The Coffin Ship. (The wreck of the steamship Coramba.)

The wreck of the Steamship Coramba.

  The SS Coramba was a costal trader serving the communities of the Western districts of Victoria, Australia. She was a lifeline of prosperity to the isolated coastal ports, as she plied the treacherous waters of Bass straight, four round trips per month.  Melbourne, Apollo Bay, then to Port Fairy: her port of registry.  Warnambool to Portland and back again. She was a workhorse of trade, bringing raw materials and the fancies of city living to the country, and then returning with the bounty of farm and foundry.

  She left Apollo bay in November, 1934 steaming to the East, fully laden with seventeen hands to work the ship. She was last seen standing off from Westernport bay in a storm whose fury was, at the time, the worst ever recorded in the region. During the perilous night of November 30^th the Coramba foundered with all hands. She is believed to lie in deep water to the East of Westernport bay off the Nobbies. For nearly eighty years she has kept her secrets and her crew in their iron coffin, among them our beloved Henry Jensen

"The wreck of the Steamship Coramba"

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Henry Jensen was a stoker who worked below the water line.

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He fed the boilers black coal between swigs of red wine.

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As the wives, and the children, waved bye-bye Papa from the old stone quay.

Bound for Melbourne four times a month, with a family man in every bunk,

The Cape Otway skies already grey, as the steamship Coramba left Apollo bay.

Lade up with cargo and fuel for the trip, with srventeen men to handle the ship.

But wild Bass straight would not be calm and the old ship shook in alarm.

The decks awash with the company’s tax dodge. Well insured and all a sea in the lap of the Gods. With no wireless between the ship and the shore, seventeen men caught in a gathering storm.

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Chorus... Westernport bay is a sailors grave, for seventeen men buried under the waves, in the wreck

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of the steamship Coramba  X2

The captain shouted. "Stoker Jensen. She's taking it rough...douse the fires, get a lifebelt and haul your arse up. I'll put her head to the wind and get the boats away. We'll stand away from the land till the break of day."

The Argus reported the worst storm since federation and posted the missing men lost, at their destination.

The merchants and wharf rats gathered at the quay but the old ship had gone well astray.

Chorus... Westernport bay is a sailors grave, for seventeen men buried under the waves, in the wreck of the steamship Coramba. X2

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My Grandfather Weir, Henry Jensen’s best mate, could not abide the little ships fate.

In a dory he searched along the rocky shore but only pulled in a lifebelt off of Cape Woolamai. The seaman’s' union established a trust. The kin buried no bones or scattered their dust. Of the Captain and crew, it seemed only God knew, where their drowned bones did lie.

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Yes, Westernport Bay is a sailor’s grave for seventeen men buried under the waves in the wreck of the steamship Coramba... For the word all abroad, was that insurance fraud, lured the ship from the safety of shore. To the wreck of the Steamship Coramba

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                                                                       C & P ARONSONG