Actaeon Street                                                                     

The Actaeon was a ship of 305 tons built at Fort Gloster, India in 1815. She sailed from Mauritius for Hobart under the command of Captain Mackey on the 6th September 1822 with a cargo of salt, port, spirits, wine and soap. After she rounded South Cape she sailed up through the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Hobart however; around midnight the ship hit the out edge of the reef on the 26th October between Recherche Bay and Southport Lagoon that now bears her name as does the island chain. The rudder was torn away from the ship when she ran aground on the northernmost island within the reef and stuck fast. No lives were lost and all crew landed safely back in Hobart. A rudder gudgeon later recovered from the reef is now in the collection of the Maritime Museum of Tasmania.  

Acteon was a figure in Greek mythology. He came across the Goddess Diana and her nymphs bathing and she turned him into a stag. He was eaten by his own hunting dogs. The photographs are of the fountains at the Palace of Caserta near Naples in Italy. This is a UNESCO world heritage site.  One shows Diana and her Nymphs bathing and the other depicts Actaeon as he turns into a stag with his hunting dogs advancing to eat him. The Palace of Caserta features in the Star Wars films as Queen Amidalas Palace.

 

Broxam, G.& Nash. M (2012). Tasmanian Shipwrecks 1797-1899, Nararine Publishing, Hobart 
O’May, B (1985). Wrecks in Tasmanian Waters 1797-1950, AB Caudell, Government Printing, Hobart