Qualla: MV Korean Star https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: MV Korean Star https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984 MV Korean Star: Introduction https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fifty-six metres from shore, at the base of a cliff on the Quobba coast, a ship lies torn in half and slowly surrendering to the Indian Ocean. The MV Korean Star never sank in deep water and never carried a cargo to its destination. It came to grief while simply waiting, anchored off Cape Cuvier in May 1988, when a cyclone named Herbie reached down and threw it against the land. What makes the wreck remarkable is not how it died, but that everyone aboard lived.

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full MV Korean Star: A Routine Voyage https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Korean Star was a bulk carrier built in 1984, four years old and unremarkable when it left Hong Kong on 11 May 1988. It sailed in ballast, riding high and empty, the way ships do when they are travelling to collect a cargo rather than deliver one. Nineteen crew were aboard, a...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-a-routine-voyage.mp3 0:06 2 full MV Korean Star: Cyclone Herbie https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Then the weather turned. Tropical Cyclone Herbie swept down the Gascoyne coast in May 1988, and a ship at anchor off an exposed cape is a ship in a vulnerable place. As the seas built, the Korean Star began to drag its anchors, the chains no longer able to hold against wind and s...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-cyclone-herbie.mp3 0:06 3 full MV Korean Star: Nineteen Lives https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Here the story diverges from so many shipwreck tales. All nineteen crew abandoned the breaking vessel, and not one of them was injured. They were rescued within a day of the grounding and flown to Carnarvon, shaken but whole. Cyclone Herbie caused real damage along this coast, ye...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-nineteen-lives.mp3 0:06 4 full MV Korean Star: A Coast That Eats Ships https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Korean Star joined a grim local tradition. The Gascoyne coast is exposed and cyclone-prone, its waters poorly sheltered when the big storms track down from the tropics between November and April. Just south, within the same Quobba Station boundaries, lies the country that rec...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-a-coast-that-eats-ships.mp3 0:06 5 full MV Korean Star: The Wreck Today https://qualla.com/mv-korean-star-1984/ Photo credit Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0. What remains is a landmark. The hull sits scattered just fifty-six metres offshore at the foot of the cliff, close enough that divers reach it from the beach as a shore dive, following a track that someone, with characteristic outback dryness, named Korean Star Road. The salt jet...

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Image: Calistemon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/e/8/w/mv-korean-star-1984-wp/qe8w-mv-korean-star-the-wreck-today.mp3 0:06 6 full