Admella tragedy rivals Titanic sinking

SCULPTURE MARKS THE LAST VOYAGE OF SS ADMELLA

The historic move of the major memorial to the vessel SS Admella from St Vincent Street to the Queens Wharf end of Timpson Street Port Adelaide has been completed on schedule for special commemorations on Wednesday, August 5.

With its large ship’s wheel, longitude and latitude, compass points and a new black granite block, The Navigator will be unveiled at a candle light vigil at 5.30 am marking the time SS Admella departed from Port Adelaide on her ill fated voyage 150 years ago.

The Admella was last seen at Semaphore, where she picked up three more passenger and one fireman making a total of 84 passengers and twenty nine crew, who were about to face a tragedy that rivalled the drama of the sinking of the Titanic.

Over the next 8 days, 89 people lost their lives, but miraculously 24 survived, most of them hanging onto the wreck in raging winter seas all that time.

At 11 am on August 5, The Navigator, sculptor Karen Genoff’s brilliant depiction of the tragic sinking of the SS Admella at Carpenter Rocks, will be commemorated.

Many of Port Adelaide and Semaphore’s maritime families will be among a large crowd expected to attend the commemoration.

This major South Australian history project follows an enormous amount of dedicated work by Karen Genoff, the Land Management Corporation (LMC), City of Port Adelaide Enfield and contractors Seacon and Tillets.

Karen has a diverse and widely acclaimed body of public art work across Australia.

The moving of The Navigator to Timpson Street was funded and project managed by LMC, after a meeting with the Port Seafarers Memorials Committee, founded by Mayor Gary Johanson.

Members of the committee include Keith Ridgeway, Rex Munn, Pat Perry, Kevin Jones, John Ford and Keith Shegog.

The refurbishment and moving of the major sculpture has only been made possible through the generosity and hard work of LMC and its project managers.

The commemoration is an opportunity for those involved in the Admella 150 Festival, which starts on August 6, to come to Port Adelaide to mark the start of the last voyage for SS Admella.

The SS Admella 150 Festival is being staged by the District Council of Grant, which includes Carpenter Rocks and Port MacDonnell, the Glenelg Shire Council, which includes the City of Portland in Victoria, the City of Mount Gambier, the Wattle Range Council, and the District Council of Robe.

The SS Admella was a 55.6 metres steam ship of 209 tons (212 tonnes) also fitted with three masts and sails. Her length was 55.6 metres.

The name Admella comes from the route it always sailed: Adelaide Melbourne Launcestan.

For the full story of the SS Admella tragedy, described in the Australian Press at the time as a national calamity, go to:

http://www.jaunay.com/admella.html

Our photos show:

A 50 ton crane, dwarfing the masts of the 90 year old ketch Failie, lowers the two and a half ton granite block into position.

Failie was on station at the entrance to Sydney harbour on the night of May 31, 1942, the evening three Japanese midget subs planned to attack shipping under cover of darkness.

In the opening moments of the strike, Falie grazed one of the submarines lurking under the surface off South Head and reported the contact to Command.

Failie will remain located at Queens Wharf as a fitting backdrop to The Navigator.

Sculptor Karen Genoff being interviewed by Ron Kandlelaars for Channel Nine's "Postcards" to be shown on August 9.