Warrnambool Standard
June 16   1934

The Mahogany Ship
(To the Editor)

Sir:-  Since the appeal by the publicity committee of the Warrnambool Centenary Festivities Unlimited, as to the whereabouts and particulars of the Mahogany Ship was published in Saturday's issue, evidence has been coming in from all points of the compass.  Much of this has been published through your columns, but no doubt these further reports to hand will be of interest.

Mr J. Rollo discounted the widely accepted, blubber-soaked whaling ship theory, by stating that his father had owned a carpenter's bench made from the mahogany from the Mahogany Ship - this bench has since been converted into a mantle shelf which is still in existence and is being located by Mr Rollo.

Aboriginal reports at the time suggested that the ship had been on the hummocks since 1776.  Captain Cook sighted the Victorian coast in April 1770 so that the location of the wreck would prove of extraordinary historical interest.  In 1901, a Spanish coin dated 1717, or more than 50 years earlier than Captain Cook's discovery of the East Coast of Australia, was dug up from a garden in Hamilton and was reported to have been carried there by aborigines who found it near the Spanish Mahogany Ship.

No doubt other residents of Warrnambool or district have interesting information or beliefs on the question of the Mahogany Ship, and the committee would be grateful if that interest could be forwarded to these columns, and thus assist in the effort to reach a definite decision on what Mr J. Archibald, former curator of the Warrnambool Museum described as "the only piece of historical antiquity on the Australian Continent."

Yours Etc.
FRANK H. FORD

Publicity Committee W.C.F.U.

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