Relics, Dunbar, shards of ceramics, glass and metal from the wreck of the Dunbar off Sydney Heads. The Dunbar went down near The Gap at the entrance to Port Jackson in 1857.

The Dunbar, named after its owner, the wealthy Duncan Dunbar, was at the time said to be the largest vessel ever built at the Sunderland shipyard in north-eastern England. It was completed in 1854, when the Australian gold rushes created a demand for passenger ships, although because of the Crimean War it was first used as a troop ship, finally voyaging to Sydney in 1856.

On the night of Thursday 20 August 1857, after 81 days at sea, the Dunbar arrived off Sydney Heads. Captain James Green was a veteran of eight previous visits to Sydney and had been captain on the Dunbar on its 1856 voyage, but on this night there were treacherous weather conditions, with heavy rain squalls impairing vision and obscuring the cliffs at the entrance to Port Jackson, several hundred metres north of the Macquarie lighthouse.

http://www.dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/dunbar_shipwreck

The Dunbar (vessel)

B2487 Relics, from wreck of sailing ship 'Dunbar', ceramic / porcelain / terracotta / glass / metal, various makers, various places of production, c. 1850, collected from Sydney Heads, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1857

Fragments, especially of broken earthenware

POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Relics from the shipwreck of the 'Dunbar' off Sydney Heads

Object No. B2487

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