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Alert

Wreck Dive Wreck Dive | Boat access Boat access

Outside Port Phillip Ships Graveyard Technical Rated Wreck Dive Site

Iron Screw Steamer | Max Depth: 75 m (246 ft)

Historic shipwreck protected zone. Permit Required.
For more details please see vic-shipwreck-protection-zones.

Do not dive near the Alert without a permit. The shipwreck lies in a 500 metre radius protection zone. If you enter this zone severe penalties apply. Stay clear!

SS Alert
SS Alert
© Unknown

The Alert (aka SS Alert) shipwreck lies 75 m (246 ft) deep approximately 10 km (6.21 mi) south of Cape Schanck, in Bass Strait. The Alert is historically significant as one of the worst maritime shipwrecks in Victorian history, with the deaths of 15 of the 16 people on board the vessel. It is considered to be one of the Victorian Ships' Graveyard wreck dives.

Alert Cave Scene
Alert Cave Scene
Source: State Library Victoria

The ships cook, Robert Ponting, was the only survivor when he grasped a portion of a cabin door and clung to it for sixteen hours before being washed up on to the Sorrento back beach about 15 km from where the Alert foundered. That morning he was found unconscious and half-buried in the sand by four young ladies.

The Alert is archaeologically significant as no official salvage has taken place and the ship still contains the crew and passengers' personal effects, enabling an understanding of life at sea on a coastal trading vessel. It also carried a small but varied cargo which may provide information about general coastal trading at the end of the 1800s.

Finding the Alert Shipwreck

SS Alert location map
SS Alert location map
© The Scuba Doctor

A large iron wreck was reported to Heritage Victoria in 1993, after a fisherman's trawl net snagged it. However, the shipwreck remained unidentified until, after many years of research, it was relocated and dived by Southern Ocean Exploration (SOE) on the 27th June 2007, 114 years after its sinking.

The Alert shipwreck is largely intact and there is the possibility of human remains still within the hull. The SS Alert was placed inside a protected zone, which limits access without a permit issued by Heritage Victoria.


ABC News report about SOE finding the SS Alert

SS Alert Dive Site Map
SS Alert Dive Site Map | © Southern Ocean Exploration

Sadly, on a subsequent dive on the Alert not long after it was first located, SOE found looters had already stolen irreplaceable items from the important archaeological site including such things as navigation lights, bottles, plates and a lampshade. The removal of these valuable artefacts could have only been carried out by specialist divers trained in technical diving. It's disappointing that these people would go to such lengths to illegally plunder a historic shipwreck.

Diving the Alert Shipwreck

Bow of the Alert
Bow of the Alert | © Unknown

Being 75 metres deep, diving the Alert is only for very experienced trimix and rebreather divers. Time on the wreck is limited with a 20-minute bottom time typically requiring an hour-long, decompression controlled ascent.

The Alert is in very good condition, sitting on the bottom, upright. The iron hull of the Alert and all its below decks are still intact. You can see the lifeboat davit where the ship's crew had tried unsuccessfully to launch a boat (it was smashed against the ship's side by a wave). There are a lot of artefacts including portholes, bottles, and plates.


Diving the SS Alert | © Scubabo Dive Victoria

The diving conditions in Bass Strait are difficult, with exposed seas, poor visibility and strong currents. Calm conditions are required to dive the Alert.

Bass Strait Warning: Always keep an eye on sea conditions throughout any shore or boat dive in Bass Strait on Victoria's coastline. Please read the warnings on the web page diving-in-bass-strait before diving or snorkelling this site.

The site of the Alert is a historic shipwreck protected zone declared under the Australian Government's Underwater Cultural heritage Act 2018, with a 500 metre radius from:
Latitude: 38° 29.217′ S   (38.486944° S / 38° 29′ 13″ S)
Longitude: 144° 45.033′ E   (144.750556° E / 144° 45′ 2″ E)
.
A permit from Heritage Victoria is required to dive the Alert. Anchoring is prohibited.

Alert Shipwreck History — Built in 1877

Alert painting by Allan Green
Alert painting by Allan Green
Source: State Library Victoria

The Alert was an iron screw steamer of 243 tons, built in 1877, by Robert Duncan at Renfrew, Port Glasgow, Scotland. The vessel measured 169 ft (52 m) length, 19.6 ft (5.97 m) breadth and 9.8 ft (2.99 m) depth. The 90 nhp engine was built by Rankin & Blackmore, of Greenock, Scotland. The SS Alert's owners, Huddart Parker and Co., specifically commissioned the building of the vessel.

Alert in Port
Alert in Port
Source: State Library Victoria

While designed as a steamer, for the ship's journey out to Australia, SS Alert was converted to a three-masted schooner with its funnels stored in the hold. The Alert arrived in Melbourne on the 30 May 1878. The SS Alert was overhauled and refitted back to a steamer and was put on the regular route between Melbourne, Port Arlington and Geelong. For the next sixteen, mostly incident-free, years the Alert plied the waters of Port Phillip

Alert Sinking — Wrecked 28 December 1893

On 23 December 1893, SS Alert made a routine trip from Melbourne to Gippsland, arriving in Bairnsdale on Christmas day. Loaded up with 44 tons of cargo, a light load, SS Alert began the return journey from Bairnsdale bound for Melbourne, under the command of Captain Albert Mathieson, with a crew of eleven in calm conditions on 27 December 1893. Conditions were so calm, Alert was forced to stop near Wilson Promontory as the fog was too dense to see the light from the lighthouse at Cliffy Island.

Alert Foundering
Alert Foundering
Source: State Library Victoria

Once the fog lifted, Alert rounded Cape Liptrap to encounter a large south-west swell and strong south-east wind. By the time Alert rounded Cape Schanck the wind was gale force from the south-west. Captain Mathieson attempted to turn Alert to the north-west towards Port Phillip Heads but as the vessel came about, a wave crashed over the port side.

Water poured in through stokehole covers and a pantry door in the galley. The water put the fires out in the ship's boiler room and the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Alert was last seen from the Cape Schanck lighthouse at 3:40 p.m. before disappearing into thick rain and squalls. The steamer sank stern first at about 4.30 p.m. in the afternoon in weather so terrible that no-one saw the vessel founder.

See also The Age: Deep thrill for Alert adventurers (13 June 2007),
Southern Ocean Exploration: SS Alert,
Wikipedia: SS Alert,
Heritage Council Victoria: SS Alert, and
Australian National Shipwreck Database: Alert.

Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.

Traditional Owners — This dive site does not lie in the acknowledged traditional Country of any first peoples of Australia.

 

Alert Location Map

Latitude: 38° 29.217′ S   (38.486944° S / 38° 29′ 13″ S)
Longitude: 144° 45.033′ E   (144.750556° E / 144° 45′ 2″ E)

Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-18 11:02:08 GMT
Source: Victorian Government GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Cape Schanck Cray Reef, 10,320 m, bearing 81°, E
Historic shipwreck protected zone.
Permit Required.
Iron Screw Steamer.
Built: Glasgow, Scotland, 1877.
Sunk: 28 December 1893.
Victorian Ships' Graveyard, Cape Schanck, Bass Strait.
Depth: 75 m.



DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.

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