Anne Melhuish (1899/11/23)

Isthmus Bay PA 35°06 118°00

The Anne Melhuish was built as a barque with one deck, a square stern, no galleries and a woman figurehead. The hull was sheathed in yellow metal over felt. Built for the Liverpool to South America (Valparaiso) nitrate trade, it was initially owned by the partners John James Melhuish, Henry Winch and Robert Kent, merchants of Liverpool. By 1869 it was owned by Friend & Co., but still registered at Liverpool. Registration was later transferred from Liverpool to Melbourne, and subsequently to Newcastle, NSW, (No. 23/1883) when William A. Williams became sole owner. The Anne Melhuish had been sailed to Australia under the command of Williams’ younger brother David. The Williams brothers were among the founders of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, and the barque was registered at Wellington, New Zealand, in 1873 (No. 1/1873). The vessel traded mainly between Australian ports and New Zealand.

On 3 December 1883 the Anne Melhuish under the command of Captain Stonich arrived at Albany from Newcastle, NSW. Stonich handed the vessel and its cargo of 488 tons of coal to the new owners, the King George’s Sound Coal Company. The barque was then stripped down to a hulk, and the company appointed A. Robinson as caretaker.

THE LOSS
The hulk Anne Melhuish sank at its moorings in Princess Royal Harbour during the night of 23 November 1899. During the period May to October 1900 the wreck was broken up by Sergeant B.T. Goadby, an army engineer stationed at Albany, using explosives. Much of the debris was loaded aboard the hulk Saint Lawrence, which then made a number of trips under tow to the ocean outside Bald Head where the pieces were jettisoned. On 2 November 1900 a diver named Curtis arrived from Fremantle to inspect the site where the Anne Melhuish had sunk. On receiving his report the harbour master recommended that the work cease.

During a violent storm on 23 July 1900 ‘wreckage from the sunken hulk Anne Melhuish and other old wrecks was strewn all along the foreshore’ (Albany Advertiser, 24 July 1900: 3a).
In March 1903 the dredge Governor, while working in Princess Royal Harbour, brought up debris from the harbour floor. As the Western Australian Government steamer Penguin was then in the port the opportunity was taken to use its diver. He reported finding pieces of a timber hull, considered at the time to be further remains of the Anne Melhuish. All of the largest sections were removed.