The 'Schomberg', described at 'the noblest ship that ever floated upon the water', was the pride of the British shipbuilding; its captain, the daredevil "Bully" Forbes, dreamed of reaching Melbourne in sixty days. But her loss off Curdie's River, on the southern tip of Australia, on her maiden voyage in 1855 spelt not only her end but his, and set in motion a chain of enquiries, recriminations and rumours.
But no Australian wreck is as well remembered as that of the 'Loch Ard'; her loss is one of the great tragic and romantic stories. There were only two survivors--a girl of eighteen, Eva Carmichael, and Tome Pearce, about the same age, an apprentice, who saved her life. Their poignant story ultimately precipitated the end of the era of passenger-carrying ships at the turn to the new safety of steam.
Don Charlwood, himself a descendant of a survivor from the wreck of the 'Schomberg', brings together the mysterious tales of the 'Schomberg's' loss and the story of the 'Loch Ard' from his earlier book, 'The Wreck of the Loch Ard', in a compelling and highly readable record of the colonial clipper era and its effects on the history of the southern tip of Australia.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Author's Note
The Western Entrance
1. The Toll
2. A Short Cut
3. Establishing the Light
4. Gold Mania
5. A Faster Passage
'Bully' Forbes of the Black Ball Line
6. Forbes of Aberdeen
7. First Voyages of the 'Marco Polo'
8. The 'Lightning'
9. The 'Schomberg'
10. The Fatal Voyage
11. The Protest Meeting
12. First and Second Inquiries
13. Criminal Proceedings
14. Decline
The Wreck of the Loch Ard: End of a Ship, End of an Era
15. A Warning Beacon
16. The Loch Line
17. 'Loch Ard'
18. Captain and Complement
19. Last Voyage
20. The Wreck
21. Eva Carmichael
22. Tom Pearce
23. The Gorge
24. To Glenample
25. Hugh Gibson
26. The Dead
27. The Aftermath
28. The Inquiry
29. Weeks at Glenample
30. 'The felling of thousands ...'
31. Pearce's Later Years
32. Eva Townsend
33. A Hypothesis
Epilogue
34. Sea Change
35. Saftey
Appendix 1. Passenger List of the 'Schomberg'
Appendix 2. The Angove Diary
Appendix 3. Numbers Brought to Australia by Captain Forbes
Appendix 4. The Loch Ships
Appendix 5. Voyages of the 'Loch Ard'
Appendix 6. Manifest of the 'Loch Ard'
Appendix 7. 'Loch Ard' Centenary Celebrations
Index
