Mahogany Ship

The Mahogany Ship is a putative early Australian shipwreck that is believed by some to lie beneath the sand in the Armstrong Bay area, approximately 3 to 6 kilometres (1.9 to 3.7 mi) west of Warrnambool in southwest Victoria, Australia.[1][2] In many modern accounts it is described as a Spanish or Portuguese caravel[3] after the wreck was associated with the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia by Kenneth McIntyre in his 1977 book The Secret Discovery of Australia.[4] The most recent research has questioned this theory and provided other explanations.[5][6][7][8]

Three Mahogany Ship Symposia have been conducted in nearby Warrnambool: in 1981, 1987 and 2005, attracting significant public and academic interest and the contributions of Manning Clark, Barry Jones, Kenneth McIntyre, Lawrence Fitzgerald, Ian McKiggan, Bill Richardson, Edmund Gill, Jack Loney and many others.[9]

  1. ^ Charles Bateson, (1972) Australian Shipwrecks, Volume One 1622–1850. p. 25. A.H & A.W Reed Pty Ltd, New South Wales. ISBN 0 589 07112 2
  2. ^ Ian McKiggan, (1982) "The Search for the Wreck" in R. Goodwin,(Ed.) The Proceedings of the First Australian Symposium on the Mahogany Ship, Mahogany Ship Committee, Warrnambool, 1982, ISBN 0-9599121-9-3
  3. ^ See the following newspaper articles which speculate on the wreck's origins: M. Baker, "Quest of the Mahogany Ship" The Age, 6 January 1975; G. O'Neill,"Signals point to Mahogany ship" The Age, 27 March 1992; D. Adams,"Buried in the dunes..." The Age, 10 March 2000
  4. ^ K. G. McIntyre (1977),The Secret Discovery of Australia, Portuguese ventures 200 years before Cook, p. 263+, Souvenir Press, Menindie ISBN 0-285-62303-6
  5. ^ Nixon, Bob (Autumn 2001), "A Fresh perspective on the Mahogany Ship" (PDF), The Skeptic, 21 (1), Australian Skeptics Inc: 31–34, archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2013, retrieved 3 July 2012
  6. ^ Murray Johns (2005) "The Mahogany Ship: Re-examining the Evidence." Paper presented at the Third Symposium on the Mahogany Ship, Warrnambool, 2005.[1] accessed 6 July 2012
  7. ^ Jenny Williams Fawcett; Was the Mahogany Ship Ever Seen? Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum."FlagstaffHill | Was the Mahogany Ship Ever Seen?". Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012
  8. ^ Johns, Murray (2011). "Facts, speculation and fibs in the 'Mahogany Ship' story 1835–2010: A reassessment and new hypothesis". Victorian Historical Journal. 82 (1): 59–85.
  9. ^ See; R. Goodwin,(Ed.) The Proceedings of the First Australian Symposium on the Mahogany Ship, Mahogany Ship Committee, Warrnambool, 1982, ISBN 0-9599121-9-3; B. Potter,(Ed.)in The Mahogany Ship. Relic or Legend? Proceedings of the Second Australian Symposium on the Mahogany Ship, Warrnambool Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-949759-09-0. These symposia have tended to cover the entire debates relating to the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia, not just the Mahogany Ship.