When the brig Alexandra arrived at Roebourne in May 1876, the master, George Vinal, reported that he had passed the pearling cutter Jessie, 65 km north-west of North West Cape and bound for Fremantle. There was too much wind for verbal communication so as the vessels passed each other the men on the Jessie had held up a board chalked with the words:

Barque Stefano wrecked on NW Cape. I have the only 2 survivors on board.

Captain Vinal approached North West Cape to search for survivors, but gesturing Aborigines were on the shore. Fearing the Aborigines were trying to lure them in for an attack, they left for Roebourne to break the news of the wreck.

When the Jessie reached Fremantle, the two survivors, 16-year-old midshipman Michele Baccich and 19-year-old crewman Ivan Juric, told a sad story of the shipwreck, and their deliverance from death. The Austrian barque Stefano had sailed from Cardiff in Wales, bound for Hong Kong, on 31 July 1875 with 1300 tons of coal and a complement of 17.

Michele Baccich and Ivan Juric survivors of the Stefano wreck.

The ship rounded the Cape of Good Hope and steered for the west coast of Australia, where Captain Vlaho Miloslavic intended to check his longitude.

Captain Vlaho Miloslavic of the Stefano..

Land was sighted in the vicinity of Cape Cuvier on 26 October, but the ship was wrecked further north at 2 a.m. the following morning. Baccich described the events:

‘It was to the southward of Point Cloates on an outlying reef about 6 miles from the shore.

The vessel was sailing with all sails set going at the rate of 9 knots, and ran on the reef without warning steering by compass N by E. Directly she struck the sea swept the deck and the crew took to the masts to wait for daylight. About 2 hours after she struck the masts fell overboard. I, the Captain and mate and an AB managed to get into the gig.’

The gig immediately capsized in the breakers, but Baccich survived by clinging to the keel of the upturned boat, and after 10 hours in the water, he was washed ashore. The Stefano broke up soon after Baccich’s departure, but eight others reached the shore in the same area by clinging to parts of the wreck. The young sailors thought themselves to be not far north of the Gascoyne River, so, after burying Pavo Radovich, whose body had washed ashore, and establishing camp, they gathered provisions together with the intention of walking southward along the coast.

A small group of Aborigines walked into the camp on the 31st. They were unable to tell the sailors where they were. The Aborigines could speak English but the sailors couldn’t. The Aborigines had on occasions had contact with the numerous pearlers who operated in Exmouth Gulf and even at such places as Yardie Creek, on the west side of the Cape. They brought to the camp a chart, which had washed ashore from the wreck, showing the NW Cape area and the coast to the south.

On 1 November, the little group of survivors, no wiser from examining the chart, set out on the journey southward. Seven days later, they reached Cape Farquhar, where they were given water from Aborigines, and were reunited with a tenth crew member, Giseppe Perancic, who had come ashore on a life-boat some 16 km south of the wreck.

The sailors left the Aborigines and continued on to Cape Cuvier. Desolate country south of Cuvier forced them to turn around on 16 November, and four days later, they were back at a water hole in the vicinity of Cape Farquhar, where they subsisted on rock oysters. A furious cyclone hit the area on 21 December, which separated them and prevented them from finding food. Two of them died on Christmas Day, another six soon after. By 6 January 1876, only Baccich and Juric remained alive. An account derived from Baccich described the horrendous events of those 16 days after the cyclone:

The days passed in great monotony — they had given up all hope of reaching safety. The only ones managing to walk at this stage were Baccich, Juric and Bucich. In the early morning, before the heat set in, they would search for water and food, but found very little. Lovrinovich was falling into a coma and two days after his death Brajcevich and Antoncich passed away. Baccich and Juric were so weak that they had to support each other to stand.

They did their upmost to help Dediol and Bucich. Just over a week had passed since the natives left, when Bucich died. Baccich and Juric realised the end was nearing — they must get food. Helping one another along they dragged themselves to their dead mate’s body and began to tear pieces of flesh from him, and eating it. ‘You poor unfortunates, what are you doing?’ gasped poor Dediol, and that was the last he spoke, possibly dying of shock as much as starvation.

Soon after this, the Aborigines found Baccich and Juric and nursed them back to full health. The tribe slowly moved northward to Exmouth Gulf with the hope of making contact with one of the pearling vessels. It was there, on the morning of 18 April 1876 that they met with Captain Charles Tuckey and the Jessie.

Captain Charles Tuckey of the Jessie.

When Captain Vinal sailed into Roebourne in May 1876, his message about Stefano angered the community. The locals felt that the Government should provide a ship specifically to search for survivors of the wreck. The schooner Victoria was chartered by Government Resident Robert Sholl, who placed the vessel under command of Pemberton Walcott, with orders to examine the Point Cloates area. Walcott, an 18-year-old, had survived the wreck of Eglinton a little north of Fremantle in 1852.

After a protracted voyage, Walcott anchored the Victoria inside the reef at Point Cloates at 5 p.m. on June 7. But when he went ashore, he found more than he had expected, as he reported later:

‘After tea, being a full moon, I proceeded on shore in whaleboat accompanied by P.C. Coppin and armed boat’s crew — with Tony — native guide. Steering E by N half N for a conspicuous hill we landed amid a mass of wrecks. Walked about a mile along the beach and came to the conclusion that 7 vessels had been lately wrecked - then proceeded on board at 11 p.m.

On June 8th at 6 p.m. left ship accompanied by same party and Mr Crouch and 2 natives. Made a minute examination of the different wrecks or parts of wrecks and from differences of wood and size of spars I came to the conclusion that no less than 4 — probably 5 vessels of considerable tonnage had been wrecked within 7 or 8 months.

