KING ISLAND.

Western Star, 23 December 1927, Page 4

KING ISLAND.

NICKNAMED ‘THE GRAVEYARD.’

One of the most , dreadful places off the Australian coast to mariners is King Island, at the western entrance to Bass Strait, 80 miles south of Port Philip - Heads (writes C. b. in the Melbourne Age). Nicknamed Ihe •Graveyard)’ on account of 40 officially recorded wrecks having happened there, the island was and named by! Commander Black, of Harbinger, in 1801. It is about thirty miles long from north to. south, witp a varying breadth of from five to lo miles. The area, is 27,000 acres, . and the soil generally appears'to be good. It forms a. portion of Tasmanian territory. Between 1835 and' 1881 there were no fewer than 32 ships wrecked and 805 lives lost on King Island. The most disastrous was the loss of the immigrant ship Catarqui which foundered on August 4, 1845, when only nine souls were saved of a total of 425. Of the 416 vMio were lost, .304 bodies were recovered . an d buried! by a Mr David Howe, who had a sealing party on the island. The news of the wreck caused a great sensation in Melbourne, and relief funds were immediately opened. Prominent in the field wa.s the late George Coppin, the wellknown actor-manager, who was subsequently awarded a gold medal for his services. During the previous 10 years four other vessels had been wrecked upon the island. 1 ~ Some disasters, however, were unattended with loss of life. In 1866, for instance, the immigrant' ship Netherby crashed upon a reef there, but though the castaways were marooned upon th© island for a fortnight they all survived. They subsisted chiefly on provisions washed! ashore from the wreck, and game and fish were also obtained in abundance. The barque Rebecca was wrecked on King Island on September 28, 1843. Her crew and a few passengers were landed in one of the ship’s boats by her captain. There they passed a miserable night, and, the weather having moderated towards morning, some of the party swam to the ship and boarded her. A quantity of stores was' then obtained by adjusting a back stay from the masthead to the beach. Shortly Afterwards the vessel broke up. ' Two years ago aMr William Hick,m,ott, who- was at that time the oldest resident of the island, dfed at the age of 87. , He was induced to visit the place 65 years ago by a settler who had been shipwrecked there. Mr Hickmott • mfide it his permanent home — a handful of sealers and hunters comprising the population at that time. Of tli.e forty wrecks above-mentioned v Mi* iHickmott remembered! 27, and in many instances assisted in the rescue work.