Invercauld (ship)

The Invercauld was an 1100-ton sailing vessel that was wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1864.

The Invercauld was under the command of Captain George Dalgarno and was bound from Melbourne to Callao in ballast with a total of 25 crew. She struck the Auckland Islands at 2 am on 11 May 1864, broke up and was totally destroyed in a short amount of time. The crew all struggled towards a small cove nearby and nineteen of the twenty-five crew managed to get ashore. Crew members Middleton and Wilson and four others drowned. All of the rest were hurt in some way and had no shoes. The survivors spent the night onshore and then at daybreak investigated the scene of the wreck and came away with only some few pounds of ships biscuits and salted pork. They found the bodies of the drowned crew and stripped them of their clothing but were unable to bury them.

The crew had enough timber to build a rough hut and, as one of the crew had matches, a fire was able to be lit. After four days of inactivity there were no remaining provisions and three men climbed the cliffs in search of food. The climb was very difficult as the cliffs were at least 200 ft high and rocky under foot. Eventually the entire group of survivors, save one ill man and a caretaker, climbed the cliffs. The original group of three had caught a pig, which they brought back to the group. The smell of the roasting pig, called to the caretaker, who left the gravely ill man to die alone on the beach. At the top of the cliffs they found fresh water and some roots. The weather was very cold with frost and snow on the ground. They spent the night and then pushed on towards Port Ross, a journey that took several days due to the thickness of the scrub. They managed to hunt a single pig for food and continued to travel, losing another man to cold and hunger. They arrived on the other side of the island and set up a shelter but for 21 days had nothing to eat or drink except roots and water. Seven men decided to return to the wreck and the group saw nothing more of them.

Andrew Smith and four others left the remaining five crew to search for the beach through thick bush. They were able to get to the beach and harvest shellfish and sent a man back to fetch the others only to find that another two had died. The group reunited and the eight men stayed on the beach for about a week. A group of five continued to explore and reached Port Ross, where they found the traces of the Enderby Settlement and huts. One man again went back for the others. By this time the group was getting very weak and lost a further two men leaving The Captain, the Mate Andrew Smith, the Carpenter Alex. Henderson and three seamen including Robert Holding, George Liddle and James Lancefield at Port Ross.

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