Loch Ard was an iron-hulled clipper ship that was built in Scotland in 1873 and wrecked on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria, Australia in 1878.

[1][6] Loch Ard left Gravesend, Kent on 1 March 1878, bound for Melbourne, commanded by Captain George Gibb and with a crew of 36 men and 18 passengers, a total of 54 people.

The inquest determined that, unable to see the Cape Otway lighthouse; having faulty chronometers on board; and not having been able to take a reading to establish his exact position due to bad weather conditions over the previous few days, Captain Gibb was unaware how close he was running to the coast.

The lookout called “breakers ahead!” Capt Gibb quickly ordered sail to be set to wear ship and get clear of the coast, but they were unable to do so in time, and ran aground on a reef.

The widespread popular belief that Gibb mistook the opening of the nearby Loch Ard Gorge for Port Phillip Heads has no basis in fact or probability.

There is no physical or cartographic resemblance whatever, ships are obliged to stop outside the Heads to take on a pilot, and Loch Ard never entered the Gorge.

The only two survivors of the wreck were Eva Carmichael, who survived by clinging to a spar for five hours, and Thomas Pearce, an apprentice who clung to the upturned hull of a lifeboat.

Also recovered was a unique Georgian pocket watch, made in 1814 by the Belfast watchmaker James McCabe, reputedly for Dublin Corporation to present to King George IV in 1814.

[10] Eva and the Cabin Boy by Sheila Dewey, produced at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon in 1994, concerned the Loch Ard shipwreck.