It is the southernmost coral atoll in the world and one of the southernmost platform reefs in the world. It measures 10.5km by 6.1km. Despite the relatively high latitude, a wide variety of flora and fauna exists on the reef and in the surrounding waters due to their location where tropical and temperate ocean currents converge.
At low tide most of the reef flat is exposed; at high tide, both a cay and a sand spit are visible. Elizabeth Island, with a diameter of about 50 m, is one metre above sea level. Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs form the Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs Marine National Park Reserve managed by the Government of Australia under the Natural Heritage Trust.[2]
David Blackburn, who had previously been the master of HMS Supply, had first sighted and named Middleton Reef (and was thus aware of it) in September 1788 what was then called Golden Grove shoal
The Golden Grove, on her return to this port, saw a very dangerous reef, the south end of which, according to the observation of Mr. Blackburn, (the master of the Supply,) who commanded her for the voyage, lay in the latitude of 29° 25' South, and longitude 159° 29' East. It appeared to extend, when she was about four leagues from it, from the N. E. by N. to N[3]
This may have either been either a sighting of Elizabeth Reef (approximately 70km to the South West) or a re-sighting of Middleton Reef (approximately 32km to the West)
Elizabeth Reef has also been called Seringapatam reef or Clarke's Reef[4][5][6] after the whaling ship Seringapatam and its captain, Clarke, who had been in the region of the reef in or about 1808 [7][8][9]
On 19 July 1815 Matthew Bowles, master of the Indefatigable, sailed past a reef with Joseph Arnold recording
The wind has been strong & foul, but we proceed to the Northward and Eastward. The Brig Campbell MacQuarie and the Ship Cochin sail very ill, so that we proceed slowly. This morning at day light we were close upon the an extensive reef which stretched from abaft the beam to nearly ahead, we were to leeward of it, and perhaps may think ourselves fortunate that the wind had been foul as we most likely should have run upon it during the night; for it did not appear that Capt. Bowles expected to fall in with it, for in the morning on my asking him whether it was down in the chart he said not, but that he thought it was part of Middleton's Reef. The Cochin was not in sight & we did not see her until nine o'clock. On referring to the Chart and making a calculation it appeared to be really Middleton's reef; though the master of the Macquarie denied it. The reef seemed to be very extensive and to run in ridges, for from the Mizen to I saw three or four one behind the other, with high breakers on each.[10]
But their time keeper being incorrect its longitude was not ascertained [11]
Naming
In 1820 an extract from the log book of the ship Claudine was published which described the discovery of Elizabeth Reef
Claudine and Marquis of Hastings, May 16, 1820, at 2:30 pm saw a range of breakers (from the masthead) in the NW quarter. At 4, tacked when they bore SW. At 5pm when within 2 cables length from the reef sounded in 14 fathoms, hard rocky ground when a ¼ of a mile from it 25 fathoms, then no ground. The east side of this reef lies about SSW and NNE one mile, but the greatest extent appeared to be from the ESE to WNW. The whole does not seem to be more than 3 miles in circumference having deep water within, and forming nearly a quadrangular the edges of which (with the exception of a few rocks are covered and the sea runs high over them. I saw no passage through therefore after asserting it situation we resumed our course to the Northward Latitude of the reef 30 5’ S longitude by time keeper 159 E. This being a new discovery, I have called it Elizabeth’s Reef[12]
Surveys
In 1851 the survey vessel HMS Acheron under Lieutenant Huthwaite was dispatched from Sydney to the wreck of the Tyrian.[13] The Acheron reported the location of the reef.[14]
The first attempted dedicated survey of Elizabeth Reef was in June 1853, when HMS Herald, under Denham, after having surveyed Middleton Reef between 5 and 22 June, attempted to run from Middleton to Elizabeth Reef but came across Lord Howe on 22 June and then back to Sydney.[15]
On 2 September 1853 HMS Herald again departed Sydney and arrived at Lord Howe Island on the 5th with the intention of surveying Elizabeth Reef but was prevented by boisterous weather and so sailed out further into the Pacific Ocean.[16]
On the returning leg after a second visit to Fiji (25 June 1855 to 3 February 1856), HMS Herald again attempted to survey Elizabeth Reef in January 1856 where he ran a meridian distance between Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs, verifying the position in relation to Lord Howe Island,[17] which has been described as sketchy [18]
