by John Wells
In the dark of March 21, 1852, the ship Isabella Watson was entering Port Phillip with a load of migrants aboard.
One of the port's earliest pilots Henry Taylor was unable to board her in the rough seas, so she followed his whaleboat with a lantern mounted astern.
At 514 tons, she was a big ship for the times. A sudden squall blew her to starboard and onto the steep, sharp rock. The rock was unknown and was not on any charts.
She lost her rudder and broke her back. She was very clearly doomed.
One lifeboat made it to shore, but the second boat was smashed when the mizzen mast collapsed onto it. Nine people in the boat were all drowned.
One of the Port Phillip pilots George Tobin swam out with a line, and the remaining 60 souls aboard were all saved.
The pilot cutter Corsair was sent to locate the rock, and found it soon enough. It has been known as the Corsair Rock since 1853.
The belief that it was named for the Corsair after she had hit the rock is incorrect.
Corsair Rock might be called the western extremity of the Point Nepean ridge, but it is offshore enough with enough deep water inshore of it for it to be seen as a separate stack. It is about 800 metres west of Point Nepean, with some deeper water between it and the Nepean Reef
Following Corsair's charting the rock pinnacle - one of several there - it was gazetted a hazard on November 7, 1853. It took time for the chart information to get out to every ship. However, unless the captain had an exemption certificate, he had to take on a pilot anyway, and all the pilots knew about it.
One problem was that it was on the lee side of the channel, so sailing ships in trouble could be blown in that direction.
Nonetheless, it continued to wreck ships. The five most significant are listed here, except for the Isabella Watson (1852), listed above.
The French ship Marie hit the Corsair Rock in November 1853 and was severely holed. She was freed and the pilot took her into Swan Bay as fast as possible, and ran her ashore.
This became a double disaster when the steamer Ontario followed her in and hit a reef, being broken up in only four hours.
It seems that the Ontario had no pilot aboard and that following the Marie would be safe enough. It wasn't. However, in neither ship was there any loss of life.
The next ship claimed by the rock was another Frenchman. The Antoinette Cezard, out of London for Melbourne, hit the Corsair Rock and pilot Draper ran her aground on Swan Island on May 2, 1854.
At 652 tons, she was a big ship for the time. As she was a new ship built only two years earlier, Draper's decision to strand her proved wise. She was repaired and returned to service under another name.
She had made the mistake of trying to enter without a pilot.
In 1904, a wrecking on the Corsair Rock gained international attention.
The steamer Australia was of 6900 tons and 465 feet long. She was built in 1892 to the order of the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company (P&O), and was described as one of the most luxurious vessels afloat. She was a fast ship and held the record from the England-Melbourne run. She was also a handsome ship, with four funnels to two masts
The inquiry blamed pilot error. But, in any case, she ploughed into the rock at about 15 knots, and there she lay, embedded in the groove she had cut in the rock.
There was no loss of life and boats from Queenscliff took off the passengers and crew, and the insurers started a major salvage operation. Using divers, they recovered much of the cargo and passengers' belongings.
Bad weather threatened and the insurers auctioned the wreck, bought for £290 by draper Mr J.G. Aikman. Much to Aikman's further surprise, he made £180,000. Even after the bows broke off and sank, and after someone torched the rest of the ship, he still stripped thousands of pounds worth of copper and brass from the wreck.
He worked on his salvage operation for more than two years, and there was little or nothing of value left when the wreck was dynamited in 1911.
The steamer Time hit the rock on August 27, 1949, but with a good excuse - her "steering gear" was "carried away". Her pilot was cleared of any fault.
She was a 3300-ton steamer built in 1913 and was no youngster when heavy seas knocked off her rudder. She survived on the rock for years until, in 1959, she was dynamited for the filming of "On the Beach". Apparently she looked as if she was simply at anchor and the film required a more desolate view.
On Good Friday 1960, a storm took her off the rock and gave her the decency of a burial at sea.
During those years when sat up on the rock, she was thoroughly scavenged. The insurers had used divers and some of the crew to make up a salvage team, which got one of the boilers running and so could use the ship's pumps. They spent three days on the ship before the attempt to refloat her was abandoned.
To get to a time in the memory of some of us, we can fast-forward to the year before the Melbourne Olympics.
In 1955, the cargo ship River Burnett struck Corsair Rock, freed herself, and then ran aground half-sunk in Port Phillip as a result of the damage.
The River Burnett hit the rock at 1am and, despite freeing herself, was badly holed. As she came up the bay, the bows slowly sank lower in the water and finally the bows touched bottom in 15 metres of water about a mile off Point Davy, off Mt Eliza, more or less.
Ten of the crew stayed aboard manning the pumps, but with a lifeboat standing by.