The Least Successful Sea Rescue

Sailing from Sydney in 1829, the cutter Mermaid struck a reef in the Torres Straits and ank, leaving all twenty-two people on board clinging to a rock. Eventually they were rescued by another vessel, the Swiftsure, but a few days later it too was wrecked. Some hours after that, they were picked up by the Governor Ready with a cargo of timber and thirty-two people aboard. Three hours later it caught fire and everyone had to escape in lifeboats as the ship burned to the waterline.

When the Comet pulled alongside, its crew heard their story and decided that, all things considered, it might be best not to pick them up. With considerable difficulty their public-spirited captain persuaded his men to rescue the castaways. Seven days later the Comet sank in a sudden storm and the passengers, now accompanied by four separate crews, were rescued by the Jupiter.

In all four shipwrecks not a single life was lost, but the Jupiter struck the harbour at Port Raffles and was later scuttled when found to be beyond repair.

The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures, Stephen PIle, 2011.