On Christmas Day 1908, the 181-ton iron steam tug Advance left Newcastle harbour to meet the 91.5-metre iron barque Inverna. On approach, there was a collision that drove the tug onto her side. Seawater rushed aboard the Advance, extinguishing the boiler fires. The tug then rolled over and sank with four crew trapped below deck. Captain Mackenzie, the engineer, cook and First Mate Wills, were free of the vessel. Wills grasped a grating but lost sight of the others, who were not seen again.
The Inverna and later the pilot vessel Ajax searched without success. Wills, the sole survivor, clung to the grating and after twelve terrifying hours, struggled ashore at Dudley Beach. Badly injured, he received assistance at a nearby house.
The Advance was built at Williamstown, Melbourne, in 1884. The 36.6-metre steamer was fitted with an eighty horse power compound steam engine. From 1885 to 1901, Advance operated as a pilot vessel and part time tug at the entrance to Moreton Bay, Queensland. In 1901, Advance was sold to James Fenwick to operate as a tug in Newcastle, New South Wales.
The Advance now lies upright in fifty metres of water on sandy bottom.