In 1878 Elizabeth Reef was surveyed by Lieutenant G. E. Richards in HMSRenard, the plan of which is still published on the map AUS 213.[19]
The Elizabeth Reef Lifeboat
After the wreck of the Colonist in 1870, a lifeboat was moored in the lagoon to support future ship-wrecked sailors, by providing provisions, medical supplies, charts, and compasses. However, this boat was eventually swept away in a gale and never replaced. Nonetheless, the subsequent wreck of the Alma provided shelter and was used as such by the survivors of the wreck of the Naiad.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]
Flora and fauna
Surveys by the Australian Institute of Marine Science have highlighted a healthy number of black cod Epinephelus daemelii, a threatened species[27] in New South Welsh waters.[28] The survey in 2003 highlighted 111 species of coral and identified 181 species of fish. The total number of recorded fish species is 311 across several surveys. High numbers of Galapagos sharksCarcharhinus galapagensis were observed at the reef, which may indicate that the reef is a nursery. Sea cucumber (black teatfish), Holothuria whitmaei,[29] were found in high numbers. While the 2003 survey found only small numbers of crown-of-thorns starfish, a survey in 2005 indicated that it was active.[30]
Shipwrecks
Both Elizabeth Reef and Middleton Reef have been the site of numerous shipwrecks. According to the National Shipwrecks Database, the ships stranded at Elizabeth Reef include:
Britannia was wrecked on 25 August 1806 and was a 301 burthen ton full-rigged whaler built in 1783 in Bridport, England, and owned by the whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons. The vessel also performed two voyages transporting convicts to Port Jackson.[31]
Rosetta Joseph struck Elizabeth Reef on 1 December 1850 when on a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. The 27-metre wooden barquentine was built at the Manning River by Moses Joseph, New South Wales in 1847 and was registered in Sydney [32] The vessel was described as lying on the north-west side of Clarke's (or Elizabeth) Reef [33] On 15 January the 66-ton schooner Bride departed Sydney for Elizabeth reef [34] after having been chartered by J.S. Hanson with Captain Dalmage in command after 18 days at sea they discovered that the wreck had been visited by the Whaler Jane, where its captain (Fowler) had secured all of the valuable out of the wreck and would hand them over to their lawful on arrival in Sydney [35] The wreck of the Rosetta Joseph prior to the arrival of the Whaler Jane had been visited by the whaler Canrarvon (sp Caernarvon) and an unknown American Whaler. The Rosetta Joseph which was quite high and dry had remained a refuge for any crew wrecked on Elizabeth Reef for several years until 1858 when Captain J Chase of the American whaling barque Elizabeth Swift ordered his crew to destroy the wreck by fire for the copper bolts to some condemnation[36][37][38]
Tyrian ran aground and was wrecked at Elizabeth Reef on 24 November 1851. In December Aeolus (1850) and the Jane assisted in taking off survivors from the wreck back to Sydney. The 226 ton Tyrian was a wooden barquentine was built at Scarborough in the United Kingdom in 1828 and was registered in London [39] The Tyrian stuck about 1am, the sea carried the vessel over the outward barrier placing it high up on the inner reef, where it was tolerably protected from the sea. A longboat was sent to the nearest port under Captain Birkenshaw (formerly of the Minerva who was a passenger) After a passage of 5 days they made Port Macquarie[40] On 5 December HMS Acheron under Lieutenant Augustus George Donston Huthwaite was dispatched from Sydney to the wreck [41] The second Master Napoleon Sewell advised that the vessel had arrived at the site of the wreck on the 9th and brought back 6 stranded crew and learnt that on the 30th the Whaling Barque Jane had taken off 17 of the passengers and crew and that the schooner Aeolus had taken 4 passengers and 3 crew on 5 December. The Acheron reported the location of the Tyrian as 29 53 30S 159 3 30E and the Roseta Joseph as 29 52 30S 158 55 0E [42] With the Roseta Joseph reported as lying 4+1⁄2 miles from the Tyrian[43] The 75 ton schooner William and James was reported to be salvaging the Tyrian in January 1852 where an entrance had been found in the reef to the NE with a large harbor where anchoring was done in 15 fathoms and 7 fathoms over the bar entrance at low tide [44][45]
The Packet, a whaling vessel, was wrecked at midnight during gale on 24 February 1857 The 25-metre brigantine with a Captain Davidson was on voyage to Sydney with a cargo of whale oil, 150 barrels and a crew of 26 was built at Prince Edward Island in Canada in 1849 and was owned by Messers Mitchell & Co [46][47] In January 1858 it was reported that captain Doolittle of the American Whaler Phantom (brig) was seen off Elizabeth Reef lying at anchor near the wreck of the Packet where he had secured a large quantity of the wreck and was burning it to get at the copper bolts [48]
