• port services
• S Coast (Albany)
• Services
• Shipwreck
• Wooden

The two-masted wooden schooner Rip was built for the Victorian Pilot Service, in New Brunswick, Canada and shared similar dimensions to the America, after which the famous yachting race the ‘America’s Cup’ was named. The Rip was used as a pilot vessel in Melbourne, Victoria by Port Phillip Pilot Company No. 2 between 1860 and 1900. On 15 July 1873 the Rip was carrying six Port Phillip pilots out through the dangerous entrance to Port Phillip when it was hit by three huge waves, capsizing the vessel onto its starboard beam ends, washing one of the pilots and three of the crew overboard, dismasting the vessel and filling the sail with water. Able bodied seaman James Marr was still clinging to the mast but he and those remaining aboard realised if the vessel was to be saved they would have to cut the mast free, and he sacrificed any chance of survival when he shouted to the men to cut him adrift. They cut the mast wreckage away, and the Rip was able to just it back into the safety of Port Phillip under storm jib and fore storm trysail. This tragic incident led directly to the formation of the Victorian Humane Society on 28 September 1874, which was later merged into the Royal Humane Society of Australasia. When sail gave way to steam power the Rip was decommissioned and was sold to become a fishing boat in Western Australia, and was later used as a lighter in King George Sound. Due to its age it leaked badly due to the worm-eaten hull and was too difficult to repair. It was taken to Frenchman Bay and burnt, though the lower hull remains buried in sand.