49.2

Another shot along The Great Ocean Road & the site of the shipwreck of the Sailing ship The Loch Ard.On the night of 31st of May in 1878,the 18 passengers aboard the Loch Ard were holding an end of voyage party.They had spent 90 days at sea & expected to arrive in Melbourne the next day.Visibility & conditions were poor & the captain was unable to establish a clear position.Just after 4am the fog lifted & the crew saw the limestone cliffs rising up in front of them.They tried desperately to manoevre the ship against the winds & currents.The shouting woke a young passenger,Eve Carmichael,who thought the crew was celebrating the sight of land.She went to see for herself,immediately realizing the danger,and woke her family.As they were getting dressed,Eva later said,the Loch Ard ran onto an outlying reef off Mutton Bird Island.Eva was swept overboard.but clung to a broken piece of mast.She held on for 4 hrs until,at the entrance of a narrow gorge,the mast jammed against some rocks.She then saw Tom Pearce,a young member of the crew,on the beach & called for help.It took Tom an hour to swim out & pull her ashore.Leaving Eva in a cave,Tom climbed the cliffs & eventually came across two boundary riders from nearby Glenample Station]-]