Encounter Bay 1836–1837 - The Durrant Family Website

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Encounter Bay 1836–1837
Chris Durrant
Introduction
The first years of settlement at Encounter Bay were, to say the least, eventful but appear never to have
been adequately chronicled. Worse, many accounts are erroneous. The following account is taken,
wherever possible, from original sources. In some cases the source is a secondary publication; these
are details that I have been unable to confirm.
Introduction
The shipping records [26] suggest that the first visit to Encounter Bay by a colonist took place in
February 1837. It was made by Samuel Stephens, the Colonial Manager for the South Australian
Company in Kingscote, who left there for Encounter Bay via Adelaide on 5 February in the 17-ton
‘Colonial’ cutter William 1 . This boat was built by John Griffiths in Launceston in 1833 and had been
sailed since April 1834 by William Wright, a Yorkshireman from Hull, on sealing trips to the Bass
Strait islands and, in all likelihood, Kangaroo Island2 , as well as supply runs to the whale fisheries
at Portland Bay and Port Fairy. During this period Wright must have become acquainted with John
Hart, master of another of Griffiths’s vessels, the 51-ton schooner Elizabeth, which was employed on
similar duties. Both would feature in the Encounter Bay story.
Wright at some stage may have purchased the William, because he was described as the master and
owner3 when he sailed from Launceston on the sealing voyage which took him to Nepean Bay on 21
December 1836. Stephens promptly chartered the vessel, with Wright as master, for twelve months on
behalf of the South Australian Company. This is probably the sealing cutter mentioned by Dr John
Woodforde as calling at Rapid Bay on 4 December and selling Colonel Light’s survey party one and
a half tons of potatoes, some colonial cheese, ‘mutton and bird’s eggs4 ’.
Page [22] implies that Wright had good reasons to attach himself to the colonists, claiming that he
was suspected of having fled Van Diemen’s Land, where he had smuggled rum and tobacco obtained
from American whalers. Wright soon incurred the wrath of the South Australian authorities by going
on board the Coromandel when she arrived at Kangaroo Island on 11 January 1837 and informing her
master, William Chesser, and the emigrants that the site of the capital had been fixed in the worst
spot in the colony, in a country which was a barren waste without tree or shrub, served by an open
roadstead exposed to all the prevailing winds and uncertain communication with the shore [30].
Despite his reputation, the small island to the east of the Bluff in Encounter Bay, Wright Island, is
much more likely to be named after William Wright than Dr. Edward Wright, who had arrived on the
Cygnet in September 1836, or Joseph Wright, the fisherman who arrived on the South Australian in
April 1837 (see page 18), since it had acquired this name by April 1837, when the bay was still known
only to whalers and Kangaroo Islanders.
South Australian Company plans
The first fleet of the South Australian Company consisted of whalers, the Duke of York and the
Lady Mary Pelham, fully equipped with boats, lines, harpoons, try pots and oil casks. The Duke of
York, bearing Stephens, made landfall in Nepean Bay on 27 July and the Lady Mary Pelham three
days later. The Company had planned to make whaling one of its major sources of income from its
inception since the opportunities were already well-known.
one-masted wooden cutter with a square stern, 17 35
tons, 32′ 8′′ × 11′ 8′′ × 5′ 1′′ [23].
94
voyage in 1835 certainly included Kangaroo Island because Bull[5] later wrote that ‘William Thompson, a
seaman, landed on Kangaroo Island from the cutter William, Captain Wright, after he had fulfilled his engagement in
a sealing voyage’. Cumpston [8] misidentifies this vessel as the Royal William of Hobart.
3 Though Parsons [23] implies that Griffiths was still the owner when the William was wrecked at Yankalilla in
September 1838.
4 Probably the eggs of the mutton-bird, the Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris, which nests in huge
numbers in Bass Strait, are meant here.
1A
2A
2
Version: June 22, 2014
Southern Right Whales Eubalaena australis, commonly known as Black Whales, appear in the coastal
waters of South Australia for the breeding season from May to October, making their way westward
throughout the winter. They return eastwards in summer but their path is then some two to three
hundred miles off-shore. Reaching up to 50 feet in length and 30 tons in weight, they were hunted for
oil and whalebone. The ‘black’ oil extracted from the blubber was used mainly for lamps, though there
was some demand as a lubricant. Whalebone or baleen was the name for the massive comb-like plates
composed of keratin that the whale uses to strain its food from the ocean water. It was used to stiffen
women’s garments and for many other purposed that plastic has now usurped. Bone was, weight for
weight, several times more valuable than oil. Whalers from Sydney, Hobart and Launceston, America
and France were regular visitors to southern Australia, attracted to the dangerous but lucrative
business.
A few whales were seen by the settlers in Nepean Bay soon after arrival, but the ships were not
ready. Indeed, they were never intended for hunting whales in the bay. The Duke of York and Lady
Mary Pelham were equipped for year-round whaling voyages on the high seas, so after discharging
their emigrants and stores they sailed on 20 September for Hobart and then the Southern Ocean.
By this time, it was too late in the season to contemplate undertaking inshore or bay whaling, as
Stephens informed George Fife Angas, the chairman of the South Australian Company in London, on
22 September, but there is some tantalising evidence that it was already being considered.
John Wrathall Bull claimed in 1878, from information almost certainly collected much earlier, [6]:
‘On August 4, two large boats with twenty men started on a trip across Backstairs Passage, and
a landing was made at Rapid Bay, afterwards named by Colonel Light. From thence they sailed
to Encounter Bay, next Port Lincoln was visited, and then the head of St Vincent’s Gulf. On the
way back they fell in with the John Pirie, Captain George Martin, who was on the lookout for a
whaling station’. In the second edition [5], the second sentence was omitted but another added: ‘It
is here proper to mention the fact that Mr. Menge, who had been engaged and sent out by the South
Australian Company to examine the country for minerals, was one of the boat party, and pronounced
the ranges to be highly metalliferous’.
The first version is plausible in the context of sealing and whaling. Sailing west to Port Lincoln would
have taken them past the islands of Spencer Gulf where sealing had been conducted by Kangaroo
islanders for many years5 . Furthermore, a whaling station had been located in Spencer Gulf for
a couple of seasons before being transferred to an equally unsuccessful site on Kangaroo Island in
1832. Since Stephens made no mention of such a voyage in his diary, Bull’s boats could only have
been manned by islanders—though it is difficult to imagine that there could have been twenty. It
is just possible that they met the John Pirie in mid August before she reached Nepean Bay, and
Martin mentioned his interest in whaling to the boatmen. If this was the case, it may have been
Martin’s arrival at Nepean Bay in the South Australian Company’s 105-ton schooner John Pirie with
passengers and stock on 16 August that prompted Stephens to request permission from Angas for
‘arrangements be made for establishing a bay whaling fishery’ on 22 August.
The second version, however, makes it clear that the account cannot be trusted. Johannes Joseph
Menge, the South Australian Company’s geologist, did not arrive in South Australia in the Coromandel
until January 1837, so the events as described by Bull could not have taken place in 1836.
Nevertheless, there is an echo of Bull’s account in the reminiscence written many decades later by
William Loose Beare, who was a ten year old boy on the Duke of York with Stephens in 1836, [4]: ‘A
few days after our arrival, we were told that Capt. Hart was down at Encounter Bay with a whaling
party, and we went down there to interview him, but found that he had left’. John Hart had indeed
been involved in both sealing and whaling as master of various vessels belonging to the Launceston
merchant, ship-owner and ship-builder, John Griffiths, since 1831. But in 1836 he was in England
to collect another vessel for Griffiths, so could not have been present in Encounter Bay that season
either.
5 Gangs of sealers had been picked up by vessels from NSW and Van Diemen’s Land and dropped off at good localities
all the way from Spencer Gulf to the tip of Western Australia to accumulate skins in anticipation of the vessel’s return.
3
What is certain is that the Kangaroo Islanders, some of whom had lived on the island for decades
before official settlement, were an invaluable source of knowledge concerning the geography of the
seaboard of southern Australia and its industries—sealing and whaling. Stephens’s first priority was
to learn the nature of the countryside at the likely places of settlement, foreknowledge of which would
have given the Company the competitive advantage that Stephens craved. With disaffection rife in
Kingscote, Stephens was obliged to write to Angas on 22 August that ‘I am unable to leave the
people [at Kingscote]’, but he went on ‘Captain Martin has kindly offered to examine the places I
wish and report to me on his return’. Martin’s mission was not to seek a spot for a whaling station,
but to assess the mainland with an eye to moving the Company’s stock. Martin left Nepean Bay
in early September with three islanders, one of their Aboriginal women and three sailors in a ‘tiny’
whaleboat, so described by John Woodforde, the surgeon attached to Light’s survey party, who left
Nepean Bay on 7 September, and met Martin at Cape Jervis the following day. Woodforde recorded
Martin’s return to Rapid Bay from ‘a tour of the gulf [Gulf St Vincent]’ on 15 September. As a
result, Stephens informed Angas on 27 September that he had decided to establish an ‘agricultural
settlement’ at Yankalilla on Martin’s advice. The following day, Martin took the John Pirie to Hobart
for supplies and did not return until 27 November.
In the meantime, Stephens finally found time to examine the mainland himself in company with
John Morphett6 , who had the same aim in mind on behalf of all the British investors he represented.
Stephens wrote in a letter to Angas on 23 December that he had spent fourteen days in an open
whaleboat7 but did not succeed in reaching Holdfast Bay. Woodforde noted their appearance at
Rapid Bay on 11 October and again on 17 October. A leisurely voyage up the coast would account for
the intervening days but not for the two weeks of Stephens’s letter. This seems the only opportunity for
Stephens to have become acquainted with Kangaroo island beyond the immediate vicinity of Nepean
Bay. He may have visited the seal haunts on the rocky southern coast or on the islands at the mouth
of Spencer Gulf.
Sealing was another well-established industry along the southern coast of Australia, though seal numbers must have been but a fraction of those present during the heyday of sealing earlier in the century;
the dwindling numbers had forced the islanders to spread their efforts further and further westwards
along the south coast of Australia. Most prized were the fur seals, the Australian Fur Seal (Arctocephalus pusillus), which breeds in Bass Strait, and the New Zealand Fur Seal (Arctocephalus forsteri ),
which breeds on Kangaroo Island. Black seal skins were the most valuable; these might refer to the
latter, darker species or to seal pups, which are black at birth. Of much less importance was the
so-called ‘hair’ seal, actually the Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea), which breeds in South and
Western Australia. Fur seals haul out on rocks almost anywhere throughout the year, but breeding
animals select sheltered boulder-strewn beaches. The males of the New Zealand species start to establish territories on the beaches in October and the females come ashore a few weeks later. The
pups are then born, with a peak in mid December. The males depart in January, after mating again,
and their place in the rookery is taken by non-breeders. The females remain to feed their pups until
August and then all disperse. The Australian species breeds a few weeks earlier.
