SS Alert

SS Alert was a steamship that sank off Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia on 28 December 1893.^[1][3][4] The ship was built for the gentle waters of Scottish lochs and was almost 51 m (167 ft) long and weighed 247 tonnes.

SS Alert
History
Australia
Name	Alert
Owner	Huddart Parker
Port of registry	Melbourne, Australia
Builder	Robert Duncan & Co., Port Glasgow
Launched	1877
Identification	Official number: 76169
Fate	Sunk, 28 December 1893
General characteristics [1]
Type	Steamship
Tonnage	243 tons[2]
Length	169 ft (52 m)
Beam	19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)
Depth	9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Propulsion	Rankin & Blackmore compound steam engine, 90 nhp, 1 screw

After Alert sank the ship laid for 113 years on the ocean floor until being rediscovered in June 2007 by a team from Southern Ocean Exploration.

History

Alert was built at Port Glasgow in 1877 and later sailed to Australia as a three-masted schooner with her funnel and propeller stowed in the hold.^[2] After a few years on the Melbourne–Geelong route she temporarily replaced the SS Despatch on the Gippsland–Melbourne run in 1893 whilst Despatch was being refitted.

During a gale, the ship set out from Lakes Entrance bound for Melbourne via Port Albert.^[1] She encountered hurricane-force southerly winds and mountainous seas and sank about four miles^[3] off Cape Schanck.^[3][5] Of the 16 people on board, the only survivor was Robert Ponting, the ship's cook, who was washed ashore at Sorrento "back" (ocean) beach after clinging to a portion of cabin door. He was found and revived by locals using brandy and the body heat of a St. Bernard dog.^[6] Two bodies were also washed ashore at Sorrento back beach.^[7]

An inquiry was held and attached no blame to the lighthouse keeper or the captain^[8] but, after years of litigation, compensation was awarded to Ponting and the wife of one of the deceased.^[9]