The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

TALL SHIPS Mark Chew TALL SHIPS Mark Chew

"Every man a mourner"

150 years ago, the SS Gothenburg - a sturdy coastal steamship - left the Port of Darwin in the Northern Territory on its final tragic voyage. When the ship hit Old Reef off Townsville in cyclonic conditions, over 100 people died. Just 22 survived. The disaster devastated the fledgling community of Darwin (then called Palmerston). Judges, doctors, bureaucrats, prisoners, women and children were all lost. It was said that every house in the northern colony lost a loved one. 

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