So Stephens would have been in time to harvest the adults in December 1836 and the pups in early
autumn 1837. This is confirmed by the South Australian Company accounts which record on 22
December the payment of £1 10s from the sealing account to the crew of the Emma for the ‘trouble
connected with sealing trip’. The 161-ton brig Emma was chartered by the South Australian Company
to bring passengers and supplies and had arrived at Nepean Bay on 5 October. There is no evidence
of her moving from there until 8 December, when George Martin went with her8 up Gulf St Vincent
calling at Rapid Bay on 9/10 December and Holdfast Bay on 11 December9 , and returning to Nepean
6 Morphett had earlier reported to Angas that he had hired a whaleboat to take him 30 miles up from Cape Jervis
in late September. He was away for eight days and on his return fell in with the John Pirie in Backstairs Passage on
her way to Hobart on 28 September [26].
7 The islander Nathaniel Thomas was paid £2 10s on 21 October for accompanying them in the boat of another
islander, Jacob Seaman.
8 Presumably under the command of her master, John Nelson, although Gouger seemed to confuse the two in his
diary, writing on 11 December that he had met ‘the Capt. of the Emma & Capt. Nelson of the John Pirie’.
9 The surveyors’ attention was now focused on Holdfast Bay following the discovery of the Port River. Yankalilla had
been passed over due to lack of resources. Stephens would have learned this when William Light called at Nepean Bay
4
Preparations
Bay on 18 December. The reason for the voyage, according to Martin’s letter to Angas from Hobart
on 5 January 1837, was to land ‘all the Company’s livestock, or they would have all perished had they
remained at Kangaroo Island’. By implication, she had also visited sealers, perhaps on the return
voyage as Woodforde does not mention her calling again at Rapid Bay. Where the sealers were located
can only be guessed at, though the islands between Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln are possible
candidates.
This is presumably what Stephens had in mind when continuing his letter to Angas on 23 December:
‘I am also making arrangements for sealing next season (I will have some this season yet and have
been one trip myself to learn the nature of it correctly)’. The trip was presumably that made in
October since there is little doubt that he did not accompany the Emma 10 . Stephens then struck
a conspiratorial note: in order to best serve the interests of the South Australian Company, he was
keeping his plans secret because he had ‘a strictly private and confidential source of information’.
This was written just two days after Wright appeared at Nepean Bay and Stephens had hired the
William, so there is a strong presumption that Wright was this ‘private and confidential source’11 .
However, interest in sealing then seemed to wane. In a letter to Angas, Thomas Hudson Beare reported
that the South Australian Company had launched its first boat built at Kingscote on 4 January 1837—
a sealing boat called the Specimen of Kingscote . There is but one further entry in the sealing account
of the South Australian Company. On 1 May 1838, three men—Battie12 , Roach and Freeman—were
paid £6 in advance, so presumably some sealing was undertaken in 1837 and 1838. It was unlikely to
have been lucrative and sealing must have ceased when the South Australian Company, with David
McLaren then in charge, withdrew from active whaling in 1839.
Beare’s letter to Angas went on to say that a longboat, to be called the George Martin of Kingscote,
would be finished the following month and work would start on no less than twelve whaleboats for
use by a shore-whaling station, or fishery as such were then known, and whale ships. This reflects
Stephens’s announcement to Angas on 23 December that he had ‘commenced preparation for a 6-boat
whale fishery in Encounter Bay next May’ and a 10-boat fishery in another place the following (1838)
season. If this were indeed the result of Wright’s advice, Stephens had made some rapid decisions and
he proceeded to act on them equally promptly.
Preparations
Stephens’s source probably told him much the same as William Allen told Angas in a letter dated 12
April 1836, some six weeks after Stephens had left London in the Duke of York and a couple of days
after they finally cleared Torbay. Allen described the requirements for a small shore fishery in detail
[1].
Whales were hunted from whaleboats, some twenty-seven feet long and six in breadth, but of light
construction and with a sharp bow and stern for manoeuvrability13 ; Allen suggested a complement of
three or four whaleboats. These were to be equipped with forty oars in total; the boats were normally
rowed by five (at most seven) seamen, so a generous allowance for spares was made.
at the end of November before heading off to inspect Spencer Gulf.
10 It was Nelson and Martin who conveyed news and letters to Gouger, and it was Martin who sold the sheep that
broke its leg on landing at Holdfast Bay.
11 The other possible candidate would be George Martin. The London directors of the Company referred to his ‘rather
considerable services by his promptitude and energy in rectifying the state of anarchy and confusion which first existed
in the colony, and by proceeding on his exploring trip up Gulf St Vincent’ on 8 May 1837. There is no mention of
commercial advice.
12 A William Batty received a ticket-of-leave in Hobart in 1835 and a W. Battye was to lease the site of the South
Australian Company’s fishery on Section 6, Encounter Bay, in 1862. The latter’s name is commemorated in Battye
Road. Reuben Roach and a Freeman were associated with the Rosetta Cove fishery in 1837.
13 Whaling equipment is described and illustrated explained by Lytle [20] and Giambaba [14].
5
Preparations
Whales were first harpooned and secured by a long line to the boats; the harpoons were most likely
made from 12 inch iron bars with an arrow-head cutting edge at one end and fitted to a rough wooden
stock at the other, some eight feet in length overall and weighing 10 lb. They were designed for use at
close range, no more than 5 yards. The stock was meant to work itself out after the whale was secured
and the iron shank of the harpoon would bend with the strain of the line, so harpoons could be used
only once successfully and Allen felt that forty were necessary. The line, a three-stranded rope with
a breaking strain of some 6000 lb and some 300 fathoms (1800 feet) long, was attached to the shank
of the harpoon and the rest coiled in a tub mounted amidships in the whaleboat after passing from
chocks at the bows to a post at the stern called a loggerhead; two turns around the loggerhead slowed
the rate at which the line could be pulled out as the stricken whale towed the boat at speeds up to
twenty miles per hour.
After the whale had tired, the boat closed in and the whale was killed with lance thrusts into the
lungs; a lance consisted of an iron shank, five or six feet long, mounted on a smooth pole and the end
flattened into a 5-inch blade with razor-sharp edges. Allen called for thirty lances.
The dead whale was the towed to the shore by the tail; often a hole to receive the rope was made
with a boat spade, a roughly triangular flat blade with a chisel edge no more than 4 inches in width
mounted on a long pole. If the shore could not be reached in daylight, the whale was anchored. Allen
specified ten boat anchors, as ‘we always required a number of boat anchors in the bays’.
After the dead whale was brought to shore, it was stripped of its blubber. A cut was are made through
the blubber layer on the underside with cutting spades, similar to boat spades but wider edges (some
5 inches in width) and mounted on longer poles (some 12 feet in length: Allen called for a set of these.
A hook was passed through the end of the blubber and attached to a ‘cant-purchase’, i.e. blocks and
falls operated by a windlass or crab, also specified by Allen. The tension turned or canted the whale’s
body as the blubber was cut through with the spades, thereby peeling off strips, or blanket pieces,
from around the body. This was the process of ‘cutting in’. Allen suggested that whales awaiting
treatment were anchored off the beach with a 10 cwt anchor with 10 fathoms of small chain.
The blanket pieces were taken to a blubber room at the fishery, Allen commenting that Aborigines
‘might easy be got there to carry the blubber’. The large pieces of blubber were then sliced thinly,
about 1 inch thick, with a mincing knife to enable the oil to be more easily extracted by boiling. This
was done in try pots, holding 140 gallons, fired by the blubber scraps left after the previous ‘trying
out’. Forks were needed to toss the blubber into the pots, pikes to push it around, skimmers to remove
the scraps after the oil was extracted and ladles, or bailers, to remove the oil. Allen called for three
try pots and two sets of utensils.
The operation of removing the whalebone from the mouth was omitted by Allen. This was included
in William Wyatt’s first-hand account of cutting-in at Encounter Bay on 11 August 1837 [31]. This
differs in some details from Allen:
Saw the process of ‘cutting in’ a whale. A cut is made all round the body, through the
blubber, varying from ten to twenty inches thick, and then another six feet below it. By
means of another cut along the back and a hole made through the blubber, a rope is
inserted forming a loop, and this is fixed to the tackle from the main-yard, so that while
the mass is separated from the body it is at the same time hoisted on board, and the huge
carcase rolls round in the water, so as to make one complete revolution until the band is
entirely disunited; this is called a blanket piece, the blubber from the other parts is then
taken off in a similar way; the whale lies on its back, and the tongue and an immense layer
of blubber outside are cut off from the under-jaws, the blubber being taken on board,
and the tongue towed to the ‘try-works,’ on shore, where the man, called the ‘tonguer,’
takes charge of it to extract its oil; this enormous organ is bigger than the carcase of a
bullock, and when it is removed from the mouth there is an excellent view of the layers of
whalebone emerging from the gums and palate.
6
Preparations
A similar account was given by William Henry Leigh[18], who visited the Bay shortly before Wyatt:
[The whale] was moored alongside the ship, and next day we went aboard to see him cut
up. About sixteen men were appointed to the task, which is called “flinching”14 him,
and was thus performed:—A man having alighted upon him, with a kind of sharp spade,
began cutting lines across, and making a deep longitudinal incision in his back. A hook
with pullies was then let down from the yard-arm and fastened to this portion, which was
in the form of a belt. As the pulley wound up, the men on the whale kept chopping away,
till a piece four feet wide and twenty feet long was suspended. This was then lowered into
the sea, and towed by boats to the shore, for the purpose of being boiled. The blubber
was eighteen inches thick, and of the consistence of cow’s udder. The blubber, being on
shore, and in the house where it is to be converted into oil, is taken up with forks, and
chopped into slices, thrown into the coppers, and the oil ladled off. The scratchings, or
refuse after boiling, serve for fuel. The entrails, &c. of the whale float to the shore...
The whalebone was cut away and cleaned and the rest of the carcase left to rot on the beach, where
it provided a feast for both Aborigines and scavenging birds.
Although Allen envisaged a small start, several buildings requiring bricks were still necessary. As
well as the try works itself, there would be a house for the head ‘harpooner’15 , with outhouses for
whalebone and stores, a house for the boat crews, a shed near the try works with space for the cooper
and carpenter and a blubber room. A wooden shed would suffice for the boats.
The total establishment would comprise about eighteen people, including the carpenter and the cooper,
who dealt with the oil casks.
Allen estimated that for the first season casks who be needed to receive some eighty to one hundred
tuns of oil, based on an average yield of eight tuns of oil from a Right Whale. A tun was the traditional
measure for oil and was a volume, rather than weight, of about 250 gallons. In later seasons, though,
Allen recommended that the oil be stored in lead-lined tanks after passing through two iron or copper
coolers.
Allen concluded by offering his services to the South Australian Company, saying he was willing to
emigrate with his wife and six-year-old daughter. He was appointed superintendent of the South
Australian Company’s fisheries, but did not come out with his wife from London until two years later.
