The Mahogany Ship: Myth or Reality?

Just west of Warrnambool, along the windswept coast of southwest Victoria, there's a mystery that’s been buried—literally—for nearly two centuries. A vanished vessel. A dark timber hull. A ghost ship that seems to appear and disappear with the tide of time.

They call it the Mahogany Ship.

Some say it was a Portuguese caravel from the 1520s, wrecked on this shore long before Cook or the Dutch ever reached our shores. Others believe it was a colonial schooner, misremembered and misplaced. But one thing is certain: for nearly 200 years, people have claimed to see it, search for it, or swear it was there—only for it to vanish again beneath the shifting sands.

In this episode, we’re chasing Australia’s greatest maritime mystery. We’ll walk the beaches, scour the archives, and ask: Was there really a forgotten ship buried on this coast? And if so… what happened to it?

This is the story of the Mahogany Ship—and why we’re still looking for it.