Ellen (1883 ship)
1883 trawler
Ellen (also known as SS Ellen) was a steamship that was launched in 1883 and whose career involved coastal shipping firstly in the Colony of Queensland and then in the Australian state of South Australia. It was wrecked in Gulf St Vincent in South Australia at Morgan's Beach near the town of Cape Jervis on Saturday, 12 December 1908 during its return from fishing in waters around Kangaroo Island to a destination on the mainland.
History of vessel prior to loss
Ellen was built in Brisbane, Queensland in 1883 for Messrs. Breslin and Watson for the purpose of trade from Gladstone to Keppel Bay and other ports within Queensland.
The ship purchased several years prior to 1908 for the purpose of 'coastal work' in South Australian waters by Messrs. W. R. Cave and Co. and Co., grain merchants, shipping and Customs agents based at Port Adelaide.
Historical account of loss
The vessel was chartered in November 1908 for 3 months by a delegation of Scottish fishermen consisting of Messrs. W. J. Newlands, W. Eaglesham, W. Grieve and M Grieve, and who were interested in establishing a fishing business in South Australia.
On Thursday, 10 December 1908, Ellen under the command of Captain A. McMillan departed from Glenelg for Kangaroo Island with Mr Newlands, and a crew of 6.
The public source identifies “Ellen (1883 ship)” as 1883 trawler. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ellen, ship and trawler.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5364712. Authority coordinates are -35.596, 138.102. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883 and 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ellen (1883 ship)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.