YARRA YARRA
YARRA YARRA
Years Active: 1877-1885
Vessel Type: 3-masted Iron Barque
Barque
Nationality: English
Believed to have sunk with all hands lost after being driven onto rocks in West Falkland during a gale in April 1885.
Main Use:
Cargo
Years Active:
1877-1885
Power:
Sail
Built:
1877
Size:
1290 gross, 1242 net tons
70.47 x 10.91 x 6.37 metres
(length, breadth, depth) metres
Design/Build:
Archibald McMillan & Son, Dumbarton, Scotland
Main Use: Cargo
Built: 1877
Power: Sail
Design/Build: Archibald McMillan & Son, Dumbarton, Scotland
Size: 1290 gross, 1242 net tons
Dimensions: 70.47 x 10.91 x 6.37 metres
The demise of the YARRA YARRA was witnessed by a West Falkland resident, William Duncan of Beaver Island, who was out for a walk on Stickout Bluff, “on or about 28 April 1885”, during a “tremendous Southerly gale”, when he saw a vessel, without sails, drift onto the rocks at Staats Bluff. He did not see her again. For months afterwards, flotsam was washed ashore on Beaver Island, Weddell Island and Carcass Island. A Board of Trade inquiry held in Liverpool on 24 February 1886 concluded: “There would seem to be little doubt that the vessel seen drifting towards Beaver Island was the YARRA YARRA and from the deposition of Duncan, she would seem to have been dismasted in the severe gale. He mentions as he stated that no sail was visible, and there was no signal of distress flying; and in this disabled state she drifted on the rocks at Staats Bluff and disappeared. The amount of wreckage subsequently picked up in the neighbourhood clearly belonging to the ship confirms his story.”
The demise of the YARRA YARRA was witnessed by a West Falkland resident, William Duncan of Beaver Island, who was out for a walk on Stickout Bluff, “on or about 28 April 1885”, during a “tremendous Southerly gale”, when he saw a vessel, without sails, drift onto the rocks at Staats Bluff. He did not see her again. For months afterwards, flotsam was washed ashore on Beaver Island, Weddell Island and Carcass Island. A Board of Trade inquiry held in Liverpool on 24 February 1886 concluded: “There would seem to be little doubt that the vessel seen drifting towards Beaver Island was the YARRA YARRA and from the deposition of Duncan, she would seem to have been dismasted in the severe gale. He mentions as he stated that no sail was visible, and there was no signal of distress flying; and in this disabled state she drifted on the rocks at Staats Bluff and disappeared. The amount of wreckage subsequently picked up in the neighbourhood clearly belonging to the ship confirms his story.”
