© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

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Read more about the article Adolphe, Newcastle’s most enduring shipwreck

Adolphe, Newcastle’s most enduring shipwreck

For well over a century, residents of the port city of Newcastle, NSW, have lived with the wreck of the French barque Adolphe, lost on September 30, 1904. The remains of the once-proud steel four-masted ship have been steadily rusting away over the decades, and the ruined bow - which now forms part of the northern breakwater at the harbour's entrance - is still an appealing subject for weekend photographers. Adolphe in the 1980s. Photo by Greg Ray. The story of the famous wreck has been written many times. One of the most comprehensive accounts I…

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Read more about the article Newcastle schoolboy’s shipwreck story
A sketch, from a New Zealand newspaper, of the sinking Helen B Sterling.

Newcastle schoolboy’s shipwreck story

Stockton schoolboy Leslie Harris was 10 years old on January 5, 1922, when he went aboard the four-masted schooner Helen B Sterling, along with his mother Edith and his father George - the captain of the ship. The first mate, whose surname was also Harris and who may have been a relative, also had his wife aboard. The ship was carrying coal from Newcastle, NSW, to the Society Islands (part of French Polynesia) and San Francisco in the USA. Aside from the members of the Harris family there were 15 crew members aboard. The schooner was…

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Read more about the article The German sailor, the tailor’s daughter and the tragic White Wife of Otterswick
The Bertha in full sail. Postcard by Hood, Sydney.

The German sailor, the tailor’s daughter and the tragic White Wife of Otterswick

MAYBE young German sailor Adolf Nordman dreamed of being more than friends with Nellie Shephard, the tailor's pretty young daughter whom he met in the port of Newcastle, NSW, in 1909. His postcards, written in the years before the outbreak of World War I, hint that way. If so, his hopes were unrequited. Nellie became the wife of an Australian artillery officer who fought against Adolf's countrymen in the war, and Adolf's lovely ship, the Bertha, met a terrible end in the Shetland Islands in 1924, where her figurehead now stands on the shore, looking out to sea, and where the local islanders call her the Wooden Wife,…

Continue ReadingThe German sailor, the tailor’s daughter and the tragic White Wife of Otterswick
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