Paddle steamer wreck gives Maitland Bay its name
The SS Maitland set off from Sydney 125 years ago bound for Newcastle with at least 70 passengers and crew on board. The weather was worsening but the captain, RJ Skinner, anticipated no problems. He knew the vessel well and was a veteran of many hundreds of similar voyages. The paddle steamer never made it. As it past Sydney Heads it was hit by the worst gale in 20 years and the crew and passengers began to fear for their lives.
The SS Maitland, an iron paddle steamer, was a regular trader along the NSW coast, and on the night of Thursday 5th of May 1898 excited passengers queued at Sydney to board before the 11:00 PM departure, with the view of arriving in Newcastle by 9:00 AM the following morning.
Labouring into a frightening gale, the SS Maitland immediately began shipping water. Deck cargo was dumped overboard to keep the ship upright. However, by the time they passed Barrenjoey headland, huge seas flooded the engine fires, and they were now adrift at the mercy of the driving seas. Captain Skinner got everybody together and instructed them to “put on life belts and prepare themselves” for what was to come. Lifeboats were launched but were quickly smashed to pieces. Just before 6:00 AM on Friday, 6th of May 1898, the SS Maitland was driven onto the rocks, Bouddi Point, at the eastern end of Boat Harbour (now known as Maitland Bay) with a mighty crash and driven high up in the air. The hull immediately split midships, the bow quickly disappearing beneath the waves, carrying most of the crew and steerage passengers to their deaths. Those swept ashore were severely injured by the jagged rocks and pounding surf. The survivors clinging to the shattered stern resting on the rock ledge, waited for a rescue. Over the next 24 hours, after several attempts to secure ropes to the stern the survivors inched their way to shore. Captain Skinner was the last to leave the wreck 2:00 PM on Saturday.
The newspapers later reported “by Saturday afternoon the north end of the beach was piled high with wreckage, under which were bodies. There were casks of beer, tins of kerosene, jumbled up with broken planking, bits of rope and all the usual debris of a wreck.
The body of one young woman, found at Putty Beach, had been “buried under sand and wreckage, near naked, and with the teeth smashed away”.
Two of the early survivors left the wreck site early Saturday morning to reach Brisbane Water (possibly Hardys Bay) and told their plight to three settlers. Word quickly spread to Rock Davis, the ship builder of Blackwall, who formed a rescue party and made their way to Hardys Bay then walked across to Putty Beach and began to search along the rugged coast north to for the survivors. By late Saturday afternoon most of the survivors had been taken from the wreck to Woy Woy station, arriving at Redfern by late Saturday night.
There were many tales of gallantry however, one involved the remarkable survival of a baby Daisy Hammond. Trapped on the wreck with her mother. Many years later, Daisy Stevens visited the wreck, and when she died in 1988 at the age of 90, had her ashes flown from Canada and scattered over the wreck site.
Confusion over the identities of many of the victims was the result of the shipping company keeping only the names of steerage passengers. Some people were never identified, some feared lost had in fact never got on board. So, the exact number on board will never be known, but from the approx. 71 passengers and crew on board, only 44 survived, and the wreck of the SS Maitland is recorded as one of worst maritime disasters along the NSW coast.
A Marine Board of Enquiry exonerated Captain Skinner from any blame and concluded “The Board highly commended the discipline which was maintained on board the ship under the most trying circumstances, and we all appreciate the gallantry and efforts displayed to save lives”.
In 1930, the Sydney Bush Wakers Club, proposed Boat Harbour be renamed “Maitland Bay”, in memory of the SS Maitland disaster. The name Maitland Bay was adopted.
Today little is left of the SS Maitland wreck, other than a few fragments scattered about.
Robert Thompson
Source: “Wreck of the Maitland “author Geoffrey Potter, SMH & NMH May 1898, Central Coast Express 2020.
Newcastle Morning Herald, 9 May 1898
The SS Maitland, painting by A Olsen, mid 1880s.
By Sunday 8th May large crowds of spectators began to gather at the wreck site.