The Cato was a ship of 430 tons constructed at Stockton

Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and registered in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Reeve & Green. It was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

, 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 1804.

On 10 August 1803, Cato left Sydney in the company of the ships HMS Porpoise

HMS Porpoise (1799)

HMS Porpoise was a 10-gun sloop originally built in Bilbao, Spain, as the packet ship Infanta Amelia. She was 308 tons, 93ft long on the gun deck and a beam of 27ft, 11 inches. On 6 August 1799 HMS Argo captured her off the coast of Portugal...

 and Bridgewater bound for India. On 17 August the three ships got caught near a sandbank, 157 miles north and 51 miles east of Sandy Cape

Sandy Cape

Sandy Cape is the most northern point on Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The place was named by James Cook during his 1770 voyage up the eastern coast of Australia aboard the Endeavour...

.

With shrinking leeway, both the Cato and HMS Porpoise were grounded. Bridgewater sailed on, despite knowing that the other two ships had come to grief. The crew and passengers of the other ships were able to land on a sandbank as both their ships broke up.

This sandbank become known as Wreck Reefs

Wreck Reefs

The Wreck Reefs are located in the southern part of the Coral Sea Islands approximately 450 km East Nor East of Gladstone, Queensland or 250 km east of the Swain Reefs complex they form a narrow chain of reefs with small cays that extends for around 25 km in a west to east lineIslets...

 and is located in the southern part of the Coral Sea Islands

Coral Sea Islands

The Coral Sea Islands Territory includes a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island...

 approximately 450 km (280 mi) East Nor East of Gladstone

Gladstone, Queensland

- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 or 250 km (155 mi) east of the Swain reefs complex. They form a narrow chain of reefs with small cays that extends for around 25 km (16 mi) in a west to east line.

The Cato also gave its name to the nearby Cato Reef

Cato Reef

Cato Reef, a part of the Cato Bank, is an area in the Coral Sea off the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia that is of approximately 21 km by 13 km of this 200 km² area, where depth of water is typically less than 17 m...

 which it discovered.

On 26 August 1803 with no sign of rescue, Porpoise passenger Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

 and Captain John Park of the Cato took the largest cutter (which they named Hope) and twelve crewmen and headed to Sydney to seek rescue. Through marvelous navigation, Hope made it to Port Jackson

Port Jackson

Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...

by 8 September. Three lives were lost in the joint shipwreck. The remaining passengers were rescued.