That's because the final voyage of the historic SY Aurora, even after 104 years, remains a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, as they say.

The three-masted steam yacht from the heroic age of polar exploration vanished after sailing from the port of Newcastle on June 20, 1917, bound for Chile, in South America.

She had suddenly become a humble collier, no longer engaged in Antarctic exploration. The ship's crew were tasked instead with hauling 500 tons of coal across the vast Pacific Ocean.

Some believe one likely explanation for the disappearance of the 150-foot (50metre) long barque-rigged timber vessel was that she fell victim to the Wolf, a German merchant raider. It's long been speculated the 580-ton Aurora struck one of the floating mines left in the sea lanes by the World War 1 enemy ship. The explosion swiftly sank the Aurora with the tragic loss of all hands onboard. Seems logical.

Or is there another scenario? And why do people still remember this particular old, Scottish-built vessel so fondly anyway?

Although built in 1876 for a Dundee seal and whaling company, it was later adapted to become Australia's first Antarctic exploration vessel. Built of stout oak, the bow of the timber vessel was then reinforced with steel-plate armour to withstand damage while ploughing through icefields in winter.

SY Aurora was always a reliable ship. She's associated with the famous explorers Mawson and then Shackleton after making made three hazardous voyages to the Antarctic and to the sub-Antarctic during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) between 1911 and 1914.

Earlier, the hardy vessel took part in seal and whale hunts in the Arctic. Then in 1910, Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson bought the ship as a future icebreaker with his 1911 expedition in mind. Mawson ordered a refit and a strengthening of the hull, the bow especially, to defend against ice fields potentially crushing Aurora in a vice-like grip.

After already surviving about 34 years in the ice-strewn north Atlantic, the ship seemed like an ideal choice. Six years of arduous duty followed with Mawson, then Shackleton (ITAE 1914-1917), before the ship was sold off, her last days to be spent hauling coal.

That's how SY Aurora came to be leaving Newcastle harbour in June 1917 bound for South America. To astute maritime observers, the odds must have seemed stacked against the ship ever reaching its destination. The ageing ship actually left on that fatal voyage - twice!

The first was in April 1917 and then in June. Some three days into the first passage, Aurora was discovered to be leaking badly and so returned to Sydney. Her cargo of 500 tons of coal was offloaded and extensive repairs were made. She then set off again, after stopping in Newcastle to reload coal.

The rest is history, starting with the vessel being reported overdue and some wreckage found floating off the NSW coast near the North Solitary island group. Included was a lifebuoy cleared marked 'SY Aurora' with the faded, "ghost" letters of AAE and ITAE stencilled underneath indicating previous historic voyages.

A few years ago, the secretary of the ANARE Club David Dodd gave his own version of what probably happened, saying: "I believe, in the end, Aurora just fell apart."

Dodd speculated that "the removal of the icebreaker plates and the dead weight of the coal compromised the structural integrity of the ship".

On top of that, within days of again leaving Newcastle, SY Aurora struck a southerly buster, Her fate was apparently sealed.

After 100 years, the ship's rare recovered lifebuoy was presented to the nation by the son of the ship's wireless operator. That same year, 2017, former Antarctic veterans, all members of the Australian National Research Expeditions (ANARE), met in Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral to commemorate the tragic loss of the ship and her crew. A polished brass plaque was unveiled in remembrance on the wall of St Nicholas Chapel (the patron of seafarers) near the cathedral's main altar.

This week, the Cathedral Dean, the Very Rev Katherine Bowyer, said nothing new had since emerged about any other ship relics, beside the lifebuoy, being discovered.

Weekender had hoped that an empty "souvenir" bottle of Portuguese Madeira from Antarctica may have surfaced. The missing bottle, engraved with eight crew names and marked June 1912 from the Mawson expedition, was claimed in 1927 to have been found washed up on Tuggerah Beach.

Speaking of lost relics, could it be true the Hunter has been unable to secure any items from its now retired namesake warship, HMAS Newcastle? Not even a lifebuoy which might find a new home in Newcastle Cathedral's special chapel to seamen? Our frigate, being renamed, was one of two quietly sold to the Chilean Navy in April last year. Any mementoes apparently went to Sydney. True or false? Watch this space.

IN the boxing arena, old time fighters like Maitland's Les Darcy and Lionel Rose stand tall.

But there's one man who's almost a forgotten legend. His name was Dave Sands and the indigenous boxer was once the most popular sportsman in Australia.

He lived at Stockton and died tragically young in a truck accident near Dungog on August 11, 1952. Sands (born Dave Ritchie) was only 26 years of age and he died returning for his wedding anniversary.

Sands, the most gifted of all six fighting Sands brothers, is credited with 110 professional bouts, winning 97 of them.

The recent Shadow Boxing exhibit at Maitland Regional Art Gallery included a tribute to Sands' greatness.

Born at the Burnt Bridge Mission, Kempsey, in 1926, Ritchie (Sands) won the Australian Middleweight, Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight titles plus the Empire Middleweight title.

Sands, a gentle soul away from the ring, is recognised as one of the greatest boxers never to have won a world title. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998. There are memorials to him in Glebe, Sydney, and at Dungog but the most impressive monument to his memory was erected years ago on Stockton foreshore, near the passenger ferry.