![Andrew Coffey has revealed how the anchor from the Fiji ship came to be upside down in concrete on the beach. Picture by Sean McKenna Andrew Coffey has revealed how the anchor from the Fiji ship came to be upside down in concrete on the beach. Picture by Sean McKenna](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/nB9BrLNgExsfwsLgDBevWP/990a7f09-c6dd-4fa5-9a52-d3624520cfb2.jpg/r0_0_6000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
For 60 years, an anchor stuck upside down in concrete pointed to the tragic shipwreck just offshore at Moonlight Head but few knew how it got there.
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Former abalone diver, Warrnambool's Andrew Coffey, noticed a story in The Standard this week about the shipwreck and decided it was time to reveal the story behind how the upside down anchor on Wreck Beach came to be.
Mr Coffey, now 91, said he along with three others had dived to the wreck of the Fiji, and one day in 1964 decided to secure the anchor that had been dragged up onto the beach.
![Andrew Coffey says he, along with some of his fellow divers, put the anchor in the rock back in 1964. Andrew Coffey says he, along with some of his fellow divers, put the anchor in the rock back in 1964.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/nB9BrLNgExsfwsLgDBevWP/3a044b91-b18e-468a-9432-e1c374888221.jpg/r0_0_3024_4032_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Coffey - with the help of some of his fellow divers - used gelignite to blow a hole in the rock on the shore and fixed the anchor in upside down with a full bag of cement.
"I'm the only one left that was mixed up with that anchor," he said. "We did a good job because it's been there a long, long time."
![Some of the survivors of the Wreck of the Fiji. Picture supplied Some of the survivors of the Wreck of the Fiji. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/nB9BrLNgExsfwsLgDBevWP/f5df0960-d3ed-4ad4-abb3-795f8ced61de.jpg/r0_38_1410_1113_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The divers had carved their names in the concrete and rock but he said that had long since been washed away by the ocean and time.
![The wreck of the Fiji off Moonlight Head. Eleven sailors died and 14 survived the disaster. The wreck of the Fiji off Moonlight Head. Eleven sailors died and 14 survived the disaster.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/nB9BrLNgExsfwsLgDBevWP/74f07a0a-8295-451a-a9a4-d304cf246dd3.jpeg/r0_6_967_550_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"It's dangerous," he said of diving off the coast.
"There's no question about that. The sharks ... up to 20-feet long. Huge things," he said.
"I did see a lot of sharks. Only two looked as though they were going to bite me in half."