Discovery of MV Blythe Star shipwreck solves 50-year maritime mystery
Seven men survived after the MV Blythe Star sank near Tasmania 50 years ago, but the ship wreckage was never found — until now
READING LEVEL: ORANGE
Australian researchers have solved a 50-year-old maritime* mystery after discovering a shipwreck on the ocean floor near Tasmania.
The MV Blythe Star sank on October 13, 1973, after taking on water and tilting* to one side while making a routine* trip from Hobart to King Island.
All 10 crew members managed to scramble onto a small inflatable* life raft where they watched the ship‘s bow* rise skyward, before being swallowed by the ocean.
Survivor Mick Doleman has previously described the desperate minutes as they abandoned* ship.
“The scariest thing is standing on the side of your world — a ship sideway on the ocean — and watching it disappear from under you,” he told Channel 7’s Sunday Night program.
Soaked and shocked, the men quickly realised captain George Cruikshank was unable to send an SOS* message before the sinking. No one knew they were missing.
Over eight nights in very rough seas, the men huddled together in the raft. They could see land, but couldn’t find a safe place to land.
Sadly, one of the crew died at sea.
“The Tasman Sea can pitch up the best and it threw everything at us,” Doleman said.
“It would smash us down the front of a wave and the raft would fold.”
For eight days, the crew suffered in the bitterly* cold, pounding seas. They finally steered the raft to land at Deep Glen Bay on the Forestier Peninsula, but another two men died on land, possibly from exhaustion or the cold.
It took another three days before the surviving seven men were rescued after a small group of them scrambled up a steep cliff and walked to a road to stop a passing driver.
But while the crew had been found, the wreckage of the MV Blythe Star would remain lost for another 50 years until CSIRO researchers aboard RV Investigator discovered it on April 12 this year while looking for an underwater landslide.
The researchers knew there was an unidentified shipwreck in the area, so they decided to investigate that at the same time.
Using beams* from a boat to map the ocean floor and then two cameras to view the wreckage, the researchers were able to match the size of the ship and its features to the MV Blythe Star. Part of the vessel’s name, the word STAR, was identified on the ship’s bow.
The vessel was still in one piece and in pretty good condition. It was covered with only a small amount of algae* and seaweed. Many marine creatures were now calling it home, with schools of fish, crayfish, and several fur seals filmed by the underwater cameras.
The tragedy led to important maritime laws in Australia, including the introduction of a maritime position reporting system, which has greatly improved safety at sea.
GLOSSARY
- maritime: relating to sea ships or sailing on the sea
- tilting: leaning to one side
- routine: a normal way of doing something
- inflatable: something that can be blown up or filled with air
- bow: front of the ship
- abandoned: left behind
- SOS: emergency
- beams: type of sonar that finds objects and maps the seabed
- algae: living plant
EXTRA READING
Explorer’s lost ship found after 107 years
Titanic wreckage in ocean-floor close-up
Ancient Egyptian shipwreck found in Mediterranean Sea
QUICK QUIZ
1. On what date did the MV Blythe Star sink?
2. How many crew escaped to the life raft and how many eventually survived?
3. What natural event were the researchers looking for when they found the wreckage?
4. How did they prove it was the MV Blythe Star?
5. What was developed after the tragedy to improve safety at sea?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Shipwreck survival
Being stranded out to sea and on land for this amount of time would be very physically and emotionally difficult, hence why some of the men didn’t survive it.
Share 10 tips below as to how you would try and survive the elements at sea, and then on land, until you were rescued.
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Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; HASS; Personal and Social; Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
What reasons does it give in the Kids News article as to why the MV Blythe Star sank?
Do you think that might have been a common occurrence in those days?
Do you think survivors would be interested in seeing the shipwreck now?
Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Design and Technology; Critical and Creative Thinking
VCOP ACTIVITY
1. A Letter From the Crew
The crew of the MV Blythe Star had to endure some pretty rough conditions after their ship sank. Write a letter home to a loved one from the perspective of one of the crew members. You can decide whether to start the letter before the ship sinks, or from the life raft. Try to use facts and details from the article to create a more realistic recount of the experience. Also, include emotional language to connect with the audience and make them really feel what you are going through.
Read your letter out loud to check it makes sense and connects to the audience. Then share it with a classmate for feedback on WWW (what works well) & EBI (even better if).