Notorious Ship

Experience the awe of a fifteenth-century caravel with Notorious, a replica made entirely from reclaimed timber.

This wooden sailing ship, c1500, was researched, designed, and constructed single-handedly by Graeme Wylie over ten years at his home in Bushfield, near Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. The ship's keelson, an ironbark beam salvaged from the viaduct at the Warrnambool Breakwater, was laid in April 2002. The frames were completed by the end of 2003, and by 2008, the public was allowed onsite even before the planking was completed. The ship was launched at Martin's Point, Port Fairy, on 7 February 2011.

Notorious was constructed of reclaimed Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) with a displacement of 58 tonnes. The ship is lateen rigged, making it Australia's only operational lateen-rigged ship. Its interior boasts an authentic period design, including a cooking fire. Notorious features modern GPS navigation, a diesel engine, and some other modern conveniences, all hidden behind timber panels.

The Mahogany Ship, a partly-buried shipwreck, was discovered between Warrnambool and Port Fairy and last seen in 1886. Its discovery in 1836 inspired Wylie to create Notorious. Many believe that the Mahogany Ship was a Portuguese caravel that sailed from Batavia in 1520 before entering the Southern Ocean. Caravels were a revolutionary design in ship