Arriving at Port Adelaide on the Winchester with 3 whaleboats and 21 boat anchors on 23 September
1838 [9], he was too late for that season. The South Australian Company amalgamated its operations
with those of the Hack consortium the following year, so he was never involved in whaling in South
Australia and his connection with the Company was severed acrimoniously (see page 39).
The Company did, however, employ Captain Alexander Allen, who was to appear in South Australia
in April 1837, just in time for the first whaling season. It is unlikely that Stephens knew of either
appointment. William Allen’s letter would have been received by Angas after his departure, and
Alexander Allen’s vessel, H.M.S. Swallow, formerly the Marquis of Salibury, was sold to the Company
and registered as the South Australian only in October 1836, more than two months after Stephens
had arrived in South Australia.
So Stephens himself had to organize men, equipment and a site for whaling. Men and equipment
could be procured only from a bay-whaling port, the largest of which nearby was Hobart. Within a
few days of alerting Angas to his intentions, Stephens despatched both the Emma, on 23 December,
and the John Pirie, under Martin, on 27 December, to Hobart Town, as it was then known.
Then came the question of a site. Only the choice made in December 1836 is known; the reasons
for it are not on record. So we can only guess that the islanders and the Launceston-based Wright
14 Also
15 See
flenching or flensing.
page 13.
7
Competition
had informed Stephens that the 1832 and 1833 seasons, when whaling was conducted from Kangaroo
Island, were not a great success—there were certainly none after those. The successful whale fisheries
were further east at Portland and Port Fairy on what was to become the Victorian coast in 1851 and
foreign ships were regular visitors to these waters. Beare’s memory[4] of the attempt to contact John
Hart at Encounter Bay in 1836, suggests that the islanders were aware of whaling activities in the bay,
though no other records exist either of them or of Hart being involved—Hart was then only master
of the vessels that attended the fisheries. Perhaps the western end of Encounter Bay was the closest
point that was logistically possible with Stephens’s very limited resources.
Wright’s input into the decision may be unknown but there is no doubt that he was the person at
Stephens’s side throughout the whaling season and he was handsomely rewarded with a payment of
£50 from the Rosetta fishery account ‘for information and personal assistance’ on 4 November 183716
Stephens sailed with Wright in the William first from Nepean Bay to Holdfast Bay on 5 February,
probably to consult with government officials, and then for Encounter Bay on 7 February17 . They
returned to Nepean Bay on 19 February. The intervening period would have allowed for an extensive
exploration of the bay.
The general features of Encounter Bay were well-known, Figure 1. The map published by Charles
Sturt in 1833, based on the reports of the ill-fated Collet Barker’s party, shows and names Granite
Island and Seal Rock. To the east is Rocky Point. An anchorage was claimed to exist between Seal
Rock and the hilly, unnamed promontory to the west. Stephens and Wright would have found quite
substantial islands to the east and west of the promontory. Light subsequently noted that Stephens
had named the point of the promontory Cape Rosetta (after wife of the Angas, Rosetta née French),
mostly likely as a result of this visit in February (see page 27).
Martin had returned from Hobart in the John Pirie on 14 February. A week later he was on the way
back to Hobart calling at Encounter Bay on the way. By his own account given in a letter of 1 March
1838 and published in [15], it was ‘for the purpose of landing provisions and whaling implements for
the South Australian Company’s fishery, and I stayed there four or five days’. The day that Martin
left Holdfast Bay, 21 February, Stephens wrote to his brother Edward, newly arrived to be the cashier
and accountant of the South Australian Company, that he was going ‘forthwith’ to Encounter Bay as
he expected that he ‘should be enabled to place the sheep and also establish a Fishery’. This appears
to date the foundation of the fishery. It would have made no sense to drop gear and provisions unless
a site had been chosen and there were men to take charge of them. If Stephens accompanied Martin
as far as Encounter Bay, as his letter suggests that he intended, he must have returned to Nepean
Bay by other means, most likely in the William, whose movements between 19 and 26 February and
the weeks after 27 February are unknown.
The site of the South Australian Company’s fishery was at Rosetta Cove, a small bay on the eastern
side of Cape Rosetta. The cove had a small stream of fresh water running through it—though probably
not permanent—and was conveniently located behind the Bluff, the hill forming the promontory, from
which vantage point whales could be spotted entering the bay.
Competition
Before whaling could start, however, Stephens’s plans were upset by the arrival at Kangaroo Island
of the 141-ton brigantine Hind 18 from Sydney on 1 March.
16 This was notated ‘amount promised by Samuel Stephens’ because Stephens had by that time been dismissed by the
South Australian Company (see page 48).
17 Cumpston [8] claims that Stephens sent the Rapid to Encounter Bay with a sealer to establish communication
with the natives there. This is highly unlikely; the Rapid was not at Stephens’s command. This must refer to Light
sending William Cooper to Encounter Bay to bring back aborigines to tend his garden.
18 Built in 1818 in Dundee, with two masts and a square stern, she measured 73.3 × 2.5 × 13.1 feet and weighed 141 24
94
tons [23].
8
Competition
Figure 1: Encounter Bay from the Arrowsmith map of the maritime portion of South Australia of
1840. It is based on Flinders’ chart of 1802, the survey of HMS Victor of April 1837, Light’s sketches of
June 1837 and the report of Strangways and Hutchinson of January 1838. The grey outline indicates
uncertainty. Soundings by Flinders are omitted. The scale is derived from the longitude scale of the
Arrowsmith map. This map is overlaid on a modern map after being shifted about 3◦ to the westward.
The modern map shows watercourses, none of which, except the River Murray, are perennial. Areas
in light blue are subject to inundation. The point marked ‘Flinders & Baudin’ shows the spot where
HMS Investigator met Le Géographe. Note that Wright Island is placed to the south of Rosetta Point,
then named variously Cape Rosetta or Cape Victor.
The Hind had been sailing in Australian waters under Richard Scott since at least 1831. After
returning from New Zealand under Richard Wyatt in mid-November 1836, she sailed again on a
whaling cruise on 12 February 1837 under William Jones, Wyatt having died in December. Her
destination was ostensibly again New Zealand but her appearance in South Australia would not have
been out of the ordinary. Bay-whaling in Australasian waters required opportunism; just when or
where whales would be plentiful could not be predicted and ships had to move from ground to ground.
If whales were scarce, whalers could always turn to sealing in order to satisfy their paymasters.
However, in this case, the ship’s owner, Robert Campbell, junior, a prominent merchant in Bligh
Street, Sydney, may have wanted to keep his rivals guessing. In January 1837, the Sydney newspapers
carried reports of emigrant activity in Gulf St Vincent and Campbell may have wanted to assess the
mercantile opportunities19 . He would have learned of these early in the following month when the
Rapid arrived in Sydney on 3 March to order stock and supplies, but he was not to know this in
February. It was only on 21 April, when the Hind returned to Sydney, that the Sydney newspapers
revealed that she had been to South Australia to establish a bay-whaling station, ‘having taken a
whaling gang, boats, tryworks, &c. from this port, for that purpose’.
19 Launceston merchants were doing the same at this time, even though busily engaged in supplying the burgeoning
settlement on their doorstep at Port Phillip.
9
The establishments
In charge of the expedition was John William Dundas Blenkinsop, who was an experienced seaman,
familiar with Australian and New Zealand waters. According to Paton [24], he had ‘married’ the
daughter of a relation of a Maori chieftain of the Cloudy Bay region, but this apparently did not deter
him from double-dealing in the purchase of land from the native owners in 1831. In 1833 or 1834 he
had initiated the first settlement on Lord Howe Island, where he landed three men from the Caroline
to harvest mutton-bird feathers [21]. Despite confusing records of one or two Maori ‘wives’, a Jane
and a Te Rongo(pamamao), by whom there was at least one surviving child, he married Anna Maria
Megoen/McGowan in Sydney in December 1836.
Blenkinsop met with Stephens on 5 March, when Blenkinsop proposed a cooperative fishing venture
but was rebuffed by Stephens, according to Price [25]. This is consistent with Blenkinsop’s later
contention (page 37) that the 1837 season would have been more successful if there had been cooperation (see page 37). Price goes on to say that Stephens tried to preempt him by dispatching a small
cutter to Encounter Bay at midnight on 5 March with orders to select a site for a fishery. Sexton
[26] cautiously describes this as an allegation, with some justice, since preparations were by then
well advanced by the South Australian Company. It is more likely that the cutter was sent to alert
the men who must have been at Encounter Bay in February. If the site of the Company’s fishery had
not already been occupied, Rosetta Cove would have been quickly secured.
Blenkinsop was taken to Encounter Bay in the Hind on 18 March and established his own fishery at
Hind Cove, the bay facing Granite Island20 , and built his house nearby at Anna Vale, named after
his wife. It was located between two rivulets, identified by Crozier as the Hindmarsh and Kangaroo
(now Inman) Rivers.
Granite Island could have been used as a lookout: whilst this would not have commanded such as
view as the Bluff but Blenkinsop would have been better placed to intercept the whales taking the
usual east-to-west path along the coast before the Company’s boats operating from Rosetta Cove.
Furthermore, the anchorage in front of Hind Cove—shortly to be called Victor Harbour—was much
more protected than that at Rosetta Harbour, a fact that was unpalatable to the Encounter Bay
faction until the painful lessons inflicted at the end of the year (see 43).
The establishments
The economics of a bay whaling station were detailed in the ‘Report on Whaling’ compiled by John
Hart, Jacob Hagen and John Baker and published as a Transaction of the Statistical Society at the end
of December 1841. It appeared in the South Australian Register of 1 January 1842 and the Southern
Australian of 4 and 7 January 1842.
The authors based their calculations on a fishery with a party of three boats. When whaling started
in South Australia this was the norm. The three boats, each with a headsman in charge, worked as a
team under the chief headsman. The crew of each boat consisted of a boat-steerer and four (sometimes
six) more oarsmen or pulling hands. The headsman steered the boats in pursuit of the whale by means
of a long sweep at the stern until they were close enough for the steersman, who rowed at the bow,
to ship his oar and harpoon the whale. After the whale had tired, the headsman exchanged places
with the steersman in order to undertake the most skilled part of the hunt: the killing of the whale
by plunging a lance into its lungs.
The total complement was thus three headsmen, three boat-steerers and some 17 pulling hands, there
being an allowance for the accidents and injuries which were common occurrences in such a hazardous
profession. The on-shore establishment comprised a cook, a steward and a bullock-driver. A cooper
20 Charles Mann wrote to Robert Gouger [15] from Hobart on 6 March 1838 that Granite Island was equidistant
from the fisheries of the South Australian Company and Blenkinsop, about four miles east of the former. Light’s map
of June 1837, drawn from his own observations, was more reliable.
10
The establishments
needed to be employed for six months to provide the casks in which the oil was stored.
Typical provisions for these men were 12 lb of flour, 12 lb of meat,
quarts of spirits (rum) per week.
