PHOTOTYPE PLATE NO. XXX. 



47 



steamer had a gross register of 3,480 tons, and was one of the finest vessels of the British India 

 and Australian Steam Navigation Company's fleet, built for the special object of carrying Her 

 Majesty's mails between Queensland Ports and London. After having safely navigated all the 

 dangers and intricacies of the Barrier Inner-channel, north of Break-sea Spit, and while under 

 full steam along the charted course between Albany and Adolphus Islands, an unknown rock 

 was suddenly struck, and, within so short a space of time as three minutes, the vessel was at 

 the bottom of the sea in a depth of thirteen fathoms. Of the 2S2 souls, all told, on board, as 

 many as 120 perished, while the escape of the 162 survivors was, in certain instances, almost 

 miraculous. Notable among these, were the cases of two 3'oung lady passengers, one of whom 

 a Miss Lacy, aged sixteen, swam and floated on the surface of the water for no less a period 

 than thirty-five hours before being discovered and picked up by one of the rescue boats. The 

 other, a Miss Nicklin, after swimming and drifting on a plank for an almost equal period, 

 gained the shore of Adolphus Island, whence she was rescued by the O.G.S. Albatross, which 

 was despatched to the scene of the wreck from Thursday Island, immediately on receipt .of 

 intelligence of the catastrophe. 



The cargo on board the Ouctta when she sank included 2,278 bales of wool, 4,260 cases of 

 meat, 60 tons of silver ore, and 260 tons of tallow. By combined diving and blasting opera- 

 tions, a small percentage of this cargo was recovered, though with great difficulty, by reason 

 of the abnormally strong tidal currents. The bulk of it, however, remains at the bottom of 

 the sea, and, in consequence of the costliness of salvage operations, is scarcely likely now to be 

 recovered. The preliminary investigations made by the divers, and confirmed by the subsequent 

 surveys of H.M.S. Raiiilt/cr and O.G.S. Paluina, revealed the fact that the rock upon which the 

 vessel struck — tearing her side open for nearly two-thirds of her total length — was a pinnacle 

 of growing coral. This fact is of very considerable importance, since it tends to demon- 

 strate that coral grows at a much more rapid rate than is generally supposed, and indicates the 

 desirability of making new surveys of vessel-tracks through coral-growing areas at intervals 

 of at least every few decades. The local charts in use up to the date of the Ouctta wreck 

 were compiled chietly from the Admiralty surveys made by Captains Flinders, Blackwood, 

 Stanley, Yule, and Denham, R.N., within dates varying from 1802 to 1S60. It is, in the author's 

 opinion, highly probable that the coral pinnacle upon which the Quctta struck with such fatal 

 force grew up to within striking distance of deep-draught vessels subsequently to the survey 

 made thirty or forty years before. In this association, the investigations initiated at Thursday 

 Island, with the direct object of ascertaining the growth rate of specific varieties of coral, referred 

 to at length in connection with the " Charted Reef," Plate II., possess, as will be recognised, an 

 important bearing. In order, however, to arrive at an absolutely correct standard for comparison, 

 it will be necessary to take measurements of permanently submerged coral-masses growing amid 

 conditions identical with those that surround the Quctta rock. This could be accomplished at a 



