Searching for Shipwrecks and their Stories in the Coral Sea, January 2012 – Part 1

On the 4th January 2012 I joined a team from the Australian National Maritime Museum and Silentworld Foundation steaming out towards the Coral Sea.  Overnight we passed the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and entered the deep, beautiful, blue waters of the Coral Sea. We are travelling to the Coral Sea in search of shipwrecks.  The Australian National Maritime Museum and Silentworld Foundation have joined forces to bring an expedition team of archaeologists, volunteer divers and experienced crew to this remote location in search of the Royal Charlotte, a ship wrecked in 1825. This is not an easy place to reach, our journey to Frederick Reef (400km off the Queensland coast) is a 36hr steam in a modern vessel.  Once you pass the Great Barrier Reef you are in open ocean, but the weather was being very kind to us, with blue skies overhead and flying fish skimming across the water.

The reefs of the Coral Sea are different to the large interconnected system of the Great Barrier Reef.  Here the reefs rise up from thousands of metres of water, the tips of oceanic mountains.  The deep-water inbetween the reef holds its own treasures: some of the oceans top predators including sharks, whales, billfish and tuna.  These are the fish and animals at the top of the ocean food chain, playing an important role in keeping the ecosystem in balance.  The Coral Sea is indeed a special place, any visit is a privilege.   To be here joining a team of archaeologists on a search for its history is amazing.  Meanwhile I am also well aware that currently its fate is being decided in the far away halls of Canberra.  Well actually, right now the draft plan for the Coral Sea is open to public feedback and anyone can make a submission, and it is important we all do.  You can protect the Coral Sea by signing the petition on this page.

An afternoon pitstop at Saumarez Reef has been decided on.  Saumarez Reef has two sand cays, one at either end of its long crescent of reef.  We tucked up behind the reef, close to the wreck of the Francis Preston Blair which sits high on the reef. During World War 2 a Japanese submarine was pursuing the ship when its Captain chose to run it aground rather than face being torpedoed and sunk in the deep waters around Saumarez.  Today it is home to a colony of birds including Frigates and Boobies.  Their droppings have allowed grass to grow on the decks and a new coat of whitewash to develop.

Snorkelling on a coral bommie (a small pinnacle of coral rising up from the sand and separate to the main reef) we watch a pair of grey reef or whaler sharks which are patrolling the reef edge, their sleek shape and powerful muscles moving them easily through the water.  The water is clear, very clear and very blue.  The sand in the lagoon is a beautiful white, laid down in ripples that disappear into the distance, but the sun is setting, marking the time to return to the boat.

Arriving at Frederick Reef in the early morning the sun is still low on the water, and the angle makes it hard to define the patches of coral.   Our vessel stays clear of the reef until the sun climbs higher, turning the lagoon a beautiful aqua, with the greens, yellows and blacks of the reef clearly showing the coral patchwork below.  The captain nudges the boat into a safe place to anchor as we watch the landscape transforming with the changing light.  This is my second visit to Frederick Reef, and I am very happy to be back.  The beautiful lagoon and underwater landscapes have stayed fresh in my memory.  Looking at the sand cay now, I send my brain back into my memory banks, I am sure it was much smaller just over a year ago, but that is the dynamic nature of these reefs.

About the Royal Charlotte and the Wrecking:

The Royal Charlotte was an Indian built ship used to carry trade between England, Australia and India. She was also used as a convict transport before being commissioned to carry troops (and their families) from Sydney to India.  It was during this voyage in 1825 that she was wrecked on Frederick Reef,  which had at that time been charted – but in the wrong place.  She left Sydney under a stormy sky and the gales and storms persisted with the Royal Charlotte as she travelled north into the Coral Sea.  One of the officer’s wives had given birth just three days before the voyage.  At the mercy of nature, it must have been a terrifying experience for those unaccustomed to the sea.  Here is a short extract from one of the two survivor’s accounts which survive today, these accounts were used to help the archeologists narrow down the search area on Frederick Reef:

“At eight bells the fore and main-topsails were double-reefed, the mizzen-topsails and main-courses handed and every other necessary preparation made for a stormy night, which we now had every reason to expect… about half past ten o’clock, she broached in a squall and split every sail, fore and aft…the gale soon increased to a perfect hurricane, and blew the canvass out of the bolt-ropes; while the shreds that remained of the sails cracked dreadfully in the wind.”  The gale abated on the 14^th of June but heavy seas, storms and strong winds continued allowing the Royal Charlotte to travel at the fast rate of 9knots.  It was at this speed on the 20^th June that she struck Frederick reef and was driven her full length onto the coral.

“All hands were immediately ordered to the pumps; but the depth of water in the hold increased in spite of every effort.  Vivid flashes of lighting, that at times illuminated the whole horizon was succeeded by loud peals of thunder, while the roaring of the surf, the crashing of the ship on the rocks, and the dismal cries of the women and children who crowded on the deck added to the uncertainty of the fate that awaited us.  “The breakers, as they rolled in unremitting succession over the precipice, broke close to the ship’s forefoot, and covered her as far as the waist, while we expected every moment that the bows would be stove in, and that she would go to pieces.”