By early 1877 Pearce was with Messrs Aitken and Lilburn of
Glasgow, and was serving on
Loch Ard between the
United Kingdom and
Australia. Pearce was on
Loch Ard in February 1878, when she loaded cargo at
East India Docks in London. This was his third voyage on her. She called at
Gravesend,
Kent, where her compasses were adjusted. She left there on 1, 2 or 3 March 1878 (reports differ). She was carrying cargo, 17 passengers and 37 crew, bound for
Melbourne. The passengers included a Dr and Mrs Carmichael from
Dublin, a wealthy couple who were emigrating with their four daughters and two sons. Pearce was on duty in the small hours of 1 June when
Loch Ard struck rocks on the
Shipwreck Coast of
Victoria. Passengers came on deck, some wearing only their nightclothes. The ship had four boats, including a lifeboat on the
port side and a
gig. These were the only boats carried the right way up, ready to be launched. The other boats were stowed bottom up. The lifeboat was washed overboard. Pearce and five crewmen were in the boat for a few minutes, but it capsized. Pearce found himself under the boat, but swam out. The boat righted and capsized again more than once, but each time Pearce clung to its upturned keel. The boat and other wreckage drifted into an inlet that was then called The Caves and is now called
Loch Ard Gorge. There it struck a rock, throwing Pearce into the water. He swam ashore, using a floating table as a buoyancy aid. on the
Shipwreck Coast, where Pearce brought Eva Carmichael ashore In the water three passengers, Reginald Jones, Arthur Mitchell, and the Carmichaels' second daughter, Eva, clung to a
hen coop that was floating among the wreckage. The coop kept turning over, so the trio transferred to a floating
spar. Later Jones and then Mitchell were washed away, and Carmichael lost consciousness, but her lifejacket and the spar kept her afloat and alive. Later she regained consciousness, but she did not know how to swim. Pearce heard her call for help and swam out. Carmichael was cold and weak. Pearce brought her to a cave under a cliff, then found two coats and a case of brandy among the wreckage. He gave the coats to Carmichael, and they shared a half-bottle of brandy. He rested for a couple of hours, then left Carmichael asleep and climbed about up a cliff. He found and followed a track. Early that afternoon he met a man on horseback called George Ford. Ford rode for help to Glenample at Curdie's Inlet, and Hugh Gibson. Gibson and some men rode to the gorge, and brought a
horse and buggy to transport Carmichael, but she had woken up and wandered away. Pearce and Carmichael stayed with for some days at Glenample. Pearce helped with the recovery of salvage and identification of bodies from the wreck, while Mrs Gibson nursed Carmichael. The bodies of Carmichael's mother and her elder sister Raby were found, as well of those of Jones and Mitchell, and on 5 June the four were buried on the clifftop. On 15 June the
Mayor of Melbourne chaired a meeting at
Melbourne Town Hall to decide how best to use the various public donations being made as a testimonial to Pearce. A group of horseracing gamblers had donated
£32 10
s, and Melbourne City Corporation staff had donated £5. There were proposals that the money be spent on sending him to navigation college, or even that a ship be bought for him and named
Eva Carmichael. Aitken and Lilburn's
agents in Melbourne were John Blyth & Co, whose representative told the meeting that when Pearce reached Melbourne he would join their ship
Loch Shiel to complete his apprenticeship. , who presented Pearce with a Victorian Humane Society Gold Medal Pearce planned to move from Glenample to stay with an aunt in the
Toorak area of Melbourne. On 20 June the Victorian Humane Society held its annual award ceremony in Melbourne Town Hall. Sir
Redmond Barry presented the awards, including a Gold Medal to Pearce, the first the Society had ever awarded. On 21 June the Steam Navigation Board met at the Custom House in Melbourne to inquire into the loss of
Loch Ard. Pearce testified to the Board that a fortnight before the ship reached the Australian coast, he and the officers noted that the ship's compasses were slightly out of adjustment, with a slight disagreement between the standard and
binnacle compasses. Contrary to earlier newspaper reports, he told the inquiry that he believed the ship carried about 16 lifejackets. On 18 July
Loch Shiel left
Hobson's Bay, bound for London, presumably with Pearce aboard. Carmichael returned to Ireland, where she later married a Thomas Townshend from
County Cork. ==
Loch Sunart and
Loch Katrine==