''Cataraqui'' (also called ''Cataraque''British accounts of the wreck usually refer to the ship as ''Cataraque'' which is more consistent with the pronunciation of the original Canadian name. However, Australian references such as the point on King Island named after the ship spell the name ''Cataraqui'', which is also consistent with ''

Lloyd's Register of Shipping Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

''.) was a British

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

which sank off the south-west coast of King Island in Bass Strait on 4 August 1845. The sinking was Australia's worst ever maritime civil disaster incident, claiming the lives of 400 people.

Construction and technical details

''Cataraqui'' was an 802

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

''Lloyd's Register of Shipping'' for 1845 states ''Cataraqui'' was 802 tons New Measurement according to the formula used to calculate ships' tonnages established from 1 January 1836 and 712 tons on the system previously used (''Old Measurement''). They are based on estimates of the cubic capacity of the hull and not directly related to its weight. barque, of dimensions 138 × 30 × 22

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

(42 × 9 × 7

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

s). The ship was built in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

in 1840 by the shipwrights Williams Lampson. The name ''Cataraqui'' comes from the French transliteration of "Katerokwi", the original Mississaugas

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

name for the area now known as

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between To ...

Voyage to Australia

''Cataraqui'' was purchased and registered in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

by Smith & Sons, for the purpose of transporting assisted emigrants to

Port Phillip Port Phillip ( Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is com ...

in the Colony of New South Wales (now

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...

). On 20 April 1845, the ship sailed from Liverpool under the command of Captain Christopher Finlay. The

ship's manifest A manifest, customs manifest or cargo document is a document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship, aircraft, or vehicle, for the use of customs and other officials. Where such a list is limited to identifying passengers, it is a pa ...

on departure included 369 emigrants and 41 crew (410 total, including the captain). The voyage was fairly uneventful apart from the loss of a crew member overboard. By the time the vessel neared Australia, five babies had been born and six others had died.

Sinking

As ''Cataraqui'' entered Bass Strait in the early morning of 4 August, she encountered a severe storm. At about 04.30 hours, the ship was cast suddenly onto jagged rocks just off Fitzmaurice Bay on King Island off the north-western coast of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. Attempts to evacuate the ship were hindered by the large waves and heavy weather which washed many of the ship's occupants overboard. Eight crewmen managed to reach the shore by clinging to floating wreckage, where they encountered the only emigrant survivor, Solomon Brown. The nine castaways were stranded on King Island for five weeks until they were rescued by the cutter ''Midge'' and taken to Melbourne. 314 recovered bodies were buried on King Island in five graves.Baglin, Douglass; Mullins, Barbara. ''Islands of Australia''. Sydney: Ure Smith Pty Limited, 1972. , p. 31

Memorial

A memorial plaque is dedicated to the ''Cataraqui'' at the Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial at

Triabunna Triabunna is a rural residential locality in the local government area (LGA) of Glamorgan–Spring Bay in the South-east LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about north-east of the city of Hobart. The has a population of 905 for the state ...

on the east coast of Tasmania. The plaque contains the following text:

Notes

External links