Johnston was on board The Amy on February 13, 1898, when high seas and strong winds blew the ship onshore at Thirroul Beach.

"As soon as the vessel struck, about 5 pm on Sunday afternoon," the Mercury reported, "members of the crew were observed lashing themselves to the rigging, while two ran along the poop, but retreated after a heavy sea struck the ship."

Despite the efforts of those on shore, none of those on board could be saved; it is believed they died after being hit with pieces of the ship as it broke up rather than drowning.

A packet of letters addressed to Johnston washed up on the beach, yet somehow his name was missing from the list of passengers published in the newspapers following the tragedy.

Days later a body of one of the crew washed up on Austinmer Beach; there was confusion as to who it was. One person said it wasn't the winchman Olsen, but a second said it was.

And so the body was buried under the name of Olsen - though it was actually Johnston. A photo taken days before his death eventually confirmed that.

Then Johnston was overlooked again, when residents decided to erect a memorial to those who lost their lives.

After being moved from place to place, and once being vandalised by hoodlums, it has come to rest outside the Thirroul Beach Pavilion.

The rear of the memorial included the names of the victims - guess whose name is missing.

Johnston, the sailor from the US state of Maine.

That fact still bothers Col Bruton, a longtime surf club member along the coast and part of the Thirroul Silver Salties - a group for over-65s.

"I'm a bit annoyed by the fact that, although he was identified - who he was and what he was on that ship - his name still doesn't appear," Mr Bruton said.

"From my viewpoint the story's not complete. I think knowing the history as I know it it's a bit of a pity his name's not there. I think it was a bit of an oversight on behalf of the historians at the time."

Mr Bruton said he had heard about the wreck of the Amy while attending a swimming school at Thirroul as a child.

"We used to wander up to the surf club and struck a few blocks up there who were retirees from the BHP or the coal mines," he said.

"They would tell us the stories about the Amy and what happened to the Amy. It always fascinated me as a young bloke and I thought later on when I get a bit of spare time I'll really dig into this Amy shipwreck."

He has also developed a theory that the people onshore trying to rescue the crew may have been the start of the surf-lifesaving movement in Australia.

"Surf lifesaving started off at Thirroul Beach on Sunday the 13^th of February 1898," he said.

"All this crap about all these fellas in Sydney saying they were doing this and doing that. The trouble with surf lifesaving historians, they never went outside of Sydney. If it didn't happen between Cronulla and Palm Beach it didn't happen.

"Surf lifesaving started at Thirroul Beach when the Amy went down and a couple of the swimmers from Thirroul went in to rescue them."