The Wreck of the Dunbar – South Head – Watsons Bay – 20 August 1857

On a wild, wet night in August 1857 the clipper Dunbar, nearly home after 81 days at sea, ran onto the cliffs of South Head just below the Signal Station, a short walk north of The Gap. In minutes the ship was in pieces. Of the 122 people on board, only one came out alive: a seaman named James Johnson, who clung to a ledge for more than a day before anyone saw him. Most of those lost were Sydney people coming home from a trip to England, and the whole town felt it. Twenty thousand people lined George Street for the funeral, and the disaster led directly to the building of the red-and-white Hornby Lighthouse on the tip of South Head. This is the whole story as best I can piece it together, from the ship's launching at Sunderland to the anchor that still sits on the cliff at The Gap.

"The Dunbar" New East Indiaman, from The Illustrated London News, 24 December 1853 (hand coloured). Unidentified engraver, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Ship

The Dunbar was built by James Laing & Sons at their Deptford Yard in Sunderland, in the north-east of England, for the wealthy London shipowner Duncan Dunbar, who named her after himself. The Australian National Maritime Museum says Dunbar was a Scottish shipowner and merchant who ordered a series of hardwood clippers from Laing for the new Australian trade, naming them after his family: the Phoebe Dunbar, Dunbar Castle, Duncan Dunbar and the Dunbar herself.

She was a big ship for her day. At the time she was said to be the largest vessel ever built at Sunderland. She was built of British oak and East Indian teak, copper fastened and copper sheathed, with iron knees, and she cost over £30,000. Her registered tonnage was 1,321 tons, and she was 201.9 feet (61.5 metres) long, 35 feet wide and 22.7 feet deep. Her figurehead was a rampant lion, carved by James Brooker of Maryport.

She was meant for the gold-rush passenger trade to Australia, but the Crimean War got in the way. The Royal Navy took her up as a troop ship first, so she didn't make her first voyage to Sydney until 1856. When she arrived, the Sydney Morning Herald called her "a splendid vessel".

The Dunbar, 1321 Tons. Hand-coloured lithograph by T. G. Dutton, dedicated to Duncan Dunbar, Capt J. Green and the officers of the ship. Day and Son / Thomas Goldsworth Dutton, Royal Museums Greenwich, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Captain James Green

Her master, Captain James Green, knew the Sydney run well. He had made eight earlier visits: as first mate in the Agincourt and Waterloo under Captain Neatby, then commanding the Waterloo for two voyages, then the Vimeira, and finally the Dunbar. The 1857 voyage was his second as her master. He was well known and well liked in the colony.

John Pascoe, third officer on the Dunbar, in an ambrotype from about 1856. Powerhouse Museum collection, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Voyage from Plymouth

The Dunbar left Plymouth for her second voyage to Sydney at the end of May 1857. On board were 63 passengers and 59 crew, and a big general cargo that included machinery, furniture, cutlery, food and alcohol, fine goods, traders' tokens, and the dyes for the colony's first postage stamps.

James Johnson later told the inquest that it was a prosperous voyage until they reached the coast. They sighted King Island on Sunday 16 August, ran through Bass Strait that night in thick, wet, squally weather under double-reefed topsails, passed Kent's Group, and later picked up the light at Cape Howe before running north up the coast.

Who Was On Board

This was what made the Dunbar so terrible for Sydney. She wasn't carrying strangers. Many of the first-class passengers were well-known Sydney people coming home after a visit to England. A narrative published in Sydney within days of the wreck named many of them:

