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Warrnambool Standard
February
1911
Mr. W.J. James, of Brunswick, through his
solicitors, has been granted permission by the Public Works department to use
100 feet square of the foreshore between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, where he
claims to have discovered an old Spanish vessel known as the mahogany ship,
which was probably wrecked in the 16th century.
The Mahogany Ship
With regard to the ancient wreck near
Warrnambool, supposed to be a Spanish mahogany ship, 300 years old, Mr. E.A.
Petherick says:- "If such is in existence to-day it cannot be the wreck
indicated by Mr James, and still be seen at low water. Her material is not
mahogany. She is also copper bottomed - a sheathing not used before the middle
of the 18th century. The first vessel in the British navy to be
sheathed with copper was the H.M.S. Alarm, in 1758. The vessel discovered is
said to be named Saphriniana. Can this be the Santa Anna, lost in 1811?
She came
out from England to engage in fishing trade, and left Sydney in April that year.
She was entered as 226 tons, and probably would be like Mr James' vessel, copper
bottomed."
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