By about February 1790, both settlements in Sydney and Norfolk Island were running low on hardware including items such as blacksmiths’ tools, uniforms and eating utensils. In fact supplies were low of everything but food, which was adequate at that time. It was decided to send the Sirius and the Supply to China, taking more convicts and Marines to Norfolk Island on the way, as well as those goods the Sydney colony could spare. The two ships set sail on March 5 and reached Norfolk Island on March 13 but the weather was too severe to risk coming into the usual anchorage near the settlement at Sydney Bay.

The ships then sailed around the Island to Cascade Bay, which was on the leeward side and a little calmer. There they unloaded the convicts and Marines who then came overland to the settlement at Kingston. Both ships were then blown out of sight of the Island and could not return until the sea and the wind abated. By March 19 the weather conditions had eased and the ships returned to anchor in Sydney Bay. They sailed across the Bay to the western point and swung around to get to the anchorage.

William Bradley, Part of the Reef & Landing Places Sydney Bay;
the Sirius & Supply endeavouring to work out of the Bay. March 19 1790 (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)

Just as this manoeuvre was being carried out, the wind shifted two points and this caused the ships to change tack. The Supply, a much smaller, lighter ship than the Sirius and with only her crew onboard, managed to get out of trouble and sail away from the reef. However, the Sirius, a large ship of over 500 tons with a crew of approximately 130 as well as cargo, could not change direction. She was blown straight on to the reef.

She struck stern first but the strength of the wind swung her around broadside to the reef and she was holed right along her bottom. Attempts were made to get her off the reef but these proved futile and it was eventually decided to abandon the ship. All goods that were presumed to float were thrown overboard but much was lost on the reef or the shoreline. Marines were placed along the shore to stop the convicts looting but there is an account of this happening by one of the marines, Lt. Ralph Clark, who kept a personal diary. He complained of losing all his goods as his trunk was wrecked but, several days later, saw a seaman wearing one of his shirts.

George Raper, The melancholy loss of HMS Sirius off Norfolk Island March 19 1790 (National Library of Australia)

Luckily, no lives were lost. To rescue the crew a rope was fastened to a barrel and floated ashore and then fastened to a pine tree that allowed the men to scramble to land. The ship was now empty apart from some surviving livestock and two convicts volunteered to swim out and release the animals. This was done, but the convicts realised that they were the only people on the ship so set out to see what they could loot. They found the grog store, became drunk and set fire to the ship. A marine then swam out to the ship and put out the fire and brought the convicts ashore. The fate of the convicts is not accurately known but one must have survived the gallows as he is mentioned some time later in King’s journal.

When the fire aboard the Sirius was finally extinguished, it had burnt through to the gun deck and the guns had then collapsed into the hold on top of the much needed goods that were stored below. The decision was made to strip the ship as she could provide some of the hardware that was needed. Every thing was removed; the sails, hawsers, masts and spars, fittings and the timbers of the ship itself until she was down to the waterline. It took two years to do this and the cannons were finally removed in 1792.

William Bradley, Part of the Reef in Sydney Bay, Norfolk Island, on which the Sirius was wreck'd. 19 March 1790 (Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)

A Causeway – Man Made or Natural?

Observable at a low tide on the reef today is a causeway leading across the reef to the place where the wreck occurred. While no record at the time of the wrecking has been found about the building of a causeway, it may have been built at the time to bring ashore the carronades and cannons on their gun carriages. It is conceivable that a few articles were too heavy or too big to break up and the causeway could have served to bring them in. The 18 pound carronades have the weight stamped on them and they are well over half a ton of cast iron – a little difficult to break up, haul over the reef or carry on the backs of convicts. A thorough search of all the historical records needs to be undertaken to answer the question – is this the oldest surviving man made structure from European settlement in Australia?

Causeway across the reef

The Aftermath of the Wrecking

The aftermath of the disastrous wrecking was that John Hunter and some of the crew of the Sirius had an enforced stay on the Island, eventually being rescued the following year. King records in his journal on March 22, about a week after the disaster, that Martial Law was declared and that Major Robert Ross of the Royal Marines was to be the Governor. Two days later King embarks aboard the Supply with two officers and 22 of the crew of the Sirius and returns to Sydney.

