Image: By Day and Son by Thomas Goldsworth Dutton & William Foster. Hand-coloured lithograph from the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Public Domain by WikiCommons.
John Lanser, researcher and historian, will tell us the story of Sydney’s most famous wreck. On the night of 20 August 1857, while Sydney slept, the Dunbar arrived off Port Jackson in a rising south-easterly gale. Shortly after midnight breakers were sighted ahead and the vessel, now on a lee shore, was carried side on to the rocks between the lighthouse and The Gap. Within minutes the hull began to break up, all 63 passengers and all but one of the 59 crew perishing, but not until next morning, when bodies and wreckage were sighted floating into the Harbour, did the young colony become aware of the disaster.
Join John Lanser, for the City of Sydney Historical Association, to hear the harrowing tale of The Dunbar’s 1857 shipwreck that claimed the lives of 121 passengers.
Time: 2:00pm
Cost: $3 COSHA Members
$6 SMSA Members and Visitors
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SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)