In Australia, ''Aarhus'' Historic Shipwreck is a historical site preserving one of the victims of Smith's Rock. The ''Aarhus'' was a 640-tonne sailing

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 ...

built in 1875 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. The vessel measured in length. While carrying a general cargo including

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

from New York to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, Australia, they hit Smith's Rock, which lies about two nautical miles (4 km) north-east of

Cape Moreton Cape Moreton is a rocky headland at the north eastern tip of Moreton Island in South East Queensland, Australia. The surrounding area is part of the Moreton Island National Park. Flinders Reef is north-west of Cape Moreton. The outcrop is mos ...

, and sank on 24 February 1894. The remains of the ship now lie upright in 20 metres of water, though most of the ship has been reduced to plates and ribs sticking out of the sand. It has been gazetted under Section 7 of the ''

Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 The ''Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976'' was an Australian Act of Parliament designed to legally protect historic shipwrecks and any relics or artefacts from those wrecks. The Act automatically affects all shipwrecks that meet the "historic" crit ...

'' which provides for a special protected zone of 200m around the wreck. The ''Historic Shipwrecks Act'' 1976 was superseded in 2019 with the ''

Underwater Cultural Heritage The Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage is a treaty that was adopted on 2 November 2001 by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).UNESC"2001 Convention o ...

'' Act 2018 Any disturbance activity is prohibited; divers are required to apply to the Department of the Environment and Science (QLD State) for a permit to access the wreck. This site has much interesting sea-life, from small to large batfish at

cleaning station A cleaning station is a location where aquatic life congregate to be cleaned by smaller creatures. Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including fish, sea turtles and hippos, referred to as cli ...

s everywhere. Another point of interest is the large mast-like object that is actually the

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

. This area reportedly has a cat shark inhabiting the bowsprit and a large wobbegong shark under the scoured out section. The site can have very good visibility but a strong current makes it hard to see the entire wreck in one dive.

References

{{coord, 27, 00, 14.31, S, 153, 26, 27.92, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Aarhus Shipwrecks of Queensland Ships built in Hamburg 1875 ships Maritime incidents in 1894 1871–1900 ships of Australia 1894 in Australia Merchant ships of Australia Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom Barques of Australia Australian Shipwrecks with protected zone

See also

References