Cingalee (1887/07/18)

Koombanah Bay, North Beach

Site located with water probe 2016. ‘The Cingalee was a 3-masted barque, built by the Dundee Shipping Co. with one deck and an elliptic stern, launched in May 1872. The vessel was copper fastened and sheathed with yellow metal. The figurehead was a Cingalese, or Sri Lankan. In mid-February 1877 a severe cyclone struck the Lacepede Islands wrecking many of the ten vessels anchored there to load guano. The London registered Cingalee was deliberately run ashore in an endeavour to save it and its crew. The vessel, high and dry on the island, was bought for £170 by J. & W. Bateman at an auction held in Fremantle. By September the barque had been refloated, temporary repairs made, and sailed to Fremantle where it underwent a thorough refit by the shipwright, Robert Howson. On 19 March 1878 the vessel was sold to William Edward Marmion (32 shares), William Owston (16 shares), and the brothers William and George Pearse (16 shares), trading as Pearse, Owston & Co. They then registered the vessel at the port of Fremantle (No. 3/1878). On 28 February 1880 each of these owners sold some shares in the barque to John Pringle, master mariner of Fremantle, Pringle then owning 21 shares.
The Cingalee had been laid up for about twelve months when it was chartered by the government to carry from Fremantle 200 tonnes of railway line and some timber for the Bunbury to Blackwood railway. The charter was for six months at £200 per month, with the charterers to insure the vessel for £1 200, the owner to pay 10% premium. It was under the command of John Pringle.
THE LOSS
The Cingalee anchored at Bunbury on 5 June 1887. The topgallant yards were sent down on 6 June, and on 7 June the vessel began discharging part of the cargo into lighters. On 11 June, having discharged sufficient cargo to reduce the draught by about 18 inches (0.46 m) the barque was, at the request of the government, moved to the jetty to discharge the remainder of the cargo. Before going alongside, the master let go the best bower anchor at a measured distance of 110 fathoms (200 m) north-east of the north-west end of the jetty. All the buoys which had been in the vicinity of the jetty for use by vessels had been removed, consequently Captain Pringle was using the ship’s anchor to hold the vessel steady and prevent it pounding against the jetty.
On 15 June the wind increased from the north-east and Pringle hauled the barque off the jetty using the best bower anchor, and on the following morning, with the wind more northerly, the port anchor was let go, the vessel then swinging to its two anchors at a distance of about 80 m east of the north-west extremity of the jetty. The wind continued unabated, veering to and fro from north-north-east to north-north-west. On the morning of 18 June because of the big seas the Cingalee struck bottom lightly a number of times, so the master had some of the cargo shifted forward to raise the stern, which in the northerly wind was that part of the vessel in shallowest water. A third anchor, a heavy kedge, was let go from the jibboom end on a four inch (100 mm) rope, and all anchor cables hauled in to hold the vessel in place.
Port regulations laid down that vessels should send down fore and main topgallant masts, but Captain Pringle did not comply with this order until the afternoon of 18 June, when the wind was still blowing strongly from a northerly direction with occasional severe squalls. At about 4.00 p.m., while the crew were sending down the masts, with the fore topgallant mast already on deck, the port anchor cable parted. The crew hauled the cable in, intending to fasten another anchor to the end, but before they could do so a heavy squall caused the starboard cable to also part. The rope from the third anchor on the jibboom was slipped and Captain Pringle ordered sail set so that he could beach the Cingalee in an effort to save the crew and vessel. The barque ran aground 400 m east of the entrance to the Leschenault Inlet at about 6.00 p.m., but on its way had scraped over an old wreck (possibly that of the Midas), damaging the hull. It came to rest with its bows facing the sea and the stern embedded in the sand.
The master kept sail on so that the Cingalee would stay firmly aground and to keep it from rolling, but at 8.00 p.m. he had the crew furl the sails. By midnight the water had risen in the hold to the same level as the sea outside.
At about 9.15 p.m. a spokesman for the crew, able seaman H.G. Wright, came aft with a demand that the crew be put ashore, claiming that as the vessel was stranded the master had no power to keep them onboard. This request was impossible to comply with at the time. All hands were discharged a month later on 18 July 1887.
INQUIRY
After a Preliminary Court of Inquiry on 24 June charges were laid, and Captain Pringle appeared before a Court of Inquiry made up of Resident Magistrate William Dyer Cowan, Thomas Hayward, Justice of the Peace, and Captain Evans of the Lothair, nautical assessor. The court, held over five days commencing 21 July 1887, found Captain Pringle guilty of negligence in anchoring too far to the eastward of the jetty and in water that was too shallow; of not letting go the starboard anchor further out, in line with and before coming to the jetty, so that the vessel could have been hauled off into deep water, and therefore into a safer position; of not signalling for assistance when the port anchor cable parted; and failing to have a fourth anchor ready to let go. He was also found guilty of not taking all necessary preparations for bad weather on 15 June when a gale was indicated by the falling barometer, in that he did not send down earlier the fore and main topgallant masts, and did not put springs on the anchor cables. They decreed that his certificate should be suspended for three months. However the only nautically competent member of the inquiry, the nautical assessor Captain Evans, disagreed with the finding regarding the second charge. As the court required a unanimous decision their findings regarding suspension were nullified by this dissention, but Pringle was ordered to pay the cost of the court, which was £12.
INITIAL SALVAGE
On 29 June 1887 a survey conducted by a board consisting of Harbour Master Captain Charles Tylden Russell, Captain William Owston, Captain Hayes and G.T. Mason condemned the Cingalee as a total wreck. The first consideration was to salvage the cargo which a Mr. Risely, on behalf of Mr. Keane, contracted to recover (West Australian, 1 July 1887: 3f). The vessel was then stripped of all its gear, which was taken ashore and sold over the three days of 1–3 August. The stripped wreck was blown up with explosives, much of its timber being used by Bunbury residents for firewood. The ship’s bell from the Cingalee was bought by Thomas Hayward, later coming into the possession of Mrs Wallace of Turkey Point who, in 1938, loaned it on trust to the Bunbury High School.
EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
The ship’s bell from the Cingalee was used for many years as a school bell at Bunbury Senior High School. It was stolen in 1979, but a newspaper article in 2000 states that the bell had been found and returned to the school (South West Times, 18 May 2000: 13).
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
HISTORIC (1)
The Cingalee had been used in the guano trade and during this time was caught in the exceptionally destructive cyclone of 1877, which sent so many vessels to the bottom at the Lacepede Islands. It was one of those which, though damaged, was able to be repaired and put back into service.
REPRESENTATIVE (8)
The Cingalee is representative of the many vessels which were used to carry railway construction material to the South-West at a time when the network of railways was being laid. Ironically it was these railways which were to bring about a significant reduction in maritime activities.