Mahogany Ship

[vincent]

I used to think that the Mahogany Ship was unique on the coast of Oz. I guess I was wrong. It's only one of many shipwrecks.

It is estimated that nearly 700 ships wrecked along this coastline between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries, a period known as the golden age of sail. Many of the ruined vessels are still visible; skeletal, sun-bleached hulls break through the surf, anchors corrode on the beach. In Warrnambool alone—the coastline’s largest city—29 shipwrecks rest at the bottom of the bay. One of those wrecked vessels is believed to be a 16th-century Portuguese caravel known as the Mahogany Ship.

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mahogany-ship-warrnambool

[dennisw]

My Father's maternal grandparents were shipwrights building ships in Tasmania but with connections to shipping and whaling out of Portland Vic. I used to have an old map from about 1900 that showed the location of the Mahogany Ship directly south of Tower Hill dormant volcano beached on the side of a small inlet. I have been there and have been unable to find any remnants but am sure some parts must remain under the sand or in the water. The site is at 38-20'51.66" S and 142-22'06.09" E on Google Earth. The section of Victorian coastline from Port Fairy to Cape Otway is known as the Shipwreck Coast because of the numerous shipwrecks to be found in that section. Bass Strait is notorious and has claimed a greater percentage of shipping in mysterious circumstances than has the Bermuda Triangle, the total amount of shipping is lower than in the Atlantic so the overall number is lower.

In my Mother's estate there was a picture of Hobart Dock in the early 1800's I assume it was retained because either the ship or the people on the wharf had a family connection, unfortunately there were no notes with the picture.

[Ian Thomas]

There have been so many shipwrecks, mysterious disappearances and spooky stuff, it's unsurprising the entire strait has come to be called the ....

Bass Strait Triangle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Strait_Triangle#Incidents

Teddy Roosevelt, before he became US president, allegedly encountered the Flying Dutchman either in the Strait itself or near its western approaches. This was when he undertook a world cruise on his(?) yacht. Can't recall the details except that, in common with others, he described the Dutchman as "luminous". Interestingly, in the 1880s the then future King George V sighted the Dutchman in those same waters and described it similarly.

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship which was said to never be able to make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever. ..
According to the legend, if hailed by another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman was said to try to send messages to land, or to people long dead. Purported sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed that the ship glowed with a ghostly light.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Dutchman#Reported_sightings

Note:

I'm not at all sure the commonly offered temperature-inversion/refraction theory can adequately explain credibly documented, close-up encounters with the Dutchman. 🤔