Aarhus Historic Shipwreck

The Aarhus was a 640-tonne sailing barque built in 1875 in Hamburg, Germany. She was 170 ft long.

While carrying a cargo of kerosene from New York to Brisbane, Australia, she hit Smith's Rock[?], which lies about two nautical miles offshore North-East of Cape Moreton[?], and sank on February 24, 1894.

The remains of the ship now lie upright in 20 metres of water, though most of the ship has been reduced to plates and ribs sticking out of the sand.

The Esperance Star[?][1] (http://www.diveoz.com.au/feature_articles/mv_esperance_star/mves-1.asp) currently holds the only permit to dive this historic wreck. This site has lots of interesting life, from macro(?) to large batfish[?] at cleaning stations[?] everywhere. Another point of interest is the large mast-like object that is actually the bowsprit[?]. This area has a cat shark[?] inside the bowsprit and a large wobbegong[?] under the scoured out section. The site can have very good visibility but a strong current makes it hard to see the entire wreck in one dive.

See also: list of shipwrecks

Reference

This article is partly based on information at Smith Rock (http://www.ion.com.au/~stevel/smith.htm).