My Grandfather Mr John Boyes was the relieving Keeper had just finished his shift on the Wonga Shoal and came ashore a few hours before the tragedy.

In 1916 at Beachport he was taking stores across to Penguin Island in a small boat with his son when it was swamped by a huge wave . Luckily he had another Keeper helping him who managed to steer the swamped boat onto the rocks. My grandfather helped his son swim for the shore and saved the young boy. All was witnessed by the Keeper on the Lighthouse and a group of people on the shore.

The incident was recorded in the Lighthouse log book and reported in the local newspaper.

Later that year my grandfather left the Lighthouse service took his family back to Adelaide and joined the 50th Battalion and ended up in France during WW1.

Library note: the photograph shows a tugboat approaching the twisted wreckage of the Wonga Shoal lighthouse which was destroyed through a collision with the sailing ship Dimsdale on November 17th, 1912

SA Memory : Lighthouses