The wreck of the Hurricane

The Hurricane was a three masted iron clipper with raised decks, built in 1853, with an overall length of 214ft, her beam 30ft and draught 20ft which was wrecked after hitting ‘Corsair Rock’. The rock is situated off the eastern side of Port Phillip Heads. 

The Hurricane was one of the first iron hulled
sailing ships built and also one of the fastest clippers on the
Australian run. Her maiden voyage from Glasgow to Melbourne with 256
passengers took 87 days and the return to London took only 83 days. In
1856 she was converted into an auxiliary screw vessel and continued in
the Australian trade.. Under Captain D H Johnstone she
was inbound from Liverpool with 2000 tons of general cargo and 19
passengers when she grazed Corsair rock entering Port Phillip Heads. She
tried to make Capel Bay but sank off Arthur’s seat on the 21 April
1869. The Tug Titan rescued passengers and crew. The wreck was
relatively intact until the late 1960s when Ports and Harbours engineers
considered it to be a navigational hazard blasted it. T