A 120-year-old mystery of a shipwreck described as “the Holy Grail” by researchers has been solved after the New South Wales (NSW) Ministry of Environment and Heritage announced the hull of a 73-metre coal transporter lost in stormy seas while on a voyage from Newcastle and Melbourne had been found.
Thirty-two souls, aged 18-56 were lost when the SS Nemesis sank in huge seas off Port Kembla near NSW’s East Coast in July 1904.
The hull of the ship was never located despite parts of the ship washing ashore on Cronulla Beach along with several bodies of the crew who were made up of sailors from Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Norway, and British Guinea.
The tragedy left 40 children without fathers, and at the time, garnered significant media coverage.
On July 15, 1904, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the impact of swollen seas on the ship’s washed-up remains
“The Nemesis was an iron vessel, and the greater part of the deck woodwork has already been cast up on the beach in an almost unrecognisable mass of splintered timber,” the newspaper said.
In 2022, a company specialising in subsea environmental and engineering surveys came across the hull of the Nemesis 26 kilometres (16 miles) offshore and 160 metres (525 feet) underwater while searching for lost cargo containers.
Confirmation of the remains was made by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) scientists who matched the ship’s features with historical records.
Ed Korber from Brisbane-based Subsea Professional Marine Services said the discovery was quite by chance.
“We were on a different project and we had deployed our sight scan equipment looking for other objects,” Mr. Korber said.
“And one of our technicians on the computer watching the data coming through called me up at 1 a.m. saying: ‘Hey listen, I think I’ve got something quite interesting here.’
“The next day we could see from the size of the shadow it was something quite significant.”
Jason Fazy from CSIRO said the scientists used advanced equipment to identify and map the wreck.
“Using RV Investigator’s advanced multibeam echosounders, we were able to create a high-resolution map of the entire wreck and measure key dimensions to aid in its identification.”
Federal Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said the find was important as “only 105 of the more than 200 shipwrecks off the NSW coast have been discovered.”
NSW Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe said, “Thanks to collaborative work with CSIRO and Subsea, using modern technology and historical records, Heritage NSW has been able to write the final chapter of SS Nemesis’ story.”
With confirmation, that the wreck is the Nemesis, Ms. Sharpe said the NSW government is focused on securing closure for the families affected which include those related to three men buried in an unmarked grave in Sutherland Memorial Park. She issued a call for family members and relatives of the lost to get in contact with her office or Heritage NSW.
“Up till now, they didn’t know what happened to them. We don’t know where all of the families are and so, for me, today is a call-out to say please get in contact.”
