Blythe Star
The vessel MV Blythe Star was a coastal freighter which foundered off south-western Tasmania in October 1973. The crew of 10 successfully took to a small inflatable liferaft but drifted undiscovered. A search for the ship and its crew led to the largest maritime search operation conducted in Australia to that time.
After 11 days the survivors were found ashore in rugged terrain near Deep Glen Bay on Tasmania's Forestier Peninsula. Three of the crew died as a result of the ordeal. As a result of this tragedy, the AUSREP maritime position reporting system was introduced to the Australian Navigation Act.
No sign of the vessel was found until the mid-to-late 1990s when the crews of local fishing boats identified the presence of a large wreck; and the crew of a trawler recovered a bell which was positively identified as belonging to Blythe Star. The wreck was then formally identified by the CSIRO and UTAS in April 2023.
Similar Artists