''Clonmel'' was a three-masted wooden paddle steamer built in Birkenhead, England, in 1836. ''Clonmel'' was one of the first steam-powered vessels on the Australian coast. It ran aground in the early hours of 2 January 1841, or the 3rd. and was wrecked on what is now known as
Clonmel Island in
Corner Inlet
The Corner Inlet is a bay located south-east of Melbourne in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Of Victoria's large bays it is both the easternmost and the warmest. It contains intertidal mudflats, mangroves, salt marsh and s ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. This was only its second voyage from Sydney.
The wreck of the ''Clonmel'', and the subsequent exploration of
Corner Inlet
The Corner Inlet is a bay located south-east of Melbourne in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Of Victoria's large bays it is both the easternmost and the warmest. It contains intertidal mudflats, mangroves, salt marsh and s ...
, led to establishment of the towns of
Port Albert
Port Albert is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia, on the coast of Corner Inlet on the Yarram - Port Albert Road, south-east of Morwell, south-east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington. At the , Port Albert had a population of 293. ...
,
Tarraville
Tarraville is a town in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located near the mouth of the Tarra River and southeast of Melbourne.
History
Tarraville was established as a village in 1841, when the land was selected as part of the Reeve's Speci ...
and
Alberton.
[
]
History
''Clonmel'' was built in England and launched in 1836, at Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; Historic counties of England, historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the R ...
, near Liverpool. She was long and about broad across the paddle boxes. She had two 110 horsepower engines, and was rated at 500 tons burthen, so with 300 tons of cargo she could steam for five days.
She ran around the British Isles for about 15 months before being sold to Sydney owners, was newly copper sheathed and despatched under Captain Tollervey, leaving The Downs on 20 May and arriving in Sydney on 5 October 1840. She had been purchased to run between Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston, with the first trip scheduled for 17 November, but was postponed several times for modifications, notably to allow for the smaller size of coals from Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
.
First voyage
After a series of delays, she left Sydney at 6 p.m. on 1 December 1840, arrived at Port Phillip
Port Phillip (Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is completel ...
around 8 am on 9 December, having a scheduled stop at Batemans Bay
Batemans Bay is a town on the South Coast region of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Batemans Bay is administered by the Eurobodalla Shire council. The town is situated on the shores of an estuary formed where the Clyde River meets the ...
''en route''. She left for Launceston and returned. She left for Sydney 15 or 16 December but ran short of coal and was obliged to put in at Batemans Bay, a delay of two days, arriving at Sydney on the evening of 22 December.
Second voyage
''Clonmel'' left Sydney on 30 December, and rounded the South Head against a strong southerly wind. On the morning of 1 January she sighted Ram Head, Victoria, by which time the wind had dropped and the sea was smooth. Captain Tollervey steered for Wilsons Promontory
Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria.
South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia. Located at nea ...
. She struck the sandbank at Corner Inlet
The Corner Inlet is a bay located south-east of Melbourne in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. Of Victoria's large bays it is both the easternmost and the warmest. It contains intertidal mudflats, mangroves, salt marsh and s ...
at a speed of 10 knots between 3 and 4 am on Saturday 2 January.
Attempts to reverse the ship out of this situation failed, despite dropping anchors and throwing cargo overboard. The whole of the passengers and crew were transferred to the mainland by whaleboat
A whaleboat is a type of open boat that was used for catching whales, or a boat of similar design that retained the name when used for a different purpose. Some whaleboats were used from whaling ships. Other whaleboats would operate from the sh ...
, the captain being the last to leave. The crew followed orders impeccably, though the firemen were noted as at one stage "behaving disgracefully".
Shelter and provisions were ferried ashore and a comfortable camp set up. The following morning a volunteer party of five crew and two of the passengers, D. C. Simson and T. D. Edwards, set out for Melbourne in the whaleboat. Early on the third day they met with a cutter
Cutter may refer to:
Tools
* Bolt cutter
* Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife
* Cigar cutter
* Cookie cutter
* Glass cutter
* Meat cutter
* Milling cutter
* Paper cutter
* Side cutter
* Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...
, whose captain brought them to William's Town.
The crew and passengers were rescued without loss or injury, though the captain sustained a serious ankle injury. Among the passengers was a Mr. C. Robinson of the Union Bank, who had charge of £3,000 of the Bank's notes, lost, believed stolen; Melbourne merchant Michael Cashmore
Michael Cashmore is an English composer and musician currently living in Berlin. He has created music under the name of Nature and Organisation since the early 1980s and more recently (2006) under his own name.
Cashmore was a member of the gr ...
and his bride; Thomas Walker and Mrs. Walker, their four children and a servant; and Hobart merchant Mr. T. Goodwin, of Hamilton & Goodwin, to whom most of the ''Clonmel''s cargo belonged.[
A reason ascribed to the misfortune was the ship's mate having reset the course several points to the west ("he is too afraid of the land") while the captain was below, consequently when the captain returned to the deck the ship was 17 miles closer to land than expected.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clonmel, PS
1836 ships
Maritime incidents in January 1841
Merchant ships of Australia
Shipwrecks of Victoria (Australia)
Wooden steamships of Australia