Cock of the North (1879/05/07)

20 km north of Geraldton

The Cock O’ The North was a ketch-rigged motor vessel built by Charles Blunt (McKenna, 1959) or Bluat (Dickson, 1996) in Geelong, Victoria, in 1903. It was carvel built and had an elliptical stern. The first owner was John Nelson, shipowner of Colac in Victoria. He sold it to the Nor’West Fishing Co. Ltd of Perth in January 1904. The registry was then transferred on 12 January 1904 from Melbourne to Fremantle. In May 1905 John Nelson, shipowner of Perth (possibly the man who had previously owned it) bought the Cock O’ The North from the Nor’West Fishing Co. Ltd. Nelson then sold the ketch to Frederick George Winter, Morris Brandt, Charles Nelson and Bertie Winter in November 1905. Totty states that the Cock O’ The North was owned by Florance Constantine Broadhurst at the time it was wrecked.
THE LOSS
No details are known of the wrecking, which occurred near the mouth of the Oakajee River.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
SOCIAL (3)
Broadhurst was a well-known business man in the Geraldton area. He was the son of Charles Edward Broadhurst (see Xantho), and successfully carried on many of his father’s entrepreneurial ventures. However, in 1907, the loss of the Ione followed by the loss of the Cock O’ The North must have been a severe blow.
REFERENCES
Dickson, R., 1996, Ships registered in Western Australia from 1856 to 1969: their details, their owners and their fate. Report—Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, No. 80.
McKenna, R., 1959, Vessels registered with the British Register of Ships at the Port of Fremantle, WA. Book four. Unpublished manuscript.
Totty, D., 1979, Wrecks of WA’s central mainland coast (Jurien Bay to Port Gregory). Unpublished manuscript.
Co-ordinates 10' off