Kenn Reef
The Kenn Plateau lies off the north eastern Australian coast and is a region characterised by a series of prominent, bathymetric troughs and marginal plateaux.
The Kenn Plateau is thought to have formed as a sliver of continental crust, resulting from the rifting and seafloor spreading that occurred between 95 and 52 million years ago, along the eastern Australian margin forming the Tasman and Coral Sea basins The Kenn Reef areas consists of four main reefs which cover an area of approximately 40 km2 looking like a backward facing L-shaped structure (or boot) of 15 km in length, with a maximum width of 8 km along the southern edge.
The smallest unit and most westerly of this chain (the toe), contains a conspicuous boulder, 1.8 m high, on its northeast side, which from a distance appears as part of a wreck.
The Northern (or leg) reef encloses a shallow lagoon, which is entered on its western side near the southern end.
The vessel was single deck ship with beams; sheathed in copper in 1822 and with a displacement of 294 tons and a draft under load of 15 feet and had already made several trips from the UK to Hobart and Sydney carrying cargo (typically with a cargo of cedar, oil, and other articles, procured in the Colony for the return journey[3]) and both steerage and Cabin Passengers Captain Alexander Kenn, master of the ship William Shand died on or about 7 February 1829 at Launceston in Van Diemen's Land[4] Bona Vista 18 March 1828[5] Kenn Reef, 280 miles east of Mackay; Ship; an anchor still visible on Kenn Reef (?)
Jenny Lind Wrecked 21 September 1850 while underway from Melbourne to Singapore under the command of Joseph Taylor struck Kenn Reef, 280 miles east of Mackay.
A quick glance over the gangway seems to have shown the' mate better, and be immediately had the helm port hard up, and all hands called fore and aft.
The vessel wore off to the wind, but before the braces could be touched, she struck aft, and immediately afterwards lay broadside on to the reef, the sea making breaches over her. '
After great difficulty the jolly boat was launched, and two hands being placed in her, she was taken to a rock at a short distance, inside the reef, and there secured.
When all had left the ship, the people were divided in the two boats, and made for a coral bank, partly covered with sand, which lay about half a mile away.
On Monday a copper boiler and some lead piping, together with a cistern, having been procured from the wreck at low water, Mr. Philip Beal (a son, we understand, of the Rev.
The men employed at the wreck succeeded in saving many necessary articles, including some clothing; the boat builder's department, under the superintendence of the ship's carpenter, assisted by some persons who had a slight knowledge of boat-building, were actively employed; and Mr. Beal and his assistants were continually engaged in sustaining the lives of the people by distilling the sea water.
A rusty chain was discovered on the reef, and some boat boards and other pieces of timber in other places, also some cinders, as if a fire had been made on one of the banks.
By 25 September Mr. Beal had so far improved his machinery by means of articles procured from the wreck, that he was enabled to obtain twenty-five gallons of fresh water that day, and thenceforth the supply to the people was more liberal.
The provisions, however, began to get short, and the allowance was reduced to half a pound of flour a day, which had to be made into pudding, with salt water.
When the wind again shifted they made sail for Brisbane, and, after some difficulty in discovering the mouth of the river, succeeded in reaching within a few miles of the town on Tuesday night, and arrived in Brisbane next morning; all of them, including women and children, being comparatively well and hearty, after having been thirty-seven days on a desolate coral bank in the Pacific.
All persons appear to have exerted themselves in an extraordinary mannerly to remedy their condition; but there can be no doubt that to Mr. Beal is due the credit of every life saved, for if he had not brought science to bear upon their difficulties, and supplied them with water when there was scarcely a hope of it, the hot sun of that latitude and the burning sand on which they were encamped, would have made short work with them.
Captain Wickham, on behalf of the government, supplied the shipwrecked mariners with lodging and rations; the females and the children have been quartered with the matron of the immigrant depot, and we believe that the inhabitants generally have exerted themselves to assist the sufferers.
We are informed that the reef on which the Jenny Lind struck was not laid down on the chart of the Australian coast (dated 1849), with which the ship was provided.
In 1877 to Master Gill, Owner Vittery[9] in later times it was owned by Noakes & P. Hester 21 April 1854 Kenn's Reef, 250 miles north of Port Curtis Dutch vessel commanded by Capt A.Vietor.
[5] the Rodney was a wooden carvel ship of 877 tons built in Sunderland, United Kingdom in 1850 registered in London and owned by Green & Co.