• The Waller family: Mr and Mrs Kilner Waller, their six children and a servant. Kilner Waller was the brother of J. G. Waller of Wynyard Square.
• The Meyers family: Mr and Mrs A. Meyers, six children and a servant. Mr Meyers was the brother of a gentleman of that name at Bathurst.
• Mr and Mrs Samuel Peek. Mr Peek had been a large importer in Sydney, once in business with Robert Porter.
• Mrs Egan, wife of Daniel Egan MP, with her son and daughter, travelling with her relatives Mr and Miss Cahuac.
• Mr Hyacinth Macquoid, son of the late Sheriff, travelling with his friend Mr Severn.
• The two Misses Hunt, the only sisters of Robert Hunt, First Clerk of the Sydney Branch of the Royal Mint and a well-known colonial scientist and photographer.
• Captain Steine RN, a naval officer.
• Mr Adrian De Young James, the only son of H. K. James of Sydney, who had been studying in England before taking holy orders.
• Mr Isaac Simmons, second son of the late James Simmons, coming home to take possession of a large fortune.
• Mr Downey, an architect; Miss Logan and the two Masters Logan; Mr and Mrs Mylne and the Misses Mylne; and others in the second and third cabins.

For a while people believed the captain's wife, Mrs Green, had been lost with him. The 1857 narrative says there was reason to hope she hadn't sailed on this voyage.

The Night of 20 August 1857

The Dunbar came up off Port Jackson on the night of Thursday 20 August 1857 in a rising gale. Heavy rain squalls cut the visibility to almost nothing and hid the cliffs at the Heads. The Macquarie Light, on the clifftop a mile south of South Head, could be seen between squalls, but the land itself was invisible.

Shortly before midnight Captain Green worked out that he was off the entrance and changed course to go in, keeping the Macquarie Light on his port bow. He had a blue light burnt to call the harbour pilot. Then the second mate up forward shouted "Breakers ahead!" Captain Green ordered the helm put over, but it was already too late. The ship was driven broadside onto the 50-metre cliffs just south of the Signal Station, about midway between the Macquarie Lighthouse and The Gap.

"Wreck of the 'Dunbar' off Sydney Heads". The printed date of 20th September is a slip; "Aug 20/57" is pencilled on the back. Unknown artist, 1857, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The impact brought down the topmasts. The seas stove in the lifeboats, and the Dunbar swung broadside to the swell and began breaking up almost at once. The mizzen and main masts went over the side; only the foremast stayed up. Johnson remembered the men saying there was still hope, and then the decks burst up from the pressure of the water and the ship went to pieces.

Why there?

Nobody has ever known for certain why Captain Green turned in where he did. The Dictionary of Sydney gives two theories: that he thought he was overshooting the entrance and tried a quick turn, or that the officers on watch, blinded by the squalls, mistook The Gap for the harbour entrance. Johnson's own belief, as reported in 1857, was that the captain had taken the bluff north end of The Gap for North Head.

James Johnson, the Sole Survivor

Johnson was a seaman on watch that night. By his own account given in 1857, he and the old boatswain and two Dutch seamen were among the last washed off the wreck, holding onto a plank. The Dutchmen were swept away. A big sea threw Johnson and the boatswain onto the rocks among the timber. Johnson scrambled up to a higher rock before the next sea came in, but the boatswain was less quick and was carried off.

The Maritime Museum's account tells it a little differently: that Johnson worked his way forward, climbed out of a cabin skylight onto the foremast chain plates, and was hurled onto the cliffs when the foremast finally gave way, where he managed to get a finger hold. Either way, at dawn he found himself on a ledge about ten feet above the wreck, surrounded by wreckage and the dead.

He spent all of Friday there. He saw the steamer Grafton go into the Heads and signalled, but nobody saw him. He tried again with the steamer Washington and a schooner. He spent a second night on the rocks.

"The Rescue of Johnson from his Perilous Position", from The Illustrated Times, 26 December 1857. The Illustrated Times, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The rescue

On the morning of Saturday 22 August Johnson was finally seen from the clifftop, waving a handkerchief. The 1857 narrative says it was a young Icelander, Antonio Wollier, who went down "Jacob's Ladder" and along the rocks, spotted him, and got a line to him. Johnson was hauled up the cliffs, about 200 feet high at that spot, and then Wollier was hauled up after him to cheers from the thousands watching. A collection of about £10 was raised on the spot for Wollier, who said in broken English that he "did not go down for the money, but for the feelings of his heart".

