The 'Coonatto' in Adelaide, Australia, circa 1860

In 1876 the Coonatto was owned by the Orient Line, and her last voyage began at Adelaide on 14 November 1875. She was laden with bales of wool and copper ingots. She passed the Lizard at 2.20 p.m. on 19 February 1876, and at 4.15 a.m. on 21 February she was aground on the chalk rocks near Beachy Head.

It was high tide and the weather was not bad, so the ship survived until low tide when the crew managed to reach the shore with no lives lost. Salvage soon started and continued for five or six weeks until most of her cargo was recovered. The ship itself was gradually broken up by the gales until she reached her present condition, with iron frames and pieces of teak scattered along the rocky shore.

The Coonatto was a large three-masted ship of 633 tons, 166 feet (50 6 metres) long and with a beam of 40 feet (12-2 metres). She had been built in London at the shipyard of Thomas Bilbe in 1863, and since her trade was with Australia she was named after an Australian township.

The Coonatto is particularly important historically because she was built at the time when the hull construction of large ships was being changed from wood to iron, and when sail and wind power was being superseded by engine power.

The wreck of the Coonatto, looking aft