''Hereward'', was

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

ship that was built in

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in 1877. She had an iron hull, three masts and full rig. The ship was wrecked at

Maroubra, New South Wales Maroubra is a beachside suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Randwick. Maroubra ...

in 1898. Parts of the wreck survive ''in situ''. The

Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 The ''Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018'' is an Australian Act of Parliament designed "to protect shipwrecks, sunken aircraft and their associated artefacts, that occurred 75 or more years ago, regardless of whether their location is known ...

automatically protects the wreck and its contents, as they are more than 75 years old.

Details

Robert Duncan and Company built ''Hereward'' at

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, launching her on 14 August 1877. Her registered length was her beam was and her depth was . Her

tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on ''tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically ref ...

s were and . Her first owners were John Campbell, John Potter, John Ashton and others. They registered her at

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. Her

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was

official number Official numbers are ship identifier numbers assigned to merchant ships by their flag state, country of registration. Each country developed its own official numbering system, some on a national and some on a port-by-port basis, and the formats hav ...

77010 and her

code letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

were RBKV. By 1896 her owners were The "Hereward" Ship Company of London, and her

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

were Potter Brothers.

Stranding

In May 1898 ''Hereward'' was sailing from

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in the

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to load a cargo of coal to take to South America. Her

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was

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Poole Hickman Gore (1861–1920). On 5 May a storm forced her aground at the north end of Maroubra Beach,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. All 25 crew members safely got ashore, where they reached a nearby wool scouring works.

Attempted salvage

The ship was insured for £6,000. After a few months it was sold for £550 to Mahlon Clarke Cowlishaw (1844–1900), of Cowlishaw Brothers, Sydney merchants and ship-owners, who bought the wreck for salvage. On 9 December 1898 it was attempted to refloat the ''Hereward''. With the two tugs, ''Commodore'' and ''Irresistible'', pulling on cables connected to the anchor , and using steam winches aboard, they got the ship into of water. However, as the ship was nearly free, a southerly gale blew up and pushed her back onto the beach, where she was battered by high seas and broken in two.

Wreck and heritage

The wreck was slowly washed out to sea afterwards and by 1937 only a triangle dorsal fin was visible above sea level. In 1950, Randwick Council feared of the danger that the remains posed to surfers and swimmers and had the remains blasted such that by 1967 it appeared that there was nothing left of the ship. In recent times, on various occasions, swells and sweeping currents have moved large amounts of sand on the sea floor and had exposed extensive portions of the ''Hereward''. In March 2013 after large seas, extensive parts of her iron hull, along with mast parts were exposed more than they ever had been before. In 2013 a bronze signal

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

was recovered from the wreck and is now on display in the foyer of the Maroubra Seals Club, across the road from the beach.

Hereward Street

Hereward Street in Maroubra is named after the ship.

References

External links

* * {{1898 shipwrecks 1877 ships Clippers Full-rigged ships Merchant ships of the United Kingdom Sailing ships of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde Windjammers 1898 in Australia Maroubra, New South Wales Maritime incidents in 1898 Shipwrecks of the Sydney Eastern Suburbs Region