Stefano, 1875

 

 

Published

Last Updated

Ship

Stefano

Country of origin

Kingdom of Dalmatia (modern-day Croatia)

Built

1873

Rig

3 masted barque

Tonnage (gross)

857

Port Departed

Cardiff, Wales

Port Destination

Hong Kong

Wrecked

27 October 1875, west of Point Cloates

Discovery

Western Australian Museum (Geoff Kimpton, Jeremy Green, Bob Richards, and Michael McCarthy)

Protection

Commonwealth Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018

History

Destined for Hong Kong, Stefano departed Cardiff at the end of July 1875 with a cargo of 1,300 tons of Welsh coal. Captain Biagio Miloslavich oversaw a crew of 16, all from Dalmatia, except for a Welsh cabin boy. As Stefano approached the Cape of Good Hope, it encountered a violent storm, which lasted for several days and left them about 480 kilometres south of the Cape. They set an easterly course intending to sight Île Saint-Paul (St Paul’s Island) to fix their position. However, due to heavy fog, the crew missed the sighting and had to continue east, with the new intention to sight the Western Australian coast instead. On 26 October, the crew spotted land and continued their course on a north-east heading.

 

Shipwreck

At about 2:30am on 27 October, Stefano struck and became stuck on a submerged rock off the coast of Western Australia. Pounded by fierce southerly winds, Stefano was thrown onto its starboard side and quickly took on water. As waves battered the ship, some of the crew were washed overboard, and the one lifeboat they managed to launch capsized immediately. The crew still aboard Stefano clung to the rigging until the ship began to break up, forcing them to abandon ship. In the water, they relied on flotsam to stay afloat in the rough seas. Ten of the crew eventually made it to shore.

 

Handdrawn map, Point Cloates sticks out from the coast.

Section of a map of the north-west coast of Australia, showing Point Cloates and Exmouth Gulf.
State Library of Western Australia, MAPR0000400

 

Factors contributing to the wreck

Navigation

Having survived the storm off the coast of South Africa, the crew of Stefano needed to sight St Paul’s Island to determine their location and set a course for Hong Kong. When fog caused them to miss sighting the island and Western Australia became the next visual cue for navigation, it increased the chances of Stefano encountering the offshore hazards along the coastline.

Ship trap

At Point Cloates, the northward flowing Ningaloo Current circulates in an anti-clockwise direction, creating a coastal-setting current that pushes ships towards the coast. The recirculation is caused by the meeting of the Ningaloo Current and the southward flowing Leeuwin Current, located further offshore, and the coastal and seabed topography near the Point Cloates peninsula.

Point Cloates is known as a ‘ship trap’ due to its combination of coastal-setting current, offshore reefs, low-lying land (which is hard to see at night), and north-west trending coast in an area where many ships are on a north-east course.

 

Survivors

After Stefano broke apart, seven of the crew made it ashore: Carlo Costa, Michael (or Miho) Baccich, Tommaso Dediol, Giovanni Lovrinovich, Domenico Antoncich, Fortunato Bucich, and Giovanni (or Ivan) Jurich. The day after the loss of Stefano, they made the decision to walk north in search of other crew and provisions. Jurich was left behind since his feet were too swollen for him to walk.

On their trek, they found another two other survivors washed up on the sand, Nicolò Brajevich and Diodato Vulovich, as well as a small quantity of provisions. The eight of them returned to Jurich and after resting, the whole group made the journey north. Using the wreckage from Stefano that had washed ashore, the survivors set about making a shelter and camp.

On 31 October, a small group of Aboriginal people approached the temporary camp. They gave the survivors some food and a map showing the north-west coast of Australia. With this, Costa determined they were not too far north of the Gascoyne River and rallied the crew for the walk south, parting ways with the Aboriginal people who had aided them.

As they went south, the group separated, with three crew too exhausted to continue. Again, both groups were aided by Aboriginal people. They were eventually reunited with each other, and a tenth member of the crew, Giuseppe Perancich, who had come ashore further south and had been living with a group of Aboriginal people.

After heading further south and not finding the river, they eventually reunited at the sites shown to them by the Aboriginal people who had helped them days before. They remained there for many days, but in late December a violent storm disoriented and separated the group, contributing to the deaths of Perancich and Vulovich.

By the end of January 1876, all but two of the ten survivors had died. Baccich and Jurich headed inland, looking for the Aboriginal people who had assisted them previously. After finding them, the two men were nursed back to health and lived with the group for about three months. Some of the Aboriginal people had previously worked with the pearler, Charles Tuckey and, knowing his route, they took Baccich and Jurich north to intercept Tuckey near Exmouth Gulf. On 18 April 1876, Baccich and Jurich were picked up by the crew of Jessie and sailed for Fremantle, where they arrived on 5 May.

Young man posed standing next to a seated man.

Studio portrait of Miho Baccich and Ivan Jurich, about 1876.
State Library of Western Australia, 8324B

 

Before departing Australia, Baccich and Jurich returned to the north-west coast, to present gifts to the people who had kept them alive. In August, they finally began their journey home, arriving in Dalmatia in October. Baccich commissioned a priest, Stefano Skurla to document their story and his manuscript (completed 1876) is the main contemporary evidence for the story of Stefano.

 

Thalanyji, Baiyungu, and Yinggarda lands

The surviving crew of Stefano travelled through the traditional lands of the Thalanyji, Baiyungu, and Yinggarda peoples.

