For fifty-two years the black boilers of the 'Clonmel' have lain half
buried in the sandspit, and they may still be seen among the breakers
from the deck of every vessel sailing up the channel to Port Albert.
The 'Clonmel', with her valuable cargo, was sold in Sydney, and the
purchaser, Mr. Grose, set about the business of making his fortune
out of her. He sent a party of wreckers who pitched their camps on
Snake Island, where they had plenty of grass, scrub, and timber. The
work of taking out the cargo was continued under various captains for
six years, and then Mr. Grose lost a schooner and was himself landed
in the Court of Insolvency.
While the pioneers at the Old Port were on the verge of starvation,
the 'Clonmel' men were living in luxury. They had all the blessings
both of land and sea--corned beef, salt pork, potatoes, plum-duff,
tea, sugar, coffee, wine, beer, spirits, and tobacco from the cargo
of the 'Clonmel', and oysters without end from a neighbouring lagoon.
They constructed a large square punt, which they filled with cargo
daily, wind and weather permitting; at other times they rested from
their labours, or roamed about the island shooting birds or hunting
kangaroo. They saw no other inhabitants, and believed that no black
lucifer had as yet entered their island garden; but, though unseen,
he was watching them and all their works.
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