NSW: Dunbar's 150th memorial service reminds of life's fragility

AAP General News (Australia)
08-19-2007
NSW: Dunbar's 150th memorial service reminds of life's fragility

By Ed Logue

SYDNEY, Aug 19 AAP - The 150th anniversary of Sydney's worst maritime disaster this
weekend is a reminder of how fragile life is.

On the stormy night of August 20, 1857, 121 people died as the passenger clipper Dunbar
entered Sydney Harbour only for gale-force winds and a monstrous swell to drive it onto
rocks near South Head.

The wooden-hulled vessel disintegrated quickly near its final destination after an
uneventful 81-day journey from the UK.

Able seaman James Johnson, a deckhand, was the sole survivor.

It remains Sydney's largest maritime disaster.

For the next few days, the harbour and beaches were littered with bodies.

The disaster hit Sydney hard, with nearly a third of the city's then 65,000 residents
lining the streets for the funeral procession to St Stephen's Cemetery in Newtown.

A memorial service was held today at St Stephen's Anglican Church and the rector Peter
Rogers said the Dunbar tragedy was a reminder of the fragility of life.

"This tragic part of our history is a reminder to us like the tragic disasters unfolding
as we speak, like the earthquake in Peru, the coal miners trapped in floods in eastern
China," Rev Rogers said.

"We are reminded again today of the fragility of our lives."

Reverend Rogers read Johnson's account of the fateful night, where the crewman described
the most terrible moment of the whole ordeal.

"And then we struck and the screaming began, the passengers running about the decks
in the night dresses, screaming for mercy," the account said.

"Almost immediately the decks burst up from the pressure of the water, the ship was
rammed into a thousand pieces and all on board were hurried into the foaming, terrific
sea."

Johnson was hurled onto a ledge, 10m above the waves where he stayed until dawn.

At the memorial service was former state coroner Kevin Waller, who lost eight ancestors
on the Dunbar, with only two identified.

He said times were very different at the time of the disaster with coronial inquests
held immediately.

"In the case of the Dunbar, the inquest started on the Sunday and finished on the Monday
night, it was all over within a week," Mr Waller said.

NSW Governor Marie Bashir and Marrickville Mayor Morris Hanna read psalms as part of the service.

After the service, Professor Bashir laid a wreath in the church cemetery grounds before
the names of the 121 dead were read out while the church bell tolled.

AAP el/sjk/de

KEYWORD: DUNBAR NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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