evidence to the subsequent Court of Inquiry Captain O’Grady described the schooner as ‘rather crank than otherwise’ (Gazette 5 April 1867: 2c-d).
The Lass of Geraldton departed Fremantle at 8.00 a.m. on 25 March 1867 bound for Bunbury under the command of Henry Wyndham O’Grady with a crew of four men, Henry McPherson, Michael Lawson, Peter Thompson and a German cook, name unknown. There were also two passengers, one of whom was George Shenton, a joint owner of the schooner with Charles Crowther of Geraldton. The other passenger was C. Teede. The vessel was in ballast, consisting of about 14 or 15 tons of sand, as the only cargo was two tons of flour.
THE LOSS
About 1.00 p.m. on 25 March the Lass of Geraldton was carrying full sail with a fair wind. O’Grady called Lawson to relieve him at the helm and then, after checking the barometer, went aloft to check his position. Captain O’Grady saw a slight squall approaching and had the crew shorten sail and ‘scandalize’ the main (by lowering the peak and raising the tack). Almost immediately the vessel was hit by this squall from the north-west and became unmanageable. The vessel heeled over under the wind and sank in about five minutes, some 10 or 11 miles south of the entrance to the Peel Inlet and 7 miles from land. The vessel’s dinghy had been securely lashed to the deck, but there was no time to cut it free. Both passengers and three of the crew were drowned; and only Captain O’Grady and Peter Thompson (also known as Dandy) got ashore after about five hours in the water. O’Grady related how he ‘held poor Mr. Shenton on a hatch for four hours, and saw he was dead before I left him, and I also saw two of the crew dead’ (Gazette, 29 March 1867: 2d). The search parties could see the vessel from the shore as it was in a depth of only 14 m with a mast protruding above water.
INQUIRY
A Court of Inquiry held at Fremantle on 30 March 1867 found that neither Captain O’Grady nor any of his crew was to blame for the sinking of the Lass of Geraldton.
INITIAL SALVAGE
While unsuccessfully searching for survivors from the wreck, some hatches and ten bags of flour were found. The wreck was examined by some people who thought it possible that the Lass of Geraldton might be raised. Although two coasters were subsequently sent to attempt this salvage of the schooner there is no record of any success, and the registry was closed on 20 December 1867.
SITE LOCATION
Divers from the Western Australian Museum in May 1995 carried out an inspection on a wreck on Bouvard Reef, and speculated that the material may have come from either the Bee or the Lass of Geraldton, both lost in this vicinity. The GPS position of the site inspected is 32° 50.492 S and 115° 35.166 E, almost ten miles south of Cape Bouvard. This site seems to fit best with that of the wreck of the Comet (see entry) as Captain O’Grady stated that the Lass of Geraldton was wrecked 10–11 miles south of the Peel Inlet.
SITE DESCRIPTION
The site runs north-south and covers a fairly large area of approximately 200 m by 80 m in about 10 m of water. There are three small sections of wreckage including five loose planks, a section of keel with two iron protrusions and a bronze bolt, and some frames averaging 100 mm square. The planks vary in length from 3 to 9 m. Two have a width of 200 mm and a thickness of 40 mm, another is 320 mm wide and 40 mm thick with some 25 mm diameter holes and two bronze bolts, and there are two planks 200 mm wide but only 25 mm thick. There is also a wooden construction in good condition 1.8 m by 1.5 m and 50 mm thick, possibly made of pine, to which is attached a length of chain.
EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
A sample of timber collected during the wreck inspection was examined by Dr Ian Godfrey, Western Australian Museum, who reported it to be a Eucalyptus species, possibly jarrah or karri. This would seem to indicate a locally built vessel, such as the Coolgardie or the unnamed lighter (1913). As mentioned above the Lass of Geraldton was built of timber recovered from the wreck of the African, an English-built ship. There is, however a possibility that some eucalypt timber was used in its construction, or during any subsequent additions, alterations or repairs. The Bee was wrecked on the beach, not offshore.