Australian War Memorial Logo
Search

Donate Today

  • Collection Open Information Close Information
    • Official Histories & Unit Diaries
    • Understanding the Collection
    • Research at the Memorial
    • Donating to the Collection
    • National Collection Loans
    • Projects
  • People
  • Visit
  • Commemorate Open Information Close Information
    • Last Post Ceremony
    • Honour Rolls
    • Anzac Day
    • Remembrance Day
    • Customs & Ceremony
    • Speeches
  • Learn Open Information Close Information
    • Schools & Teachers
    • Memorial Articles
    • Encyclopedia
    • Understanding Military Structure
    • Podcasts
    • Glossary
    • Magazine
  • Get Involved Open Information Close Information
    • Donations & Bequests
    • Corporate Partnership
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Volunteer at the Memorial
    • Friends of the Memorial
    • eMemorial Newsletter
    • Grants, Scholarships & Residencies
    • Research Papers
  • Shop Open Information Close Information
    • Memorial Shop
    • Images, film and sound
    • Lone Pine Seedlings

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Memorial Articles
  3. blog
  4. SS Cumberland’s place in maritime history

Main navigation

  • Our People
  • Our Work
  • Our Organisation
  • Media Centre
  • Memorial Articles
    • Australians and Peacekeeping
    • Australians at war
    • Gulf War 1990-1991
    • Journal of the Australian War Memorial
    • Korean War 1950 - 1953
    • NAIDOC Week
    • RAAF Centenary
    • Victory in the Pacific Day
  • Speeches

SS Cumberland’s place in maritime history

Jennifer Milward

05 February 2016

If you were compiling a list of maritime “firsts”, you might want to include the SS Cumberland: she has the distinction of being the first civilian ship to be lost in Australian waters due to an enemy mine.

The SS Cumberland was a four-masted steamer owned by the British Steam Navigation Company. Early in the First World War, she was being used to transport cargo around Australia and to England. In July 1917 she was heading for England with a cargo of frozen meat, wool bales and Red Cross parcels. In fact about 95 per cent of her cargo consisted of ingots of copper and lead, but this was kept secret at the time due to wartime censorship.

Collection Item A00711

Wreckage of SS Cumberland off Gabo Island,7 July 1917.

On the morning of the 6th July, the Cumberland was steaming near Gabo Island just off the north eastern coast of Victoria. About 8.40am, two explosions rocked the steamship. The captain and crew thought they had been torpedoed or struck a mine. The explosion blew a hole in Hold No 1. While water poured into the hold and smoke billowed out of it, frozen beef was floating around the ship.

After a request from Garden Island, the Japanese Navy cruiser Chikuma proceeded to the area to provide assistance to the Cumberland. A navy diver from Chikuma reported that the damage was caused by an internal explosion. This report was accepted, despite Australian divers the next day reporting the explosion was external. Two days later newspapers were claiming the Cumberland had been sabotaged. The government allowed the story of sabotage to continue rather than admit there could be a minefield lying ten kilometres off the south coast of Australia.

At the end of September, the Naval Board decided to sweep the area using crews from the recently establish mine sweeping section of the Royal Australian Naval Brigade. Operations commenced on 8 October. The next day, the first mine was discovered. Three days later another mine was found. On 15 October the Minister for the Navy announced that there was a minefield near Gabo Island.

Collection Item RELAWM09902

Damaged Hertz horn marine mine Type II: German armed merchant raider 'Wolf'

As the sweeping took place, residents in Mallacoota could hear the explosions. But it was not known how the mines got there until 15 January 1918 when the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy’s China Station in Singapore received a message  that a bottle had been found in the sea off Toli Toli, Celebes, by natives. The bottle contained a message from a captured prisoner on the German raider SMS Wolf giving information about the Wolf’s operations and identifying the raider as the former Wachtenfels. It also contained a descriptive drawing of the vessel.

During its fifteen-month voyage, the crew of the Wolf captured or sunk fourteen vessels. As well as a field of fifteen mines near Gabo Island and fifteen mines near Cape Everard, the Wolf laid mines off Cape Town, Bombay and New Zealand. The SS Cumberland was one of thirteen ships which struck mines laid by the Wolf, but the only Australian vessel to become a casualty.

Despite the sweep in October 1917, more mines were found during November and December. The Navy conducted another sweep of the area in September-October 1918. It was not completely successful either, as eleven years later the crew of a fishing trawler received a shock to find a mine in their nets. This is the mine now held in the Memorial’s collection.

The Wolf also laid mines in New Zealand waters around Farewell Spit on the north-west tip of the South Island and near the Three Kings Islands in Cape Reinga. One of these mines was found on a west coast beach as recently as December 2008.

After lying beached at Gabo Island for five weeks, an attempt was made to tow the Cumberland to Twofold Bay. However a rush of water into hold No 1 caused her to become unmanageable and she sank. Fortunately there were no casualties during either the original explosion or the final sinking of the vessel.

In 1938 the Viking Queen hoped to salvage the cargo but was not able to locate the wreck. The salvage vessel Foremost 17 successfully recovered approximately 1825 tons of ingots, which they believed to be 95% of that cargo, in 1951.

The wreck of the Cumberland lies in open water some five miles off the southeast coast of Green Cape, New South Wales, at a depth of over 94 metres. She is now a protected Historic Shipwreck under the provisions of the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976.

Author

Jennifer Milward

Last updated: 30 March 2021

  • Back to Articles
1 The Donations and bequests

Donations & Bequests

Your generous donation will be used to ensure the memory of our Defence Forces and what they have done for us, and what they continue to do for our freedom remains – today and into the future.

Find out more
2 Visit Transcribe.awm.gov.au

Transcribe

Help preserve Australia's history by transcribing records from the National Collection. Enhance accessibility and discoverability for all Australians.

Find out more
The placesofpride

Places of Pride

Places of Pride, the National Register of War Memorials, is a new initiative designed to record the locations and photographs of every publicly accessible memorial across Australia.

Find out more
Visit the Australian War Memorial

Visit the Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial is open for visitors as we work to expand our galleries. Entry is free and tickets are not required.

Find out more
Canberra Highlands in Grayscale

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF
TRADITIONAL CUSTODIANS

The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and waters. We pay our respects to elders past and present.
Location map of The Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial building

The Australian War Memorial

Fairbairn Avenue
Campbell ACT 2612
Australia
View on Google Maps (opens in new window)
Google Map data ©2025 Google
Australian War Memorial Logo
  • Go to AWM Facebook
  • Go to AWM Trip Advisor
  • Go to AWM Instagram
  • Go to AWM Youtube

Footer

  • About
  • Contact
  • Venue Hire
  • Media
  • WM Magazine
  • Donate Today
  • VG Portal

The Australian War Memorial

Fairbairn Avenue

Campbell ACT 2612

Australia

 

Opening Hours

10 am to 4 pm daily (except Christmas Day)

 

In preparation for the daily Last Post Ceremony,

galleries are progressively closed from 3:40 pm.

 

Public entrance via Fairbairn Avenue, Campbell ACT 2612

Sign up to our newsletter

Subscribe

Legal

  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Freedom of information

Copyright 2025 Australian War Memorial, Canberra. All rights reserved