The Garthneill Wreck

 

The Garthneill Wreck features in Peter Christopher’s book “South Australian Shipwrecks – A Data Base (1802-1989)”, but you’re not likely to find it in any other shipwreck book since it is only an abandoned vessel, rather than an actual shipwreck.

The Garthneill was a 1470-gross ton steel, 3-masted barque built in Glasgow, Scotland as the Inverneill, by Russell and Company in 1895. It was renamed the 'Garthneill' by Sir William Garthwaite, its new owner in 1916,. The ship’s dimensions are given as Length 238 feet, breadth 36 feet, depth 22 (21.7) feet. The ship was abandoned in the North Arm of the Port River in 1935 after having had most of its fittings removed. After being towed to the ships’ graveyard at Garden Island in the North Arm, its bow plates were cut away, and explosives were used to hole the vessel fore and aft.

The Garthneill had been decommissioned in 1926 and had its masts and rigging removed before being converted to become a floating grain mill (electric barley-grading plant and storeship). 

The Garthneill had a figurehead which is now on display in the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide. It is described on the History Trust of South Australia’s Collections web page as “a white painted figure of a Scottish woman wearing a jacket and skirt, with a tam-o-shanter (hat) on her head. She holds a flower in her left hand.”

The South Australian Maritime Museum also holds some personal items linked to those who lived on the ship during its life as a floating silo and some fittings from when the ship was broken up and abandoned in the Port River.

According to the “Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard Maritime Heritage Trail ” booklet published by the Department for Environment and Heritage, the Garthneill’s forward section now lies partly hidden amongst the mangroves of Garden Island. It is positioned between the Mangana and the Glaucus in the ships’ graveyard.

This photograph shows the Garthneill in 2019: -