1
4
lb of tea, 2 lb of sugar and 2
Only the cooper received fixed wages, around £8 a month. The rest of the employees took shares in
1
1
the catch at a rate agreed at beginning of the season. These shares or ‘lays’, varied from 12
to 18
for
1
1
1
the headsmen, depending on skill and experience, 40 for boat-steerers, 50 for the steward and 60 for
the pulling hands, cook and bullock-driver. In their calculations, the authors allowed a price of £15
a tun (volume) for oil and £100 a ton (weight) for whalebone and assumed a normal season’s take of
150 tuns of oil and 7 12 tons of whalebone. The largest Black Whale yielded no more than twelve tuns
of oil (Allen gave the figure of eight tuns as an average), so some twenty whales would have to be
caught to yield an income of £3000. The wage bill would be almost £1000 and the provisions almost
£500. Allowing another £500 for depreciation and contingencies, the total outlay would be £2000.
Thus the operation should yield a net profit of £1000.
Conditions that first season in 1837 were somewhat different. Blenkinsop had a party of two boats,
Stephens a double party of five boats based at the shore fishery at Rosetta Cove.
To man the boats Stephens had to recruit experienced men. Such were not available in South Australia,
so at the same time as dispatching the John Pirie to Hobart for stores, he sent the Company’s other
coastal vessel, the Emma, there to pick up whalers. She departed Hobart on 20 February with
sixteen passengers, amongst whom were John Gordon Harper, Robert Hayes, John Boyd Thorburn
McFarlane, Edward Munday, John Smith and Isaac Nelson, and arrived back at Holdfast Bay on 5
March. McFarlane, who claimed eighteen years’ experience as a seaman [15], had, in his own words,
‘the honour to command the South Australian Company’s whaling establishment there [Encounter
Bay] during a season of six months’, i.e., he was the Company’s chief headsman and superintendent
of the Rosetta Cove fishery. Harper, Hayes, Munday and Smith were other headsman21 . Nelson was
a cooper. There is no mention of lowlier hands, boat-steerers and pulling hands or oarsmen, though
Charles Bailey must have been on board because he accepted a payment of £2 in lieu of a passage to
Hobart at the end of the season.
More whaling gear for the South Australian Company came from Launceston on the Africaine on 19
April. She left there on 28 March and may have brought more whalers since Lewis William Gilles, the
Launceston agent for the South Australian Company, wrote to Angas from Launceston on 14 March
that: ‘The Manager of the Fishery is here now, he is an active man & in two days has engaged 40
hands for the Bay Fishery’. Just whom Gilles meant is not clear; perhaps McFarlane was dropped off
at Launceston on the way back from Hobart, but then it would mean that when he was paid £14 for
advances to whalers on 4 March he was in Launceston rather than back in South Australia. Perhaps
this was the source of more pulling hands and shore personnel.
A complete list of the men stationed at Encounter Bay is impossible to piece together. Forty-one
names can be associated with the fishery, thirty-three of whom appear in the account books [28]
with payments allocated specifically to the Rosetta Fishery account. These are listed, together with
references in other sources, in Table 1.
Of these, at least seven would have composed the shore establishment: the boatbuilder, Henry Bushell
(although he might have worked at Kingscote and never visited Encounter Bay), the three coopers,
Josiah Gibbons, J. Keubler and Isaac Nelson, the steward, Abraham Clegg, the storekeeper, James
Walter Fell (perhaps a late appointment in December 1837), and the smith’s assistant, Thomas Tindall.
Murphy is included in a payment to the other coopers, so it is likely that he was John Murphy, the
cooper who came out in the Sarah and Elizabeth (see page 18). Another employee on shore may be
the boatman, George Thompson. Yet another may be Hugh Scott: William Wyatt in his description
of the work of a tonguer (page 6) suggests that he worked on shore at the try works. The case of
21 Doubt surrounds the spelling of many names at this time. In the absence of formal signed documents (in at least
one case the whaler was illiterate) various phonetic versions appear in the contemporary documents. Here we prefer
McFarlane to Macfarlane and Munday to Monday.
11
The establishments
William Wood (s) is even more uncertain: he received a substantial advance of £1 10s, which implies
that he was an experienced whaler, and in 1838 a William Woods was paid as a tonguer, but what he
was engaged for in 1837 is unknown.
The ‘Report on Whaling’ also lists a bullock-driver which suggests that a dray was normally found
necessary, presumably to move the oil casks and other heavy stores. No such person appears on this
list but a payment of £4 14s 6d was made on 27 June to an unidentified Freeman for fetching a bullock
dray from Adelaide.
Huggins should probably not be included in the establishment for the 1837 season. The late payment
from the Rosetta fishery account in March 1838 suggests that he was James Huggins, a seaman from
the South Australian, who must have transferred to the Rosetta Cove fishery after her loss.
Only Bushell, Tindall and Wood(s) are known to have come out from England, the rest appear to
have been recruited in Van Diemen’s Land. This includes the twenty-nine remaining men, all of whom
must be presumed to be whalers22 .
Five headsmen can be identified from the accounts of whaling that season: John McFarlane, John
Harper, Robert Hayes, Edward Munday and John Smith, though Harper received a surprisingly small
payment at the end of the season. All warranted mention as passengers on the Emma in the Hobart
Town Courier.
There must have been five boat-steerers as well and they commanded the second-highest remuneration
for their skills, so we can guess that Charles McClure and John Espie were boat-steerers, perhaps
Reuben Roach (solely on account of his large advance of £2). Henry Ayers was a boat-steerer in 1838,
so he may have been one in 1837.
The remaining nineteen would have been oarsmen of pulling hands. They were paid little for hard
and dangerous work. Not surprisingly no less than seven of these names appear in list of absconders.
Four were reported to the Government by McFarlane in May: Jeremiah Donoho, Richard Pierce,
George Robinson and George Turner. Three others were gaoled in Adelaide in June: William Angill,
William Power and Samuel Wistock. At least twenty oarsmen would have been required at any one
time to man five boats, so it highly probable that several other were hands employed. That they were
regarded as too inconsequential for mention is supported by the accounts of the drowning of Jeffcott
in December (see page 43): these are the sole source of the names of George Mills and ‘little Punch’.
Women were also inconsequential. It is only through the log of the South Australian that we learn of
that the wives of Harper, Hayes and McClure were present at Encounter Bay, when they were ferried
back at the end of the season. So at least some of the senior men had families with them, as did
Blenkinsop (page 24). According to Leigh[18], there were also small children, if not new-born babies,
present. He was called upon to perform a christening of ‘a child of a whaler’. His ‘friend, Captain
C—’, was a very inebriated godfather. The ceremony took place near the spot where Driscoll was
buried (see page 29), which must have been close to Blenkinsop’s fishery at Hind Cove, so the whaler
would appear to be one of Blenkinsop’s. Leigh, however, makes no mention of Blenkinsop23 . Why two
22 A J. Brakehill appears as a labourer on the list of employees of the South Australian Company at Kingscote drawn
up by Stephens on 19 May 1837; the Thomas Brakehill in the whaling accounts was paid an advance of 10s in March,
double what many others received, so he could not have been unskilled and is thus unlikely to be J Brakehill.
23 Leigh’s accounts are usually circumstantial and incomplete. Captain C— cannot be identified. He is not Coffin,
since Leigh says that he met his friend later in Sydney at the Parramatta races (4 and 6 October 1837), when he
described him as being ‘in search of adventures’. Coffin did not leave South Australia until 26 October. Leigh left
South Australia on the Lord Hobart and arrived in Sydney on 19 September 1837, just in time for the Parramatta races
(which he says he attended on 10 October). How C— could have found his way from Encounter Bay at the beginning of
September to Sydney by mid October except by the Lord Hobart is puzzling as only the Ann sailed there in that period,
although three vessels went to Hobart and two to Launceston: no passenger with a name beginning with ‘C’ is listed on
any of them. Leigh had left Sydney before 27 November, the date of the North Shore fire which presumably burnt out
his friend Captain Leese. Henry Leese was master of the Schah which had called at South Australia before proceeding
in July 1837 to Sydney with his wife, Elizabeth, two children—Greville and Charles (though Leigh mentions meeting
only one at Kangaroo Island)—and sister-in-law, Augustas Hill. After the loss of his stock, Leese and his family sailed
for the Cape in the Gazelle on 3 January 1838, where they met Leigh again.
12
H.M.S. Victor
strangers should have been called upon to perform the ceremony is hard to imagine. Doubt surrounds
the whole event.
Blenkinsop had brought whalers with him from Sydney in the Hind, but the list is much less complete,
since it relies on casual references. Table 2 summarizes these.
Blenkinsop, in his deposition in October (see page 24), described Mead as a harpooner, whilst Sylvester
Freeman, at the same time, called him a headsman. The seems to confirm that the term ‘harpooner’
was then used synonymously for ‘headsman’, cf. William Allen (page 7), although it was the boatsteerer who wielded the harpoon.
Also present at the fisheries were Aborigines. Whalers and sealers had traditionally an evil reputation as brutal, ill-disciplined rabble, especially those that operated beyond the law along the South
Australian coast between Van Diemen’s Land and Kangaroo Island and Aboriginal hostility was attributed to their depredations—Charles Sturt blamed them for Collet Barker’s death at Encounter
Bay in 1831.
However, when the emigrants arrived, the Kangaroo Islanders appeared to have reasonably amicable
relations with the mainland Aborigines, despite acquiring women as ‘wives’ from them. The fisheries
continued to maintain these mutually tolerant if not harmonious relations, providing employment,
food and clothing to local tribes.
With all preparations for the coming season made, Blenkinsop returned to Sydney. Perhaps he was due
to report to Campbell, perhaps he had to bring more men and supplies to last through the season—
perhaps both. For whatever reason, the Hind sailed on 12 April for Sydney, which she reached on 21
April, reportedly from bay whaling at ‘Hind Bay’, Southern Australia. There is no manifest24 in the
Sydney archives to confirm Blenkinsop’s presence on this vessel, but return he did and there was no
other means available to him. Apparently Thomas Marshall was left in charge, as it was he who was
to write to the Governor in Blenkinsop’s absence.
H.M.S. Victor
On 20 April 20, a week after the departure of the Hind , H.M.S. Victor , a 382-ton brig-sloop under
the command of Captain Richard Crozier R.N.25 , arrived at Port Adelaide from the Swan River. In
Adelaide he was feted by the governor, John Hindmarsh, who gave a ball at the Government ‘Hut’
for his officers on 24 April. Crozier departed on 25 April and, after being becalmed off the Sturt
River, worked his way into Encounter Bay the following afternoon26 . Most likely Crozier interrupted
his voyage to his home base at Sydney in order to assess Encounter Bay at the behest of Hindmarsh.
Hindmarsh was smarting from his defeat on 10 February when the votes cast by, or on behalf of,
the preliminary land purchasers endorsed Colonel William Light’s choice of site for Adelaide, and he
continued to fight a rearguard action to move the capital to Encounter Bay.
At the whale fishery of the South Australian Company, Crozier found a brig and a schooner at anchor.
