SS ''Douglas Mawson'' was an Australian coastal steamer that was lost in the Gulf of Carpentaria around 28 March 1923 along with 20 passengers and crew.

History

SS ''Douglas Mawson'' was built in 1914, a wooden-hulled vessel of length and speed . One of its first duties was weekly trips under Captain Donovan to

Nambucca Heads Nambucca Heads is a town on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Nambucca Valley. It is located on a ridge, north of the estuary of the Nambucca River near the Pacific Highway. Its 2021 population was 6,675 (6,327 in 2016 ...

, for which she was ideally suited, being of particularly light draught, so better able to negotiate the

Nambucca River The Nambucca River is a river located in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Nambucca River rises below Killiekrankie Mountain on the Dorrigo Plateau, part of the Great Dividing Range, and flows general ...

bar. In 1916 under Captain Chellow it was used by Blakiston and Co. to carry cement from Geelong to Tasmania It was taken over by John Burke and Son, for their Gulf trade, a poor choice of vessel according to one correspondent. It left

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Burketown had a population of 238 people. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton on the Albert R ...

with 20 persons— 13 crew and seven passengers— onboard on 26 March 1923 for

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...

under captain George Finch Tune but never arrived. It was believed to have encountered a cyclonic storm in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The only passengers recorded were Mr and Mrs Willett and their five children, who boarded the ship at Normanton. Willett's eldest daughter, Alice May Willett was 14 years old; the youngest, Elizabeth, was four. The crew consisted of

first mate A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the shi ...

Richard Shewring, engineer R. D. Thompson and donkeyman John Fraser, firemen and drivers John Tully and Hector B. Dinte, cook and steward Robert Nixon, seamen James Laird, Archie McNeill, Christian Nielsen or Nielson, William Rowe, William Nugent and Maurice Giese. Her last reported observation was by Aborigines from the beach near the Coen River on the night of 28 March. On 18 May 1923 some wreckage, thought to come from the ''Mawson'', but since disproved, was found on Prince of Wales Island.

Controversy

Reports were received from Arnhem Land Aboriginals that a party of survivors landed south of Cape Arnheim () and that two white women had been captured and were still living with the people. Conjectures, rife at the time, of male survivors being eaten and two women (Mrs Willett and her eldest daughter) taken captive based on reports from Aboriginals on

Melville Bay Melville Bay ( kl, Qimusseriarsuaq; da, Melville Bugt), is a large bay off the coast of northwestern Greenland. Located to the north of the Upernavik Archipelago, it opens to the south-west into Baffin Bay. Its Kalaallisut name, ''Qimusseriarsu ...

(), Cape Arnheim, and

Caledon Bay Caledon Bay is a bay in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, at approximately 12.8° S, 136.5° E. It is perhaps most famous as the home of a group of Yolngu people who were key players in the Caledon Bay crisis The Caledon Bay ...

(), 500km to the west, were dismissed by Captain Wilkins. Rev. James Watson, a Methodist missioner in the area, also considered the story unlikely.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas Mawson Shipwrecks of Australia Shipwrecks of Queensland Wooden steamships of Australia Maritime incidents in Australia Maritime incidents in 1923