The wreck of Stefano was pointed out by natives, and the camp of survivors, where sundry articles belonging to her were found such as boards with written particulars — torn charts, stools e.t.c. This wreck, since verified beyond doubt as the remains of Stefano appeared to us the oldest wreck on the beach, as far as amount of damage sustained, and more buried in sand, seaweed e.t.c. But at the same time, the paintwork appeared brighter and fresher, probably having been newly painted. In her immediate neighbourhood on each side within a quarter mile of her were 2 other ships, or sides of ships partially buried in sand and seaweed, and filled up with spars and timber. One of them was Indian built — hard wood — I should judge about from 300 to 500 tons burthen. The other was oregon pine, and apparently American built — about same size. Half a mile further up the beach S.

Westerly was the deck of a softwood ship with main hatch, combings e.t.c. complete but so choked with spars, masts, yards and other wreckage, as well as to a great extent buried in seaweed, that I found it difficult to identify it as a part of one of the other wrecks. A little further south westerly on the beach, just awash was the side of a very large vessel — apparently lately wrecked hard wood (very little teak) copper fastened and coppered, the copper sheathing being very slightly torn in a few places and quite bright without any barnacles or other indications of having been any considerable time afloat.

I counted 13 planks 9 inches wide between her copper and coaming boards. The wood appeared to consist of nearly the whole length of a vessel broadside — but a number of lower planks had been torn from her timber. There were 13 rows of sheathing left on her and by comparison I am of opinion she must have had about the same number below.

4/5th of the side (being end on) was under water at an angle of about 7° or 8° — the extreme end not being visible. I should judge her to be a vessel of about 100 tons. I noticed the other side of apparently same vessel afloat about a quarter mile from the beach. No cargo of any kind or boxes e.t.c. were observed on the beach. I noticed 3 built masts of very large size, no less than 3 feet in diameter (a bowsprit I measured was 41 feet long and 2 feet 9 inches in diameter), and a main or fore yard, a small portion of one end of which had been broken off measured 71 feet. Hundreds of other spars were strewed along the beach but it was remarkable that all the wreckage had come ashore within a distance of 2 miles — and literally nothing was seen beyond.

The native Tony who had camped with the survivors of the Stefano immediately after their wreck seemed very much surprised to see so many other wrecks and declared they were not there at the last time he was there. This has since been verified by statements of the 2 survivors of the Stefano in Rosette who informed me that no wrecks were visible when they left. The native also informed me that about 2 winters ago a very large steamer had been wrecked down at his country (Cape Cuvier) and all hands lost including a woman.’

It is worth reviewing at this point the wrecks that are known or thought to have occurred in the vicinity of Point Cloates prior to Walcott’s visit. They are: the 366-ton American China trader Rapid, lost just south of Point Cloates in 1811; the Portuguese dispatch vessel Correio da Azia, wrecked in the vicinity in 1816; the 145-ton Occator, lost in 1856, probably some distance further north; the 116-ton Emma, lost in 1867, a little south of Coral Bay; the 16-ton Brothers, lost in 1867, possibly in the vicinity; and the small cutter Bertha, lost at the Point in 1874.

The 450-ton barque Strathmore may have struck there in the early 1870s, but floated off. The American galley Caledonia struck mid way between Point Cloates and Point Maud in 1815, and the galley Ollices encountered a reef further north prior to 1818. No other vessels are known to have been lost there between the time the Stefano was wrecked and June 1876, when Captain Walcott examined the shoreline.

The beach where Walcott found wreckage acts as a collecting point for flotsam coming over the reef up to 16 km or so to the south of Point Cloates. He would certainly have seen wreckage from the Stefano and the Rapid, and this would explain his 100-ton wreck and the 300–500-ton wreck. The cyclone of December 1875 could have brought ashore, and would have left exposed, material from both of these wrecks, together perhaps with material from the Portuguese wreck.

Some element of exaggeration may be seen in Walcott’s various accounts. For example, he describes his 1000-ton wreck as no less than 1500-tons, probably more in a letter written the previous day, and a week later, he told Sergeant Vincent of the Police at Roebourne that one of the wrecks was of a 2000-ton vessel. Revelations about large numbers of wrecks suited the popular argument in favour of the Government providing a vessel specifically to assist in searches for shipwrecked sailors.

In addition, Walcott needed an impressive report to justify the cost of his protracted voyage. The Government had chartered the Victoria at the rate of $4 per day, assuming that the expedition would be of short duration, but Walcott had taken 35 days, costing the Government $140.

Some of the timbers seen on the beach by Walcott would have been removed soon after his visit. Several boats left Roebourne for Point Cloates on hearing Walcott’s report, their idea being to salvage the remains. The pioneer pastoralist Julias Brockman came across wreckage on the beach 11 km north of Point Cloates in April 1889. Brockman judged timbers to be 100 years old, and they may have come from one of the above-mentioned wrecks.

The remains of four of the Stefano crew were found a few miles north of Cape Farquhar in 1880. Some skeletons lie in the hills on Point Cloates itself (where Radovich was buried), but these have not been identified.

The wreck site of the Stefano was found on 9 April 1997. The main target that the Museum was trying to find was the Correio da Azia with the Stefano being the secondary target. The Correio da Azia has yet to be found.

A deck light from the Stefano.

A lamp from the Stefano.

The bell from the Stefano.

Baccich told the court of inquiry that the Stefano was an 875-ton barque, built by G.Brazzoduro at the Port of Fiume in 1873, and was owned by N. Baccich and Co. The vessel was built with a single deck and orlop beams of oak, larch and beech, and was bolted together with yellow metal and galvanised iron. It measured 51.9 metres by 10 metres by 6.3 metres.

The Stefano was surveyed and yellow-metalled in London in June 1875, at which time it was a first-class vessel, with both hull and stores classified as being in first class condition.