Expedition · Ashmore Reef & Cumberland Entrance, 2015
Comet & Hydrabad
Celestial bodies and equine trade: in January 2015, maritime archaeologists searched two remote locations for more of our sunken maritime heritage.
Anchor at Ashmore Reef
Expedition
January 2015
Ashmore Reef
Home to some 35 shipwrecks
Hydrabad lost
1845, Cumberland Entrance
Partners
Silentworld Foundation & ANMM
Celestial bodies & equine trade
Two remote sites
Celestial bodies
Ashmore Reef
Ashmore Reef is now home to some 35 shipwrecks. One of these was chanced upon by the crew of HMAS Benalla in 2014 while surveying a section of the reef.
In January 2015, a collaborative project with the Australian National Maritime Museum took the team out to this remote region, with precise location information from Benalla’s crew, to investigate the wreck site.
Equine trade
Hydrabad
On the same trip, the team investigated Cumberland Entrance, where Hydrabad was reportedly lost in 1845. Hydrabad, a 602-tonne, three-masted ship owned by Duncan Dunbar, was converted to carry horses for the trade that sprang up between New South Wales and India.
On a voyage with more than 100 Walers (stallions bred in New South Wales) and passengers aboard, the captain was forced by the winds to take a less familiar route.
January 2015
Out on the reefs