With no knowledge of the local environment and having been wrecked at the beginning of Western Australia’s hot summer period, Stefano’s survivors relied heavily on the Aboriginal peoples they encountered for shelter, food, fresh water, and eventual reconnection with Europeans. Through their long custodianship of the lands and sea in this area, Baiyungu, Thalanyji, and Yinggarda peoples today maintain knowledge of the life-sustaining freshwater soaks and food resources of this country, and the traditions and stories of their ancestors.

The Skurla manuscript contains very little information about the individual Aboriginal men and women who assisted the shipwreck survivors, and guided them on their journeys up and down the Nyingaloo (Ningaloo) Coast. The names of two young men who specifically cared for Baccich and Jurich are provided. Jacki was a young, single man of about 20 years who cared for Baccich, and Jimmi, another single man of about 30 years of age, cared for Jurich.

 

Discovery

In 1997, on the first day of a WA Museum expedition near Point Cloates, a potential wreck site was detected during a magnetometer survey. The target could not be followed-up with further remote surveying due to the nature of the seafloor and atmospheric conditions. The seabed was too rocky for side scan sonar to discern wreck features and nearby thunderstorms made further magnetometer surveys impossible. This meant that divers needed to visually inspect the area, which was generally achieved by towing the divers behind the workboat.

Unfortunately, the search area had hundreds of tall coral formations that sat just below the water surface (known as bommies), which often made it impossible to tow divers or instruments behind the boat. The team often had to resort to looking underwater using a glass bottom fitted into the hull of the workboat, and divers and equipment could only be towed when the conditions were right.

Coral bommies near the Stefano wreck site, 2021.

Credit: VAM Media | Terra Australis Productions

On 9 April, Geoff Kimpton and Jeremy Green were being towed behind the workboat, looking for any visible evidence of Stefano. After about an hour in the water, Kimpton spotted a davit, iron bar, mast ring, and plate iron, at what would later be determined as the stern of the ship. By the end of the short survey, the team also found a pile of anchors, located about 40 metres from the stern and iron knees (deck supports). A brass navigation lantern, deck light, and ship’s bell were recovered.

Round metal base with a glass dome on top; the glass is slightly damaged.
WA Museum, STF5

Deck light recovered from the Stefano wreck site in 1997.

Credit: WA Museum, STF5

Bell half discoloured green, half rusty orange with marine matter attached.
WA Museum, STF1

Bronze bell recovered from the Stefano wreck site in 1997.

Credit: WA Museum, STF1

 

WA Museum expeditions

Scientific underwater searches for Stefano began in the 1980s, with the WA Museum and the Maritime Archaeology Association of Western Australia (MAAWA) undertaking expeditions to Ningaloo Reef and Black Rock Passage.

1981

During the excavation of the Rapid wreck site near Point Cloates, WA Museum staff took the opportunity to tow divers in an area where coal had been found, which was thought to be from Stefano.

1987

In 1987, the WA Museum conducted its first official expedition in search of Correo d’ Azia (1816) and Stefano, which were both lost near Point Cloates. Divers were towed through Ningaloo Reef and the area around Black Rock (an isolated reef near Point Cloates).

Ocean waves breaking over a long flat-topped rock that sits just around the waterline.

Black Rock, near Point Cloates.

Credit: WA Museum

1993

In 1993, MAAWA undertook an expedition in search of Stefano, led by their President Ian Warne. The trip was funded with a donation to the WA Museum, made by Amadeo (Monte) Sala. Sala had recently translated the contemporary manuscript by Stefano Skurla that documented the Stefano survivor accounts of Baccich and Jurich.

The WA Museum supported the expedition, providing a workboat and technician in-kind.

In July 1995, Ian Warne led a second MAAWA expedition, this time on land, following the survivor’s trek. This expedition was also funded by Sala. The aim was to identify the locations referred to in the survivor accounts and find evidence of the wreckage that was reported to have washed ashore.

Seven people sitting in a corregated iron hut looking at documents.

Team from the 1993 expedition gathered in a fisher's hut, reviewing information.

Credit: WA Museum, STF/B/4

1997

In 1997, the WA Museum revisited the Point Cloates area to search for the Stefano wreck site. The team had updated equipment, including Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and side scan sonar. It was during this expedition that the Stefano wreck site was discovered.

2008

The Stefano wreck site was inspected and recorded during fieldwork in May 2008, along with other wreck sites in the Point Cloates area. The WA Museum team found a new section of the wreck site and the expedition provided more insights into the wreck site formation. The post-expedition report reiterated the evidence supporting the identification of the wreck as Stefano, following the 2004 discovery of an unidentified wreck site on Ningaloo Reef.

Shallow trench between rocks on the seabed, with artefacts in the sand and a diver.

Photomosaic showing part of the Stefano wreck site, 2008.

Credit: WA Museum

2009

In 2009, the WA Museum conducted a routine inspection of the Stefano wreck site. The aim was to locate and position fix two anchors at the south end of the site that had not been sighted during the 2008 inspection. The anchors’ dimensions and orientation were measured and mapped in relation to the rest of the site. A mound of chain, which was reported at the time of discovery, was also relocated and measured.

Top-down sketch showing rocks interspersed with artefacts.

Sketch of the Stefano wreck site, 2009.

Credit: WA Museum

2021

Between 19 and 27 July 2021, the WA Museum conducted dive searches and surveys of the Stefano wreck site as part of the Disney+ documentary series ‘Shipwreck Hunters Australia’, in collaboration with Terra Australis Productions and VAM Media. This expedition enabled greater understanding of the extent of the shipwreck site and associated wreckage plume, and located previously undocumented archaeological features.

Learn about the other wreck sites featured on 'Shipwreck Hunters Australia'.

Departments

Maritime Heritage

Keywords

Shipwrecks