Absalom

Career (United Kingdom)
Name:	Absalom
Owner:	Mr J Hubbard
Port of registry:	Sydney
Identification:	Registration number: 170/1853; Official number: 32407
Builder:	David Roberts, Brisbane Water, New South Wales, Australia
Completed:	1853
Fate:	Wrecked March 29, 1863
General characteristics
Type:	Ketch
Tonnage:	Gross tonnage (GT) of 25  tons, or 33 tons register
Displacement:	Net tonnage (NT) of 25  tons
Length:	60 feet (18 m) LOA, or 14.84000  m
Beam:	14 ft. 6 in., or 3.90100  m
Draught:	5 ft. 6 in. when loaded, or 1.64500  m
Depth of hold:	5 ft. 4 in.

The Absalom was a wooden ketch that was wrecked at the Macleay River bar at Trial Bay, New South Wales in 1863.

History

The Absalom was built for the timber trade, and W. Pickett was to be her commander.^[1] She spent the early years of her career traveling to the Shoalhaven. By 1857 she had moved to include Wollongong. She spent much of 1858 traveling to Brisbane Water.

During 1861 she made trips to the Shoalhaven & Moruya River. During one of these trips she came across two crew members of the Cambrian Packet, which had sunk. The Cambrian Packet with

Edward Jones as master, sailed from the Sydney, at 2 p m., bound to Bellambi, with a N.W. wind, and all sail set. About 4 pm. when off Port Aiken, a S.W. squall suddenly struck the vessel, throwing her on her beam ends the ballast shifting, she turned over, and went down in about ten minutes, taking with her a seaman named Frederick Pile, who had stuck to the keel until the vessel sank. The master, Mr. Jones, clung to a plank, and a seaman named Dalton, to one of the hatches, and kept themselves afloat for upwards of an hour, when they were picked up by the ketch Absalom, from Sydney bound to Moruya, which vessel at once returned to Sydney with Mr. Jones and Dalton, who desire to express their thankfulness to Mr. Pye, the master of the Absalom, for lowering his boat and saving their lives. Poor Pile was only married a few months since, and has left a widow. ^[2]

By 1862 the vessel was trading in the Macleay River.

Shipwreck

The ketch Absalom with J Fraser as the master which had been trading for some time on the Macleay River was wrecked on the sand spit attempting to beat out of the Macleay River on the 29 March 1863. She missed stays and ran upon the South Spit at the Heads, and in a few minutes went to pieces. Mr McKenzie, the pilot of the area, was quickly in his boat, and rendered all the assistance that could be given. The crew was all saved, but the vessel and cargo, consisting of more than six hundred bushels of maize, were totally lost.

All hands were saved, and were returned to Sydney by the Woolloomooloo. The Absalom was uninsured, and belonged to Mr J Hubbard.^[3]

Further reading

Online Databases

• Australian National Shipwreck Database [3]
  
• Australian Shipping - Arrivals and Departures 1788-1968 including shipwrecks
  
• Encyclopaedia of Australian Shipwrecks - New South Wales Shipwrecks

Books

• Wrecks on the New South Wales Coast. By Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925–1995 Oceans Enterprises. 1993 ISBN 978-0-646-11081-3.
• Australian Shipwrecks - Vol. 1 1622-1850, Charles Bateson, AH and AW Reed, Sydney, 1972, ISBN 0-589-07112-2 910.4530994 BAT
• Australian shipwrecks Vol. 2 1851–1871 By Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925–1995. Sydney. Reed, 1980 910.4530994 LON
• Australian shipwrecks Vol. 3 1871–1900 By Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925–1995. Geelong Vic: List Publishing, 1982 910.4530994 LON
• Australian shipwrecks Vol. 4 1901–1986 By Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925–1995. Portarlington Vic. Marine History Publications, 1987 910.4530994 LON
• Australian shipwrecks Vol. 5 Update 1986 By Loney, J. K. (Jack Kenneth), 1925–1995. Portarlington Vic. Marine History Publications, 1991 910.4530994 LON

References

External links

Coordinates: 30°50′S 153°01′E / 30.83°S 153.01°E / -30.83; 153.01