BAMOS
Jun 2020
29
The Wreck of the Maitland.
Source: Courtesy of NSW
Central Coast Library Service
Now completely at the mercy of wind and waves, the Maitland
was driven onto rocks at what was then known as Boat Harbour
and ripped in two. Several passengers and crew were swept
overboard immediately but others were saved by the heroic
actions of other passengers and crew who managed to secure
two rope lines between the stricken vessel and the shore.
The entire event was an absolute disaster—27 people eventually
lost their lives in what remains one of the worst shipwrecks ever
recorded on the New South Wales coast.
A comprehensive account of the actual occurrence of the
wreck together with all the rescue attempts, can be found in
a publication called "Wreck of the Maitland—a Scene to Make
Angels Weep" by Geoffrey Potter 3 .
The weather
Many descriptions of the storm were published in the press over
the following week. This account from a survivor was printed in
the Sydney Morning Herald of 9th May 4 :
"It seemed as if all the winds of heaven and from every
point of the compass had been let loose from their
caverns. Nothing could be more appalling than the wild
howling and threatening violence of the hurricane during
that terrible night, when the vivid and quickly succeeding
gleams of lightning darting athwart the heavens made
"darkness visible" and heightened the horror of the
scene.”
Other accounts described the seas as “mountainous” and the
winds of “hurricane” force.
The synoptic chart drawn for 9am on 5 May appeared in the
Charles Todd Weather Folios and clearly depicts a low‐pressure
cell situated off the north coast of NSW. The lowest isobaric
pressure recorded was 29.8 inches of mercury—that
corresponds with 1009 hPa—but it seems certain that the
central pressure of the low was far less, perhaps down towards
980 hPa.
The precise position of the low is unknown, but as the wind
was reported to be blowing from the southeast in the area that
Maitland was wrecked it was likely centred north of Newcastle,
but perhaps closer to the coast than shown on Todd’s analysis.
The synoptic chart for 9am 5 May 1898 as it appeared in the Todd Weather Folios. Source: Bureau of Meteorology