In 1836, marooned sealers claimed they saw the wreck of a galleon half-buried in the dunes as they walked along the coast back to Port Fairy.
Their claims were corroborated by others in the area who said that over the years they had spotted the same wreck; oddly, eye-witness reports stopped after 1890, and the ship hasn't been seen since.
Dubbed the Mahogany Ship for the exotic dark wood of its (rumored) skeletal hull, the mysterious vessel is theorized to be a lost Portuguese galleon that wrecked in 1522 while on a covert exploration through Spanish-controlled waters in search of--ironically--another bit of Maritime lore, Marco Polo's fabled island of gold, "Jave la Grande."
Supposedly, the Portuguese were succesful in their quest, and charted the east coast of Jave la Grande--present-day Australia--before turning back after the Mahogany Ship sank.
If this story is true, it means that the Portuguese discovered Australia over one-hundred years before the Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon, made first contact with the Aboriginals, and charted the east coast nearly three-hundred years before Captain Cook.
These bold claims have made the Mahogany Ship the subject of much controversy and debate. Many believe that it doesn't exist, while others argue that it does, and the ship's eventual discovery will rewrite history.
So great, and exciting, is this possibility that in 2001, the government of Portugal gifted the city of Warrnambool with a monument dedicated to the early Portuguese explorers, Vasco Da Gama and Prince Henry The Navigator.