Edinburgh Castle

Meet the site

The Edinburgh Castle was a three-masted iron barque of 627 tons, built by J G Lawrie at Glasgow in 1863 and employed for most of her life in the Clyde–China–Singapore trade. In January 1888 she arrived off Warrnambool, 101 days out from Liverpool, with a cargo of some 5,000–6,000 barrels of Portland cement for the construction of the town's new breakwater. On 15 January, in calm weather, a mistake by the pilot put her aground on the sand in Lady Bay. The coastal steamer Julia Percy tried to tow her off and cargo was jettisoned to lighten her, but she settled into the sand and broke up in the rough weather that followed. Her loss was an embarrassment to the harbour scheme she had come to serve, and she was forgotten until divers Peter Ronald and Colin Goodall relocated her in November 1985, nearly a century later.

The wreck lies broadside to the beach in soft, mobile sand in 4–5 m, bow toward the Hopkins River mouth, covering an area of about 30 by 40 m. A windlass and an anchor mark the bow and a winch the stern; between them lie scattered hull remnants and, most distinctively, the cargo. The wooden barrels rotted away long ago, but the cement inside them had set, and the site is dotted with perfect cylindrical concrete casts of the barrels, hoops and stave marks still visible. Sand covers and uncovers the wreck from year to year, so the amount exposed varies. Marine life is sparse on a sand site in surge – a few wrasse and leatherjackets around the iron, rays on the sand – and the interest is entirely in the story and the barrels. It is one of only three of the twenty ships believed lost in Lady Bay to have been found (with the Free Trader and the La Bella), it is protected under the Heritage Act, and it is a pleasant, shallow second dive from a boat on a flat day, though the Scuba Doctor's warning that the area is extremely dangerous in any swell should be taken literally.

What you might see

Smooth rays and fiddler rays on the sand, blue-throat wrasse, leatherjackets, sea sweep, small crabs and encrusting growth on the iron

Location

Iron barque wrecked in 1888 while carrying cement for the Warrnambool breakwater, lying broadside to the beach in soft sand in 4–5 m in the eastern half of Lady Bay, toward the Hopkins River mouth.

Facilities nearby

Lady Bay boat ramp with trailer parking and toilets; Warrnambool Diving for air; Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum displays artefacts; cafes and accommodation in Warrnambool.