The Maritime Museum notes that, depending on the source, the rescuer was either Wollier or the diver Joseph Palmer.

When Dr West examined Johnson he found him perfectly sane and looking far better than anyone expected. The 1857 writer described him as a strong, tall, powerfully built Irishman. Johnson told the inquest he had been eleven years at sea, learning his trade on the coast of England out of Lancashire, and had been to Melbourne but never to Sydney.

James Johnson, the survivor of the wreck of the Dunbar, Sydney, 1857. A hand-coloured ambrotype attributed to Thomas Glaister. State Library of NSW collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bodies on the Tide

As daylight came on Friday 21 August, Sydney began to understand what had happened. Captain Charles Wiseman of the little coastal steamer Grafton, who had sensibly stood off the coast through the night, came in through the Heads and sailed through masses of bodies, timber, bedding and bales. Reports came in from Watsons Bay and Manly of bodies washing ashore, and mailbags among the wreckage showed the ship was the Dunbar.

Thousands went out to South Head over the following days to watch. Sharks attacked bodies in the water, and made recovery dangerous. The Herald reported that Mr P. Cohen of the Manly Beach Hotel saw two bodies floating but could not reach them because of the sharks. Seventeen bodies were recovered on the north side of the harbour, from Mosman Spit round to Taylors Bay. Among those identified were the architect Mr Downey, by his name on his linen; Mrs Kilner Waller, by her brother-in-law; Captain Steine; two of the Meyers children; and a midshipman named Ward.

Much of the wreckage drifted into Middle Harbour. "The shore is literally white with candles," the Herald wrote on 23 August, with boots, panama hats, bonnets, drums of figs, hams, raisins and drapery "piled in heaps along with the keel of the Dunbar".

The keel of the Dunbar washed up at Hunter's Bay, Middle Harbour, from A Narrative of the Melancholy Wreck of the Dunbar, 1857. Unidentified engraver, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Entrance to Port Jackson by Edmund Thomas, 1857, with part of the Dunbar at the foot of the cliff. Edmund Thomas, State Library of NSW, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Inquest

An inquest opened on Sunday 23 August, and on the Monday the jury sat in the King's Arms. Johnson was the first witness. Captain Wiseman of the Grafton, Mr A. Fletcher of the steamer Nora Creina and others also gave evidence. The verdict found that the Dunbar was wrecked outside the Heads close to The Gap on the night of 20 August, and said:

"there may have been an error of judgment in the vessel being so close to the shore at night in such bad weather, but the jury do not attach any blame to Captain Green or his officers for the loss of the Dunbar. The jury consider it their duty to put on record their opinion that the present Pilot arrangements for this port are most inadequate, and desire to draw the attention of the Government to the matter."

The newspapers, the Empire and the Herald, ran letters demanding better lights at the Heads, and lighthouses and pilotage came up in Parliament too.

The Great Funeral

The funeral on Monday 24 August was like nothing Sydney had seen. The procession left the dead-house a little before five o'clock: seven hearses, each flanked by mounted police under Captain M'Lerie, four mourning coaches, and a long line of carriages led by the Hon. Stuart A. Donaldson's. The band of the Artillery played the "Dead March" from Saul. The last hearse carried Captain Steine, his coffin wrapped in the Union Jack and followed by sailors and officers from HMS Herald and HMS Iris. Captain Green's uncle, Captain Macbeth, was among the mourners.

About 20,000 people lined George Street in silence. Banks, offices and shops closed, church bells tolled, every ship in the harbour flew its ensign at half mast, and minute guns were fired. It was dark by the time the procession reached the cemetery at O'Connell Town, now Newtown, where the Rev. C. C. Kemp read the burial service by moonlight. Services were also held around town, at the Congregational Church in Pitt Street, the Wesleyan Chapel and the Centenary Chapel in York Street, the Presbyterian Church in Palmer Street, the Free Church in Macquarie Street, and the Sydney Synagogue.

