SS Alert

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The SS Alert was a steamship that sunk off Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia on 28 December 1893.[1] The ship was built for the gentle waters of Scottish lochs and was almost 51 m (167 ft) long and weighed 247 tonnes.

After the Alert sunk the ship laid for 113 years on the ocean floor until being rediscovered in June 2007 by a team from Southern Ocean Exploration.

History

The Alert was built at Glasgow in 1877 and later sailed to Australia as a three-masted schooner with her funnel and propeller stowed in the hold.[2] After a few years on the Melbourne-Geelong route she temporarily replaced the SS Despatch on the Gippsland-Melbourne run in 1893 whilst the Despatch was being refitted.

During a gale, the ship set out from Lakes Entrance bound for Melbourne via Port Albert[3] and later encountered hurricane-force southerly winds and mountainous seas.[4] Of the 16 people on board, the only survivor was Robert Ponting, the ship's cook, who was washed ashore at Sorrento Back Beach after clinging to a portion of cabin door.

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