Sunken wrecks and drunken dynamiters a sea adventure to Magnetic Island

Sunken wrecks, and drunken dynamiters a sea adventurer to Magnetic Island sound a lot like the title of a “Famous Five” or “Secret Seven” novel. This story is as true as magnetic North, in other words it actually happened.

Now if you are going to blow up a boat to create a safe anchorage for your holiday home, may be you want to do that before you hit the booze. Just saying right…….some times you don’t make the best decisions after a “few” rums.

This stranger than fiction events happened just off the coast of Townsville in a sheltered bay on the tropical paradise of Magnetic Island, named by Captain Cook after his historic 1770 journey up the coast. Legend has it that upon spotting the island his compass started acting erratically, he put this down to the island and hence the name. To Townsville people its just known as “Maggie”.

I decided to have a look at some of the reefs around Townsville and as Maggie is just off the coast we joined Jason from Remote Area Dive and headed out. The day started when we arrived at the South Townsville Boat ramp at around sun rise and as usual signed all sorts of forms to indemnify Jason and his crew from any misfortune that may befall us. We then loaded our gear and headed out to sea.

The journey across the bay was pleasant and entertaining and we arrived at the wreck of the SS Moltke about 30 minutes later. This sunken three mast “Barque” has an interesting but short history. It was built in 1870 in Hamburg Germany before sailing with cargo to Australia. In 1890 after dropping off supplies to Townsville it was making its way south when it ran into Flinders Reef, just south of Townsville near Cape Bowling Green, it laid on the reef for sometime before being salvaged and towed back to Townsville. In 1911 it was sold to Doctor McCabe a well to do dentist in Townsville who owned a large bit of land at Geoffrey Bay on Magnetic Island. He was renowned for picnics and gatherings and wanted to create a breakwater just off from his jetty so the ladies of the yacht club could disembark without being bowled over by the waves. 

To help with this endeavour Dr McCabe brought the Baroque (SS Moltke) with the intention of sinking her near shore to act as a wind and wave break. He hired a dynamite expert Mr William Bright who had worked in the Gold diggings west of Townsville to apply his scientific and calculated demolition skills to the task. As it turns out both men thought that drinking rum and playing with dynamite was a good mix. The skipper of the steam tug heard a yell and saw both men dive into the sea, at which point he cut the Motlke free just as an explosion blew off the hatches and sank the ship to the sea floor. Unfortunately, the Moltke sang in five to ten metres of water and was little use as a break water.

One hundred years later it has broken apart and there is extensive coral growth, this has made the SS Moltke an awesome and easily accessible dive site. The whole Geoffrey Bay from Bright Point to Bremner Point is a marine reserve and home to an assortment of coral and fish life. The reef is about 100 metres from the shore and easily accessible from the beach, it can be easily snorkelled on but we decided to dive the wreck site which I must say is amazing.

From the mooring line you take a bearing to Bremner Point and head about 50 metres, the day we were there the reef had a three knot current running slightly off shore so diving was quite easy, but we still had to make sure we didn’t get off course by swimming slightly towards the shore.

We dived in a rectangular pattern for about 45 minutes. The sea bed was filled with all varieties of coral and fish. We saw giant puffer fish, coral trout, brightly coloured nudibrants and an assortment of brightly coloured reef fish. The water temperature was about 31 degrees. This is very warm for tropical waters and is known to cause coral bleaching. We didn’t see any bleaching on this trip.

There is a significant amount of coral on and around the wreck, many of the species have used the wreck over the last hundred or so years as a safe haven and have prospered. While much of the wreck has now be subsumed by coral it is still easy to make out bits and pieces, sometimes only because of the way the coral has grown over the ship. 

I am always amazed at how animals can adapt and thrive in a world of man made objects, and how they use these objects to build their homes or to provide a unique advantage such as a giant clam attached to an up right of an old wreck.

Below the water a majestic coral community thrives in the tropical waters. Even though this area is considered an “Inshore Reef”, which are generally more susceptible to river run off, tidal flows and sediment clouding the water, it is clear that corals have adapted and flourished in this environment. If  you go diving or snorkelling on the Moltke you will see an amazing variety of coral and fish life, it is definitely worth the short trip across from the main land.

Once out of the water we pulled our gear off, enjoyed some fruit juice and sweets and headed back across the bay to the South Townsville boat ramp.

If you feel like visiting Geoffrey Bay you can go with Jason and his team or catch the Magnetic Island Ferry to Nelly Bay and then a bus over to Acadia. the Geoffrey Bay Reef system is a protected park and is a short swim from the shore.