The Age report on the wreck of TSS Coramba from 3rd of December, 1934. Credit:Fairfax By the time the Coramba was due to leave Warrnambool, the weather had turned. Captain Dowling requested permission from the shipping office to delay his return, but was ordered out to sea. In one of Victoria's worst maritime disasters, the Coramba capsized off Phillip Island during a storm on 30 November, 1934, and all 17 on board died. ''The ship should never ever have sailed. My father was so worried [about the storm] but he was ordered to go,'' Mrs O'Callaghan said. The devastation of losing her father and his entire crew was deepened by not knowing where the ship had finally come to rest.

Captain of the Coramba Capt. John Henry Dowling. Two weeks ago, maritime historian Des Williams and diver Mark Ryan, of not-for-profit Southern Ocean Exploration, ended one of the state's most enduring shipwreck mysteries when they found the Coramba lying on its port side 66 metres beneath the surface. ''Des promised me that he would never give up, and he didn't. He kept his word,'' Mrs O'Callaghan said. The Age report on wreck of TSS Coramba. Credit:Michelle Stillman Mr Ryan described the find as the sweetest discovery of all. ''This is the most looked-for ship in Victoria. It's a very significant shipwreck,'' he said. ''It was lost with all hands - it had a huge impact on the local community.''

The surviving family members of the all-Victorian crew were stunned by the news. ''It's such a relief,'' Mrs O'Callaghan said. ''I'm glad I've lived this long. I was hoping that I might be lucky enough.'' Her most treasured memento of her father is a letter he wrote to her when she was a baby and he often spent months at sea. It was a guide for how to live her life in the event that one day he didn't come home. ''My mother gave it to me when I was 12. It's the most beautiful letter. I love reading it. He was such a thoughtful man,'' she said. Her brother Jack, who was nine at the time of their father's death, died in December. He used to stare at the vast waters off Phillip Island wondering where his father's remains lay. His wife, Norma Dowling, 82, of Seabrook, said: ''Jack would have been over the moon … just to know that somebody had found it and that they were all laid to rest. Just to know where he was. He could have gone down there and said, that's where my dad is.''

Mr Ryan said the 50-metre cargo steamer was supposed to enter Melbourne through Port Phillip Heads but a fierce gale made that impossible. It was trying to seek refuge in Western Port Bay when it capsized before any lifeboats could be released. The bridge, and the ship's bell and clock - which had stopped at 10.30pm - were washed ashore, as were four bodies. ''I would assume the others were trapped inside the ship when it went down,'' Mr Ryan said, adding that the wreck may still contain remains. The 17 members of the Southern Ocean Exploration group had been searching for the Coramba for eight years before last month's unexpected find, Mr Ryan said. The wreck's location, 15 kilometres south-east of Phillip Island, was ''wildly outside'' where it was thought to be. ''I was actually out looking for a ship called the Kermandie. I knew that as soon as I put the boat over it and checked it with the depth sounder that what we had found was substantially bigger. I knew straight away that it had to be the Coramba,'' Mr Ryan said. Southern Ocean Exploration had spent nearly $30,000 trying to find the ship, he said. Diving to the wreck last Sunday, was ''absolutely mind-blowing''. ''The ship's in good condition considering what it went through. The back half of the ship, the stern, is in very good condition, the propellers are good. The front end of the ship is quite broken up from where it hit bottom,'' he said.

He couldn't see many artefacts, such as bottles or plates, but more dives are planned for coming weeks. Mr Williams' interest in the Coramba harks back decades. He wrote the 1985 book Coramba: The Ship the Sea Swallowed, and said he had been ''obsessing over the damn ship'' ever since. ''I got more involved with the families and it was the human side of the wreck that really got to me, not just finding the rotten thing. There were 17 people lost. In the late Depression era, it was a horror for the families,'' he said. John Sullivan, of Cranbourne, whose namesake grandfather went down with the Coramba, agreed that the calamity had been ''very traumatic'' for the families, and many endured years of financial hardship. He said his 84-year-old father, also named John, had dementia but he would consider telling him the good news. ''I am rapt … the perseverance has paid off.''

Mr Sullivan said his grandmother's and great-aunt's ashes had been scattered at sea where the ship was believed to have sunk, and he and his father would also have their ashes scattered above the wreck.