Wreck of the Ketch Rose : Two Lives Lost.

Wreck of the Ketch Rose: Two Lives Lost.

(From the. S. M. Herald.)

Tuesday 22 May 1877

The ketch Rose, John Buckley, master, with two sailors on board, left Newcastle for Lake Macquarie, with cargo, on Friday morning last, the 11th instant, at 11 a.m., and was totally wrecked between Terigal Haven and Tuggerah Beach Lake entrance, on Saturday night, the 12th instant, at about 11 o'clock. 

The two seamen are reported missing, and are believed, from the nature of the coast, to have been drowned the following particulars have reached us from a reliable authority.

It appears that a farmer named William Long, residing at Womberall Plains, on Monday morning last, sent a letter to senior constable F. Malarkey, stationed at Gosford, reporting that a vessel (believed to be the ketch Rose) was lying a total wreak in Chinaman Bay, district about six miles from Mr Lang's, and fifteen from Gosford; that the master, whose name was Buckley, was then at a Mr Channell's, on the Plains, and that two seamen were said to be missing.

The police magistrate was at once informed of the circumstance, and senior constable Malarkey and constable Preston immediately proceeded with Mr Reeve, to the wreck in the neighborhood of which the party arrived in the afternoon on Monday at 3 o'clock.

They found the Rose lying a total wreck at the northern extremity of the rocky reef in the above indicated locality, at about a quarter of a mile from the shore.

John Buckley, the late master of the vessel, was on the beach with three or four other parsons; but little, if anything, appeared to have been done toward saving the cargo. The police magistrate made inquiries on the spot as to the particulars of the casualty, and expressed some astonishment at Buckley not having at once reported the wreck, and the supposed loss of life-which would not have been made known to the police when it was but for the intelligence and good feeling of Mr. Long, who had very properly reported what had taken place as soon as it came to his knowledge.

The following is the account given by the master, a young man of about 22 years of age He says that the Rose belonged to Mr John O'Leary, of Cooranbong, but that the goods on board of her belonged to Mr Lancaster, of the saw mills at Wyee.

She left Newcastle on Friday morning last, at 11 am, and first proceeded southerly, being bound for the entrance of Lake Macquarie. The vessel started with an N W, Wind (A fair wind) and the captain kept it till, he got to the Lake Bar, at about 5 p.m. It' then, he says, came on to blow from the S W,' and he hove to off the island opposite to the entrance of Lake Macquarie.

The Rose remained hove to all night, the wind still continuing from the S W. Buckley says he thinks that what carried him away so far to the southward must have been the tidal current. On the Saturday morning he found the vessel off the land, about ten miles to the seaward of Broken Bay.

He could then just see the land, and make out where he was. He stood in for the land, and it came on to blow from the southward, and at about dark the Rose was about three miles off Terigal Point.

Buckley then ran along the coast for about an hour after dark, with a southerly wind, when it came on to blow from the S E. at 7 p.m. This lasted till 10 p.m., the wind being pretty light. It, then came on to blow from the eastward, and Buckley says he saw it coming, and prepared for it.

He told the two men to take in the mainsail; and from that he does not remember anything till he found himself lying on the beach, early on the Sunday morning. As soon as he had come to himself he looked about him, saw the vessel was wrecked, and could not see anything of his late companions.

He climbed the nearest headland, saw Terigal in the distance; and wandering on for a while, and arrived at last at Channel’s hut, at about 11 am. Here he remained until Monday between noon and 1 p m., when he returned to the beach.

The value of the cargo is stated to be about £200. The police continued the search for the bodies on Tuesday last, but up to the latest accounts they had not been discovered the following additional items have since been furnished by Mr. Henry Farrinden, master of the schooner Sea Bird.

The Sea Bird left Lake Macquarie for Sydney at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning and arrived here yesterday morning, after a fair passage, with a prevalence of a light westerly winds. When passing Towan Reef, about twenty-three miles to the northward of Terrigal Island.

Henry Farrinden in looking through his telescope, spied some dark object on the beach, he immediately put the helm down and luffed into the beech for the purpose of ascertaining what this strange object might be, and upon nearing the spot be found that it was the wreck of a small vessel, which proved to be the Rose, of Newcastle.

As was stated yesterday, she left Newcastle at 11 a m, on Friday, and reached Lake Macquarie bar at about three o’clock in the afternoon, being a short distance behind the ketch Star of Peace, which crossed the bar, but apparently the skipper of the Rose did not care to take the bar, and stood out to sea, shaping for the southward.

Mr. Boyd, the pilot at Lake Macquarie, and several others, came down to render any assistance to the Rose, but she steed off, and Mr. Farrinden did not hear or see anything of her until he saw her wrecked upon the beach, about twenty-three miles to the southward of Lake Macquarie.