The brig was the Emma, which had loaded sheep at Holdfast Bay on 20 April, probably those referred
to by Stephens on 21 February, and no doubt brought to Encounter Bay to supply the whalers’
contracted ration of meat. The schooner was the John Pirie on her way back from Hobart. She
spent some five days landing sheep at Encounter Bay after experiencing heavy gales from westward,
according to Martin in Gouger’s book [15]. The sheep were most probably landed only to recover
from the rough voyage.
24 The Sydney newspapers reported that Wyatt was master, but this must be erroneous. Wyatt had died the previous
December and been replaced by William Jones.
25 Sometimes erroneously identified as Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, who was in Arctic waters with James Clark
Ross at this time.
26 The remark book of H.M.S. Victor records this as 25 April [7].
13
H.M.S. Victor
Table 1: Men engaged at the Rosetta Cove fishery in 1837. References: 1 Passenger list, 2 South Australian Company accounts
[28], 3 South Australian Company list of men, 4 Colonial Secretary’s papers [30], 5 Fell’s memoir [13], 6 log of the South Australian, 7 letter of David McLaren, junior [1].
Name
John McFarlane
Position
superintendent &
headsman6
William Angill
Henry Ayers
Charles Bailey
William Barrett
Thomas Brakehill
Henry Bushell
boat-steerer?
boatbuilder3
George Clark(e)
William Clark(e)
Abraham Clegg
steward2
Jeremiah Donoho
John Espie
James Fell
Thomas Fitzgerald
Josiah Gibbons
Reference
paid £14 for advances to
whalers2
came in Emma?1
paid £32
paid £20 on 21 November2
goaled & released as runaway4
paid £2 10s for a log2
paid £8 17s 9d2
paid £2 in lieu of passage to
Hobart2
advanced 5s2
advanced 10s2
employee of SA Co.3
paid £15 11s 9d for boats2
advanced 5s2
advanced 5s2
advanced £52
paid £52
paid £59 1s 3d balance2
advanced 5s2
reported as run away4
paid £10 6s 1d2
paid £13 7s wages to date2
storekeeper7
cooper
2
Henry Halbrook
John Harper
headsman
Robert Hayes
headsman
[James?] Huggins
William Jones
J. Keubler
cooper3
Charles McClure
Isaac Nelson
cooper3
Edward Munday
headsman
George Mills
oarsman5
paid £5 16s 9d2
advanced 5s2
paid £44 4s 10d2
paid part £27 11s 9d balance2
advanced 5s2
came in Emma 1
paid £23 14s 7d to account2
came in Emma 1
paid £17 14s to account2
paid £10 to account2
paid £10 balance and £50 balance and lay2
paid £17 15s 8d wages to date2
paid £1 4s2
purchased slops 19s at fishery2
paid £8 6s 6d balance2
paid £22 1s 2d2
came in Emma 1
part £27 11s 9d balance2
paid £5 wages2
came in Emma 1
paid £55 18s 6d in full2
paid £5 15s for a gun2
survived drowning5
Date
4 March ’37
5 March ’37
11 November ’37
25 November ’37
June ’37
24 October ’37
20 October ’37
10 November ’37
19 September ’37
20 March ’37
19 May ’37
21 October ’37
18 April ’37
19 September ’37
20 March ’37
February ’38
February ’38
18 April ’37
22 May ’37
20 October ’37
March ’38
December ’37
20 October ’37
6 March ’37
26 October ’37
February ’38
19 September ’37
5 March ’37
21 October ’37
5 March ’37
21 October ’37
26 October ’37
31 October ’37
March ’38
21 October ’37
July ’37
February ’38
20 October ’37
5 March ’37
February ’38
February ’38
5 March ’37
21 October ’37
24 October ’37
December ’37
continued on next page
14
H.M.S. Victor
continued from previous page
Name
[John?] Murphy
Richard Pierce
William Powell
William Power
‘little’ Punch
Reuben Roach
Charles Robinson
George Robinson
Position
cooper?
oarsman5
Hugh Scott
tonguer2
John Smith
headsman
George Smith
George Thompson
boatman3
Thomas Tindall
George Turner
Samuel Wistock
William Wood(s)
smith’s assistant3
carpenter?3
Reference
part £27 11s 9d balance2
advanced 5s2
paid 10s on account wages2
gaoled & released as runaway4
survived drowning5
advanced £22
advanced 5s2
advanced 5s2
advanced £52
advanced £12
paid £10 on account and £60
balance of tonguer’s oil2
came in Emma 1
advanced £12
advanced £22
paid 5s balance due for service at
fishery2
employed by SA Co.3
advanced 5s2
paid £2 8s 11d2
gaoled & released as runaway4
advanced £1 10s2
Date
February ’38
22 May ’37
18 April ’37
29 December ’37
June ’37
December ’37
20 March ’37
19 September ’37
18 April ’37
22 May ’37
20 March ’37
18 May ’37
31 October ’37
5 March ’37
19 September ’37
21 October ’37
20 March ’37
6 May ’37
19 May ’37
19 September ’37
21 October ’37
22 May ’37
Jun ’37
18 May ’37
Table 2: Men engaged at the Hind Cove fishery in 1837. References:
1
Affidavits, 2 Colonial Secretary’s papers [30], 3 Fell’s memoir
[13].
Name
John Blenkinsop
Thomas Brown
Henry Brooks
John Driscoll
Position
Sylvester Freeman
Thomas Marshall
Thomas Mead
William Reeves
Runaways
Michael Smith
Thomas Smith
Thomas Stacks
Webster
George Wright
headsman?
steward?
headsman?
headsman
steersman?
oarsmen
headsman
Reference
Date
drowned3
came in Hind 2
murdered2
Freeman & Blenkinsop1
wrote to Hindmarsh2
Freeman & Blenkinsop1
two overlanders
came in Hind ?
in company with Blenkinsop
drowned3
21 May ’37
12 December ’37
end June ’37
21 May ’37
end June ’37
21 May ’37
12 Dec ’37
21 May ’37
21 May ’37
23/24 May ’37
12 December ’37
December ’37
Crozier was unhappy about the safety of his anchorage in Rosetta Harbour so, at 3.50 p.m. on 26
April, he weighed anchor and came to at 5.20 just behind Granite Island. Here shelter was provided
by Granite Island, Seal Rock and the reef. He wrote to the Governor in a letter published in the
South Australian Gazette & Colonial Record of 20 January 1838 that it was a splendid harbour and
that he had named the outer roadstead ‘Capel’s Sound’ after his commander-in-chief, Rear Admiral
Sir Thomas Bladen Capel, and the harbour behind Granite Island ‘Victor Harbour’, after his own
15
H.M.S. Victor
vessel—which he claimed, with cavalier disregard for the truth, to be the ‘first ship that has been
here’. The lie is given to this statement a couple of sentences later: ‘A vessel from Sydney has formed
a whaling establishment in this harbour, and has left two boats fishing’. He reported that two rivers
ran into Encounter Bay in the neighbourhood of the fishery, although their mouths were blocked by
sandbars. They were salty for at least four or five miles inland, but fresh water was obtainable from
wells dug close to the shore. He judged the land along the bay to be very good. He went on to note
that ‘the water is deep alongside the rocks [of Granite Island], having 2 21 and 3 fathoms. Wharfs
might be made to allow of ships going alongside’. He closed by stating his intention to survey the
harbour the following day and added that he might be induced to stay for two days ‘for the sake of
the colony’. He was, in fact, prepared to remain only one day.
The following day was fine with light breezes and at 5 a.m. he dispatched a cutter and a pinnace (the
log mentions only a pinnace) under the acting master, William Mill, and a mate, [Robert] Douglas
Stupart27 , to make soundings of the bay whilst he and the surgeon, Richard Natt, explored the
country. They may well have ascended the ridge behind Victor Harbour because a hilltop named
Crozier Hill appears on the 1838 sketch map by Light and Finniss (see Figure 10). It overlooks a
river now known as the Inman but on the so-called chart of the harbour in Encounter Bay produced
by Crozier28 (State Library of South Australia C735), it is called the Kangaroo River. In reality
the chart is no more than a sketch made without any bearings, but it records Wrights Island (now
West Island) and Wrights Anchorage between it and the mainland, south of Cape Victor [Rosetta
Point]. The Rosetta fishery was placed on the north side of the cape, facing Rosetta Harbour. Beyond
the Kangaroo River was Sandy Point with Granite Island and Seal Rock offshore. An anchorage is
indicated north and north-west of Granite Island. The second fishery is marked, but not labelled,
shortly before the Hindmarsh River is reached. The higher ground inland to the east of this river is
marked as a site for a town. Crozier wrote to Commander William Hobson of H.M.S. Rattlesnake
in Port Jackson on 6 May that ‘we fixed upon a capital site for a town, on the right bank of the
Hindmarsh River’. The coast is then shown trending eastward to Rocky Point, with an unnamed
Pullen Island clearly depicted. The shoreline is then roughly indicated trending to the north-west!
H.M.S. Victor sailed from Encounter Bay at 5.30 a.m. on 28 April in hazy weather and light breezes.
Price [25] claims that Blenkinsop acted as pilot when H.M.S. Victor surveyed Encounter Bay, but
this is most unlikely to be true. Crozier states that the Hind had left before he arrived in the bay,
Blenkinsop is not mentioned in the Victor ’s Remark Book and, when she reached Port Jackson on 7
May, Blenkinsop does not appear as a passenger on the manifest.
The other vessels soon left Encounter Bay as well. The John Pirie continued on to Nepean Bay on
28 April, the day H.M.S. Victor departed Victor Harbour, and the Emma returned to Nepean Bay
on 2 May.
Crozier expanded his assessment of Encounter Bay in the Remark Book, obviously written after the
departure and almost certainly in the knowledge that it was what Hindmarsh wanted to hear:
The anchorage round Cape Victor [Rosetta Point] called Rosetta Harbour may be deemed
safe for 3 or 4 vessels of two or three hundred tons.
But the one under Granite Island is more commodious being capable of containing at
least twenty or thirty sail. The best anchorage is with the east point of Granite Island
SSW in 4 fathoms. The reef extending from Seal Rocks protects you from southerly
winds; and no fear of any consequence arises with easterly ones, they being summer winds.
Another anchorage also exists round Rocky Point [Freeman Nob as also one under Wrights
[West] Island, making altogether four anchorages within the space of eight miles. These
anchorages and the locality altogether of Encounter Bay seem to point it out as a far more
eligible situation for the establishment of a new colony than Hold Fast Bay, particularly
27 Stupart is described as a midshipman in the complement published in the Sydney Herald of 25 August 1836. The
newspaper prints Mill and Stupart as ‘Miles’ and ‘Hupart’.
28 This chart is attributed to commander John Crozier.
16
The South Australian
its proximity to Lake Alexandrina which seems to have been one [of] the principal objects
in preferring Port Adelaide to Port Lincoln. Sturt’s River [Murray], one of the entrances
to the Lake, is only 20 miles from the anchorage. The two rivers called Hindmarsh and
Kangaroo [Inman] are, after you get passed their bars, navigable for boats. Some very
good wells had been dug at Hind’s fishery. Fresh water pools were found at the head of
Kangaroo River and as this was the dry season, no doubt abundance was there during the
rains.
