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| Alva, Queensland, Australia |
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| Information |
The Wreck of the SS Yongala
The Australian passenger steamship SS Yongala sank on or close to March 23, 1911 taking the lives of all 121 people (72 crew and 49 passengers) on board. The sinking likely occurred during (and was the result of) a cyclone on that date. However, the ship wasn't reported missing until March 26. The ship had been heading from Melbourne to Cairns at the time it was lost. Debris from the ship eventually washed to shore in a number of locations, spread from Hinchinbrook Island to Bowen, Queensland. The only body to wash to shore was that of a race horse named "Moonshine" that had been aboard.
It would be decades before the shipwreck would be found. Though...there was one group of witnesses who claimed to have seen here sailing in that time in between.
Ghost Ship?
In 1923, a couple of fishermen were fishing on a small boat near Holbourne Island. They came back from their fishing trip claiming to have seen the SS Yongala. In broad daylight, a barnacle encrusted and rusty ship that they recognized as the SS Yongala chugged by at a distance. It disappeared from their view behind the island and did not reappear on the other side. When the fishermen searched for the ship, it appeared to have vanished entirely.
There are also further stories regarding the ship with a seemingly supernatural bent. One story has a potential female passenger who refused to board the ship on its final voyage following her having a premonition of disaster. There is also a story of a family having a vision of a ship in trouble produced by the soot from a kerosene lantern. The story has it that the soot on the lantern's glass changed before their eyes, transforming into the image of a scared young girl. A member of the family later passed a poster for theatrical company and recognized a face on the poster as belonging to the girl they had seen form in the kerosene soot. He later learned that the girl had been aboard the SS Yongala when it went down.
Discovery of the Wreck
The SS Yongala was detected by a minesweeper in 1943 during World War II. It was registered as an obstruction and it would be another 4 years until another ship came along using an echo sounder and revealed an object beneath the water 300 feet in length. Still, it wouldn't be until 1958 that a pair of divers would finally confirm the wreck. They recovered a safe from the ship and confirmed by its serial number that the wreck was indeed that of the SS Yongala.
The Yongala rests in the middle of what is now the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The ship now serves as an artificial reef for marine wildlife. The wreck is also registered as a heritage site with the Queensland National Estate and is under protection. While it serves as a popular site for divers, nobody is allowed inside the wreck or to anchor directly above it.
The Death of Tina Watson
In October of 2003, newlyweds Gabe and Tina Watson (from Alabama, USA) were honeymooning in Australia. Gabe and Tina went diving at the Yongala wreck site as part of a group. Tina, a more novice diver than her husband, used him as her diving partner. Something happened during the dive that caused Tina to drown.
Gabe stated to police that his wife started to panic early in the dive and ripped his mask off. By the time his mask was restored in place, Tina was already sinking away from him. Rather than attempt to rescue her himself (he had completed a dive rescue course before), he went to the surface for help, leaving her to sink to the ocean floor. Once she was finally brought to the surface, efforts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful. After only 11 days of marriage, Gabe Watson was a widow.
Initially considered an accident, the coroner's inquest turned up more questions than answers. There was nothing found to be wrong with Tina's diving equipment. An autopsy failed to find any medical causes in Tina that could have resulted in her drowning. Police also claim that Gabe's story changed during questioning. Furthermore, it was revealed that prior to the marriage, Gabe had gotten his future bride to increase the size of her life insurance policy and make him the sole beneficiary.
More than five years later in Spring of 2008, Australian authorities issued a request to extradite Gabe Watson. At the time of this writing, his lawyer is fighting the extradition. If convicted, Watson faces possible life in prison. |
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| Related Sites |
Wikipedia: SS Yongala
Wikipedia entry for the SS Yongala. |
Haunted Australia: SS Yongala
Haunted Australia's page on the supernatural tales surrounding the sinking of the SS Yongala. |
Yongala Dive
Website for a company that hosts dives on the Yongala wreck. |
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| Similar Destinations |
| Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum |
| The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald |
| Lake Erie |
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| See Also on TheCabinet.com |
| Blog: The Haunted Tales of the S.S. Yongala (03/22/09) |
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| Available from Amazon.com |
S S Yongala : Townsville's Titanic |
S.S. Yongala: Dive to the past |
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