The Nemesis left Newcastle for Melbourne on 8 July 1904.
It’s thought the ship was hit by a large wave and sank too quickly for life boats to be deployed. A remote sensing company stumbled across the wreck off the Sydney coast.
The Nemesis left Newcastle for Melbourne with her hold full of coal on 8 July 1904. But a southerly gale battered the ship almost immediately after departure.
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The Nemesis was built in 1881 and registered in Melbourne to concentrate on the coal trade from Newcastle but also operated in Western Australia during the 1890s gold rush. Source: AAP / Supplied
For days and weeks following the ship’s disappearance, a grisly sight littered Cronulla Beach in Sydney’s south as bodies of crew members washed ashore.
But identifying the long-lost ship in such deep waters so far from shore proved a challenge for NSW Heritage experts surveying the ocean floor.
Sharpe appealed for relatives of lost crew members to come forward. “Around 40 children lost their parents in this wreck,” she told reporters on Sunday.
Describing the loss of Nemesis as one of Sydney’s most enduring maritime mysteries,
Reaching speeds of 12 knots, it was registered in Melbourne to concentrate on the coal trade from Newcastle but also operated in Western Australia during the 1890s gold rush.
