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The Adolphe was a sailing ship that was wrecked at the mouth of the Hunter River in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 1904. The ship is now the most prominent of several wrecks on what is now the Stockton

Stockton, New South Wales

Stockton is a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located from Newcastle's central business district. It is the only suburb of Newcastle that lies north of the Hunter River.-Geography:...

 breakwall, which protects Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

 harbour. The rescue of the ship’s crew has gone down in local maritime history as one of the most remarkable in local waters.

Ship description and construction

Adolphe was a four-masted steel barque built in 1902 by Chantiers de France, Dunkerque. It was rigged with double top and topgallant sails.

Shipwreck event

On 30 September 1904 Adolphe was being towed through the entrance of Newcastle harbour by the tugs Hero and Victoria. Heavy seas prevented the tugs from holding her and she was swept first on to the wreck of the Colonist, then battered by waves that forced her on top of other submerged wrecks on what was then called the Oyster Bank. The lifeboat hurried to the scene and within two hours all 32 of the crew had been taken off. The northern breakwater of the entrance to the port of Newcastle was extended after the loss of the Adolphe. The French consul made an official visit to Newcastle to recognise the efforts of the lifeboat crew.

When the breakwater was extended in 1906 and reached the remains of the Adolphe, her remaining two masts and jib-boom were removed for safety reasons, she is actually resting across the remains of SS Wendouree

Wendouree (1882)

Wendouree was a steel steamship built as a collier by S & H Morton & Co., Leith, Scotland for Huddart Parker & Co. Pty. Ltd. She was later refitted to carry passengers for the Melbourne to Sydney run.-Fate:...

, wrecked in 1898, and SS Lindus

Lindus (1881)

Lindus - Further reading :Online Database'sAustralian National Shipwreck DatabaseAustralian Shipping - Arrivals and Departures 1788-1968 including shipwrecks Encyclopaedia of Australian Shipwrecks - New South Wales Shipwrecks...

, lost in 1899.

Further reading