Langstone (1902/02/08)

Off Naturalist Reef, 25 miles from the Cape

Langstone was built under Special Survey by W. Pile & Co., and had one deck, one bulkhead, two tiers of beams and was cemented. It had a forecastle with a length of 7.32 m and a quarterdeck 13.72 m long. In 1882 at the time of the merger between the Shaw, Savill line and the Albion line the barque was valued at £10 444. Originally named Langstone when owned by Shaw, Savill and Albion Co. Ltd, later references spell the name as Langston, possibly as the result of its subsequent sale to Norwegian owners. The West Australian described it as ‘one of the prettiest models that ever floated in the waters of Koombana Bay’ (West Australian, 12 February, 1902, 7f). The owner of the barque was C.B. Mörck, who was also the master, and this was his first visit to Australia. It had arrived from Madagascar on 7 December 1901, with a crew of thirteen. The Langston was ready to sail on Friday 7 February, having loaded a cargo of 721 loads of timber from Millars’ Karri and Jarrah Forest, Limited, but the master delayed his departure due to the age-old sailors’ belief that to sail on a Friday was unlucky. The barque and its cargo with a total value of £4 000 were fully covered by insurance.
THE LOSS
The Langston departed Bunbury at 6.30 a.m. on Saturday, 8 February, 1902. The morning was fine with a breeze from the south-south-east. However at noon it commenced blowing a gale from south-south-west to south-west with a heavy cross sea running. The first mate, Carl Sunbye, later told a reporter: ‘When off Cape Naturaliste some 15 miles the captain gave instructions to lie out to windward—that is westerly—so to be well clear of the reefs’ (West Australian, 12 February, 1902, 7f). According to evidence given by the mate the barque was sailing at eight knots on a course of N.W.½W.
Captain Mörck had been watching out for the Naturaliste Reef, which he anticipated should be awash, but:
…with the heavy breaking of the seas all round made it impossible for me to detect the break on the reef. About 2 o’clock in the afternoon I suddenly picked up the reef right in front, and at once attempted to luff, but it was too late, and the next moment we went crashing over the rocks, which I am satisfied formed a portion of the Naturaliste Reef, the Cape bearing S.S.W. about 24 miles.
The ship at once commenced to go down, and when, on sounding the hold, I found that she had made nine feet of water in a few minutes, I gave the order to clear away the boats (statement by Captain Mörck quoted in Bunbury Herald, 13 February 1902: 2e).
In fact according to the first mate the Langston struck three times. It then listed over with seas breaking over the bulwarks, and slipped off the rocks. Captain Mörck said that this saved them, for they could not have manned a boat while on the reef, it being too rough. Three boats were lowered but one immediately filled with water and because of the rough seas it could not be bailed out. The second mate, Johann Weiseth, and seven of the crew got into the lifeboat, and the captain, first mate, steward, carpenter and a seaman went in a smaller boat, referred to in a newspaper report as a praam. This would have been a small lightly-built dinghy normally used only in harbour.
The Langston lay for a minute or so with the keel vertical, bow down and only the poop, mizen mast and part of the keel visible, before slipping beneath the waves into deep water. From the time it struck to the time the boats were lowered was ten minutes, and it sank only ten minutes after that in 23 fathoms (42 m) of water.
The southerly direction of the gale force wind and the consequent beam seas forced the boats away from a course for Bunbury, obliging them to run more northerly. The wind was too strong for any sail to be set, and the crew used the oars to keep the boats heading before the seas. The lifeboat took the smaller praam in tow, and, running before the strong wind both craft had great difficulty in staying afloat, the crews having to constantly bail.
That night one of the seamen, Andreas Ingrald (or Ingraid) Larsen, dropped his oar and fell exhausted into the bottom of the lifeboat. He was raving incoherently, and tore off some of his clothing. The captain delegated one of the crew to try to keep Larsen’s head above the water swilling around in the bottom of the boat. Larsen, aged 22, had been shipwrecked only a short while previously, and had been picked up by the Langston at Trama Tave in Madagascar just before it departed for Bunbury.
On Sunday morning those in the praam transferred to the far more seaworthy lifeboat, and the small dinghy was let go about 16 miles (30 km) from land. The planks of the lifeboat had dried and shrunk during the vessel’s stay in Bunbury and it therefore leaked very badly. This gives an indication of the danger which had been faced by the men in the even more unseaworthy praam. With two men bailing continuously they managed to set a small sail about noon, and sighted land about 4.00 p.m. that afternoon. The boat reached the shore some 30 miles north of Bunbury near Lake Preston at around 5.00 p.m.
About a kilometre from the beach the survivors found the home of Mr and Mrs Salter. This couple took them in and gave them shelter for the night. The following day, Monday 10 February, the captain and some of the crew were taken to Bunbury by another settler, Arthur Jones, in his buggy. Here they reported the wreck to the Resident Magistrate, W.H. Timperley, at 10.00 p.m. that night. The reminder of the crew arrived in Bunbury around midnight.
There are some discrepancies regarding exactly when Larsen died and what happened to his body after the survivors reached shore. The captain said that on Sunday ‘at 3 p.m. Larsen, who had not recovered his reason, expired’ (Bunbury Herald, 13 February 1902: 2e). However according to the mate, when they reached the shore at 5.00 p.m. Larsen was still alive, but only just, and had died that night on the beach. Both agree that Larsen was wrapped in a sail while he lay on the beach. Captain Mörck then claimed that when he was taken to Bunbury by Jones, he took with him Larsen’s body, handing it over to the police on Monday night. It was then placed in the morgue. This was hotly disputed by the local press:
The captain’s statement in regard to bringing the body of the unfortunate man Larsen into Bunbury is flagrantly inaccurate. The man’s body was left on the beach for a considerable time, as a matter of fact until it was removed on Tuesday morning. The body only reached Bunbury on Tuesday at midnight, and when it was taken to the morgue it was in a very advanced state of decomposition. Larsen’s body lay on the beach at Lake Preston from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning, when it was removed and brought into town by P.C. Nesbit and Mr. Jones, a settler at Lake Preston, arriving at the morgue about midnight Tuesday (Bunbury Herald, 13 February 1902: 2e).
