NINETEENTH CENTURY SITES
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NINETEENTH CENTURY SITES
Hadda (1860-1877) shipwreck site
The German-built wooden barque Hadda arrived at the Lacepede Islands in April 1877 from Melbourne. Hadda had been chartered by Poole, Picken and Co., the lessees of the islands. Hadda’s Captain, John Lewis Parker, was told that he would have to procure the necessary licence from the Commissioner of Crown Lands in Perth before he would be allowed to load his vessel. Parker sailed Hadda in ballast for Fremantle, fortuitously avoiding a disastrous cyclone that swept through the Lacepedes on 16 and 17 April, wrecking six other ships waiting to load guano and causing loss of life. One of the shipwrecks was another Poole, Picken and Co. vessel, Aboyne, in which the captain’s wife, his two children and three crew died.
En route to Fremantle, Captain Parker steered a course calculated to avoid the Abrolhos, but the barque was steering very badly, the helm being constantly adjusted. On 30 April, the vessel was heading south-east by south when it struck a reef at 10pm. Immediately, water began to rise in the hold, so the sails were furled and the boats taken out with anchors in an unsuccessful attempt to warp the vessel off the reef. In the morning, the eleven crew would have seen Beacon Island close by, and it is possible that they landed on the island. The crew remained with Hadda until 7 May when, with water up to the lower deck beams, they abandoned ship. They sailed for Geraldton in the ship’s boats, arriving in an exhausted state and suffering from exposure.
Hadda was unable to be refloated and became a total wreck. A Court of Marine Inquiry found that a strong westerly current had set the barque off course and Captain Parker was not to blame for the wrecking.
Map showing locations of the Batavia and Hadda wreck sites, near Beacon Island.
Credit: WA Museum.
In 1970, WA Museum maritime archaeologists located the wreck lying on the edge of a reef gully in 2.0 to 5.6 metres depth. Between 1973 and 1999, a number of surveys and excavations were carried out.
Hadda is protected by the Commonwealth Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018. The wreck of Hadda is recreationally significant as an accessible historic shipwreck site in the Houtman Abrolhos, with identifiable features including a substantial section of the port side of the vessel. The wreck demonstrates the hazards faced by shipping companies, masters and crews involved in the nineteenth century Western Australian colonial guano trade. A clay pipe found in the upper layers of excavation of a Batavia grave on Beacon Island is possibly related to Hadda or Favourite (1857) survivors. Further archaeological investigations on Beacon Island may provide additional evidence of nineteenth century shipwreck survivors.
Top right: Archaeologists setting up a stereo photography rig on Hadda, 1980.
Credit: WA Museum, HDA_53
Right: Archaeologists excavating Hadda, 1986.
Credit: WA Museum, HDA_95
