The two coal powered scotch boilers provided steam to enable the ship to make 12 knots. The ship was quite large for a collier of this era, much larger, for example, than the SS Undola which plied the run from the southern coalfields to Sydney but a little smaller than the SS Tuggerah. The Myola also had two masts and could use the sails to gain an extra knot or two in the right winds.

On 6 November 1913 she started the voyage to Sydney arriving on 7 January 1914 via the Suez Canal. The Myola was put on the Newcastle/Sydney run and does not appear to have had any major incidents. In January 1919 she had a refit and was declared in good condition. At this time the vessel was owned by Australian Steamship Limited.

At 8.20 pm on 31 March 1919 the SS Myola left Sydney for Newcastle arriving at 3 am the next morning. It was under the command of a temporary captain and crew as the whole of the regular crew were in quarantine. One of the crew had contracted influenza (a deadly disease which killed millions upon millions all around the world after the Great War) so all the crew had been placed in quarantine. This was the first return trip to Newcastle for the crew and captain.

The ship was loaded with 675 tons of coal destined for the North Shore Gas Company and a Shipping Inspector who went aboard later stated that the ship was not overloaded. At 5 pm on 1 April 1919 the SS Myola left Newcastle for Sydney. The weather was not very good and there was a 30 mph south-easterly blowing creating heavy seas. The ship was under the control of the Master, Captain Higgins and the Second Officer E.J. Casey till 10 pm when the Chief Officer James Robertson (of Campsie) relieved them. It was later reported that the Second Engineer A. McNicholl remarked to the Chief Engineer I. McCanish about this time that the ship had a list to port. However, they did not consider it serious enough to report this to the Master. At 10.30 pm (or perhaps 10 pm) the fireman, E. G. Roberts, reported water had been entering the boiler room, perhaps for 30 minutes. It is reported that the Chief Officer ordered the engines to be made slow.

A photo of the SS Myola

Just after midnight (perhaps 12.20 am) on 2 April 1919 the Myola was off Long Reef on Sydney's northern beaches. The ship suddenly listed to port then starboards and back to port again. The actions of the skipper was unable to save the Myola and she gradually went over and started to sink, port side first. The crew left their posts with the engine still running flat out and were unable to launch the lifeboats, all they could do was undo the lashings. The time was about 12.30 am.

A little over eight minutes later the Myola disappeared from sight, although it was reported that the crew of the SS South Bulli, following about four miles behind the Myola, saw distress flares at about 12.45 am. All of the 15 crew appears to have got off the ship. Once in the water, the Chief Officer Robertson reported that he heard some calls and swimming away from the ship, found three of the crew already in one of the lifeboats. They soon found two more men sitting on an upturned boat and pulled them aboard. It is reported in the 3 April 1919 edition of the Daily Telegraph that they found another man as well, giving a total of seven on board the lifeboat, but it also reports that one man, the Second Engineer, A. McNicholl, was pulled aboard the South Bulli directly from the water (see next paragraph as well).

About 30 minutes later at 1 am, the crew of the SS South Bulli, making passage from Catherine Hill Bay to Sydney, heard calls for help from the water. The skipper of the South Bulli, Captain E. Tucker, stopped and pulled the men aboard from the lifeboat. They launched their own boat and immediately they found wreckage and four men clinging to it. Among these was the skipper. There is obviously an error in the Telegraph's reporting as the numbers add up to 12 overall but only 11 survived. They spent some time looking for further survivors but none were seen.

The survivors were taken to Sydney by the SS South Bulli. Assistant Steward Alfred Cove, not even 20 years old, had already been shipwreck once before. He had been torpedoed in the Great War when on the Galway Castle. Even on board the South Bulli some of the crew were experienced with shipwrecks. For the South Bulli's Second Mate, T.R. Richardson, he had been sunk during the War when the Moorina in the Mediterranean was shelled by a German U boat. He was then captured and spent five months as a prisoner of the Senussi Arabs before being rescued in a dramatic raid.

For Thorvald Thomsen, one of the regular crew of the Myola, luck was on his side. He was not on the ship because of the influenza quarantine. He soon joined another vessel, the SS Tuggerah where he was to be one of eleven survivors when she sank only a few weeks later and almost 30 years later one of only two survivors of the sinking of the SS Bombo.

The bell of the SS Myola Photo by Peter Fields

The missing men from the SS Myola were:

Those rescued were:

The famous pilot steamer, the Captain Cook was sent to the area to search for the missing crew. They found three lifeboats, two were still on the water and these were recovered. The third was found on Mona Vale Beach, smashed up. It was left there. Other wreckage was sighted but no signs of the missing men was found.

A Preliminary Inquiry into the sinking was started at 11 am on 3 April 1919 under Captain Fergus Cumming, Superintendent of Navigation. Captain Cumming found that "...I consider that loose water had in some manner entered the ship and when she listed over to port more water entered the vessel in great volume through the ventilator and the engine room door causing her to list more until she foundered". He receommended that there should be a Court of Marine Inquiry but I am unaware if this was held.

Until 1994, the wreck of the SS Myola lay undiscovered. Over the more recent years, many people had looked for the wreck but to no avail. In August 1985, Peter Fields and John Riley started searching for the wreck of the Myola. Later that month John purchased a magnetometer and over the next three months they searched on and off for the wreck with no luck. They abandoned the search, but not the idea. In late May 1994 they resumed the search, with the first real searching taking place in early July. On the fourth day of this search they located the Myola.

A satellite photograph showing the location of the SS Myola Long Reef is the point at top

They had located the Myola in just under 50 metres almost 6 kilometres off North Curl Curl and just under 5 kilometrs off Long Reef and a bit to the south. John and Peter released information that they had found the wreck at the 1994 Scuba Expo in Melbourne (held in July I recall) although the location was still secret. They continued to dive the wreck as they recorded it in detail. Many times we saw Peter's car and trailer at Rose Bay and the temptation to go out and find where they were was overwhelming. However, unlike many wreck divers, we have good principles!

