The Cataraqui was a British-built barque constructed in Quebec in 1840 by shipwright Williams Lampson. It had a tonnage of 802 tons and measured 138 feet in length, with a beam of 30 feet and a depth of 22 feet (approximately 42 × 9 × 7 meters). Designed as an assisted emigrant vessel, the ship was registered in Liverpool, England, and primarily used to transport settlers to Australia, specifically to Port Phillip in the Colony of New South Wales (now Victoria). On April 20, 1845, the Cataraqui departed Liverpool under the command of Captain Christopher Finlay, carrying a total of 410 people—including 369 emigrants and 41 crew members. The voyage was relatively uneventful, aside from the loss of one crew member overboard, and saw the births of five babies and the death of six others en route. As the ship approached Australia, it entered Bass Strait and encountered a severe storm in the early morning hours of August 4, 1845. During the storm, the Cataraqui was cast onto jagged rocks off Fitzmaurice Bay on King Island, off the north-west coast of Tasmania. Heavy waves and adverse weather conditions hampered rescue efforts, causing many passengers and crew to be washed overboard. Only nine individuals—eight crewmen and one emigrant, Solomon Brown—survived the wreck. The survivors clung to wreckage and were stranded on King Island for five weeks until rescued by the cutter Midge and brought to Melbourne. The disaster resulted in the tragic loss of approximately 400 lives, making it Australia's worst maritime civil disaster. In the aftermath, 314 bodies were buried on King Island, and a memorial plaque at the Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial at Triabunna commemorates the victims. The wreck of the Cataraqui holds significant historical importance as the most devastating shipwreck in Tasmania's history, symbolizing the peril faced by early emigrants and maritime travelers of the period.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.