When the small coastal steamer Coramba departed Warrnambool at 1.00pm on Thursday, November 29, 1934, the weather was not good, but it was about to become extreme.
The storm of late November caused high rainfall throughout Victoria, with much damage from the severe wind. There were widespread stock losses and at least 36 deaths in Melbourne from the flooding. In South Gippsland, rainfall totals exceeded 350mm in 48 hours, and the movement of shipping was in chaos.
The s.s. Coramba was owned by the Belfast and Koroit Steamship Company, which was founded in 1882 to provide a means of transporting farm produce from southwest Victoria to markets in Melbourne. Coramba was built in Scotland in 1911 and was quite small, with a length of only 48.75m. The cargo on board the steamer as she left Warrnambool consisted of wool, shell grit and condensed milk, some of which had been loaded at Portland and Port Fairy.
She was expected to arrive in Melbourne about 7.00am on Friday, November 30, but was most likely overwhelmed by huge waves that Friday night. She had been sighted briefly to the south of Phillip Island on Friday afternoon, but when wreckage was washed ashore on Phillip Island on Saturday morning it was clear that she had been wrecked. Two lifeboats – one seriously damaged – the whole of the wheelhouse and the bodies of two members of the crew were found on a beach on Phillip Island.
A Melbourne diver named Johnston reported to a Marine Board of Enquiry that he had found the wreck east of Seal Rocks and about 3.2km from Kitty Miller Bay. Many believe he did this so that the families of the crew could gain the insurance money to which they were entitled. In 1934, the world economic depression was not over in Melbourne and the crew members were, in many cases, the only source of income for their family. The wreck of the Coramba was discovered in May 2011 by Southern Ocean Expeditions nearly 20km south of Seal Rocks and far from the site that Johnston had claimed.
MAURIE HUTCHINSON
President, Peninsula Ship Society
T: 9787 5780
E: mauriehutch@gmail.com
The Peninsula Ship Society meets at Hastings Yacht Club at 10.00am on the fourth Tuesday of each month (except November and December). Visitors are always welcome.
