SS Speke Shipwreck
SS Speke is Phillip Islands infamous shipwreck that occurred on 8th November 1906, one night during rough and wild weather. A sad ending for what was known at the time as the largest three masted steel sailing ship ever built, reaching a length of 310 feet long and weighing 2,712 tons.
Originally she launched in 1891 and had two commanders before Captain Tilson took charge of her in Los Angeles in 1904 and sailed her to Newcastle, where she was loaded with coal and bound for Peru. She then returned to Australia off Sydney Heads where she received orders to proceed to Geelong to load wheat. Sailing south, she battled head winds for 12 days before arriving off the Victorian coast, where Captain Tilston mistook the Cape Schanck light for the one on Split Point and set a course which immediately endangered her as winds and high seas forced her towards the rocky southern coast of Phillip Island.
Realising the danger, the crew attempted to "wear" her but when she refused to answer, both anchors were let go and the lifeboats readied. One anchor parted almost immediately, the other dragged and she drifted broadside onto a reef in Kitty Miller Bay, where she was swept from stern to stern by raging surf. The starboard lifeboat containing four men capsized, drowning one of the occupants; the others eventually struggled ashore exhausted. Heavy seas battered the wreck for several days until its back broke littering the rocky shore with wreckage.
Little of the magnificent SS Speke was saved back then and since the mighty waves eventually broke the wreck into two, this leads to its’ disintegration.
A visit to this wreck will reveal that part of the bow is still located on the rocks and debris is also scattered along the water’s edges – a delightful treat for those that love to explore. You can take this great little walk anytime but make sure you go at low tide so you can walk right up to the wreck of the S.S Speke, located on the beach immediately to the east of Kitty Miller Bay.
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Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.