Camperdown Cemetery

Most of the Dunbar's dead were buried at Camperdown Cemetery, around which St Stephen's Church, Newtown was later built. Victims who could not be identified went into a mass grave paid for by the colonial government, a single large tomb that also holds victims of the Catherine Adamson. Captain Steine and the Waller family are buried there too, and several other victims have their own headstones, one with a carving of the Dunbar going down. A memorial service is still held at St Stephen's every year.

Captain Green isn't at Camperdown. Lisa Murray of the Dictionary of Sydney writes that his grave is at South Head Cemetery, and there is a memorial tablet to him in St James' Church, Macquarie Street. The "Dunbar Windows" in memory of Mrs Green and her two children were first put in the old St Mary's Cathedral and are now at St Benedict's Monastery, Arcadia.

The tomb of the victims of the Dunbar and the Catherine Adamson at Camperdown Cemetery, Newtown. Photo TTaylor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Dunbar victim's headstone at Camperdown Cemetery, carved with the ship going down, photographed about 1900. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Hornby Lighthouse

The Dunbar wasn't the only loss that spring. Nine weeks later the Catherine Adamson was wrecked at North Head with 21 lives. Between them the two disasters pushed the government into building a light to mark the actual entrance to the harbour. In September 1857 a committee of the Light, Pilot and Navigation Board took evidence and recommended a 30-foot lighthouse on the inner South Head.

The tower was finished in 1858 and opened by the Governor, Sir William Denison, who named it after his wife Caroline's family. She was the daughter of Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby. Sydneysiders called it the "Lower Light" to tell it apart from the Macquarie, the "Upper Light". It is still there with its red and white stripes, the third-oldest lighthouse in New South Wales.

Hornby Light, South Head, with the ship Lass o' Gowrie, 1880s. A lantern slide by W. Harwood. W. Harwood, City of Sydney Archives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hornby Lighthouse today, on the tip of South Head. Photo TheaFL, 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Johnson's Later Life and the Cawarra

James Johnson stayed in New South Wales and became a lighthouse keeper at Nobbys Head, Newcastle. Then came one of the strangest twists in our maritime history. On 12 July 1866 the paddle steamer Cawarra, running for shelter in a great gale, was overwhelmed and sank at the entrance to Newcastle harbour in front of thousands of onlookers. Sixty people died. Hours later a survivor was sighted, and Johnson and Henry Hannell went out and brought him in. He was Frederick Hedges, who had grabbed a plank as the ship went down. So the sole survivor of one wreck helped save the sole survivor of another.

Johnson died aged 78 and was buried at Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle, on 15 April 1915, next to his first wife, Mary.

James Johnson in later life. A studio photograph from about 1880. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Narratives, Souvenirs and Relics

Sydney couldn't get enough of the story. Within days there were pamphlets, poems and sermons, including George Bradshaw's narrative of 25 August, W. G. Mason's illustrated narrative published by James Fryer on 29 August, J. R. Clarke's The Wreck of the Dunbar and Dunbar letter paper, Bancroft's sixpenny edition, and a sermon by the Rev. Salmon. Fryer advertised that eight copies could be posted to England for a single eightpenny postage. Salvaged teak and oak was turned into souvenirs, including chairs marked "Made from the wreck of the Dunbar" by Andrew Lenehan, and in 1859 "Church, House and Garden Furniture" made from the wreck was still being advertised. Artists including S. T. Gill, G. F. Gregory and Robert Hunt painted, drew and photographed the scene.

The ship's bell was recovered and given to St John's Anglican Church, Darlinghurst, where it hung in the bell tower of the old St John's school and was rung by generations of head boys to start the school day.

The story lived on long after. Mark Twain wrote about the wreck in Following the Equator, though he called her the Duncan Dunbar and put the toll at 200. An 1887 play, The Wreck of the Dunbar, was filmed in 1912 as The Wreck of the Dunbar or The Yeoman's Wedding.

