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The Thornliebank

The Thornliebank

Discovered in a joint operation between Maritime Discovery Group and WreckSploration on 13/10/2024. The wreck lies in 46m of water off the south west of Rottnest Island.

Weighing 1,492 gross tons, 68m long and 11.5m wide. The Thornliebank was a 3 masted bark, though only 2 masts are visible in the wreckage which matches her scuttling photo.

From Dr Ross Anderson and Aurora Philpin (WA Museum):

  • Site 44 is 69m length and has a counter stern, straight stem, main mast and mizzen mast
  • Four hulks in the right size range ~70m length Maranda, Thornliebank, Loch Ness and Concordia
  • Loch Ness and Concordia can be dismissed as having too many masts in scuttling photos, Thornliebank matches Site 44 as having only a main and mizzen mast in scuttling image, there are no images of Maranda
  • Maranda was reported to have been towed by SS Lameroo and sunk at 32°04’ and 115°22 with Rottnest Lighthouse bearing 65° 9 miles, which is not near Site 44 location
  • An unidentified deck structure on the photograph of Thornliebank being scuttled is probably coal handling machinery, or donkey boiler base, which correlates with unidentified collapsed metal plating/ structure in the same deck location on Site 44
  • Site 44 is identified as Thornliebank

Built in Glasgow in 1886, and originally owned by the Bank Line / Andrew Weir and Co. of Glasgow; Thornliebank was after a short time sold to Australian owners. She was converted to a coal hulk and scuttled with charges, after a fire, 10 miles SW of Rottnest Island near Perth in 1928.

Confusingly there were two almost identical iron / steel sailing ships named Thornliebank around at the same time, both built in Glasgow, and both owned by the Bank Line / Andrew Weir and Co. of Glasgow.

  • Thornliebank  (1896-1913) Official Number (ON) 106033 – wrecked in Scilly Isles UK
  • Thornliebank  (1886-1928) Official Number (ON) 93336 – which is Graveyard Site 44

Excerpt from shippingtandy.com

The very first ship to be built specifically for the Andrew Weir Shipping & Trading Company, was the 1,492 gross ton three masted barque Thornliebank. Built by Joseph Russell of Port Glasgow in 1886, her dimensions were 244.5 x 37.6 x 21.5 feet. However, on 6th August 1891 when she was five years old, and shortly after dropping her anchor at Owens Anchorage, Cockburn Sound, Western Australia she caught fire. Although the blaze was extinguished by the crew after a two day battle, it was due to the many twisted beams and plates that the ship was written off. At a subsequent Court of inquiry held four days later on 10th august, the cause of the fire could not be ascertained and the crew were exonerated. Had the accident occurred in the UK the ship could have been repaired, but in the fledgling Western Australia there were no such facilities in those early years. As a consequence the Thornliebank’s hull was sold to J. & W. Bateman. They used her as a coal hulk in Fremantle before she was sold to McIlwraith & McEacharn. However, on 18th April 1928, when the Thornliebank had rusted away and was beyond economical repair, the 42 year old ship that was once the pride of the fleet, and Andrew Weir’s first designed ship, caught fire and was towed out to the nearby Rottnest Island and sent to the bottom. Owen’s Anchorage where the Thornliebank caught fire was a favourite spot where captains ran their ship up onto the beach for careening. It seems likely, that if at the time of the fire the ship was high and dry, any water required to douse the flames would have to have been carried a long distance in wooden fire buckets.

This model was made possible due to the support of our sponsors for the 2024/2025 season.
Advantage Air Australia
Dodd Group
Mondo Electronics
XLI PTY LTD

Dived and modelled 28/11/2025

3D Model

Animation

Static Images


Historical images

The only photos we have of the Thornliebank scuttled off Rottnest island are the two scuttling photos below.
The two photos where the vessel is still rigged are of the ‘other’ Thornliebank wrecked in Scilly Isles UK. They are however great reference photos.

Artists impression of Thornliebank below. Credit shippingtandy.com

GPS Position and orientation

The wreck is orientated in a N-S orientation (Bow to the south) in the vicinity of 32° 6.876’S 115° 27.625’E



Access the details from the WA Museum Shipwreck Database Here

Access the details from Wrecksite.eu Here