The reefs have been the site of several shipwrecks. The brig "Rosalía", was wrecked on the Minerva Reefs on 19 September 1807. After being captured by HMS "Cornwallis" at the Peruvian port of Ilo on 13 July, the "Rosalía", 375 tons, was dispatched to Port Jackson with seven men on board under the command of Lieutenant John Garland, master of the "Cornwallis". Captain John Piper, Commandant at Norfolk Island, reported the arrival of the shipwrecked crew to Governor William Bligh in Sydney in a letter of 12 October 1807.