Vanished without a trace: sinking myths about Newcastle's lost ships

But what about dozens missing from Newcastle, long, long ago? And often they vanished without a trace.

Today, it's usually a yacht in trouble, or a huge freighter gone missing, caught up in a typhoon in Asia.

Most times the vessels are soon found, or at least the crew is saved, thanks to modern technology, including radio, radar or satellites. The world has shrunk an awful lot. Everywhere, that is, except the sea south-east of Florida, in the US, according to TV documentary makers. Much interest persists about that region's Bermuda Triangle, where numerous ships and planes have gone missing. The other night yet another program aired on strange disappearances there. Its eventual verdict?

Well, it's a mystery. Very disappointing.

The triangle seems to have swallowed everything, including the kitchen sink, since World War II "without any explanation" (forget tropical cyclones, rogue waves or simply human error). The area is unique, or so we're led to believe.

It could never happen elsewhere, could it? Yes, it could, and in our backyard: the Pacific Ocean in the 19th century. But often the reasons are blindingly obvious, including the absence back then of modern communications tracking vessels. After a bit of digging, I came across some incredible details of our own mini-Bermuda Triangle, you might say. But here, plain facts overturn the myth.

According to respected Australian maritime historian and author, the late Jack Loney, almost 1000 lives were lost and more than 50 vessels (coal ships) left Newcastle Harbour between 1854 and 1922 and were never seen again. It seems an extraordinary figure, but the losses were spread over 68 years, and it's hardly a mystery why they occurred.

For the first few decades at least, it was an era of big, ageing wooden ships, often poorly maintained and overloaded. (Much later, towards the end of the sail ship era, WWI decimated the world-wide fleet as predatory German U-boats sank the majestic, mainly unprotected, vessels powered entirely by wind.)

Loney writes that most of the Newcastle ships ships engaged in the coal trade circa 1900 "were long past their best" to compete profitably with the newer, faster ships for general cargo and passengers.

Under the control though of an experienced master and crew, sailing ships could still marginally survive on long haul routes, such as carrying coal to South America or other bulk cargoes, like grain or nitrates (for explosives) to Britain and Germany. Desperate for cargoes, they were described as the "beggars of the seas" post-1900.

Loney said that a great risk of carrying coal on vast ocean voyages, was spontaneous combustion of cargoes. At the peak of the largely overseas coal trade from 1888 and 1896 between Newcastle and US ports, more than 4.3million tons of coal was carried by sail and 26 coal-laden vessels were reported missing. Coal fires aboard were suspected.

Meanwhile, the emerging steamships hugging the Aussie coast offered crews better pay and conditions. Voyages could also be measured in days or weeks, not years. A new safety line painted on the side of ships to prevent overloading and called after its inventor Samuel (the 'sailor's friend') Plimsoll had became law in 1876. This made it illegal to overload ships in Great Britain, but not in the colonies, like Australia.

Where the Plimsoll Mark (or line) was used initially on Newcastle ships (wood then later iron ships) it was put wherever its owner decided, but once placed, could not be moved. But the (then) Newcastle Morning Herald in June 1885 reported that "some steamships had the Plimsoll Mark on the funnel".

Stockton maritime historian, the late Terry Callen, once wrote many hazards threatened ocean windjammers in the so-called golden age of sail. Coal cargoes could heat up causing fires, then there was cargo overloading, storms, ships capsizing when poorly trimmed cargoes suddenly shifted, poor navigation, extremely poor communications, hidden reefs and even icebergs facing ships bound from Newcastle to South America, or to Europe via Cape Horn.

Callen wrote that ship overloading in Newcastle was common in the 1880s with some ships labelled "floating coffins" because of their unseaworthiness.

Between 1882 and 1901, fire was discovered on at least 17 ships after leaving the port of Newcastle. Seven of these vessels were abandoned mid-voyage, while another seven reached their destinations on fire. One coal cargo even blew up while in port in Sydney. Insurance rates doubled on ships carrying Newcastle coal. Most insurance companies declined to insure them at all.

Shipowners, aiming for a profit on a cargo, were forced to go uninsured, or charge higher freight, Callen wrote.

The writer also discovered that tiny Starbuck Island, a barren, treeless coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean, claimed six shipwrecks pre-1889. Five of the wrecks on the island, in the mid-Pacific on the Newcastle to San Francisco shipping route, were declared to have been ships that came from Newcastle. The uninhabited atoll, also called Low or Starve island, is today part of Kiribati.

Callen wrote that while many ships were lost due to bad weather and other factors, there might be another reason. Wooden ships carrying heavy coal cargoes were particularly prone to disaster. After a spell waiting in port and riding high with little ballast, their seams often opened causing leaks after a few days at sea.

"Crews were (then) forced to pump manually until exhausted," Callen said.

For whatever reason, six large coal-laden ships which left Newcastle in 1895 alone were posted as missing .

Times though were rapidly changing. Wooden ships were being replaced by iron ships and then steamships. The sailing ship age was largely over by 1920. Communications at sea were gradually improving and modern technology was on the march.

But it wasn't until 1925 that tractors took over from pulling small wooden coal wagons at the port's cranes. That year was when 21 tractors replaced 66 horses working the port wharves.

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