When received in Sydney, the news of the loss of the Sirius was so distressing that the authorities seriously thought of closing both settlements. Now there was only one ship to serve both places. Governor Phillip was devastated:

“You never saw such dismay as the news of the wreck occasioned amongst us all; for, to use a sea term, we looked upon her as our sheet anchor”
Letter from an officer, August 1790, Historical Records of New South Wales, 1:2, p397

Following the wreck, the situation on the island was critical. A small agricultural settlement now had an extra 400 mouths to feed. An extract from a letter sent by a non-commissioned officer on the Sirius dated August 1790 articulates the dire situation: 

“From the time of the wreck to the latter end of April, we never let slip a single opportunity of working the Ship and by the 10th of the above month had preserved the under mentioned quantity of provisions which was all we had to depend upon and our sanguine Expectation of a relief given up until next Season, or by supposition of the supply bringing ships from some European Settlement, which, within the Bounds of probability, could not be sooner than six months”.

In desperation the settlers began to exploit the local Mount Pitt birds for food. Christened the “Providence” petrel, the settlers took so many that numbers collapsed to the point where the bird became extinct on Norfolk Island. In recent years a small colony of petrels has re-established itself on Phillip Island, seven kilometres to the south of Norfolk. Lieutenant Ralph Clark of the Royal Marines kept a total in his diary of the number of birds that were killed each night and about 200,000 were killed over the four months before the relief ships arrived. The non-commissioned officer further relates in his letter of August 1790:

“The Birds come to the island about the middle of March and, by the middle of April, eggs were plentiful. It would be impossible for me to give an account of the number of birds and eggs...by the middle of May to the beginning of June there was no scarcity in any part of the Town and were bartered at a very cheap rate. On the 19th April, the Birds became so very plentiful (and our Store so lean) the Governor issued out a condition that if every person would give up half a pound of his salt meat they might kill and bring home as many birds as he pleased (as long as it did not interfere with their Work)…It is worthy of remark that these birds were coming in when our sad and melancholy Catastrophe happened and were very scarce at the arrival of the relief”.

Mount Pitt Bird, after George Raper from G.M. Matthews,
The Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands (London 1928) (Norfolk Island Museum collection)

While starvation was averted with the arrival of the Justinian and the Surprize on August 7th, the effect of the loss was still being felt in 1791 as recorded by Governor Ross in a letter to Governor Phillip:

“with respect to necessaries, not one of them [the detachment under my command] have a shoe to their feet, nor scarce a shirt to their backs; their situation at this juncture is truly deplorable, both men and women having lost almost everything by the wreck of the Sirius …The troops are also in great want of cooking utensils; there are but a few small pots among them all, which have been saved from the wreck of the Sirius…there is not a pot for every twelve men”
Ross to Phillip, 11 February 1791, Historical Records of New South Wales, 1:2 p.297

Captain Hunter faced a court martial following the wrecking. An article printed from a paper, The Bee of May 1792 recounts that a honourable discharge was given as no fault could be found in Captain Hunter or any other officers on board when she struck the reef.

The Wreck of the Sirius
“A courtmartial on board his Majesty’s ship Brunswick, in Portsmouth Harbour on the 27th April proceeded to enquire into the cause and circumstance of the loss of his Majesty’s ship Sirius and to try Captain Hunter (the commander), her officers, and company for their conduct on that occasion and, having heard the evidence and completed the enquiry, the court is of the opinion that the loss of the Sirius was not, in any respect owing to mismanagement or a want of proper attention to her safety but that Captain Hunter, her officers, and company did everything possible to be done for the preservation of his Majesty’s ship Sirius and for the good of his Majesty’s service and the said Captain Hunter, the other officers and company of the said ship are therefore honourably discharged”.

Arrival of Pigeons on Norfolk Island

In her book Norfolk Island…The Birds, 2005, Margaret Christian includes an excerpt from the diary of John Nagle, a sailor aboard the Sirius when she was wrecked. He records the arrival of the Rock Dove or pigeon on the island:
“It might be worth mentioning that while at Rio Janaro, in a strong gale of wind a pigeon was blown off from the shore and lit on b[oar]d of us. We cut his wings and let him run on the quarterdeck, and when at the Cape of Good Hope, laying in Table Bay in a strong SE wind, another pigeon was blown off and lit on the cat head and permitted herself to be taken; cut hur wings and put it with the other. They happened to be a pair, he and she. When their wings grew they would take a flight from the ship in the wide ocion but would return to the ship again, and by those two pigeons all the bread [breed] sprung from in Norfolk Island, which was numerous when I left it. The Leut[enant] Governor had pigeon houses built for them, but they would go on board the rack [wreck] of the ship dayly, looking for food”.

Margaret says “today pigeons are as common around the coast as in the island’s interior, perhaps still scanning the ocean for the lost ship of their ancestors”.