The vessel
Conference was a three-masted iron barque built by Taylor and
Company, Warrington. The vessel had many owners and ports of registry, including
Liverpool, Geelong, Sydney and Adelaide, and Christchurch and Wellington
in New Zealand. After 1895 it was owned by the Adelaide Steamship Company
and was involved in the coastal trade. Eventually the vessel was purchased
for use as a hulk at Albany and was then employed as a coal hulk at Fremantle.
The wreck event
On 21 April 1904, Conference was scuttled on a reef 32 kilometres
north of Fremantle:
...under Captain Tait's supervision the hulk Conference was towed yesterday twenty miles north of Fremantle, several holes punched in her hull and then allowed to drift onto the reef. The hull was hard and fast and filling with water quickly when Captain Tait left her so that she is now safely disposed of (Irvine,1904 in McCarthy,1979)
In the period before 1910, it was customary to dispose of redundant vessels
north of Fremantle and in Jervoise Bay. After that time they were generally
scuttled in the ships' graveyard off Rottnest Island. This area was designated
under the terms of the Beaches Fishing Ground and Sea Routes Protection
Act 1932 (McCarthy, 1991a:3).
Site location
The wreck site is reached by launching from Mindarie Keys and sailing
due west, and is located 2.8 kilometres due west of Quinns Rocks. Transit
drawings can be used to relocate the site.
Site description
The site lies at a uniform depth of 12 metres on a submerged 1 to 2 metres
high reef on an axis of c. 300°. It measures 51.5 metres in length and
approximately 9 metres across, with only the stern-post and the starboard
section of the counter stern standing above the sea-bed.The angle of the
stern indicates that the vessel is canted over to the port side between
30° and 45°. The wreck has collapsed, leaving plating and frames
visible with the keelson and a section of the deck framing amidships. |
Little remains of the bow section and this was mainly covered in weed
at the time of the last inspection in 1991. The stem-post and the barrel
of the windlass are still visible.
A short stump of iron mast is visible at 13.4 metres, and at 31 metres
aft, and a large section lies across the port side of the wreck. No mizzen-mast
stump was visible. Two lumps of coal are the only other artefacts visible
on the site although the finder's report refers to the presence fire-bricks.
The apparent removal of masts, except one, was common practice with coal
hulks. All masts above the fore, main and mizzen tops were removed and their
lower stumps retained as useful mounts for derricks loading coal (McCarthy,
1991:3).
Statement of significance
Scientific
The site has the potential to yield data useful in the study of deterioration
and preservation of iron ships. It is significant that the bow of this vessel
has collapsed. The study of iron vessels has indicated that the bow section
is usually the strongest part of the vessel. Further investigation on this
site may contribute to the knowledge on the nature of the wrecking process.
References
McCarthy, M., 1979, Jervoise Bay shipwrecks, Report, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, No. 15.
1991a, The Conference, unpub. Wreck Inspection Report, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, No. 94.
Murphy, M., 1992a, The Conference, Maritime Archaeological
Association of Western Australia, Reports, 1990-1992:18.
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