The Socrates shipwreck lies out from the shore opposite Moyne Court in Port Fairy Bay on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. Port Fairy Bay is notorious for vessels dragging and parting with their anchors when southerly and south-easterly gales prevailed. A total of 30 vessels were wrecked in and around the waters of Port Fairy between 1836 until 1876.

The Socrates was listed in Lloyds as a schooner in 1822. Described as snow brig of 152 tons in 1832 (SA Shipping Arrivals and Departures). Later converted to barque rig. Listed as three-masted ship in Parsons.

The Socrates was owned by Michael Connolly and John Griffiths, two Launceston whaling identities, and early settlers of Port Fairy. Connolly was also a member of the Port Phillip Association who sent Batman to find land across Bass Strait.

The Socrates had been used for whaling and trading between 1821 and 1843 and at the time it was wrecked was being used to transport produce from Port Fairy, which at the time was undergoing a transition from a whaling station to an agricultural and rural settlement of commercial importance.

After the boom in bay whaling in Tasmanian and Victorian waters the depression of the 1840s had set in and the Socrates was involved in carrying anything from timber, hay, general goods and livestock in the Bass Strait trade between Tasmania and Victoria. Connolly had attempted to sell the Socrates a month before it was wrecked.

Dive Type: Wreck Dive

Imported from The Scuba Doctor