Cricketer (1898/12/04)

Irwin Inlet

The small cutter Cricketer, previously a pleasure boat based in Melbourne, was purchased by J.G. Cornish, the postmaster at Narrogin, in partnership with a man named Street. With a crew consisting of Thomas Hughes (skipper), Richard Barrett and Peter Johnson the cutter left Melbourne on 20 May 1898 for Fremantle. After weathering a number of gales and a shortage of provisions which resulted in the crew having to take shelter for periods up to three weeks, Thomas Hughes became ill and was put ashore at Fowlers Bay, South Australia. The other two men waited there fifteen days, but as Hughes’ condition did not improve they decided to continue the voyage without him. They encountered further headwinds, and off South East Island near Israelite Bay the deck began leaking badly, resulting in them having to pump the cutter’s bilges every hour.

Progress was very slow and by 3 October they were only near Esperance. Here the Cricketer was caught in another severe gale that blew the vessel 200 miles south of the coast. It took the crew four days to sail back to the coast at Bremer Bay. Here they sheltered for nine days until the weather improved enough for them to sail on 16 October for Albany. The following day, when only ten miles from that harbour another gale struck and the cutter was nearly swamped. It was hove to all night and the following day, needing constant bailing. When the gale eased the Cricketer was again steered towards Albany, where the tug Dunskey towed it to an anchorage. The anchor was dropped at 4.20 p.m. on 19 October. The voyage from Melbourne had taken five months.

THE LOSS
The Cricketer sailed from Albany in the afternoon of 28 November 1898 for Fremantle. There was a fair wind until Barrett and Johnson reached the vicinity of West Cape Howe, where strong westerly winds required them to heave to for two days in the lee of the cape. They then worked to windward as far as Rame Head, but the cutter continued to leak badly. As the water was gaining despite one bailing with a bucket and the other operating the cutter’s bilge pump as he steered, there was a danger of foundering. They saw a gap in the reefs two miles west of Irwin Inlet, and managed to steer the cutter between the reefs and beach it in the surf about 4.00 pm on Sunday 4 December 1898. The small cove is marked but not named on Admiralty charts, nor is it named in the Admiralty Pilot. However, it is marked as ‘The Gap’ on some local maps. Leaving the boat, the men waded ashore taking with them the only supplies they had, these being a loaf of bread and some tea and sugar. They searched for help, and after 54 hours of wandering they reached Wilsons Inlet. Here a fisherman named Bryant found them and took them to Denmark. From there they were taken to Albany, where they reported the mishap to the sub-collector of Customs, E. Troode.

INITIAL SALVAGE
The two crewmen thought that the Cricketer would be ‘quite safe on the beach, but the question is whether she is worth the expense that would be incurred in getting her off’ (West Australian, 9 December 1889, 5i). There is no record of the cutter subsequently being salvaged.

A newspaper speculated that at the time of the loss the Cricketer would not be covered by insurance as it was not under the command of a ‘certificated master’ (Albany Advertiser, 10 December 1898: 3b).