A MESSAGE reached Melbourne one hundred years ago announcing the fate of a ship sailing from Newcastle to the Philippines. The American barquentine Amy Turner was transporting coal to Manila when it foundered in a gale.  

Amy Turner was already known to Australian newspapers; the ship was arrested in Melbourne after a voyage from the United States. It was idle for months and was sold to pay its debts. The voyage out of Newcastle was its first – and its last – under Australian ownership.

On 1 May 1923 the Daily Commercial News and Shipping List reported Amy Turner had sunk off Guam, and that most of the crew were missing.

“Of her complement of 14 only three have been accounted for so far, and included in the missing are the captain and his wife,” DCN wrote. “The crew was signed on at Melbourne and Newcastle, and almost wholly comprised Australians.”

Two days later, DCN reported Amy Turner’s agent in Melbourne had received a cable message confirming four of the ship’s crew washed up in the Philippines in an open boat. A mate, a boatswain and two seamen survived.

“There is still a possibility that the other ten unaccounted for may still be safe,” DCN wrote. The survivors promptly extinguished that hope.

DOWN WITH THE SHIP

A Reuters correspondent in Manila spoke with the four crew members on their arrival in the Philippines. They described the ordeal in detail, beginning with the heavy wind that, two days into the voyage from Newcastle, developed into a typhoon and blew the ship off course.

“On March 26 we were in the midst of raging seas,” the survivors told Reuters (quoted in Australia’s Barrier Miner).

“All our canvas was stripped from us by the wind. We floated, helpless, to a mile or so off Guam. We sighted the wireless station on the cliffs, but no harbor or shelter was in sight. We flew distress signals, but could not attract attention. Within an hour or two Guam Island was lost sight of.

“That night the storm intensified, reaching its height. On the morning of March 27 we found our boat to be badly battered. The pumps were kept constantly manned. At about noon the seams opened and the ship sank quickly.”

Mate Charles West (who served as a seaman on the ill-fated voyage) told The Mercury the crew prepared two small boats for launching as they abandoned ship. Eight men climbed into the larger of the lifeboats, and three into the smaller one, but “mountainous seas” capsized the larger boat and seven of its occupants drowned.

“The eighth occupant, Frank [Lindholm], accomplished the remarkable feat of keeping himself afloat for a considerable time before he reached the smaller boat, and was hauled aboard.”

Mr West recalled that the crew had asked the captain and his wife to join them as they clambered into the lifeboats. The couple refused, and reportedly went down with the ship holding hands.

“Two boats were launched, but Captain Neilson, accompanied by his wife, stood on the poop as the vessel nose-dived to the bottom, and were never seen again,” the Reuters report confirmed.

CASTAWAYS

The four survivors hoisted sail and headed for the Philippines. It was no ordinary sail; Mr West noted it was constructed from the men’s shirts.

“The storm had calmed but they were now faced with a vast, terrifying flat sea, limitless and uncharted, and for 28 days they sailed the expanse of that sea without any better indication for their direction than the sun and the stars,” The Mercury wrote.

“They had a small supply of tinned meats, which was rationed on a starvation basis, and for a time the crew quarrelled, for they had insufficient to eat and little to drink, but the ration system was maintained, despite desperate pains.”

The survivors told Reuters the supplies of canned goods and water held out well, but the tinned meat eventually ran out.

“Fortunately they managed to catch a dolphin whose meat they ate raw,” The Mercury wrote. “Then the drinking water ran out and thirst drove one man to attempt to leap into the sea, but he was restrained, and after four days of thirst a squall blew up that threatened to upset the boat, but with the squall came heavy rain, and they refilled their water cask.

“Day stretched after day without a vessel in sight. They were beaten off the marine paths, and the situation looked black, until suddenly at sunrise, land hove in sight. It was the island of Surigao.

“The boat touched the shore, the castaways were received by the people, and the provincial commander supplied them with clothes, housed them, and after they had rested the commander telegraphed to Manila for instructions. The survivors were then sent to Manila, where they arrived today.”

Reuters wrote that the constabulary cared for the men, gave them clothing, and sent them on to Manila. The British Consul-General had taken charge of the small group and put them on a ship bound for Melbourne.

When the men reached Australian shores, The Age reported that none of them had any more to add to the story of the disaster. They would proceed to Melbourne in search of work.

NAVAL COURT FINDINGS

On 5 May a naval court convened by the British Consul-General in Manila investigated the circumstances that led to the foundering of Amy Turner. Court papers describe how waves breaking across the deck washed the lifeboats overboard, and how seamen jumped into boats “at the moment of disaster” and went overboard with them.

Amy Turner’s deck boy, TW Holland, was seen for a moment in the larger boat, apparently trying to cut it free, according to the court papers. That boat eventually capsized. The cook was seen on some wreckage, and other figures were indistinct and disappeared almost immediately, along with the ship.

The court also extracted some details from Amy Turner’s logbook which, until the inquiry, been overlooked. But before the tragedy began to unfold – in fact, before the ship even left Australia – Amy Turner ran aground. An entry from 15 January suggested the ship grounded as it departed Port Philip Bay for Newcastle. It remained stranded for around nine hours.

The court was unsure whether there had been any investigation into the grounding once the ship reached Newcastle. It noted the absence of information in the ship’s papers about the grounding, which may have weakened Amy Turner against the pounding waves before it sank.

“The court desires also to place on record their opinion that it is undesirable for a vessel of 900 tons register to keep boats on board without a more satisfactory method of launching,” the court said.

It also found “that the ultimate safety of the survivors is … primarily due to the skill and energy of Charles West who, holding a Master’s Certificate, was responsible for the navigation of the boat, with only a sextant and Marine Almanac, during a voyage of some 1600 miles in 23 days.”

The court also gave credit to the boatswain Clifton Cornish, who was responsible for the general order during the ordeal and the distribution of the food and water on board.

“[The court] has found that the loss was due to the weather: the ship filled beyond the power of the crew to pump out,” DCN wrote in a report on the inquiry. “The loss of life – seven men and a boy – was considered inevitable.”

This article appeared in the May 2023 edition of DCN Magazine