The Douglas was wrecked on the SE extremity of the fringing reef at Elisabeth Reef on 8 May 1869. The vessel was on a voyage from Newcastle to China. The 36 metre wooden vessel is listed in the Sydney register as a barquentine was built at Machias in the United States in 1861 [49] Wreck lies on the outer reef at about "5 o'clock" [50]
Colonist was a general cargo and passenger schooner built in 1861 at Dumbarton Scotland by Denny & Rankine. It spent nearly 30 years plying the Western Pacific-based out of Sydney. It wrecked at midnight, on 22 May 1870 and later re-floated and returned to Sydney Harbour on 2 March 1871 more than eight months after having hit the reef with the vessel later sinking in Sydney Harbour on 1 March 1890.[citation needed]
The Alma was wrecked at Elizabeth Reef on 3 August 1883 while under the command of Captain John Paterson. The Iron Sailing Vessel was launched as 3 masted Schooner was built at Dundee in the Scotland in 1854 by the Gourley Brothers but by 1880 was a brigantine [51][52]
The iron ship Ramsey
The iron ship Ramsey ran aground and sunk on 31 October 1883. The vessel was 767 tons iron, three mast ship, later barque, 821 tons, ON45885, 209.5 × 32.0 × 19.2. She was built in 1863 by Gibson and Co., Ramsey.[53][54] There is some disagreement as to where the vessel was wrecked. The vessel was originally reported as having been lost at Elizabeth Reef including at its Marine Court of Inquiry[55][56] although by the following January the barque Reconnaissance reports salvaging material from the Ramsey at Middleton Reef and notes seeing the three-masted schooner Alma on Elizabeth Reef.[57]
The fully rigged ship Askøy as it was when named the Argus
Askøy was wrecked at Elizabeth Reef on 27 December 1911. The vessel was built as the Argus by Barclay, Curle & Co., Glasgow, 1615 t, 255.5 feet. The Norwegian fully rigged ship was owned at the time of her loss by Marcussen Jens M. A., Risor and was on a voyage from Salavery, Peru to Sydney in ballast. Two boats were manned, and the crew equally divided, the captain taking one and the mate the other. The mate's boat, after six trying days and nights, reached Yamba, Clarence Heads whilst the captains arrived at Nouméa.[58][59]
British sailor Steve Landles was winched to a Royal Australian Navy Sea Hawk helicopter from the stranded yacht Lamachan on 2 August 2007; the yacht could not be recovered.[60]
HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. In 1790, the ship was wrecked on the reef, south east of Kingston Pier, in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island.
The Minerva Reefs are a group of two submerged atolls located in the Pacific Ocean between Fiji, Niue and Tonga. The islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between Fiji and Tonga, and in addition were briefly claimed by American Libertarians as the centre of a micronation, the Republic of Minerva.
Hornby Lighthouse, also known as South Head Lower Light or South Head Signal Station, is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on the tip of South Head, New South Wales, Australia, a headland to the north of the suburb Watsons Bay. It marks the southern entrance to Port Jackson, as well as lighting the South Reef, a ledge of submerged rocks. It is the third oldest lighthouse in New South Wales. Designed by Mortimer Lewis and listed on the Register of the National Estate and on the New South Wales State Heritage Register since 2 April 1999, with the following statement of significance:
A dominant Sydney landmark which appears to have been in continuous use since the 1840s as a controlling point for shipping entering and leaving Port Jackson. The building complex, designed by the Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis in the early 1840s, is an architectural important example of an early Victorian public work associated with port activities.
Conway Reef, known since 1976 by its Fijian name Ceva-I-Ra Reef, is a coral reef of the atoll type.
His Majesty's colonial brig Elizabeth Henrietta was completed in 1816 for New South Wales service, but capsized on the Hunter River, Australia later that year with the loss of two lives. The ship was wrecked in 1825.
Pocklington Reef is a coral reef and a mostly submerged atoll in the far southeast of Papua New Guinea.
Aeolus was a wooden ketch built in 1850 at Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia. She was carrying timber to Sydney, New South Wales, when she was lost at Hole in the Wall, Jervis Bay, New South Wales, on 24 October 1867. The wreck has not been located, but its approximate position is 35.134648°S 150.745874°E.
