Alinora (1929)

Alinora 1929

Official number: 119027
Where built: Fremantle
Year built: 1904
Registered: Fremantle
Rig Type: Ketch
Hull: Wood
Length: 35.66 ft (10.9 m)
Breadth: 11.7 ft (3.57 m)
Depth: 4 ft (1.2 m)
Tonnage: 12.22
Date lost: 14 November 1929
Location: 24 km west of Port
Gregory
Chart Number: Aus 332
Significance criteria: 3
The vessel
There are three other spellings of the name of
this fishing vessel. The Elenora/Ellenora/Elleanora
was owned in 1929 by Dennis (Dinny) Ahearn.
It had been a pearling lugger and was one of the
luggers that Ahearn received as part payment for
a farm he sold in the Chapman Valley. Ahearn
acquired at least three other luggers, the Clare,
Brittania and Rosella from John Byrne at this time.
The newspaper account of the tragedy names the
ketch as the Elenora.
The crew at the time of wrecking consisted
of the skipper, Bruer (or Broer) Soolsma, a
Dutch national, Frederick Erickson (described
by the newspaper as a Swede) and James Gourley.
Soolsma had lived aboard the Alinora for the
previous 12 months and had no shore residence.
All three were from Geraldton with Gourley being
reported as a ‘well-known identity of Geraldton’
The Geraldton Guardian and Express, 1929.
The loss
The Alinora was struck by a north-west gale and
heavy rain while about 15 miles west of Port
Gregory. The vessel had not been able to make
Port Gregory before dark so was forced to beat
up and down outside waiting for daylight.
Without warning at 4.30 a.m. on 14 November
1929 the vessel was thrown on its beam ends by
a large wave, the masts touched the water and
the Alinora was swamped. The three crewmen
managed to cling to the keel until the ketch
started to sink about an hour later. James
Gourley dived under the water several times to
try to cut away the dinghy. He did not succeed,
and when he surfaced and looked for his
companions they had disappeared. Neither of
them could swim. An icebox rose to the surface
and Gourley managed to scramble onto it.
He was blown ashore about 25 km north of
Geraldton at 8.00 p.m. that night, having to
swim the last 20–30 m to the beach.
Gourley walked all night towards Geraldton
and early in the morning was given some water
by a Japanese tomato grower, his first drink since
the swamping over 24 hours previously. At 9.30
a.m. he reached the farm of a man named Hall,
who fed him and then took him into Geraldton
where he reached the Police Station a little after
11.45 a.m.
Initial salvage
Pieces of wreckage including an icebox, a dinghy,
an oar, a deck broom and some vegetables were
found on the beach during the unsuccessful
search for the bodies of the two crewmen. The
Alinora was valued at °Ã500.
Statement of significance
Social (3)
The loss of two lives as a result of the sinking of the
Geraldton based fishing boat Alinora illustrates
what must have been a fairly common situation
prior to the 1950s. Neither the skipper, Bruer
Soolsma, nor his deckhand Frederick Erickson,
could swim even though it seems likely that they
had spent a considerable time at sea. Folklore
suggests that many sailors deliberately failed
to learn to swim, preferring a quick death in
the event of their vessel sinking. The advent of
radios in small craft, the later use of EPIRBs and
the popularity of water sports such as surfing
and SCUBA diving have greatly lessened the
likelihood of such an attitude persisting.
References
Burns, A.C. 1978, Sailing into the past. A record of early
fishing industries of Geraldton WA in the days of
sail. A.C. Burns, Geraldton.
Cooper, R., 1996, The way it was: Midwest fishermen
and their boats from 1894. L.G. Cogan,
Geraldton.
Dickson, R., 1996, Ships registered in Western
Australia from 1856 to 1969: their details,
owners and their fate. Report—Department
of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian
Museum, N0. 80.
Police Department Correspondence, 1929, AN 5,
Acc. No. 430, Item 7500/1929, State Records
Office, Perth.
The Geraldton Guardian and Express, 15 November
1929: 2.
Totty, D., 1979, Wrecks of WA’s central mainland coast
(Jurien Bay to Port