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Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial
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Cataraqui (1845)
The plaque reads ...
'Cataraqui'
Built Quebec 1840, 802 T. 138 x 30 x 22 ft.
Left Liverpool, England 20.4.1845 for
Melbourne - Capt. C.Finlay, 43 crew
367 assisted emigrants (173 under 15).
Enroute 5 babies born, 6 babies died,
1 seaman drowned thus 409 aboard when
wrecked 4.8.1845 off W. coast King Is.
1 emigrant, 8 crew survived, 400 lost.
~ Tasmania's worst shipwreck ~
The Courier Hobart on 20 September 1845 provided a comprehensive report on this "Dreadful Shipwreck". The report begines "It is our painful duty to lay before our readers the melancholy particulars of the total wreck of the emigrant ship Cataraqui, upon the west coast of King's Island."
With the loss of 400 lives, the wreck of the Cataraqui is to this day Australia's worst civil maritime disaster. A memorial records the burials in five massed graves. The great loss of life caused great concern throughout the colony but it still took a further 15 years to build what is Australia's tallest the Cape Wickham lighthouse (48 metres or 157 ft tall) to give mariners some protection from the dangerous coast that had claimed so many vessels.