The Fitzroy was a steel-hulled steamship built in 1912 at Old Kilpatrick, Scotland in 1912. Thirty-one people were killed when Fitzroy capsized in a gale whilst carrying a general cargo between Coffs Harbour and Sydney off Cape Hawke, New South Wales on 26 June 1921.
The Comboyne was a wooden screw steamer built in 1911 at Tuncurry, that was wrecked when it struck an object whilst carrying timber to Wollongong and was lost at approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) off Bass Point, Shellharbour, New South Wales on 27 November 1920.
Koraaga was a Castle-class steel-hulled trawler built in 1914 by Smith's Dock Company, South Bank, Middlesbrough. She was requisitioned as an auxiliary minesweeper operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in October 1917 for minesweeping duties during World War I, but she was never commissioned. Koraaga returned to be operated commercially as a fishing trawler until she wrecked when she struck a reef off Bass Point whilst carrying returning to Sydney. She was refloated on the tide after having becoming stranded and drifted till she was finally lost five miles (8.0 km) east of Black Head, Gerringong on 10 September 1931.
The Australasian Steam Navigation Company was a shipping company of Australia which operated between 1839 and 1887.
Arthur Alexander Walton Onslow was born at Trichinopoly in India to surveyor Arthur Pooley Onslow and Rosa Roberta Macleay. In 1838 was sent to New South Wales, where he lived with his grandfather Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney. He returned to England to live with his family in 1841 and was educated in Surrey and Nottingham. He entered the navy in May 1847 as a midshipman on HMS Howe and by 1847 he was a navy midshipman.
Sixty-miler (60-miler) is the colloquial name for the ships that were used in the coastal coal trade of New South Wales, Australia. The sixty-milers delivered coal to Sydney from ports and ocean jetties to the north and south. The name refers to the approximate distance by sea; the distance, from the Hunter River mouth at Nobbys Head to the North Head of Sydney Harbour, is 64 nautical miles.
Queen Cristina was a steam cargo ship built in 1896 by Bartram & Sons of Sunderland for Thomas Dunlop & Sons of Glasgow. The ship was designed and built for general cargo trade and spent her career doing tramp trade. She was named after Queen Cristina of Spain, and was the first ship named Queen Cristina in service with the Queen Line.
The Queen Bee was a wooden carvel Twin-screw steamer built in 1907 at the Rock Davis shipyard at Blackwall, New South Wales, that was wrecked when she sprang a leak whilst carrying coal between Newcastle and Sydney. She was lost off Barrenjoey Head, Broken Bay, New South Wales on 2 September 1922.
The Stone Fleet was the colloquial name for the small coastal ships that carried crushed-stone construction aggregate to Sydney from the Illawarra ports of Kiama and Shellharbour and the nearby ocean jetties at Bombo and Bass Point.
HMSTorch was an iron steamer of 350 tons which was the tender vessel for HMS Herald. In the 1850s she conducted surveying work in Australia and the Pacific.
Lalla Rookh was a barque of 372 tons built by Edward Allen in St Helier, Jersey, in "1939", corrected to 1839. Her dimensions were 99.9 × 24.0 × 16.8 ft.
↑ "SHIPPING MOVEMENTS". Morning Bulletin. Vol.XXXI, no.4824. Queensland, Australia. 11 September 1883. p.2. Retrieved 26 May 2021– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "SHIPPING". The Brisbane Courier. Vol.XXXVIII, no.8, 005. Queensland, Australia. 7 September 1883. p.4. Retrieved 26 May 2021– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "MAURITIUS". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol.[?]XV, no.5185. New South Wales, Australia. 2 January 1854. p.2. Retrieved 30 May 2021– via National Library of Australia.
↑ David, Andrew (1995), The voyage of HMS Herald to Australia: and the South-West Pacific 1852-1861 under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham / Andrew David, Melbourne University Press at the Miegunyah Press, p.213
↑ David, Andrew (1995), The voyage of HMS Herald to Australia: and the South-West Pacific 1852-1861 under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham / Andrew David, Melbourne University Press at the Miegunyah Press, p.213
↑ "SCENE OF THE WRECK". Daily Telegraph. New South Wales, Australia. 3 January 1913. p.9f. Retrieved 27 January 2023– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol.XXIX, no.4239. New South Wales, Australia. 17 December 1850. p.4. Retrieved 30 May 2021– via National Library of Australia.
↑ "SHIPS' MAILS". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol.XXXIX, no.6117. New South Wales, Australia. 13 January 1858. p.4. Retrieved 2 June 2021– via National Library of Australia.
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