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The Story of the Blythe Star

Added 2023-07-04 10:15:00 +0000 UTC

Hear this story first hand

One of the best sources I found for this story was a news segment by Seven News Australia. Not only does it visit some of the areas where parts of this story took place, but it also features many extracts from an interview with Michael Doleman.

Michael was the youngest crewman on board the Blythe Star at the time of its sinking – just 18 years old. It was also one of his very first times being away at sea. Despite this, he was one of the three men who scaled the cliff and went to look for help.

After a great many years (during which he preferred not to talk about what happened to him), he ended up being the last man who had survived the disaster left alive. Not wishing to die without telling his story, he finally agreed to recount his experiences.

Returning to the wreck

As recently as April 2023 there have been further developments to this decades-old story. After multiple requests from the family of survivors, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (an Australian government organisation) organised a search of the waters where the Blythe Star sank to try and locate the wreck.

You can see some imagery and video that resulted from this search in this article. Finding the wreck is something that helped to renew interest in the story, and bring some closure to the families of survivors.