Then follow directions for reaching the anchorage under Granite Island, with warnings that the soundings around the island and the reef between Seal Roc and Granite Island were very irregular and not
be be relied upon. Finally, he notes: ‘As to the anchorage under Wrights [West] Island and round
Rocky Point [Freeman Nob], our stay being only 24 hours altogether, we had not time to examine
them. But the information we received [from the whalers] about was very much in their favor and I
have every reason to believe it correct’. In Crozier’s opinion Victor Harbour was commodious enough
to be ‘capable of containing as much shipping as any new colony can expect for several years’. By the
year’s end, however, reality had prevailed.
The South Australian
Whilst H.M.S. Victor was in Encounter Bay, the South Australian was preparing to leave Kangaroo Island for the whaling season at the bay. A former naval vessel, this tiny 155-ton barque had
been purchased by the South Australian Company and sailed from Plymouth under the command of
Alexander Allen29 , arriving in South Australia on 23 April. She brought out David McLaren and his
family as well as the South Australian Company employee, Henry Richard Mildred, and the surgeon,
William Henry Leigh. McLaren had been appointed Commercial Manager of the South Australian
Company, effectively superseding Stephens.
The outward voyage was documented in the log book kept by the first mate, John Anthony. The
crew were ill-disciplined and there were altercations between them and Anthony and the second mate,
David Findlay. The situation was exacerbated by the captain’s refusal to exert his authority on behalf
of his officers, which forced McLaren to step in on several occasions. The carpenter, John Cann, was
off duty for an extended period due to an injury sustained whilst intoxicated. In what must have been
the last straw for MacLaren, Allen refused to heed the pilot on entering Nepean Bay and grounded
the vessel on a sand-spit; he then retired to his cabin leaving the pilot to get her off. Anthony, who
had had a physical confrontation with Allen during the voyage, left the ship at Nepean Bay and joined
the South Australian Company.
For some reason, Allen was not removed—perhaps McLaren had no power to—and the South Australian was prepared for removal to Encounter Bay she took on board two bricklayers, a cooper and a
boatbuilder. The bricks were brought from Launceston by the Africaine, which returned to Holdfast
Bay on 19 April. There were payments on 3 April to Smith of the Africaine 30 for £3 17s, two bills
for tobacco and passage of dogs on account of the Rosetta fishery, and £15 15s for bricks. The bricks
were unloaded from the South Australian the day after she reached Encounter Bay and were no doubt
used to build the try works at Rosetta Cove.
The South Australian made up a party of two boats. Most her crew and even some passengers were
taken on for the fishery: the crew were Alexander Allen (captain), John Allen, James Anthony,
Henry Bailey, William Buchan, John Cann, Alexander Clark, David Findlay, James Huggins, Gilbert
Hutchison31 , Maxwell Inston, John Johnston, William Wedger (or Widger) and John Pearce Wyatt,
29 His
name is sometimes rendered ‘Allan’, but the official log of the South Australian has ‘Allen’.
Benjamin Smith, sawyer for the South Australia Company, came out on the Africaine.
31 Findlay mentions a William Hutchison being ill in the log of the South Australian. There is no other record of
William so Findlay most likely mistook the name.
30 A
17
Land communication
the passengers, William Prout32 and John Watkins. Clark, Hutchison, Inston and Johnston had all
been guilty of insubordination during the voyage out, but it was they who had been chosen as whalers.
Findlay was made first mate in the place of John Anthony and John Allen, the captain’s brother, was
promoted from third to second mate. Three other passengers were employed at Kingscote by the South
Australian Company: another fisherman, John Germein, and his two brothers became members of
the William’s crew until they fell out with Wright in November [26].
The complement of the South Australian at Encounter Bay, as far as is known, is listed in Table 3. It
might be noted that the occupations given in the passenger and crew lists use the term ‘harpooner’
rather than ‘headsman’.
Charles Smith and John Southgate were on board the whaler Sarah and Elizabeth, which arrived from
Hull on 26 September 1836. It is possible that ‘Hightam’, of whom there is no other record, is a
phonetic rendering of ‘Hutton’: a William Hutton was a shipmate of Smith and Southgate on the
Sarah and Elizabeth. The Sarah and Elizabeth was the third deep-sea whaler sent out by the South
Australian Company. She arrived at Nepean Bay on 25 April 1837 but did not leave for a whaling
cruise until 4 September, so her crew could well have been employed during the Encounter Bay season.
Thomas Fitzgerald also received payments from the Rosetta fishery account, so must have done work
for both, but in an unknown capacity. Likewise, the fisherman, Joseph Wright , was paid for service up
to June 1837 but apparently he did not leave Kangaroo Island. On 22 October 1838 he wrote a letter
of bitter complaint to Angas (State Library of South Australia BRG 42/31/9): he had been living in
a rotten canvas tent that came in the South Australian with the nets that he sold the company ‘laying
in the stores useless and eaten up with rats and mice’. Drift and seine fishing he deemed useless from
Kangaroo Island and had been forced to work as a labourer, though he was then in charge of receiving
goods and cargoes on the beach and jetty at Kingscote.
That leaves John Moore and Slater who received payments on the South Australian account. Slater
was paid only for transferring the cargo of the South Australian to the John Pirie at Encounter
Bay and may not have been part of the establishment of the fishery. He is probably the boatman,
J. Slater, employed by the South Australian Company in May 1837. A seaman named John Moore
appears on the departure list of the Isabella from Launceston in March 1837. The Isabella was wrecked
at Cape Northumberland on the way to Holdfast Bay but Moore might still have made his way to
South Australia, like her master, John Hart. The Isabella on its previous voyage from Launceston
in February had brought over another whaler, James Long, who went into service with the South
Australian Company. Slater cannot be identified.
The log of the South Australian kept by the first mate provides a day-to-day account of the activities
on board [2]. David Findlay replaced John Anthony as first mate before they left Nepean Bay, so it
was Findlay who kept a detailed record of the whaling season in 1837 [2]. Thus we know that the
vessel left Nepean Bay at 5 a.m. on 23 May with Samuel Stephens, George Martin, the master of the
John Pirie, and a Mr. Lord, in the company of the brig William, which was bound for Van Diemens
Land. At 4 p.m. she came to anchor in Encounter Bay at Rosetta Cove. According to Martin in
Gouger [15], he ‘took’ the South Australian to Encounter Bay; this may have been in the capacity of
pilot since he had been there before. Lord was probably Edward Robert Lord, the son of the the Van
Diemonian pastoralist and merchant Edward Lord. How he arrived in South Australia is unrecorded,
but there is little doubt that he had come in search of business.
Land communication
Martin remained at the Bay for ten days [15], i.e., until early June, and then walked back to Adelaide. He was accompanied by Stephens. Charles William Stuart, manager of the South Australian
32 He was still regarded as a fisherman by the South Australian Company in its list of employees dated 19 May 19
1837 but it more likely that he served as a seaman, i.e., an oarsman, at Encounter Bay.
18
Land communication
Table 3: Men engaged on the South Australian in 1837. References:
1
Passenger and crew list, 2 South Australian Company accounts
[28], 3 South Australian Company list of men, 4 log of the South
Australian.
Name
Alexander Allen
John Allen
Position
captain1
headsman?4
3rd mate1
James (H?) Anthony
seaman, apprentice1
Henry Bailey
seaman, apprentice1
William Buchan
seaman1
John Cann
carpenter1
Alexander Clark
seaman, harpooner1
headsman4
David Findlay
2nd mate1
headsman4
Thomas Fitzgerald
Hightam [Hutton?]
James Huggins
Gilbert Hutchison
William Hutchison
Maxwell Inston
seaman1
seaman, harpooner1
headsman4
seaman, boatswain1
boat-steerer4
Reference
crew list
paid £8 wages on account2
crew list
paid £28 13s 5d wages2
paid £2 9s 10d balance, left 2
May2
crew list
crew list
paid £3 16s 9d premium on
oil and bone2
crew list
paid £3 1s 8d wages in full to
2 May2
paid £4 10s 6d2
crew list
paid £2 wages2
crew list
paid £1 14s 2d wages in full
to 2 May2
paid £23 1s 8d wages & premium on oil2
crew list
balance of wages £15 4s2
paid wages £8 12s2
paid £1 2s 6d2
paid £15 4s balance of wages2
paid part of £13 5s 6d2
crew list
2 May2
crew list
paid £2 7s 8d wages on
account2
paid £12
paid £22 19s 2d wages & premium on oil2
paid wages £4 15s 8d2
ill4
crew list
paid £2 10s 10d wages in full
to 2 May2
paid £12
Date
1836
19 May ’37
1836
26 October ’37
26 October ’37
1836
26 October ’37
1836
8 November ’37
1836
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
9 January ’38
1836
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
30 December ’37
1836
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
1836
19 May ’37
9 December ’37
3 March ’38
15 November ’37
9 December ’37
29 December ’37
1836
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
1836
19 May ’37
20 October ’37
26 October ’37
23 March ’38
September ’37
1836
19 May ’37
14 October ’37
26 October ’37
continued on next page
19
Land communication
continued from previous page
Name
Position
John Johnston
seaman, harpooner1
John Moore
William Prout
fisherman1
fisherman
seaman
[J?] Slater
Charles Smith
John Southgate
John Watkins
William Wedger
seaman1
butcher
seaman, cook1
Joseph Wright
fisherman1
fisherman
John Pearce Wyatt
seaman, apprentice1
Reference
paid £2 14s transhipping
cargo2
crew list
paid £2 12s 7s wages on
account2
paid £1 10s on account2
passenger list
employed by SA Co.3
23 April2
paid £3 12s 6d transhipping
cargo2
advanced £12
crew list
employed by SA Co.3
paid £5 14s 10d for fresh
water2
crew list
paid £5 14 wages in full to 2
May2
paid £21 7s 7d wages
paid £3 13s trans-shipping
cargo2
passenger list
employed by SA Co.3
paid £40 wages to 1 June2
crew list
Date
26 December ’37
29 December ’37
1836
19 May ’37
7 November ’37
1836
19 May ’37
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
26 December ’37
25 May ’37
26 October ’37
22 November ’37
1836
19 May ’37
25 May ’37
1 December ’37
1836
19 May ’37
26 October ’37
26 December ’37
29 December ’37
1836
19 May ’37
14 November ’37
1836
26 October ’37
Company’s stock, recorded in his diary the return of Stephens and Martin (and presumably Lord)
to Adelaide on 3 June [29]. They must have followed in the footsteps of the 207 sheep landed at
Encounter Bay from the John Pirie at the end of April. Stuart noted their arrival overland on 1 June
and it was presumably for driving these sheep from the Rosetta fishery to Adelaide that Abraham
Clegg was paid £5 as expenses by the South Australian Company on 29 June. These appear to have
been the first recorded crossings of the Fleurieu Peninsula by settlers, although it is likely that some
whalers, lured by the prospect of better wages in Adelaide, had already established an overland route
between the bay and Adelaide33 .
