The passenger ship, SS Yongala, sank off Cape Bowling Green, on
23 March 1911. En route from Melbourne to Cairns she steamed
into a cyclone and sank without a trace south of Townsville,
Australia. The actual cause of the wrecking remains a mystery.
One hundred and twenty-two people perished in what was
considered one of the most tragic incidents in Australian
maritime history. There were no survivors. It was only in 1958
that the wreck of the Yongala was discovered lying in northern
waters south of Townsville and has since become renowned as an
internationally regarded diving and tourist destination. SS
Yongala was a steel passenger and freight steamer built in
Newcastle upon Tyne, England to special survey for the Adelaide
Steamship Company, at a cost of £102,000. She was launched on 29
April 1903 and was registered in Adelaide and took up the busy
passenger route linking the gold fields of Western Australia
with the eastern ports of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
Following company tradition, the vessel was