"Deadwater Wreck" Timber
A hand hewn piece of Mahogany Sweetenia Mocrophyllia (wood) which is heavily weathered due to long exposure to the elements. This item was found in the Deadwater at Wonnerup and there is speculation that it may have been a timber from the Deadwater wreck. This type of wood is native to Honduras, West Indies.
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus Swietenia, indigenous to the Americas. The mahogany trade may have begun as early as the 16th century and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Details
Details
Mahogany is one of the most popular boat building materials and for good reason. This wood is naturally dense and extremely durable with a long lifespan. It also has a high resistance to rot and decay.
It is speculated that the Deadwater Wreck lies about half a mile up the Deadwater from the roadbridge at Lockeville House, Wonnerup about 150 miles south of Perth.
There is much controversy regarding this wreck which was seen and described during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but which has now disappeared under the shifting sands which margin the Deadwater of the Wonnerup Inlet. The coastline at this point has changed considerably over the years. There is a possibility that at some stage the entrance (or possibly entrances) to the Deadwater were considerably deeper than they have been in historical times.
Go to the Western Australian Museum Maritime Archaeology Database to see details of eyewitness accounts of this wreck from Frank Thomas Gregory (1861), Leonard Worsley Clifton (1876), E.L. Grant Watson (1910), Alfred Burt (1981) and Henry Charles Prinsep (1869).
Busselton Historical Society
Busselton Historical Society
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