RMS Quetta was an iron-hulled steamship that was built in Scotland in 1881 and wrecked with great loss of life in the Torres Strait in 1890. She was operated by British India Associated Steamers (BIAS), which was controlled by the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISN). She was wrecked on a previously unknown rock, which has been called Quetta Rock ever since. The Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 protects the wreck.
William Denny and Brothers built Quetta for £70,119[1] at Dumbarton on the River Leven as yard number 243. She was launched on 1 March 1881[2] and completed on 18 May.[1] Her registered length was 380.0ft (115.8m), her beam was 40.3ft (12.3m) and her depth was 29.0ft (8.8m). Her tonnages were 3,484GRT and 2,254NRT.[3] She had berths for 76 passengers in first class and 32 in second class,[1] plus steerage accommodation for migrants.
Quetta had a single screw, driven by a two-cylinder compound engine built by Denny. It was rated at 500 HP and gave her a speed of 12 knots (22km/h). The ship had three masts, and was rigged as a barquentine. She also had hydraulically-driven cargo handling equipment.[1]
In 1876 BISN created BIAS to run a scheduled service between London and Calcutta via Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, Colombo, and Madras (now Chennai). BIAS managed the ships, but one or more private shareholders owned each ship.[6]Quetta worked the London – Calcutta route for the first two years of her career.[1]
Quetta was one of a series of three-masted brigantines that Denny built for BIAS. Denny completed India in November 1881.[7] She was similar to Quetta, but about 10 feet (3m) longer, 2 feet (0.6m) greater beam, and built of steel instead of iron.[8]India was the first ship in the BISN group to have electric light.[7] Denny completed Goorkha, a sister ship for India, in May 1882.[7] Then in April 1884 Denny completed Manora, which at 410 feet (120m) long and 45.2 feet (13.8m) beam was larger still.[9]
Mail and passenger ships between Britain and Australia mostly served a route via Australia's south coast, calling at either Fremantle or Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Not all ships continued up the east coast to Brisbane. The Colony of Queensland thus had a passenger and mail link with Britain that was less direct and less frequent than the other Australian colonies enjoyed.[10]
In 1881 Thomas McIlwraith, Premier of Queensland obtained parliamentary authority for to offer a mail contract for a shipping company to run a service between London and Brisbane via the Torres Strait. BIAS won the contract, and formed the Queensland Steam Ship Company to run feeder routes to connect with it.[10]
At Cleveland Bay she disembarked 67 migrants for Townsville,[16] and at Keppel Bay she disembarked 115 migrants to a steam launch, which landed them at Rockhampton.[17] She steamed from Keppel Bay to Cape Moreton in 24 hours, setting what was then a record,[18] and arrived off Brisbane on 5 June.[19]
By 1886 ownership of Quetta had been transferred from Gray, Dawes & Co to BIAS.[20] By 1890 she had made 11 round trips between London and Brisbane.[citation needed]
Loss
On 18 February 1890 Quetta left Brisbane for London.[21] Along the Queensland coast she caled at Townsville, Cairns, Kimberley, and Cooktown.[22][23] She was due to call at Batavia, Singapore, and Colombo.[21]
Quetta's Master was Captain AA Sanders.[24] Her ship's company comprised 28 European officers and ratings and 93 lascars. After leaving Cooktown she carried 171 passengers: 33 first or second class, 65 steerage, and 62 Javanese labourers,[25] who were returning to Batavia as deck passengers from working on sugar cane plantations.[citation needed]
An artist's impression of Quetta sinking, published in The Queenslander
Quetta embarked an experienced pilot, Captain Keating, to command her through the Torres Strait. She turned into the Adolphus Channel to round the Cape York Peninsula. The pilot was experienced, the weather fine and visibility good, but at 21:14 hrs she struck an uncharted rock in the middle of the channel near Albany Island.[26] Captain Keating estimated the rock's position to be 10°40′10″S142°38′10″E / 10.66944°S 142.63611°E / -10.66944; 142.63611.[27] It split open the steel plates of her hull from her bow to her engine room. She settled by her bow, listed to port, raised her stern out of the water, and then sank, all within three minutes.[28]
Quetta's cutter floated clear but capsized, surrounded by a large group of Javanese and lascars. Quartermaster James Oates organised the baling of the cutter and steered it ashore.[citation needed] Her Number 1 (starboard) lifeboat floated free, but was damaged and capsized. Captain Keating and the Third Officer Thomas Babb, righted it, but were unable to bale it out. It picked up more survivors, including Captain Sanders. The two boats met, and landed their survivors[28] on Mount Adolphus Island.
