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Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial
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British Admiral (1874)
The plaque reads ...
S. 'British Admiral'
Iron full-rigged ship left on maiden
voyage Liverpool to Melbourne 07.01.1874.
Storm damaged, restarted 23.02.1874.
Capt Taylor in command with 38 crew,
49 passengers ran onto reef 23.05.1874
in heavy seas near Currie, King Is.
Broke up in 15 minutes - 79 lives lost.
~ Tasmana's fourth worst shipwreck ~
The ship British Admiral left Liverpool, England for Melbourne loaded with general cargo. The ship's complement comprised 49 passengers and 39 crew.
On her maiden voyage from Liverpool, the British Admiral had struck a reef off the coast at 2.30 am, and sunk in less than half an hour. Of 88 passengers and crew, only nine survived. William Hickmott, Assistant lighthouse keeper at Cape Wickham is quoted as saying "We buried them as tenderly as we could ...".
The Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal reported on Wednesday, 3 June 1874 the following:
King's Island, in Bass's Straits, mid-way between Victoria and Tasmania, has proved fatal to one more noble ship among the many that have neared its shores, during the past thirty years. The vessel was the British Admiral, 1733 tons, built of iron, and regis- tered belonging to the British Shipowners' Company. She was bound from London to Melbourne. On the 23rd ult., she struck on the left side of the island, and in a quarter of an hour not a vestige of the wreck was to be seen. About eighty lives were lost, and only nine saved. These last consisted of four passengers, four of the crew, and the third mate, and they escaped by getting up the foremast, and subsequently drifting ashore on the wreckage. The vessel had fifty passengers, and the nine survivors have arrived in Melbourne. As we have implied, there is a sad catalogue of wrecks upon King's Island, the reefs and rocks upon its shores being mostly named after vessels which have been lost at each place.
The following additional telegraphic intelligence relative to the wreck of the British Admiral we find in Tuesday's Register:—" The British Admiral was a new iron ship on her first voyage, and had been exactly ninety days at sea when she struck. The vessel's chronomoters had been out of order since the craft was struck by a heavy sea off St. Paul's, and the Captain was out of his reckoning at King's Island. There were eleven women aboard, and all were swept away with the mizen-mast. One boat was lowered under the second officer's orders, but was swamped alongside the ship, and only one person in the boat was saved. The total loss was 79 out of 88 persons on board ; 49 being steerage passengers and two saloon. The survivors arrived in Melbourne on Sun- day night, having been discovered on the is- land by some hunters. Several of the bodies have been buried. The ship had a large cargo, which is mostly strewn about the beach."