The wreck of the Elvie lies partly buried at the western edge of Whaler’s Beach, south of Vancouver Point in Frenchman Bay.
The Elvie was built of jarrah by Robert Howson and William Murray as a flat bottomed dumb lighter . The original owners were McIlwraith, McEarchan & Co. Ltd and was registered at Fremantle in 1911 (No. 25/1911).
The Elvie was built for lightering in sheltered waters so planking was thinner than the ceiling. The thicker ceiling was required to take the hard knocks of loading cargo, while the planking did not have to stand up to the battering of large waves on the open sea.
The registration of the Elvie was closed on 14 July 1915 due to the vessel being sold to Norwegian interests. The lighter was then used by the Norwegian owned Spermacet Whaling Company to transport barrels of oil from the shore station in Frenchman Bay to ships anchored in deep water offshore.
There is some evidence that the lighter may have been used prior to this, during the actual construction of the whaling station. Traces of lime have been found on some of the internal timbers of the wreck, leading archaeologists from the Maritime Archaeology Department, Western Australian Museum, to suggest that it possibly carried building material. At that time the only access to the Frenchman Bay site was by sea. Although the machinery for the station was brought from Norway by the Prince George, building material would have been brought to the site by local shipping.
THE LOSS
With the closing of the whaling station in 1917 the Elvie was left abandoned on its moorings. In 1921 a very severe gale from the south-east struck the Albany area, and the lighter, dragging its mooring, was driven aground and filled with sand. Because of uncertainty over ownership the lighter was not salvaged. Over succeeding years parts of it were used for firewood by picnicking families, and the remainder gradually buried under beach sand.
The tops of some frames are above sand level but most of the hull remains buried.