1900: The Sierra Nevada sinks near Portsea; 23 lost - From The Age
"The ship Sierra Nevada bound from Liverpool to Melbourne, crashed upon the rocks of the Ocean Back Beach, behind Portsea, at 1 a.m. yesterday, and 23 of her crew were lost. The centre of the ship, like a mammoth shark’s fin, now appears above the breakers upon which the unmasted hull has been impaled, and that is all that is visible of the wreck. The masts, sails and numberless spars and fragments from the splintered vessel, together with many hundreds of cases and bales of cargo, bestrew the rocks to the mainland, and shortly after news was received of the disaster the battered body of the captain was hauled out from among the wreckage."
The Sierra Nevada was bound from Liverpool with a cargo that consisted chiefly of whiskey and paper. She sighted Cape Otway on Tuesday morning, and before a favouring breeze made good progress towards Melbourne. At nightfall the lookout sighted the Heads, and there was every prospect of entering the harbor early in the morning. Soon, however, the wind veered around to the south, and as it steadily increased in strength, sail was shortened and everything made taut and apparently safe. The ship continued on her way without increased portents of danger until 11 p.m. Then, above the lashing of the waves and the roar of the wind, the voice of Geo. McGuffin, the man on the lookout, was heard proclaiming ominous warning, “Breakers ahead!” Simultaneously the sailors discerned through the darkness a white line of surf, in bold contrast to a black and rugged background of rocks, which rose out of a dense mist of spray upon the port side.
This is the first time I could find out more information of this shipwreck I frequented many times in the past few years. It is because of some remnants I found ion the region. I was pretty sure there was a shipwreck.
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