The route taken by these travellers from Encounter Bay in June is not known. The geography of
Encounter Bay was described by John Stephens, the brother of Samuel and Edward, in 1839, when he
was still in London [27]: ‘From the [Mootaparinga] river easterly, the land rises abruptly [to Brown
Hill?], and for about four miles the shore presents a bold and rocky aspect; but, at this distance, it
again sinks to a sandy level, winding round southerly. From this point there is a low sandy sea coast,
completely open to the southern ocean’. Stephens adds that ’from this place [the Bluff] the ground
slopes gradually down to the sea, and a small and sandy plain, bounded inland by an intricate and
hilly country, at a distance varying from a mile to a quarter of a mile, forms the sea-coast easterly
33 Collett Barker had, of course, crossed the Fleurieu Peninsula to Encounter Bay in 1831, but that was from Yankalilla
by way of the Inman River.
20
Rivalries
from the Bluff, up to a small bar river which runs into the sea, near Mootaparinga’34 . In July 1837
a place six miles from Encounter Bay and a mile off the track was referred to as Mooteparinga (see
page 28).
The Arrowsmith map of South Australia, published in London four years later, shows a track from
the Horseshoe at Noarlunga35 across the plains to Willunga, then mounting the scarp past Mount
Compass, Mount Lonely and Mount Jagged, crossing the headwaters of Currency Creek and then
skirting Perulilla Hill down to the Hindmarsh River, and so arriving at the Bay just to the east of
Blenkinsop’s fishery (Figure 2). This is route is essentially followed by today’s highway and, being
the most direct, was probably sought and followed from the beginning. Confirmation is provided by
John Wade in his letter to the editor of the True Colonist in Hobart, quoted in [15]: ‘On my visit to
Encounter Bay, I met with land equally good, in every respect, to that described [at Mount Barker],
within five miles of the coast. This is called Mootaparinga, and has a river flowing through it. Further
on again, between Mootaparinga and Adelaide, after crossing the first mountains, I saw a plain of the
same description; that also had a river running through it’. Mootaparinga or Mooteparinga must have
been the valley of the Hindmarsh. After climbing the Hindmarsh Tiers, the route dropped down to
the extended plain carrying the Myponga River, then rose to the Sellicks Hill Range. At the foot of
the steep descent lay the Aldinga Plains and an unencumbered path beside the gulf up to the crossing
place of the Onkaparinga River.
On 13 June, Stephens, Martin and Lord turned up again at Encounter Bay. Stuart in Adelaide wrote
that Stephens ‘started off for Encounter Bay’ on 11 June and the log of the South Australian confirmed
that they ‘arrived [at the bay] from Adelaide’. Martin himself [15] stated that he had returned on
foot to Encounter Bay after about twelve days in Adelaide, and remained at the bay about a week.
While the visitors were there, on 20 June, the Cygnet put in to Encounter Bay after an unbelievably
prolonged thirteen-week passage from Hobart. The voyage to Nepean Bay must have been cut short
in consideration of the 300 or so survivors of the 1500 sheep put on board. The recuperated sheep
were taken on to Nepean Bay by that vessel on 26 June36 .
In the meantime, on 21 June, Stephens, Martin and Lord slipped out of Encounter Bay at the dead
of night to return to Nepean Bay in Wright’s cutter William after matters came to a head between
the rival whale fisheries on Encounter Bay.
Rivalries
Whatever Stephens and his companions intended when they arrived at the Bay on 13 June, they were
detained there by the strong gales which prevented the whale boats from going out between 16 and 19
June and caused the Cygnet to seek shelter, so they must also have witnessed the competition between
the boats of the Company’s South Australian and those of another vessel, the Francis Freeling, in
securing a whale on 15 June.
The presence in the Bay of the 190-ton barque Francis Freeling, master James Williamson, was most
likely no coincidence. She was owned by the Sydney merchants [Daniel] Egan & Co., and left Sydney
on 15 May, a week after the Hind set off back to Encounter Bay. She called at Victor Harbour
and, when chasing their first whale on 4 June, she demonstrated the dangers attending whale fishing.
34 Stephens, writing in London and drawing on Mann in [15], can be confusing. He places, correctly, Blenkinsop’s
whaling establishment four miles to the east of the Bluff, but then states, incorrectly, that ‘about equi-distant between
these locations, lies a large island, called Granite Island’.
35 A route from Adelaide to the Horseshoe had been explored in February 1837. Stuart’s diary[29] reads: ‘1 February
1837. Started off to Enkeperinga to look for Polly [a horse]’. The party, consisting of the Company employees, Stuart
and Henry Alford, and Thomas Allen, ‘botanist and cultivator to the Australian Agricultural Society’ and Hindmarsh’s
gardener and ground-workman, was accompanied by a sealer named Nat [Nathaniel Thomas]. They were away three
days, reaching the Onkaparinga and following it to the Horseshoe (the site of Old Noarlunga).
36 On 2 August the Rosetta fishery was paid by Henry Sobey £1 for slops obtained from the fishery and £1 advanced
to him at Hobart. Sobey was a shepherd attending the stock on the Cygnet.
21
Rivalries
Figure 2: The Fleurieu peninsula showing routes between Encounter Bay and Adelaide based on the
Arrowsmith map of 1841
A whaleboat and six men were lost. The Sydney Herald of 26 October 1837 described how the
‘unfortunate men were lost sight of by their companions and after a search of three days no tidings of
them could be discovered. It is supposed they must have been destroyed by the whale in some way,
either by their line becoming foul and dragged into the surf or their boat being stove’. The names
of the ‘unfortunate individuals’ also illustrates the cosmopolitan nature of the whaling business: ‘Mr.
John Green, chief officer, a native of the Colony, William Mate, boat steerer, a native of Dover, Henry
Dubar, a Prussian, John Cole, an American, Joseph Saunders, a man of color, and Robert Williams
a native of London, arrived here per Royal Sovereign.’ The latter may be the Peter Robert Williams
transported for 14 years on the Royal Sovereign in 1835.
While the South Australian’s crew were getting whalebone on board and assisting the Cygnet to an
anchorage in Rosetta Harbour on 20 June, the shore party and a party from the American whaler
Statesman together took a whale. The 258-ton barque Statesman, master Charles Norris Coffin,
arrived at Hind Cove at the end of February, according to Charles Mann[15], having left Salem,
22
Rivalries
Massachusetts, on 22 December 1836, and apparently remained in the neighbourhood of Encounter
Bay until the end of the season, the middle of September, again according to Mann. She probably
spent some time in Nepean Bay, if Leigh[18] is to be believed. Referring to 26 June, when he was
living at Kingscote, he wrote: ‘I have had a temperance ship under my care, for some time past. The
crew and vessel are American. The captain, officers, and many men are in a state of emaciation, from,
I consider, suddenly abandoning their liquor.’ What constituted a temperance ship could differ widely:
one without any alcohol, one without spirits, one in which in which seamen, but not the officers, were
denied. There can be little doubt that Leigh was referring to Coffin and the Statesman; if she began
as a strict temperance ship, she developed into a lax one. Leigh is cavalier with chronology so his
comment might in fact refer to to the time spent in Nepean Bay at the end of the whaling season.
She left Nepean Bay on 26 October and put in to Hobart ‘for refreshment’ on 14 January 1838 with
1500 barrels of oil.
American whalers had been operating off the south Australian coast since at least 1803, when Baudin
met one in King George Sound in Western Australia and directed the Union to Kangaroo Island.
Their presence was giving the colonial authorities some concern, and raised the question of what
action they could take to protect local interests. Crozier, in his letter to Commander William Hobson
of HMS Rattlesnake on 6 May, wrote
. . . I enclose two letters from Mr. [Thomas Brooker] Sherratt of King Georges Sound,
and my reply, respecting the protection that would be given to a Company who have a
Whaling Establishment in Doubtful Island Bay, against Foreign Vessels interfering with
their Fishery, and what Laws are in force, as regards Foreigners fishing on the Coast of
Australia. The same questions were also put to me at Swan River and in Encounter Bay,
as several American Ships are now employed fishing on the West and Southern Coasts.
One American Ship I found lying at the Swan River, and another fishing in King Georges
Sound.
I am not aware myself of any Laws existing, respecting Foreigners fishing for Whale on
these Coasts, and neither their Excellencies The Governors of Western or South Australia
were able to enlighten me upon this important subject.
Yet it was not against the foreigners that the South Australian Company sought to move but the
Sydney whalers.
Initially, both fisheries had trouble retaining their hands at Encounter Bay.
On 21 May, Thomas Marshall of Blenkinsop’s fishery wrote to Hindmarsh: ‘Having lost a number of
hands from the fishery established in the Bay and hearing they have proceeded to Adelaide, I take the
liberty of requesting you will confine such of them as may be their until further orders are received
from Capt[ain] Blenkinsop, whom I expect daily from Sydney. The desertion of these men has left
the fishery entirely destitute. The names of such as have proceeded to Adelaide are Tho[ma]s Smith,
W[illia]m Reeves, Michael Smith, Tho[ma]s Brown and several others. Mr. Monday37 , who is the
bearer of this, will be able to point out such of our men as may be their’ [30].
The Rosetta Cove fishery, where Munday was employed, had similar problems. Samuel Stephens wrote
to his brother Edward on 22 May that ‘a boat has just arrived here from Rosetta Cove, Encounter Bay,
bringing me a note from Mr. McFarland [McFarlane], the manager of our fishery, with information that
four of his men had run away from the fishery and crossed by land to Holdfast Bay or Adelaide and
begging that I would take immediate steps to have them punished as he feared otherwise the whole of
his hands would follow them’. They were named as George Robinson, Richard Pierce, George Turner
and Jeremiah Donoho. Edward Stephens passed this on to the Colonial Secretary, Robert Gouger,
apparently with a copy of McFarlane’s note since a letter from John McFarlane, the chief headsman at
Encounter Bay, complaining of losing both men and stores is to be found in the Colonial Secretary’s
records [30].
37 Probably
Edward Munday of the Rosetta Cove fishery.
23
Rivalries
The men had another story, though. Samuel Wistock, William Power and William Angill were sentenced to three month’s imprisonment for absconding from the South Australian Company’s fishery.
They were confined to a soldiers’ tent, sleeping on the ground without a blanket. They complained
of the conditions to Hindmarsh and claimed that ‘from the repeated threats of our officers to us we
did not think our lives safe and therefore we came to Adelaide to seek redress’. Hindmarsh remitted
the remaining part of their sentence and they were released on 28 June. The following day, Edward
Stephens wrote to Hindmarsh flatly refusing to employ such men in Adelaide [30].
