The murky lagoon harbouring a centuries-old maritime mystery
The elusive Deadwater wreck is Western Australia's longest-running maritime mystery, encompassing colonial eyewitness accounts, artefacts tenuously linked to the wreck, and vivid folklore involving treasure, matricide and piracy.
A small team investigates the Wonnerup Deadwater, a stagnant lagoon in Western Australia, in search of a ship that has been the subject of mystery for centuries. The metal detector picks up something, but it is just a crushed can of bourbon. Further exploration reveals an antique glass bottle, a rotting fence post, and a handmade copper nail, possibly from a small boat.
Despite several findings, the elusive Deadwater wreck remains a mystery, one of Western Australia's longest-running maritime enigmas. Colonial officials reported seeing a large vessel near the Vasse Inlet in the 1840s, while a settler claimed to have seen it around the same time. Modern researchers believe the legend may have been fueled by sightings and artifacts from multiple wrecks. However, no conclusive evidence has been found to identify the wreck.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
