Thanks to Dick and Ben Kooyman for passing along this intriguing account of a new search for the legendary “Mahogany ship” which, if found, may rewrite Australian history.  The Mahogany ship is said to be buried beneath the sand in the Armstrong Bay area, approximately 3 to 6 kilometres west of Warrnambool in southwest Victoria, Australia.  The wreck was originally reported in the 1830s and has been suggested to be variously of Portuguese, Spanish, French or Chinese origin.  Many believe the ship to a Portuguese caravel dating from the early 16th century.

The story of the Mahogany ship has captured the imagination of Australians yet, so far  no one has been able to locate the wreck. A new search using the latest technology has now been proposed to finally solve the mystery.

Crusade to solve maritime mystery

Tall-ship enthusiast Peter Christopher wants to adapt the technology that found the wreck of the HMAS Sydney to solve the nation’s greatest maritime mystery and at the same time rewrite Australian history.

In releasing a new book Australian Shipwrecks, he has advocated a publicly funded search for the wreck of the famed Mahogany ship, which was discovered near Warrnambool in 1836 but by the end of that century had disappeared under sand dunes before its true significance could be studied.

Mr Christopher, whose day job is chief industrial officer of the Public Service Association, moonlights as a tall-ship and shipwreck expert and is the driving force behind a bid to rescue the City of Adelaide clipper ship which is facing destruction in Scotland.

Scientists believe the Mahogany ship was a Portuguese vessel reported lost in 1522, and if so would prove that the European nation first charted the southern coast of Australia.

Mr Christopher said charts purporting to be of the southern Australian coastline were published in 1536 in the Rotz Atlas, but their authenticity has long been questioned.

The charts end just west of Warrnambool and experts have speculated that the wreck of the Mahogany caused two other vessels to turn back and alternatively that they may have continued on and mapped South Australia.

“The last search was carried out in 2004 and with advances in technology like the equipment used to search for the Sydney, there is a very real possibility that the wreck could be found under the sand dunes in the area,” he said.