RMS ''Orizaba'' was a
Royal Mail Ship
Royal Mail Ship (sometimes Steam-ship or Steamer), usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. The designation dates back to 1840. Any vessel de ...
wrecked off
Rockingham, Western Australia
Rockingham is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indi ...
on 16 February 1905. On her approach to
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
, a smog of bushfire smoke was obscuring the coast and the captain lost his bearings. The ship went aground in of water on Five Fathom Bank, west of
Garden Island.
All 160 people on board were evacuated safely. It is one of the largest ships ever to be wrecked in Australian waters.
In 2014 the wreck was still in use as a dive site.
The ship was celebrated in music by Australian composer Auguste Wiegand, in his
gavotte
The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. Ac ...
of the same name.
References
Further reading
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External links
WA Heritage Council: "MANDURAH SHIPWRECK TRAIL", P. 2 (online-PDF 155 KB)
1886 ships
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
Maritime incidents in 1905
Ships sunk with no fatalities
Shipwrecks of Western Australia
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