Community Penny Hoffmann
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Australia’s coast is the final resting place of more than 11,000 shipwrecks – roughly one wreck for every three kilometres of coastline.
Striking the Great Barrier Reef’s Myrmidon Reef in 1989 was Foam, a British topsail schooner.
Foam was on its way to the South Island Seas.
Sovereign was a paddle steamer from Moreton Island which was bound for Sydney when it was swamped by waves in the treacherous South Passage Bar, Moreton Bay, in 1847.
Aboriginal men risked their lives and rescued 10 people while the remaining 44 passengers and crew perished.
Foam and Sovereign are just two of the 14 “most compelling” shipwreck stories that were selected from the nominations of 46 Australian Maritime Museums and Heritage institutions.