The Gap in the 1880s. The Dunbar struck just north of here, below the Signal Station. Photographer unknown, State Library of NSW, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Anchor at The Gap and the Rock Inscription

Five days after the wreck, someone who signed only "C.P." cut an inscription into the flat sandstone on the clifftop above the wreck site: "DUNBAR C.P. 25 Aug 1857". It was recut by "E.S.S." on 20 August 1906, and it is still sharp and clear. The headland itself became known as Dunbar Head.

Two anchors were reported on the wreck site in 1907, and a syndicate was formed to recover them. One was raised in 1910 and, in 1930, was fixed to the sandstone face at the southern end of The Gap with a stone plinth. It is a big iron Admiralty-pattern anchor, about four metres long, and it is probably one of the ship's two main "bower" anchors. A very similar anchor is still on the seabed. Woollahra Council and the NSW Heritage Office held a conservation seminar on it in 1991, when it was given conservation treatment.

Unveiling the Dunbar Memorial at Watsons Bay in 1930. Royal Australian Historical Society, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dunbar anchor on the coastal cliff walk at The Gap. Photo Dietmar Rabich, 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dunbar Wreck Monument at Watsons Bay. Photo Ymblanter, 2024, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Wreck Site Today

The wreck lies in shallow water, around seven to eleven metres deep, at the foot of the South Head cliffs below the Signal Station. It has been battered by southerly swells for well over a century and a half, and divers did much more damage. After scuba gear came in during the early 1950s, divers picked the site over for coins, buckles, pipes, watches and even gold dentures, sometimes using explosives, until the 1970s. What is left is one Admiralty and one Porter's iron anchor, concreted chain, pig-iron ballast in the rock gullies, and fragments of copper sheathing, cargo and fittings.

In October 1991 the wreck and its relics were declared protected under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976. In 1993 an amnesty encouraged people to declare material taken from protected wrecks. A diver from the 1950s and 60s, John Gillies, declared a collection of over 5,000 Dunbar objects. He was given a permit to auction it in 1994, but the Australian National Maritime Museum negotiated a settlement to keep the collection together, and parts of it have been on display there.

On 17 October 2003 the "Dunbar Group", made up of the wreck remains, the Gillies collection, the anchor memorial at The Gap and the rock inscription, was added to the NSW State Heritage Register. The listing calls the disaster New South Wales' worst peacetime merchant shipping tragedy.

The site of the Dunbar wreck below South Head. Photo Peter George Christopher, 2009, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1852–1854: The Dunbar is built by James Laing & Sons, Sunderland, for Duncan Dunbar, and launched on 30 November 1854.
• 1854–1856: She serves as a troop ship in the Crimean War.
• 1856: First voyage to Sydney under Captain James Green. The Herald calls her "a splendid vessel".
• 31 May 1857: Leaves Plymouth with 63 passengers and 59 crew.
• 16 August 1857: Sights King Island and enters Bass Strait.
• 20 August 1857: Wrecked at South Head, just before midnight in a gale.
• 21 August 1857: The Grafton sails through the wreckage, and bodies come ashore around the harbour.
• 22 August 1857: James Johnson is rescued from the cliff.
• 23–24 August 1857: The inquest is held, and Johnson gives evidence.
• 24 August 1857: The funeral procession, with 20,000 lining George Street, ends in burial at Camperdown Cemetery.
• 25 August 1857: "C.P." cuts the inscription on the clifftop.
• September 1857: The Light, Pilot and Navigation Board committee recommends a light on the inner South Head.
• October 1857: The Catherine Adamson is wrecked at North Head.
• 1858: The Hornby Lighthouse is completed.
• 12 July 1866: The Cawarra sinks at Newcastle, and Johnson helps rescue its sole survivor.
• 20 August 1906: The rock inscription is recut by "E.S.S."
• 1907–1910: Anchors are found on the wreck site, and one is raised.
• 1915: James Johnson is buried at Sandgate, Newcastle.
• 1930: The anchor memorial is unveiled at The Gap.
• 1950s–1970s: Divers strip the wreck site.
• October 1991: The wreck is protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act.
• 1993–1995: The Gillies collection is declared and goes to the National Maritime Museum.
• 17 October 2003: The Dunbar Group is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.

