Shipwrecks on the Nambucca, Part 4
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THE SS Rosedale was built in Dundee, Scotland, in 1877. It was described as a two-masted schooner rig, twin-screwed and powered by 65hp engines.
The ship served on the Victorian coast from Melbourne to the Gippsland lakes, before it joined the fleet of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company in 1891. It was used on the Sydney to Manning River run where she used to carry 25 to 30 passengers in the saloon and steerage.
Once on the Sydney to Nambucca and Bellinger run, passenger accommodation was reduced to a maximum of 14 and the ship was then principally a cargo boat.
The coastal run was known as particularly dangerous especially when crossing the bars of rivers. The Rosedale had been beached at least seven times.
The Rosedale sailed from Nambucca Heads on Friday, September 15, 1911. It was last sighted from the lighthouse at Smoky Cape that afternoon.
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the following Tuesday, broke the news that the Rosedale was seriously overdue and that no reports of sighting had been received since the previous Friday.
A company spokesman, Mr Allen, formed the opinion that, "The vessel put in somewhere for shelter during the southerly gale which blew late on Friday night and all day Saturday".
The report went on to say that, "The Rosedale had ridden out storms of the worst kind in her time and had the reputation for being a good sea boat".
The owners sent out tugs to search for the boat to no avail.
The steamer, Cape Finisterre, reported passing through a lot of wreckage about 20 miles north of Smoky Cape. In addition, Captain Farrell of the SS Burringbar, reported finding wreckage belonging to the Rosedale off Smoky Cape.
Other reports of wreckage spotted, without survivors, soon came in. None of the bodies of the passengers and crew were recovered. Almost a month after the tragedy a raft from the Rosedale was found at Broughton Island.
On the Rosedale's ill-fated final voyage it was carrying cargo and passengers to Sydney from the Nambucca and Bellingen. Captain Einerson, the crew and passengers reportedly numbered 30.
Among the passengers were members of the McKay family who, tragically, were headed to Sydney after mistakenly receiving a telegram worded "come quick mother dying". At the time a Mrs McKay was in Sydney for medical treatment and another Mrs McKay was in Sydney in indifferent health, hence local knowledge of this saw the telegram delivered to the wrong family.
Published family histories state that the telegram was intended for the family of Angus Mackay of Deep Creek but delivered to the family of John and Johanna Mackay of Buccrabendinni.
Elizabeth Cook (nee Mackay) and husband William, her sister Mary Murphy, brother William Mackay and his wife, Ethel, all hurriedly packed and sailed on the Rosedale. The information on the names of those lost in the Mackay family was given by a granddaughter, Elizabeth Mackay Fawcett in 1986.
An unknown author of a poem about the wreck of the Rosedale was published in the Sydney Morning Herald has this verse:
"Sad is the story of the ill-fated Mackays,
A false communication has ended their days,
For the loss of each victim their sorrow all round,
May they all rest in peace till the last trumpet sounds."
The years of 1910/11 were held to be disastrous for shipwrecks along the Australian coastline.
The North Coast Company were only just recovering from the loss of the Rosedale when, 26 days later, their steamer, the Macleay, struck Boondelbah Island off the entrance of Port Stephens.
The wreck of the Rosedale was found off Port Macquarie in 1995.
- This article was sourced from Nambucca Headland Museum records, maritime historian Colin Elwood and the book North Coast Run by Mike Richards.