The loss of human life and the people left behind tug at the heartstrings in a new film about shipwrecks off Newcastle.
As does a moving tale of a dog left aboard a ship in trouble, which had an ending that left the audience gasping at the film premiere.
Infamous east coast low storms also feature in the film, titled Shipwrecked Newcastle, along with vivid underwater footage of wrecks.
The film was released on Friday on the Stories of Our Town YouTube channel.
Director Glenn Dormand, also known as Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab, said "most people who died on these ships were from all over the world".
"We were the fifth biggest port in the world. We had hundreds of ships coming here and it was really dangerous," he said.
"But we had what everyone wanted - the coal and the timber."
East coast lows were a big part of Newcastle's history and, of course, more modern incidents.
"The same thing that took down the Adolphe and the Cawarra took down the Sygna and the Pasha Bulker," Chit Chat said.
As well as featuring historic photos, the film goes underwater to show shipwrecks as they are now.
"We had amateur guys shooting wrecks and sending footage through," he said.
The underwater footage brought the film to life, "taking you somewhere most people haven't been".
"To be suddenly diving on a wreck five kilometres off Catherine Hill Bay or Swansea and go, 'wow that's in 40 metres of water'," Chit Chat said.
"The hope is that people all over the world will watch this film. There's an interest in wreck diving worldwide."
In one of the film's many stories, Bill Hillier recounts the wrecking of the Alpena in a storm off Stockton in 1909.
When it got into difficulty after entering the harbour, a lifeboat was launched.
"It got out to the Alpena, but the captain complicated the situation," Mr Hillier said.
"He didn't want to lose his schooner. He wanted his wife taken into the port, but wanted to leave himself and the crew onboard."
But the vessel struck further trouble, so the captain and crew agreed to leave on a lifeboat.
"There was a lovely little dog onboard, three miles off Newcastle. They couldn't take her," Mr Hillier said.
The lifeboat rolled twice and only three crew could hold on. Twenty were washed overboard.
The men were saved, with the dog still on the ship.
The rescue made worldwide news and the US President issued medals of bravery to the crews.
"The drama wasn't over. Two days after the rescue, the captain heard there was a salvage team going out for his boat," Mr Hillier said.
"He hired a tug. The two tugs were neck and neck."
The captain's tug got there first.
"He managed to get back on board his boat to save it. He ran into his cabin and grabbed a rifle and said 'no one else is going to come on my boat'.
"Then he turned around and the little dog was still there."
A hessian bag of jewellery, owned by the captain's wife, ended up overboard.
"One day somebody will be walking along Stockton Beach and find a hessian bag. Good luck," Mr Hillier said.