Finally, on 27 December 1994 the location of the wreck became public after they were seen on the wreck. In January numerous people were aware of its location but an extremely bad weekend of weather meant that it was not until the Australia Day Holiday (26 January 1995) that it was dived in quantity. I dived it two days later and was amazed at its intactness. Except for the bell, which had been removed by Peter and John with approval, everything was still on the wreck. Peter now has the bell in his house.

To find the wreck, head out of Sydney Harbour and head to the north. The rough direction is just north of north-east. Its GPS Marks are 33° 46' 41"S 151° 21' 44"E (using AUS66 as datum - see my GPS Page for info on what to do if you use another datum). For more details, see the attached marks and the GPS and Marks Page. The wreck lies on a rocky reef and this makes it a bit harder to find than if it was on sand. As indicated, the depth is about 48 to 49 metres on the bottom and the boilers and engine sit up about two metres above the bottom. To the east of the wreck the depth gets to over 50 metres, so if you are in this area you need to go west a bit.

Western Mark Click to enlarge	South-western Mark (Centrepoint Tower) Click to enlarge	South-south-western Mark (a water tower) Click to enlarge	North-western Mark Click to enlarge

The wreck is facing south-south-west and like most real Sydney wrecks, the Myola lies on its port side, although the stern section has broken away from the rest of the wreck and sits upright. You will most likely anchor near the stern section.

The first thing you will notice is that the propeller blade is broken. Of the four blades, one is almost completely missing, the second one almost as bad, the third is half broken and the final one is missing the end third. My guess is that this damage happened when the ship sank and the engine, (remember it was still running flat out when the ship sank), turned the prop over and it hit the rocky reef, breaking the blades. The rudder lies on the sea floor on the port side and the steering gear and steering engine are a bit further away.

A diagram of the SS Myola by John Riley John Riley Memorial Collection, Heritage Branch, OEH Click on diagram to see larger sized version	A model of the Myola built by John Riley John Riley Memorial Collection - Heritage Branch, OEH

A model of the stern of the SS Myola Built by John Riley	A model of the boilers and middle section of the SS Myola Built by John Riley

It would seem that the ship landed on its port side. I assume that this is because the engine was running and the torque of the engine caused the ship to go over onto its port side. One thing I have noticed is that most ships that have sunk that are on their sides are on their port sides (in fact, I cannot recall any on their starboard sides).

At some time, the damage from the sinking and the normal wear and tear from corrosion meant that the ship broke up. One of these main breaks was in front of the engine, behind the boilers. When the hull broke here, the bottom-heavy engine area caused the stern to flip itself upright. However, the engine still lies over to port, connected to the drive shaft by the conrods.

Kelly McFadyen to the west of the stern section Photo taken 23 April 2006	The condenser, engine and prop of the Myola Photo taken 23 April 2006

To the east of the engine there is the condenser (a series of tubes - see the top right photo) and the generator a bit further on. The first of the two boilers lies right near the main part of the wreck. The boilers are huge, as big as the boiler on the SS Tuggerah. The second boiler is about 15 metres away to the east, facing back towards the other boiler.

In between the two boilers, but close by the first one, there used to be the engine room telegraph and some steam gauges. However, they were stolen some time after my first two dives on the wreck in 1995. There were also many portholes all over the wreck. Today there are none left visible on the wreck. The last one remained till about 2008 and was located under some wreckage but some miserable person used equipment to lift the wreckage and steal the port hole.

Kelly McFadyen and the prop of the Myola Photo taken 23 April 2006	Andreas Thimm and the prop - the steering quadrant in foreground

Only two metres shorter than the SS Tuggerah, the Myola covers a much larger area. The stern and the two boilers are the only parts that sit up as the hull has collapsed flat in front of the boiler. This is not a very interesting section of the wreck. If you swim right forward and after the flat sides of the hull you will see some bollards, the two anchors, the anchor pipes and a pile of chain. It is worth going up there to have a look but you will spend most time near the boilers, engine and prop. The hull of the ship was damaged on 4 September 2003 when huge seas (up to 8 metres) bent three largish sections up at right angles.

Halfway back to the boiler, there is another bollard. Out to the east from here, about 5 metres or so there used to be the ship's steering pedestal, compass and telegraph. However, these items have also been stolen (on one dive in 1998 I found a pile of brass rings that someone had collected and hidden, awaiting another day when they could be removed. I took them and scattered them in selected parts of the wreck but they are now also stolen).

The Myola's boilers Photo taken 23 April 2006	Andreas Thimm and one of the anchors of the Myola

Since my first dive on the Myola, it has been stripped of nearly all its brass bits (portholes, telegraph etc) and damaged by crowbars. So much for responsible Sydney divers. However, till mid-2005 there were still some portholes on the wreck, I personally knew of two. One was stolen about June 2005! Despite this, the wreck is really worth diving.

All my dives on the wreck have had good or very good visibility, with one in April 2006 having 35 metres visibility. Even if it is poor on the way down, it can be very clean on the bottom. Visibility averages 15 to 20 metres. In May 2003 I had a 2.5 to 3 metre bronze whaler shark come and examine us while doing decompression. It only hung around for a minute or so, longer than my buddies did who left the water as soon as it appeared!!

Once again, only for the experienced deep diver.

Visibility Summary:

Visibility	Dives
Excellent	1
Very Good	12
Good	11
Fair	0
Poor or Worse	1

VIDEO

Video shot on 1 December 2012 of a dive on the wreck with 15 metre visibility.

References: