Zephyr (1902)

Zephyr (1854-1902)

Official Number: 89406
Port of Building: East Boston, USA
Year built: 1855
Port of Registration: Port Adelaide
Rig Type: Ship (hulk)
Hull: Wood
Length: 185.5 ft (56.54 m)
Breadth: 37.3 ft (11.37 m)
Depth: 25.5 ft (7.77 m)
Tonnage: 1 356.49 gross, 1 239.03 net
Date lost: 13 October 1902.
Location: Princess Royal Harbour
Chart Number: WA 1083, AUS 109, AUS 118 & BA 2619
Protection: The site when found will be protected under the general provisions of the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Significance criteria: 3 & 8

THE VESSEL
The Zephyr was built by Daniel D, Kelley, a shipwright, dry dock operator and ship owner of East Boston. The ship had two decks, a round stern and a billet head. It was registered at New Orleans on 23 November 1865, presumably as the result of a sale to someone from that port. The owners prior to 17 October 1867 are not known, but on that date it was sold to three men, Francis Carter, Francis Peabody and (?) Peabody, all of Boston, and registered there as No. 202/1867. Each man had a one-third share in the ship. The Zephyr sailed from Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada, under the command of Captain Z. Springal with a cargo of sawn softwood timber, and arrived at Port Adelaide on 24 December 1883.

In early 1884 the Zephyr was seized by the Vice-Admiralty Court of South Australia for a debt of £35 19s owing to the Port Adelaide Steamtug Company (Limited). This amount was for towage by the tug Yatala from Semaphore Anchorage in to Port Adelaide. The hearing was before the Chief Justice of South Australia, and an order for the sale of the ship was made on 14 March 1884. On 9 April 1884 a notice was placed in an Adelaide newspaper announcing that an auction of the Zephyr ‘with her tackle, apparel, and furniture’ would be held at noon the following day (South Australian Register, 9 April 1884: 8e). The purchaser was The Adelaide Steamship Company, who registered it at Port Adelaide.

The Zephyr was slipped on Fletcher’s Slip, stripped and re-sheathed, and anchored in the Port Adelaide River while the company advertised for a master mariner to sail it to Albany. This took some weeks to arrange. As the Zephyr was to take a cargo of coal to Albany, there was also a delay while the steamer Cintra brought 1 700 tons of coal down from Newcastle, NSW. The Cintra arrived on 21 July, and after the coal was transhipped the Zephyr sailed for Albany on 24 July, arriving there on 15 August 1884 having encountered severe weather which blew out two topsails.

THE LOSS
In October 1902 at the end of its useful life the Zephyr was beached and abandoned on the foreshore at Albany. The registration was closed in June 1903 with the notation ‘Broken up at Albany, WA’.

SITE LOCATION
The site of the wreck of the Zephyr is not known, but the remains are believed to lie under land reclaimed for modern port development.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
SOCIAL (3)
On arrival at Adelaide an American seaman on board the Zephyr, Rudolph Dedricks, was taken to Adelaide hospital with serious injuries. He made what a newspaper described as ‘certain charges against one of the officers of the vessel’ (South Australian Advertiser, 9 January 1884: 4g & 5a). As a result the American Consul, J.W. Smith, commenced enquiries, only to find that the Adelaide city coroner had already been to the hospital and taken a dying deposition from Dedricks. Smith was annoyed by this action stating that:
it was the special duty of the representative of the American Government to make an enquiry, and apart from the question of the illegality of the “extraordinary proceedings” of the coroner, he (the consul) “looks upon them as an unwarrantable interference, and cannot refrain from describing them as officious” (ibid.).

The inquiry into the injuries suffered by Rudolph Dedricks of the Zephyr highlights the difficulties often faced when an incident involving foreign seamen is reported to authorities in Australia.

REPRESENTATIVE (8)
The Zephyr is representative of the many coal hulks stationed at ports on the Western Australian coast.

REFERENCES
Lloyd’s Register of British and Foreign Shipping 1888-89. Lloyd’s, London.

Marshall, G., 2001, Maritime Albany Remembered. Tangee Pty Ltd, Kalamunda.

Matthew, F.C., 1987 (1931), American Merchant Ships 1850-1900, Series II. Dover Publications, Incorporated, New York. (Facsimile Edition 1987.)

The South Australian Advertiser, 9 January 1884: 4g & 5a, 15 March 1884: 6g, 25 March 1884: 6g, 21 July 1884: 4a & 22 July 1884: 4a.

The South Australian Register, 5 January 1884: Supplement 2g & 3b, 15 March 1884: 5b & 7d-e, 25 March 1884: Supplement 2a, 9 April 1884: 8e, 11 April 1884: 4a, 2 May 1884: 4a, 17 May 1884: 1b, 12 June 1884: 4a & 24 July 1884: 4a.

The West Australian 19 August 1884: 2g.

Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, File No. 193/79 – Coal hulks – Albany.