Columbia

The Columbia was a gaff cutter with an open deck, aft of the mast along with a centreboard and an open fish well.

She was representative of the many open boats used in wet-line fishing and lobster fishing in the period prior to World War II. When lobster fishing, the two crewmen normally worked about 25 pots.

During a severe north-west storm, which The Geraldton Express of 23 February 1921 described as blowing with ‘almost hurricane force’, the Columbia, under the command of Felice Rinaldi Miragliotta (28), anchored in the lee of Rat Island.

Miragliotta had put down three anchors, and about 40 fathoms of chain, besides a heavy four-inch cable. Because it was only half-decked, the Columbia shipped a great deal of water as the seas broke over it. The anchor cables broke, and the boat was washed into the shallow water where it bumped on the bottom, causing a leak.

The Columbia, by then sinking, started to wash back out to deep water, so Miragliotta tried to swim a line to a rock some 20 metres away. The line proved too heavy for him in the rough surf, and he had to let it go. However, he succeeded in reaching the rock. The crewman, Giuseppe Benvenuto (38), an Italian from Genoa, could not swim and jumped overboard with a hatch cover to help keep him afloat. This was torn from his grasp by the waves, and he disappeared. The Columbia sank in 20 feet of water.

The following day, Miragliotta was rescued by the fishing boat Britannia from the rock to which he had been clinging for 20 hours.

On 7 March 1921 Benvenuto’s body was found by W. B. Fallowfield on Rat Island about three miles from where the Columbia went down. With the assistance of George Lombardi, Francesco Olivari and E. Weston, the body was recovered from between a couple of rocks, and buried. Lombardi and Olivari identified the body. He had managed to reach the shore with his left leg broken just above the ankle, improvising a bandage out of his clothes. It will forever remain a mystery how he got there.

He was buried on Rat Island, in what is said to be one of the loneliest graves in the world.

The inscription on Benvenuto’s headstone reads:

A MEMORIA

Del Caro Socio
Guiseppe Benvenuto
Di anni 38
Naufragato II Giorno 22/2/1921
II Club Giovane Italia Eresse

IN MEMORY

of our Dear Member Guiseppe Benvenuto
38 years of age
Shipwrecked on 22 February 1921
Erected by the Italian Youth Club

The storm which sank the Columbia was wide-spread, and wrecked the Ada at North Island, and a number of boats at Shark Bay.

The Columbia was salvaged a fortnight later using the Swansea and Fleetwing. Once raised to the surface, it took constant baling by nine men, while leaks from damaged planking were found and stopped.

The boat was taken to Rat Island for further temporary repairs, before being taken to Geraldton for a thorough overhaul. After being repaired, the Columbia was later lost four miles south of the mouth of the Moore River.

Felice Rinaldi Miragliotta continued to fish the Abrolhos Islands and Geraldton during the winter months, and from Fremantle in the summer (as did many other Fremantle fishermen).

The Miragliotta name remains well known in the WA Fishing Fraternity. Felice’s brother Francesco, was probably one of the earliest Italian fishermen at the Abrolhos Islands, commencing line fishing there in 1907.

Francesco’s son (also Felice or Phil) was a founding member, and later a director of the Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-operative.