Looking for Missing Gold ?

The order was placed for two steamers & both were to be completed in 1881.
Their names were Catterthun & Tannadice. They were both built at the shipping yards of W Doxford & Sons of Sutherland.

The Catterthun was 92.5 metres in length & was powered by steam but also rigged as a schooner.

On August 2nd after returning from Port Kembla the Catterthun was loaded. The cargo was mail & passengers returning to the east. Besides the usual general cargo the Catterthun was carrying a huge consignment of sovereigns bound for the ES & A Bank in Darwin & a number of Chinese merchants in Hong Kong.

Ten boxes containing a total of 8,915 gold coins were placed in a large iron tank.

Only seven boxes would be found.

On the 8th of August 1895 the Catterthun collided with a small reef just off the southeast corner of the little seal rock with the loss of 55 lives. The ship took only a little over fifteen minutes to sink.

The Catterthun sits upright on a sandy bottom in 55 ? 60 metres of water at Seal Rocks. In the middle of the wreck lay the boilers & just behind them is the huge engine towers standing more than 3 metres tall. The site is often subjected to strong currents, which makes the wreck hard to dive. It requires two or three dives to see the entire wreck.

The Catterthun is a deep wreck dive & you must have experience and are qualified to dive at this depth. The visibility can range from 2m to 40m with very strong currents (sometimes too strong to dive).

Interested?
Contact John or Phil at info@actiondivers.com.au

Contributed by kAz added 2004-08-09