214th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Porpoise and the Cato

Today is the 214th anniversary of  the sinking of the 12-gun sloop HMS Porpoise and the British armed cargo ship Cato. Both were wrecked 450 miles off of the Queensland coast on a remote coral reef on 17^th August 1803. Matthew Flinders was a passenger on the HMS Porpoise at the time. According to Wikipedia, Ben Cropp found the wreck sites of the Cato and Porpoise at Wreck Reefs In 1965. The site has been a protected area since April 1992. An expedition which included people from the Australian National Maritime Museum visited the remains of the Cato in 2009.

STAR OF GREECE WRECK EXHIBITION

The Star of Greece wreck exhibition is permanently on display at the Willunga Courthouse Museum in South Australia. The exhibition displays some relics from the Star of Greece wreck that are not normally seen. The Star of Greece sank off of Port Willunga, South Australia 129 years ago on 13th July 1888.  Entry to the display is $5 each.

GREEK WARRIOR STATUES FOUND UNDERWATER

In 1972, Stefano Mariottini, then a chemist from Rome, discovered two bronze statues of male Greek warriors. According to Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riace_bronzes , Stefano Mariottini “chanced upon the bronzes while snorkelling near the end of a vacation at Monasterace. While diving some 200 metres from the coast of Riace, at a depth of six to eight metres, Mariottini noticed the left arm of statue A emerging from the sand. At first, he thought he had found a dead human body, but on touching the arm he realized it was a bronze arm. Mariottini began to push the sand away from the rest of statue A. Later, he noticed the presence of another bronze nearby and decided to call the police. One week later, on August 21, statue B was taken out of the water, and two days after that it was the turn of statue A. No associated wreck site has been identified, but in the immediate locality, which is a subsiding coast, architectural remains have also been found.” Wikipedia says, “The Riace bronzes, also called the Riace Warriors, are two full-size Greek bronzes of naked bearded warriors, cast about 460–450 BC that were found in the sea near Riace in 1972. The bronzes are currently located at the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, Italy. They are two of the few surviving full-size ancient Greek bronzes (which were usually melted down in later times), and as such demonstrate the superb technical craftsmanship and exquisite artistic features that were achieved at this time.” Further, “Although the bronzes were rediscovered in 1972, they did not emerge from conservation until 1981. Their public display in Florence and Rome was the cultural event of that year in Italy, providing the cover story for numerous magazines. Now considered one of the symbols of Calabria, the bronzes were commemorated by a pair of Italian postage stamps and have also been widely reproduced.” And “The two bronze sculptures are simply known as “Statue A”, referring to the one portraying a younger warrior, and “Statue B”, indicating the more mature-looking of the two. Statue A is 203 centimetres tall while Statue B stands 196.5 centimetres tall. The most popular theory is that two separate Greek artists created the bronzes about 30 years apart around the 5th century BC. “Statue A” was probably created between the years 460 and 450 BC, and “Statue B” between 430 and 420 BC. Some believe that “Statue A” was the work of Myron, and that a pupil of Phidias, called Alkamenes, created “Statue B”. Statue A portrays a young warrior hero or god with a proud look, conscious of his own beauty and power. Statue B, on the other hand, portrays an older more mature warrior hero with a relaxed pose and a kind and gentle gaze.”

PLANE WRECK IN SPENCER GULF

A Tiger Moth plane crashed in Spencer Gulf between Port Broughton and Whyalla in 1943. The plane’s pilot, Edward Gage, was a member of the Spencer Gulf Aero Club. He had been a club member for three years prior to his fatal crash. He worked for BHP and he sometimes flew senior BHP personnel around. In 1943, he made a trip to Adelaide with a mercantile marine officer as a passenger. He left Parafield Airport alone that evening, after his mother declined to accompany him back to Whyalla. His plane was last seen heading towards a dust storm over Spencer Gulf, near Port Broughton. It is possible that the plane went down in the dust storm, crashing in to Spencer Gulf. Gage, however, was taking a direct route to Whyalla rather than via Port Pirie where he would’ve been able to refuel his plane. That is what members of the Spencer Gulf Aero Club normally did. They would refuel their planes at Port Pirie before crossing Spencer Gulf at the narrowest point. Any planes which ran low on fuel could then do an emergency landing. Gage ran the gauntlet by heading straight for Whyalla for unknown reasons. It is assumed that his plane then ran out of fuel and crashed in to the sea. The location and depth of the plane was still unknown in 1990. Ron Anchor was searching for the plane in 1990, believing that he had narrowed down the plane’s location to warrant a full-scale search for it. The result of Anchor’s search remains unknown. Sometime between 1943 and 1990, a Port Pirie fisherman thought that he had hooked on to the crashed plane but he died a few weeks later. The ashes of Gage’s wife were scattered in Spencer Gulf after her death in 1988.