| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | Arpenteur |
| Owner | William Owen & John Ridley |
| Launched | 1839 |
| Stricken | Sank 1849 |
| Fate | Wrecked 1849 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Brig |
| Tons burthen | 95 tons |
| Length | 72.2 feet (22 m) |
| Beam | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
| Draught | 10.6 ft (3.2 m) |
| Notes | [1] |
The Arpenteur was a brig owned by William Owen and John Ridley. It was wrecked at Hassell Beach in Cheyne Bay near Cape Riche when a gale ran it ashore 7 November 1849. [2] [3]
The Arpenteur was built using wood at Mahe in the Seychelles in 1839. [4] It was originally registered in Port Louis in Mauritius. [5] The vessel was purchased in 1847 by Owen and Ridley, [2] who had it re-registered at Port Adelaide. [5] The vessel was used to transport cargo between Singapore, Java and Adelaide.
In 1848 the Arpenteur, in the command of Captain Allen, was used to salvage the Wave , which was wrecked at Cheynes Beach. The owners of the Arpenteur acquired the salvage rights for the wreck of the Wave for £330. When it returned to Fremantle the Arpenteur had 27 tons of flour, 1,000 bushels of wheat, the rigging and sails that the crew had salvaged from the wreck. [6]
On its final voyage the brig was in the command of Captain John Raines [7] and was being used to transport mail from England that had been collected at Singapore and was to be delivered at Fremantle. Unable to enter Fremantle harbour due to storms, [2] it sailed on to Albany but was unable to enter King George Sound as a result of strong gales and was damaged in the process. [8]
Eventually the ship reached Cheynes Beach where it was in the process of loading whale oil when strong gales rose from the south west blowing the vessel ashore [9] so that it foundered [7] and was wrecked. All of the crew escaped and a small portion of the cargo was salvaged. [9]
The wreck is located approximately 100 metres (328 ft) offshore at the western end of Hassell Beach and lies on a flat sandy bottom. Used as a dive site, approximately 4.6 metres (15 ft) of planking and framework is visible along with some rounded stone ballast. [10]
A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately three million shipwrecks worldwide as of January 1999, according to Angela Croome, a science writer and author who specialized in the history of underwater archaeology.
King George Sound is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use from about 1934, prompted by new Admiralty charts supporting the intention to eliminate the possessive 's' from geographical names.
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Over 1400 ships have been wrecked on the coast of Western Australia. This relatively large number of shipwrecks is due to a number of factors, including:
Cherry Venture was a 1600-ton cargo ship of Scandinavian origin. It ran aground on Teewah Beach in South East Queensland, Australia on 6 July 1973 and remained on the beach for 34 years until its removal in early 2007.
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SS Kwinana was an Australian ocean-going cargo and passenger steamship. She was built in England in 1892 as the cargo ship SS Darius. In 1912 she changed owners, was refitted as a cargo and passenger ship and renamed Kwinana.
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John Moir was a settler and pastoralist in the areas to the east of Albany, in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.
Wave was a brig that was wrecked in 1848 at Cheynes Beach near Cape Riche, Western Australia.
The Hive Shipwreck is a heritage-listed shipwreck site of the Hive, a former convict transportation ship located approximately 40 metres (130 ft) off Bherwerre Beach, Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 April 2010.
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