Where the Sources Disagree

• How many died. Most sources, including the Dictionary of Sydney, the Maritime Museum and the State Heritage listing, say 121 died out of 122 aboard (63 passengers and 59 crew). The NSW maritime heritage database's record lists 61 passengers and 60 crew, with 120 deaths, while its own history text says 121. Mark Twain said 200.
• The rescuer. The 1857 narrative names "Antonio Wollier, an Icelander". The Maritime Museum spells it "Antonia Wollier" and says some sources credit the diver Joseph Palmer instead. Other spellings, such as Woollier, also turn up.
• Johnson's age. In 1857 he was described as "about thirty". The 1930 Royal Australian Historical Society caption calls him 23. His burial record gives his age at death in 1915 as 78, which would have made him about 20 in 1857.
• The captain's first name. Most sources say James Green. Lisa Murray's 2017 Dictionary of Sydney article calls him John Green.
• Sailing date. Johnson swore at the inquest that they sailed from Plymouth on Sunday 31 May. The Home News, as quoted in 1857, said 2 June.
• When she was built. The Maritime Museum says built in 1852. Wikipedia gives 1852–53 for building and a launch on 30 November 1854. The Dictionary of Sydney says completed in 1854. Her tonnage is 1,321 in most sources but 1,167 in the heritage database.
• Where she struck. She is often said to have been wrecked "at The Gap". The Maritime Museum and heritage database put the wreck just south of the Signal Station, between The Gap and the Macquarie Light, and the 1930 RAHS caption is firm that it was "not at the Gap".
• The anchor. The Maritime Museum says an anchor was raised in 1907 for the 50th anniversary. The heritage listing says the anchors were first reported in 1907 and recovered in 1910, with the memorial placed in 1930.
• Captain Steine. Spelt Steine in the 1857 narrative, but Steane by the Maritime Museum.
• Built where? The State Heritage listing at one point says she was built "in Scotland". Every other source says Sunderland, England. Duncan Dunbar himself was Scottish.
• Dated prints. Some old prints and captions, including the State Library print above, date the wreck to 20 September 1857. The correct date is 20 August.

My Earlier Posts

• The Gap – South Head – Old South Head Road
• South Head – The Macquarie Lighthouse
• St Stephen’s Anglican Cemetery – Camperdown – Newtown
• Dunbar House – Watsons Bay
• Sydney Harbour from Watsons Bay
• St Peter's Church – Watson's Bay
• Nelson Head Inner Lighthouse – Nelson Bay

Sources

1. Dictionary of Sydney staff writer, "Dunbar shipwreck", 2008. dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/dunbar_shipwreck
2. Lisa Murray, "The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar", Dictionary of Sydney, 2017. dictionaryofsydney.org/blog/the_melancholy_wreck_of_the_dunbar
3. Dictionary of Sydney, "Johnson, James". dictionaryofsydney.org/person/johnson_james
4. Kieran Hosty, "The melancholy wreck of the Dunbar", Signals 79, Australian National Maritime Museum, June–August 2007. Copy of the article (PDF)
5. A Narrative of the Melancholy Wreck of the "Dunbar", Sydney, 1857, Project Gutenberg eBook 57162. gutenberg.org/files/57162
6. NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Maritime Heritage Online, "Dunbar", site 1590. environment.nsw.gov.au maritime heritage database
7. Wikipedia, "Dunbar (1853 ship)", including text from the NSW State Heritage Register listing "Dunbar Group", no. 01675 (CC BY 4.0). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_(1853_ship)
8. Wikipedia, "Hornby Lighthouse". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornby_Lighthouse
9. Wikipedia, "SS Cawarra". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Cawarra
10. Wikimedia Commons, description pages for each image (linked from each picture), including the Royal Australian Historical Society caption for the 1930 unveiling and the ANMM caption for the James Johnson photograph.