Wonga Wonga
An Australasian Steam Navigation Company steamer that rescued the crew of the schooner Margaret Nicol from Gabo Island in 1859.
The ship
Wonga Wonga was an iron screw steamer with three masts, launched on 15 May 1854 by James & George Thomson at Govan on the Clyde for the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, and registered in Sydney in February 1855. As built she measured 207 ft 2 in by 25 ft 3 in.
She worked the intercolonial coastal trade. In 1868 she was lengthened to 242 ft 9 in, and in March 1870 she left Sydney for Honolulu as the first steamer on the Australian end of the new mail service to San Francisco. She was broken up in Sydney at the end of 1880.
Gabo Island
In December 1859 the schooner Margaret Nicol was damaged in a gale and sank in the lee of Gabo Island. Heritage Victoria records that her crew were rescued by the steamer Wonga Wonga after two days on the island.
Not yet confirmed:
- The Heritage Victoria report names only "the steamer Wonga Wonga". A smaller steamer of the same name, also built on the Clyde in 1854, was registered in New Zealand by 1859, so the rescuer is very likely the ASN ship described here, but no source we have says so directly.
- Any other rescues by Wonga Wonga near Gabo Island.