Terry Arnott (and the City of Launceston shipwreck)
- Steve Reynolds
- Jan 10
- 5 min read
Terry Arnott (TK, Terrence) passed away in 2007 at the age of 53. There was an obituary for Terry in The Advertiser on 17th February 2007. Written by Robyn Ashworth, it featured this picture of Terry: -
Terry was the Senior Maritime Heritage Officer for the SA Heritage Branch at that time, a position that he had held for over 10 years.
According to the obituary, Terry was a founding member of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology. He had won the Institute’s Jack Loney Award for 2000.
This earlier photo of Terry features in "Australian Sea Mysteries" (2nd edition) by Jack Loney himself: -
(Source: "Australian Sea Mysteries" (2nd edition) by Jack Loney)
Apart from having been a founding member of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, Terry had been "a professional marine archaeologist in Victoria", "senior maritime heritage officer" in SA, a lecturer for the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology and Nautical Archaeology Society AIMA/NAS Maritime Archaeology Course, and a member of the Australian Association for Maritime History, which he was also the Secretary for.
According to Robyn Ashworth's obituary for Terry, "His life changed in 1980 when, in the company of two other divers, he discovered the wreck of the SS City of Launceston in the (Port Phillip) bay. The ship had sunk in 1865 and remains the best-preserved steam-era wreck in Australia."
According to "Australian Sea Mysteries" by Jack Loney, the three divers were members of the Maritime Archaeology Association of Victoria. The book describes the wrecking and subsequent discovery of the ship i.e. "she collided with SS PENOLA .... and .... commenced to sink".
(Source: "a Mary MacKillop Pilgrimage - Adelaide"
The SS Penola survived the 1865 collision with the City of Launceston. It was a ship that Saint Mary MacKillop later sailed on many times. Her own mother Flor alater died in the shipwreck incident of the SS Ly-ee-Moon which was wrecked off Green Cape, New South Wales on the night of 30th May 1886.
"Australian Sea Mysteries" by Jack Loney features this map of the site of the City of Launceston wreck site in Port Phillip Bay: -
(Source: "Australian Sea Mysteries" by Jack Loney)
According to Wikpedia, "SS City of Launceston ..... had an early role in colonial steam shipping as the forerunner of the modern Bass Strait ferry service between Tasmania and Victoria."
Terry Arnott successfully lobbied for the protection of the City of Launceston wreck. The ship was carrying lots of Victorian and English mail that was lost for 115 years.
According to https://www.reddit.com/r/drydockporn/comments/5oia2b/ss_city_of_launceston_ironhulled_steamship_built/?rdt=60334 , the “S.S. CITY OF LAUNCESTON - iron-hulled steamship built at the yard of Blackwood & Gordon in Paisley, Scotland, 1863. Sank in 1865 after collision with another ship.”
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_City_of_Launceston ,” SS City of Launceston was a 368 GRT steamship operated by the Launceston and Melbourne Steam Navigation Company from 1863, which had an early role in colonial steam shipping as the forerunner of the modern Bass Strait ferry service between Tasmania and Victoria. It was sunk in Port Phillip Bay after a collision with another ship on 19 November 1865.”
SS City of Launceston
Coordinates: 38°4′42″S 144°49′30″E
Owner Launceston & Melbourne Steamship Company
Port of registry Launceston, Tasmania
Builder Blackwood & Gordon, Paisley
Cost £17,000
Yard number 55
Launched 4 April 1863
In service October 1863
Identification official number: 32240
Fate Sank after collision, 19 November 1865
General characteristics
Type cargo and passenger ship
Tonnage 368 GRT, 277 NRT
Length 177 ft 2 in (54.00 m)
Beam 24 ft 5 in (7.44 m)
Depth 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion 2 cylinder 80 hp (60 kW) steam engine, Single screw
Sail plan Schooner-rigged on two masts
Capacity 188 passengers
Ship history
The iron-hulled ship was built at the yard of Blackwood & Gordon in Paisley, Scotland, for the Launceston & Melbourne Steamship Company, at a cost of £17,000, and launched on 4 April 1863. At 368 gross register tons (GRT) and 177 ft (54 m) long she was built to carry passengers and cargo, and was powered by an 80 nhp steam engine as well as sails on two masts.
The ship sailed from Glasgow on 6 June 1863, bound for Melbourne, arriving there on 16 September. Once at Melbourne, while undergoing an overhaul preparatory to her first commercial voyage, she was altered from a brig to a schooner rig. As the flagship of the Launceston and Melbourne Steam Navigation Company, no expense was spared in her fitting-out.
On 21 October 1863 the ship made a trial voyage from Launceston to George Town, with between 450 and 500 invited passengers aboard, who were lavishly entertained with free wines and refreshments, and music provided by the Volunteer Artillery brass band. The ship left launceston at 7.30 a.m. and made the crossing in 2¾ hours. At George Town the passengers went ashore to stroll around the town and on the beach, and were provided with sumptuous lunch before the ship set sail again at 3.30 p.m., arriving back at launceston by 6.00 p.m.
For the following two years she carried passengers, mail and cargo across the Strait, without incident.
Sinking
At 7.20 p.m. on 19 November 1865 the City of Launceston sailed from Port Melbourne[2] under the command of Captain William Thompson. She carried a crew of 23, and 25 passengers, and a general cargo that included mail, luggage, drapery, brandy, port, rum, cigars, tea, boots, and sheepwash. The evening was bright and cloudless, the seas calm.
The City of Launceston observed the SS Penola, inbound from Adelaide, approaching head on while they were still five miles apart. According to the rules of the sea ships on converging courses were supposed to port their helm in order to pass each other safely. However, this did not happen and the two ships closed, and at around 9.00 p.m. Penola ran her bows squarely into City of Launceston's starboard side. As the Launceston began to sink all of the passengers and crew were transferred to the Penola, which despite leaving her stem lodged in the hull of the Launceston was able to make port safely.
Wreck site
A week or so after the collision divers recovered 56 mailboxes, one bag, one parcel, five passengers' boxes, and two cases of merchandise from the wreck. An attempt was made to refloat the ship the following year, using "Maquay's patented lifting device", where canvas bags inflated by hydrogen gas produced by the reaction of zinc and sulphuric acid were attached to the ship. It was not successful.
City of Launceston was rediscovered in 1980 by members of the Maritime Archaeology Association of Victoria, and became the first wreck to be listed and protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act of 1981. The wreck sits upright in 21 metres (69 ft) of water and is largely intact. Since 1997 she has been the subject of archaeological studies under the direction of Heritage Victoria's Maritime Heritage Unit.
"SS City of Launceston Protected zone location -38.076829, 144.826321 (250m radius). The City of Launceston (1865) is one of Victoria’s most significant wrecks. The original ferry between Melbourne and Tasmania, it is one of the most intact iron steamship wrecks of its age in Australian waters."
A book was published in 2022 by the late Terry Arnott and Rick Bullers (with contributions by Louise Bird) titled “Shipwrecks of South Australia’s West Coast - A gazetteer of known shipwrecks between Cape Catastrophe and the Western Australian border” (South Australian Maritime Heritage Series No. 6, Department for Environment and Water).
No doubt there are many m9re stories about Terry Arnott, and perhaps more details about his work.
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