But it was the loss of the 370-ton ship Edward Lombe in 1834 twenty three years before the Dunbar disaster - that led the authorities to do something to warn mariners of the reef and its dangers.

“It is remarkable that an unlikely story about a mad heretic plotting a massacre has been repeated uncritically for almost 400 years,” Koehler says. His alternative scenario describes “extreme violence driven by famine”

Other reports have the unstoppable showman driving a car down the city's Smith Street blindfolded and apparently guided solely by the gift of mental telepathy.

After that whirlwind of stunts, Calvert boarded the Sea Fox in Darwin with his crew, including the banana-loving Jimmy. Unlike the other passengers, Jimmy boarded the yacht in a cage and, it was claimed by Calvert, was the chimpanzee that played Cheetah in the 1940s black and white Hollywood versions of Tarzan. More diva than monkey, Jimmy was known for off-screen antics, from demanding the odd banana to drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

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. 

It happened in the early hours during darkness. Graham was below trying to sleep. They'd had little rest for three days and he'd just done 6 ½ hours on the helm. The first indication anything was wrong was when the seas suddenly changed, becoming very steep, and FORTUNA felt different. 

In attempting to find something positive in her demise, I can only think that coming to grief on a reef in Western Australia is preferable to a slow death in a marina from lack of maintenance.

The boat was holed and sunk, and Bill and Simonne took to a four-person coastal liferaft. This in the days when EPIRBs broadcast distress signals only on 121.5 MHz to passing aircraft. The couple christened their raft LAST CHANCE and ultimately survived on a diet of raw fish that Bill caught.

And bear in mind that in 1987 the ABC famously cost eight cents a day. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, the ABC today costs each Australian just half that amount. Since the mid-1980s the real funding has decreased by 28% or $336 million. This is 34% lower than the average of 18 comparable international public broadcasters.

The ALMONTA remains on the seabed, its crow's nest and railings breaking the surface of the calm waters of Porter Bay and lilting precariously to one side.

The first images of the ship since those taken by Shackleton’s photographer, Frank Hurley, revealed parts of the vessel in astonishing detail. An image of the stern showed the name ENDURANCE above a five-pointed star

One squally day or stormy night about 1,700 years ago, a boat carrying hundreds of amphorae of wine, olives, oil and garum – the fermented fish sauce that so delighted the ancient palate – came to grief during a stopover in Mallorca.

After almost 160-years, an ill-fated unique vessel has returned to its final resting place of Mangawhai, NZ. Built from Kauri by a Nova Scotian boat builder in 1863 and used to transport goods along the coast, only eight months later the the 17m schooner was stranded and reported, wrecked.