WRECKED IN BYRON BAY
Courtesy of Trove Richmond River Herald 11 January 1929
About 52 years ago the brig Brilliant was weathering in Byron. Bay (states Mr. Oliver Jones, of Coraki, in an interview with the Ballina “Beacon”) when a north-east gale caught the vessel and landed her well up on the beach. There was no chance to get out of the Bay with the head wind as a steamer could do today. There is no question about it, she was well and truly stranded, and the sand soon collected around her. You could easily step on to the deck from the sand. The late Mr. Chas. Jarrett bought her for a small sum and engaged the late Thos. King to refloat her. There was nothing too hard or arduous for this man to undertake. He was trained by that great pioneer, the first William Yabsley. He was also a man of splendid physique — a King by name and a King by nature. He was a very prominent figure in the salvaging of the barque “Examiner” at the Clarence Heads, which is another tale.
The bottom of the Brilliant was some what knocked about in the beaching and had to be repaired where she was. To do this work he got the following mechanics: His old apprentice mate, Oliver Jones; John Flynn; a few timber-getters; Hoskins, and a sailor off the stranded ship. The first thing was to raise the vessel 16ft. off the beach — no mean task. Hydraulic jacks were unknown in those days. They found the bottom in a bad way and had to put a new keel and garboard streeps in her. These were cut and squared in the range at the back of the Bay, thence hauled to the stranded vessel, also all the timber for lifting and packing up the vessel to the required height, viz., 16ft. This in itself was no easy job, when you consider that the brig was some hundreds of tons in weight. They had lively times in those days, and the pioneers always held their own.
The tucker was hard, the work was hard, and the men were hard. The sailor chap was always growling at the tucker; it was not nearly as good as what he had on the ship. Hoskins, an old man of 60, did what little cooking they wanted in his spare time and he got a bit fed up with the growling. He gave the sailor one on the jaw, grabbed and threw him over his shoulder and said “if I was a bit younger, young man, I would give you a rough time of it.” At this time King’s home was at the Broadwater, now known as Bagotville, and there was only one house on the road between his place and Byron Bay. As they gradually worked the brig into the sea, their troubles intensified. One day, whilst having dinner, one big wave broke over the brig and carried all the dinner away. The wetting was nothing, they were used to that, but the loss of the tucker was serious. However, in less than than two months they had her safely into Ballina and tied to the wharf. This work was all done by six men, and it is doubtful if the same work could be done today in five times the time, with all their modern appliances.