Worlds 2nd Best Wreck Dive | SS YONGALA

Worlds 2nd Best Wreck Dive | SS YONGALA | It's Legend & History

Рет қаралды 2,536

3 жыл бұрын

The SS Yongala is regularly listed as the worlds 2nd best wreck dive, and for good reason! It's insane!
The wreck isn't your traditional wreck dive, you can't penetrate the wreck and swim around the interior of the ship, but life on and around the wreck is just crazy! There is an unbelievable amount of marine life that call this ship home, massive schools of fish, Cod, Grouper (one massive 3m long Queensland Grouper), sharks, marble and bull rays, hordes of Giant Trevelley, and of course tens if not hundreds of Olive Sea Snakes. The wrecks' also been underwater for over 110 years, and supports a wide range of corals and soft corals.
It's one of those dives where you really don't know where to look! While we did have some issues on this particular dive, I have dove this site in the past - and even with the issues we had, this dive was crazy good!
But the ships also got a pretty wild history and a number of legends around why the ship sank - which are pretty interesting!
Hope you enjoy the video!
For more visit my website: www.tomparkphotography.com
& check out my Instagram tomsunderwaterphotography
Camera Gear Used:
- Sony A7SIII
- Sony A7III
- Atomos Ninja V
- Sony 16-35mm f4
- Sigma 24-70 f2.8 Art
- Sony 50mm f1.8
- Sony 18-105mm G F4
- Sigma 35mm F1.4
- Isotta Underwater Housing
- Sea&Sea Underwater Housing and Domes
- OrcaTorch D950v and D910v Video Lights
- Zhiyun Weebill S Gimbal
- DJI Mavic Drone

Пікірлер: 20

@Pretty60s Жыл бұрын

Thank you. I’ve dived this beauty but didn’t know about Moonshine or the lack of radio. Wow. Not sure the maritime museum reports about the horse. Unless I missed it. Thanks for the info. I’ll be back. Diced the world but this one is top of the list with the Solomon Islands and the Poor Knights in New Zealand.

@jimmycarthy7431 3 жыл бұрын

This is fantastic Tom. Had absolutely no idea about the ships history! Super interesting

@TomPark 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you mate, it’s got a really interesting history, with a number of small things that could’ve saved the ship!

@louisaxu1950 3 жыл бұрын

Loved the history behind it mate! Still awesome footage 👏👏

@TomPark 3 жыл бұрын

@@louisaxu1950 thanks Louisa, real glad you enjoyed! The ship has a really interesting bit of history!

@kristybeer7371 2 жыл бұрын

Actually her final destination was Cairns, as per her usual route, Melbourne to Cairns, with Brisbane and Townsville stopping points along the way, but Townsville was normally her second last stop, before her final port Cairns, after which she would have turned around and gone back down the East Coast. Also, when she sank, the wireless destined to be fitted on her had not yet reached Australia. During the inquiry, the general manager of the Adelaide Steamship Company, stated that "at present there is a complete apparatus on a sailing ship, bound from London, which was to have been installed on the Yongala". Therefore, after she had sunk, the wireless systems ordered for Yongala and several other Adelaide Steamship Company ships were still on their way to Australia, and one wouldn't have been ready in Townsville or Cairns to be fitted on the Yongala had completed that 99th and fateful voyage. Her sister ship Granatala was fitted with one of these wireless systems ordered, months after the Yongala disaster, as was another Adelaide Steamship Company ship, the SS Koombana, which met nearly the exact same fate as the Yongala in March 1912, one year almost to the day after Yongala was lost, after sailing into a cyclone on Australia's West Coast. Even with the wireless installed, the Koombana met the same fate as Yongala...so it's unknown if the Yongala would have still sailed or met her fate with the wireless installed. It's interesting to note that the wreck SS Koombana has still not been found. And for as for the ship being late and therefore sailing directly into a cyclone she would have avoided had she been on time - unfortunately this is also a legend that is untrue, and is simply makes for a great, but untrue, story. The horse, Moonshine, was originally from Toowoomba, but had been purchased in Brisbane. She (?) had recently won several races in Brisbane, and was purchased by a Townsville horse trainer, John Cambell, for his Townsville client. The fact the horse came from Toowoomba likely confused the originator of the story that the horse had to be brought down to Brisbane from Toowoomba, thus delaying Yongala's departure from Brisbane. Truth is, Yongala was scheduled to depart from Brisbane at 2pm, and it was clearly stated and understood that "no cargo accepted after 12 noon". As the "cargo" was an animal in this case, special arrangements were made so that Moonshine could and did board at 1pm. Yongala therefore departed Brisbane at her scheduled time of 2pm. Yongala wasn't delayed at all, and she was just fated to sail into that unnamed cyclone off the of Cape Bowling Green in Queensland, which she would have, Moonshine or no Moonshine. Unfortunately, Moonshine's body was the only one found, in the mouth of Gordon's Creek, off Ross River, in Townsville, which had been badly attacked by sharks, and was missing it's head and hoofs. The horse trainer, John Campbell, had boarded the ship in Brisbane as a second class passenger to travel and disembark with Moonshine in Townsville, and went down with the ship. All of the above comes from a book written by Max Gleeson, titled "Yongala: Townsville's Titanic". This is the shipwreck I was introduced to in 1994, which started my obsession with shipwrecks, and I own Max's book. I'm Townsville born and bred, and Max's book, back then the original version (mine is the 2000 reprint), captured my interest in a way nothing else had. There was a picture of a 13 year old girl, Mona Shannon, who was travelling alone from Brisbane, after visiting relatives, to her home and parents in Townsville, who went down with the ship. As a 12 year old girl who had family in Brisbane and lived in Townsville - I couldn't fathom what that girl, my age, who lived in my town nearly 100 years ago, went through on that night. It's what captured my imagination. Moonshine or no, wireless or not, the story is still a sad, tragic yet utterly captivating one, that lives in through her wreck and the beauty of the reef and life she now holds.

@kristybeer7371 2 жыл бұрын

Another tragic fact: a woman by the name of Mrs Murray, was travelling in first class with her 4 children and her maid - children were aged 6, 5, 3 and 8 weeks, returning home to Cairns after spending 6 months with her family in Sydney, while her husband, a prominent Cairns solicitor, had stayed in Cairns due to business. Mr Murray had not yet met his new 8 week old daughter.

@maxgleeson3314 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Kristy, thanks for those kind words…