While in number terms the busy traffic in coal and stone was largely responsible for the many shipwrecks on the Illawarra coast, the fickle marine weather, coupled with an often rocky coastline, was to be the undoing of other ships not related to coal, stone or other local produce. Three described here are each significant for different reasons, and their stories follow. The first – the Cities Service Boston – was the only significant wartime casualty along the Illawarra coast, despite the ever-present Japanese submarines lurking to disrupt wartime transport. The second (the SS Nemesis) was a vessel sunk 120 years before being found offshore Port Kembla, thanks to sophisticated marine surveying equipment being used for other purposes. The last, the clipper Queen of Nations, went down literally adjacent to the city of Wollongong, such that its plight was well recorded – and had its more curious moments. The Queen of Nations had made its way with a full cargo from England, bound for Sydney – and went down not much more than fifty miles from its destination.