Doctor Williams examined Larsen’s body and concluded that he had drowned. This presumably had occurred while Larsen lay in the water in the bottom of the lifeboat. The inquest held on 12 February at the Bunbury Courthouse by the Resident Magistrate, with a jury consisting of J.G. Baldock, Harry Brashaw and Arthur Charles Cook came to a similar conclusion, their verdict being that the ‘deceased came to his death by drowning while in the state of unconsciousness and that no blame could be attached to any person’ (Bunbury Herald, 13 February 1902: 2e-g).
INQUIRY
As the Langston was a foreign owned vessel there was no official investigation into the wrecking, but a consular inquiry was to be held. As reported above, a coroner’s inquest was held on the death of Johann Larsen.
SITE LOCATION
Some of the newspaper reports initially caused confusion over the location of the wreck. The West Australian (12 February 1902: 7f-g) stated that Captain Mörke estimated its position as being about 85 miles south-south-west of Bunbury. This places it some 16 miles (30 km) south-south-west of Cape Leeuwin in 75 fathoms (137 m) of water, and is obviously incorrect. The boats running before the southerly wind after the sinking of the Langston would not, from that position, have fetched up on the beach opposite Lake Preston in the time of 27 hours. Another sentence in that report places the wreck at 25 miles south-west of Cape Naturaliste. This would appear to be confirmed by the telegram sent by the Resident Magistrate to the Collector of Customs in Fremantle:
Captain Morck, of the Norwegian barque Langston, loaded with timber, bound from Bunbury to London, reports at 10 p.m., that his ship, which left Bunbury on Saturday, 8th instant, struck an unknown reef bearing south south-west of Cape Naturaliste at 2 p.m. on same date. Twenty-five miles from land she went down in deep water. Thirteen of the crew, including the captain, got in the boats with great difficulty, and reached Lake Preston, thirty miles from Bunbury, at 5 p.m. on Sunday, the 9th instant. One man, Andreas Ingraid Larsen, died from exhaustion. I am arranging hold inquest. Captain proceeding to Fremantle to report to Norwegian Consul (quoted in Bunbury Herald, 11 February 1902: 2f).
There is obviously an error made by the Resident Magistrate as Cape Naturaliste lies about 19 nautical miles south of Naturaliste Reef, not vice versa as stated in the telegram, and Captain Mörck was quite sure that it was on that reef that his vessel had struck.
The second mate, Johann Weiseth, stated that it occurred about a mile west of the Naturaliste Reefs. This does not seem probable as there is nothing but deep water west of that reef. The Government Gazette of 16 April 1841 warned mariners that:
Naturaliste Reef appears to lie 16 or 17 miles N. by E. by compass from the extremity of Cape Naturaliste.
The soundings are no indication of its vicinity, the average depth being 25 to 30 fathoms between the Reef and the Cape, and 25 fathoms 5 or 6 miles to the westward. At one mile North, the depth is 13 fathoms.
The Admiralty Pilot written 118 years later repeats the warning that taking soundings is of no use in ascertaining the position of the reef:
Naturaliste reefs, on which the sea does not always break, lie about 30 miles westward of Casuarina point, and consists of two patches, nearly awash, 7 cables apart. The northern patch is steep-to on its western side, against which the sea, striking in bad weather, is thrown to a considerable height. The soundings give no warning in approaching these reefs as there are depths of from 20 to 23 fathoms (36m6 to 42m1) one cable distant (Admiralty Pilot Vol. V, 1959: 410).
It seems most probable that the Langston struck the southern section of the reef, and that Weiseth saw the waves breaking against the northern reef which was seven cables (1?418 m) from him, and in a north-easterly direction. The strong wind blowing at the time would have caused seas to be ‘thrown to a considerable height’ as described in the Pilot. In the urgent haste to abandon ship the exact direction of the waves breaking on the reef would have been of minor importance.
This reef is most probably the one sighted by Nicolas Baudin on board the Géographe on the morning of 10 March 1803: ‘…a fairly long line of rocks over which the sea was breaking heavily. At six o’clock we made out three of them that seemed to form a triangle from North to South’ (Baudin, 1974: 500). The reef had been previously sighted in 1801 by the look outs of the Naturaliste, but when the commander, Jacques Felix Emmanuel Hamelin, had climbed to the topgallant yard and not seen anything their sighting was not believed.
It is of interest to note that Wickham and Stokes when leaving Koombana Bay on the Beagle in late December 1841 passed close to Naturaliste Reef but, presumably because there was little or no swell, it was not actually sighted:
The course we held led us within five miles of the north side of Naturaliste Reef, in 29 fathoms; the depth we found sixteen miles west of it was 60 fathoms, and half a mile south of it 26 fathoms. It partakes of the error in latitude previously discovered in Cape Naturaliste, which is distant sixteen miles, and bears, when over the centre of it, S2½ºW. (true.) (Stokes, 1846: 397).
Naturaliste Reef, that is laid down 15 or 18 miles north from the cape of the same name, was not seen from the Beagle (Wickham & Stokes, 1842: 140–41).
Note: The Australia Pilot, Volume 5 (1972: 181), gives the position of the reef as 19 miles north of Cape Naturaliste.