Cervantes Shipwreck site condition 20243D Model
The Cevantes shipwreck site sits just off the point at Cervantes and north east of Cervantes Island. Very little remains of the wreck and is located on a flat sandy seafloor, the wreckage consists of a few small planks of wood in 2 metres of water at S 30° 30.802’ E 115° 03.004’ www.divingwawrecks.com
Many American whalers followed migrating whales into the southern oceans, with Western Australia’s waters providing a bountiful harvest. In 1837 alone, they yielded over 30,000 pounds worth of oil and bone - and that was a lot of money in those days.
One American whaler not to make it back to its home port was the Cervantes, under the command of Captain Sylvanus Gibson. While anchored to do a spot of fishing off an island on the Jurien Bay coast north of Perth, a sudden gale sprung up and before there was time to get further from the coast, she found herself stuck fast. Not a dramatic event in shipwreck terms - a grounding rather than a wrecking.
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