Survivors
People aboard at time of the sinking
Group
No. aboard
Survival rate
Javanese passengers
70
79%
Lascar ratings
92
78%
Saloon passengers
26
19%
Steerage passengers
75
86%
European officers
15
European ratings
14
Total
292
54%
Captain Keating led a party to Somerset on the Cape York Peninsula.[28] A Somerset resident, Frank Jardine, organised a rescue with his own boats, and sent messengers to the nearest telegraph station, 15 miles (24km) away,[29] to summon steamers from Thursday Island.[28] Jardine also provided one of Quetta's boats with food and water for the survivors. The boat then made for Mount Adolphus Island. Later the boat stopped the steamship Victoria, to which Captains Keating and Sanders and some lascars transferred.[28] One of Jardine's boats was already at sea, having been catching turtles, and was on its way back to Somerset. It encountered wreckage, from which its crew rescued ten survivors.[30]
The telegram reached Thursday Island about 14:00 hrs on 1 March. The government resident, John Douglas, sent the steamer Albatross from Port Kennedy. Another captain volunteered to take his steamer, Merrie England, as well. After about three hours Albatross met Victoria, from which it took off Captains Keating and Sanders and the lascars. Albatross continued to Mount Adolphus Island, whence she picked up nearly 100 survivors, including the second and fourth officers.[30]
An illustration for The Queenslander representing some of Quetta's lost and saved
Just before Quetta hit the rock, two teenagers, May Lacy and Alice Elizabeth Nicklin, had been on deck. They were separated in the sinking, but Nicklin was a strong swimmer and clung to flotsam: first a hatch cover, then a dead sheep, and finally a plank. The survivors in the boats could hear her calling, but it was too dark to see her as the moon had set. Nicklin kept hold of the plank, alternately swimming and falling asleep, until dawn, when she swam to an islet, still aided by the plank. When she neared the islet, a lascar cabin boy called Alick, who had already reached the island, helped her ashore.[31] Later one of the vessels searching for survivors found the pair and took them to Somerset.[32]
May Lacy did not survive. However, Albatross found her elder sister Emily, still swimming in the sea 36 hours after the sinking.[30][32]
One other survivor was a toddler who did not know her own name. The only words she said were "Mama", "Jimmsy" and "Willie".[33] About 30 children had been aboard Quetta, and her manifest listed more than one family with boys called James and William. One was that of a widow, Mary Copeland from Maryborough, who had a young daughter also called Mary. Mrs Copeland and her three children were returning to Britain after her husband, a stockman, had drowned in a separate accident.[25]
The toddler was photographed, and a print of the photograph was sent to a family in Scotland believed to be her relatives, but the family replied that they did not recognise her. One of the Torres Straits pilots, Captain Edmund Brown, adopted her, naming her Cecil Quetta Brown,[33] nicknamed "Cissy".[34] A year or two later Captain Brown died, so his brother Villiers Brown raised "Cissy" in Brisbane.[35] In 1927 it was confirmed that "Cissy" was in fact Mary Copeland.[36]
After rescuing survivors, Albatross took soundings and found the rock thought to have caused the disaster, about 1⁄2 nautical mile (1km) from Quetta's wreck.[37]
Cecil Quetta Brown, formerly Mary Copeland (see above), survived. A documentary film about her was released in 2021.[38]
Reuben Nicklin, and wife, Jane Lahey Nicklin, paternal grandparents of future Premier of QueenslandFrank Nicklin both died. Jane Lahey Nicklin was the daughter of the prosperous timber merchant Francis Lahey and her brothers formed Lahey's Canungra Sawmill. The Nicklin family home "Hatherton" became the Queen Alexandra Home. Their daughter Alice Elizabeth Nicklin (19) was one of the few female survivors (see above).[31]
Dr Henry Poland was Quetta's surgeon. He is the only victim whose body is buried on Thursday Island.[32]
George (70) and Jessie Blanche Prentice (18), paternal grandfather and half-sister of George Gray Prentice, both died.
The wreck lies on its port side in 18 metres (59ft) of water and is protected by the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018.
Quetta Memorial Precinct on Thursday Island is a monument to the 134 lives lost in the disaster. Building started in 1892 and the church was consecrated in 1893. It comprises an Anglican church, rectory, and church hall. The church is now a cathedral, and the rectory is the bishop's house.[40] Artefacts recovered during salvage attempts after the disaster, and since, are now in the church.[37]
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