The Seminole Wreck

The 1511-gross ton, 3-masted wooden-hulled barque Seminole was built in Mystic, Connecticut, USA in 1865. In 1909, the 59.9m-long ship became the first vessel to be abandoned in the Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard in the North Arm of the Port River, Port Adelaide.

This photo of the Seminole features in Nathan Richards’ 1997 thesis “The History and Archaeology of the Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard, North Arm of the Port Adelaide River, Port Adelaide, South Australia”: - 

According to Nathan Richards’ “Deep Structures: An Examination of Deliberate Watercraft Abandonment in Australia” (Chapter 9: The Signatures of Discard (Port Adelaide, South Australia)”, however, “vessel Seminole abandoned initially at the Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard in 1906, subsequently refloated, reused (and probably partially rebuilt), and re-abandoned around 1908 within the same disposal area.”

This photo of the wreck site comes from the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard Maritime Heritage Trail web page: -

 According to Nathan Richards’ 1997 thesis “The History and Archaeology of the Garden Island Ships’ Graveyard, North Arm of the Port Adelaide River, Port Adelaide, South Australia”, “The vessel (Seminole) is constructed with wooden frames and planking.  It is the only sailing vessel that has evidence of copper alloy sheathing and is of considerable size (in excess of sixty metres).”

Further, “the vessel, sometime after 1898 had become a store-ship at Adelaide”, “figurehead of the Seminole (is) in the S.A. Maritime Museum”.

Richards also states that the Seminole “at a medium to high tide is totally consumed by water.”

Here are some of the photos of the Seminole from the thesis: -

Here are some of the underwater photos that I took at the Seminole site in 2017: -