Lanercost

Meet the site

The Lanercost was a timber barque launched in October 1865 at Harrington in England, 123.7 feet long and almost 26 feet wide, displacing 358 tons. Built for the Holland–England trade, she ended up owned in Adelaide. On 21 November 1872 she left Newcastle for Adelaide with 580 tons of coal, and at 5 am on 24 November she strayed too far west and ran aground on a small point just north-west of Mowarry Point, south of Eden. The crew got ashore. Men from the Eden pilot boat tried to salvage her, but big seas broke over the ship and smashed her to pieces.

Divers found the wreck in the 1960s and some minor salvage was done, including sand dredging. In the 1970s Sydney wreck diver John Riley found an 1864 American one-cent coin, confirming the identity as the Lanercost rather than the Olivier Frost, lost further south in 1856. Eden diver John Mathieson recovered a key, a silver-plated spoon, a log vane, a telescope lens and a copper spike.

Today most of the wreck is dispersed or buried. Wreckage is scattered in the long gully east of a small point and there is a major piece of hull on the sand in front of a second gully at 20–21 m, sometimes uncovered when sand shifts. In the main gully divers find small pieces of iron, copper nails, timber remnants and an anchor on a ledge. McFadyen admits that non-wreck divers may find it boring but considers it worth a dive or two. The gullies themselves carry kelp, sponges and reef fish. The Marine Life Network calls it a site only for the enthusiast.

What you might see

Blue groper, leatherjackets, sweep, wrasse, morwong, kelp, sponges, sea squirts

Location

Scattered remains of a timber barque wrecked in 1872 on a small point just north-west of Mowarry Point, south of Eden; wreckage in two gullies and on the sand at 20–21 m.

Facilities nearby

Quarantine Bay ramp and Snug Cove, Eden.