Once the SS Speke, now a rusty wreck

THE SS Speke was said to be one of the largest three masted sailing ships ever built with yard lines 32 meters in length.   The third captain at her helm, Captain Tilston sailed her from Los Angeles to Newcastle in 1904.  They traversed the South Pacific with a load of coal from Peru to Australia and headed up to Geelong with a load of wheat.  They battered headwinds for days along the Victorian coast.  Smoke from a bushfire obscured the coastline and the captain mistook his surroundings and set a course that landed them on a reef in Kitty Miller Bay in Phillips Island.