Ospray Shipwreck

About Ospray Shipwreck

The HMS Osprey (commonly spelled Ospray) was a 682-ton, 4-gun Vigilant-class Royal Navy wooden screw gunvessel that met its fate on the rugged coastline of Cape St Francis, near St Francis Bay, during the night of 29/30 May 1867. While returning from a deployment in China, the vessel encountered a severe westerly storm and ran aground on the local "Wild Side" rocky coast, roughly 3 to 4 kilometers west of Seal Point. Out of the 83 crew members on board, only one life was lost - a stoker named George Devreaux, who tragically drowned while attempting to secure a heavy rope from the breaking ship to the shore. A subsequent Royal Navy court-martial found the ship's commander, William Menzies, and two navigating officers guilty of negligence for failing to properly sound the land amid treacherous counter-currents, resulting in a severe reprimand.

Today, while the wooden hull has disintegrated or been blown apart by early copper salvage operations, tangible pieces of the maritime tragedy remain accessible. The massive iron boiler of the HMS Osprey is permanently embedded in the beach rocks and is highly visible to hikers at low tide along the coastal trail leading toward the local blowhole. Additionally, the vessel's original anchor was salvaged and is permanently displayed at the entrance to Cape St Francis within the town's commemorative Anchor Garden, while small artifacts and historical records are preserved at the St Francis Shipwreck Museum.