The hundredth anniversary of the tragic sinking of the SS Tuggerah off Royal National Park occurs on Friday, May 17.
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The captain and five crewmen died when the 56 metre long coastal collier, carrying an uneven load, "turned turtle" in rough seas.
To commemorate the anniversary, three boat loads of divers from St George Scuba Club will dive the wreck on Friday.
President of the club, Michael McFadyen, said the SS Tuggerah had long been considered the best wreck dive in Sydney.
"I have dived the Tuggerah" almost 150 times over the past 30 years and I never tire of it," he said. "There is always something new to experience".
"After the dive, the divers will remember the six lost sailors, just a few of the hundreds who died off the Sydney coastline in the past 230 years.
"As well as being an important maritime archaeological site, the wreck has become an important part of the southern Sydney marine environment, offering protection to huge amounts of marine live.
"As well as the large schools of nannygai, kingfish, seapike and yellowtail that sometimes totally cover the wreck, it has visitors of the rarer kind.
"Over the years divers have seen many seals on the bottom, some grey nurse sharks, huge bullrays, black whaler sharks and a few times, the deep ocean sunfish."
Michael McFadyen describes the tragedy:
The Tuggerah was a 56 metre long coastal collier of 749 tons built in Scotland in 1912.
She was used on the Illawarra to Sydney coal run for most of her life.
After loading 820 tons of coal at the Bulli Jetty on Saturday, May 16, 1919, the Tuggerah put to sea at 2.30 pm.
During the preceding few days, fairly strong seas had been running along the coast but the weather was not exceptionally rough at the jetty.
When she left Bulli, the Tuggerah was noticed to have a slight list to port and coal was not evenly distributed in the holds and 10 tons of coal was on the deck.
Rather than trim the boat and fix the hatches before leaving the wharf, the skipper, Captain McConachie, decided to do it at sea.
It is not known why the coal was not trimmed before she left Bulli, but a good guess is that it would have delayed the Tuggerah and cost the owners money.
Soon after passing Bulli Reef, it became obvious that the seas were worse than previously thought.
Despite this, the ship continued north, all the while taking water on board due to the list and the fact that the two hatches were not in place.
The crew faced considerable difficulty in trimming the coal due to the seas.
Just after 4 pm when off Marley Beach in Royal National Park, a huge wave, later estimated as six metres, came over the port side.
Within a few minutes the Tuggerah "turned turtle, and sank".
As the ship rolled, Captain McConachie saw she was doomed and ordered the lifeboat to be launched.
The Tuggerah went down stern first and the survivors scrambled into the only lifeboat salvaged.
After an hour searching for other survivors, the 11 lucky crew rowed to Port Hacking, arriving on the beach at Cronulla at 7.15 pm.
Six persons died, including Captain McConachie.
One survivor was Thorvald Thomsen. Six weeks earlier he had been absent from the SS Myola when she sank (all the crew were in quarantine due to influenza) and almost 30 years later he survived the sinking of the SS Bombo off Port Kembla.
Today the Tuggerah lies at a depth of 45 metres just over two kilometres off Wattamolla in Royal National Park.
She is a favourite for very experienced scuba divers due to her relative intactness as well as the prolific marine life that is found on her.
