The Fame was a timber brig built at Aberdeen, Scotland, by the famous Aberdeen shipbuilder, Walter Hood in 1840. Altered to a barque and with a length of 29 metres, the vessel appears to have begun operating to Australia in 1854. At the time of loss in 1857, Fame was operating as a collier on the sixty-miler route between Newcastle and Sydney, and to Melbourne.
Belonging to the Melbourne firm of John Poole & Sons, Fame was wrecked on the Sow and Pigs Reef within the entrance to Sydney Harbour on 29 July 1857. En-route from Newcastle direct to Melbourne, a gale forced it into Port Jackson. While riding at anchor, Fame drifted onto the reef and was holed, finally sinking in 18 metres of water at the western end of the shoal. One crew member refused to leave the sunken vessel, and was found next morning lashed to a section of mast rising out of the water.
The shipwreck site was accidentally uncovered during dredging operations in 1990 and was substantially damaged. A rescue archaeological project, undertaken in 1991by the NSW Heritage Office, succeeded in recording the main elements of the site.