A common war against absconders became a war between the two fisheries after the return of Blenkinsop from Sydney. The anticipated return took place on 23 or 24 May38 , according Thomas Stacks,
a whaler at Blenkinsop’s fishery; since Stacks also said that he joined the fishery about this time, he
may have accompanied Blenkinsop in the Hind , which left Sydney, under Jones, with stores for the
whale fishery on 7 May. This vessel most likely also brought Blenkinsop’s wife, Anna, and daughter,
since Blenkinsop refers to the presence of his family in October.
Stephens must have become aware of Blenkinsop’s return when the South Australian brought him
round to Encounter Bay on 23 May. This may have prompted him to attempt to have Blenkinsop
evicted by the government authorities on his return to Adelaide on 3 June, since Charles Mann, the
Advocate-General, wrote an opinion for the Governor concerning the fishery on 8 June. According to
this, everyone was free to engage in fishing unless the King exercised his prerogative to forbid it. The
Governor had the authority to regulate, but he should seek advice from the Colonial Office before
using his powers as the Crown’s representative to stop it. Hindmarsh then decided to send James
Hurtle Fisher, the Colonial Commissioner, with Colonel Light, the Surveyor-General, and supported
by a party of marines to deal with the matter at Encounter Bay. They set off overland on 16 June.
Stephens, in the meantime, had preceded them to Encounter Bay. Leaving Adelaide on 11 June, he
arrived with Martin and Lord at the Bay on 13 June, where he either found or was shortly joined by
Wright in the William. Blenkinsop must then have taken the opportunity one evening to confront
the South Australian Company officials about their encouragement of his men to abscond. The only
accounts of these events are the depositions of Blenkinsop and his second-in-command, Sylvester
Freeman, made to the magistrates, Thomas Bewes Strangways and George Stevenson, in Adelaide on
12 and 13 October.
The immediate cause was a report that five of Blenkinsop’s party, after breaking their Articles of
Agreement and absconding, were secreted below decks on the cutter, William, to be taken to Kangaroo
Island. In his deposition, Blenkinsop stated that ‘on or about’ 23 June, he took two boats to the cutter,
boarded it and demanded that Wright deliver up his men. Wright’s reply was to order Blenkinsop
back to his boat whilst threatening him with what Blenkinsop and Freeman believed to be a loaded
pistol. Blenkinsop alleged that Wright pointed the pistol at his chest and ‘snapped’ it but it failed to
discharge. Blenkinsop then informed Wright that he was taking his complaint to the South Australian,
which was lying some quarter of a mile off. Freeman claimed that Wright hailed the South Australian,
presumably to warn them, then told Blenkinsop that Stephens was on board. So Blenkinsop took
his boat, with Freeman, to the South Australian, leaving the other to keep an eye on Wright and
the William. As their boat approached the South Australian, it was hailed three times, to which
they replied ‘a whale boat’ and, on the second two occasions, stipulated that it belonged to Captain
Blenkinsop. By the last time, Blenkinsop was making his way up to the deck of the South Australian
as Thomas Mead, his ‘harpooner’ (headsman), stood in the bow of the boat keeping it alongside with
a boat hook. At that moment Stephens leant over the side of the South Australian and fired down at
the boat, the ball lodging in the woodwork after narrowly missing Mead. Arriving on deck, Blenkinsop
was confronted by Stephens with a pistol in each hand. Stephens demanded that he return to his
boat, which he did after calling Stephens a ‘coward and no gentleman’ and offering to meet him for a
duel on shore ‘on any point he thought proper’.
The two depositions then diverge. Freeman stated that Blenkinsop asked Stephens if his men would
be returned to him. Stephens denied all knowledge of the matter but ordered out a boat in which he
38 The
24
date of 30 June, as quoted in [26], is surely erroneous.
Rivalries
and Martin with an armed crew went to the William, where they denied access to Blenkinsop’s party,
although they were close enough to hear Wright say ‘I have taken away your men before and I will do
so again whenever I can get them’. After some words, Stephens agreed to meet Blenkinsop aboard the
South Australian, to which they then returned. Blenkinsop’s boat was initially ordered to stand off
from the vessel, but was later called alongside and the crew treated to wine and coffee. Blenkinsop’s
account is disjointed and makes no mention of these events. He confirmed, however, that he met
Stephens on the South Australian later that evening. By then Stephens was agitated, alternating
between bluster—expressing regret that he had not aimed at the steersman, i.e., Blenkinsop, and at
having missed his target—and remorse, offering apologies and compensation in the form of a new
boat. Stephens had good reason to panic, for the actions of both Wright and himself constituted
capital offences.
Blenkinsop testified that Stephens offered to let him search the William the following morning. If
his statement were strictly chronological, this would have been after the initial confrontation but it
would appear more likely to have been after the second, when Stephens was more contrite. Blenkinsop
concludes his account somewhat ambiguously: ‘next morning it blew hard, and the cutter went away
the evening of that day with deponent’s men’, none of whom were recovered. The log of the South
Australian records the departure of Stephens, Martin and Lord with Wright in the William at 1.30
a.m. on 21 June, and it was this day that there was a strong easterly breeze, though not strong
enough to prevent the fishery boats from being on the water [2]. If it is assumed that Blenkinsop
was using ship time in which the day began at noon of the previous calendar day, the confrontation
would have taken place on the evening of 20 June, Stephens would have fled in the early hours of 21
June before Blenkinsop could return to search the cutter and the strong winds that day prevented
him from discovering what had happened until too late.
The log of the South Australian throws no light on these events, recording only the coming and going
of Stephens. It is also silent on the arrival two days later of Fisher and Light.
According to Bull [5]:
The first expedition into the bush attempted or entered upon by officials was in the same
year (1837), when the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. J.H. Fisher) and the SurveyorGeneral (Colonel Light) started to reach Encounter Bay overland. Mr. Stephen Hack
was with them to render his assistance as an incipient bushman; a corporal’s guard of
marines was obtained from the Buffalo to act against any hostile natives whom they
might encounter. Tents and swag were conveyed in a Government bullock-dray. There
was a horse-dray and saddle horses for the officials, who had also in attendance of their
own servants and some other men. The first day they made the Messrs. Hack’s sheep
station, near the coast, and distant in a direct course from Glenelg about twelve miles.
The ground was found to be soft from recent rains. It was now discovered that the outfit
of the party was too ponderous for the cattle, and on the following morning Mr. Hack
was sent back to secure the services of Mr. John Chambers to bring out drays and some
additional requirements, and to convey the marines with their outfit back to their ship. . .
Light records the first few days in his journal [19]. He, Fisher and the inevitable John Morphett,
together with the marines—a sergeant, a corporal and eleven privates—set out from Adelaide in the
afternoon of 14 June. The party left Glenelg at 11 a.m. on 16 June and arrived at ‘a beautiful valley’,
not more than 10 or 11 miles from Glenelg at 4 p.m.. The bullocks had proved unmanageable and
one of the cars (carts) defective, so Stephen Hack returned to Adelaide for more bullocks and a larger
car. He rejoined the party at 1 p.m. on 18 June, the day that Light drew a sketch of Hurtle Vale, and
they then decided to send back the marines and the heavy equipment and continue with a smaller
party, a small car and just two bullocks39 . This they did on 19 June and, after ‘ascending at first a
gradual hill, and traversing afterwards through a most rich and beautiful country’, they reached the
Onkaparinga, which they explored on 20 June. They arrived at their destination on 23 June40 .
39 Coincidentally
40 The
or not, about this time a bullock dray was ‘fetched’ from Adelaide for the Rosetta fishery (page 12).
continuation of Light’s journal was lost in the fire of 22 January 1839 so some writers have claimed that the
25
Rivalries
(b)
(a)
(c)
Figure 3: Rosetta Cove and the Bluff: (a) sketch by William Light in June 1837, (b) detail showing
the whaling station of the South Australian Company. National Library of Australia, reproduced
without permission. (c) the same scene in 2013.
The following day Light sketched the bay from the Bluff, marking all the reefs and rocks and showing
the Cygnet and the South Australian at anchor in Rosetta Harbour [11]. The drawing in Figure 3
showing the vessels at anchor below the Bluff must have executed at much the same time. The South
Australian, with lowered topmasts on fore and mizzen masts, is to the right, and the Cygnet to the
left41 .
Apparently Blenkinsop was soon able to convince Fisher and Light that he had as much right as the
South Australian Company to establish a fishery42 and to await the opportunity to acquire land in
Encounter Bay43 ; moreover, he was able to lodge a complaint over the actions of Wright and Stephens.
party did not reach Encounter Bay on this occasion, but this has been disproved by Dutton [10].
41 The main topmast was subsequently lowered as well as it was sent up again on 9 October [2]. The sketch (Figure
7 (b)) after her wreck shows her with no topmasts. Light’s sketch of the Cygnet may be compared with that dating
from 1833–34 reproduced in Ewens [12].
42 It is interesting that the Francis Freeling reported on her return to Sydney (Sydney Gazette & New South Wales
Advertiser of 24 October 1837) that ‘The whaler Highlander , [John] Lovett, master and owner, put into Encounter Bay
while the Francis Freeling was lying there, but she was sent back to Hobart Town by the authorities in consequence of
a regulation prohibting vessels, except in distress, from putting in there.’ Since the Statesman was allowed to remain
for the whole season, this smacks more of a local attempt at protectionism than a government one.
43 That he was in earnest is demonstrated by his purchase of a town acre 982 in Adelaide from James Adams, who
26
Rivalries
Fisher and Light then returned to Adelaide, arriving back on the afternoon of 27 June. The return
was noted by William Jacob, the junior member of Light’s surveying party (quoted in [11]):
Captain Light and Party returned from Encounter Bay about 4 o’clock in the Afternoon,
the Captain [Light] very fatigued and looking very unwell after such (a most) wretched
excursion, having wet weather almost all the time since they left—Left the Cygnet lying
in the Harbour at Encounter Bay. ‘This Spendid Harbour’ as reported by his Majesty’s
Ship Victor is not fit for even more than 2 or 3 ships and then only sheltered from the
Westward.
Light made a sketch map of Encounter Bay (State Library of South Australia C254/C734), based on
Crozier’s chart, of which Light was highly critical, and his own observations—the only measurements
he made made were the bearings of the two extremities of Granite Island as seen from the Bluff. The
positions where the South Australian, Solway and John Pirie were wrecked must have been added
later.
Light reinstates the name Cape Rosetta, noting that it had been ‘called Rosetta by Mr. S. Stephens
long before Captn. Crozier went there’. The island to the south [West Island] is still Wright Island and
the island to the north unnamed; the reef joining the latter to Rosetta Cove is noted. The anchorage
in Rosetta Harbour is judged, in his opinion, as ‘not fit for anything’.
Four buildings are shown in Rosetta Cove as the South Australian Company’s fishery, though rather
more are depicted in Figure 3 (a). The main huts were apparently on the flat above the bay, probably
near the gulley that would have provided a freshwater stream in winter. It lies between present-day
Battye and Jagger Roads on Section 6, which was selected by the South Australian Company after
the land had been surveyed in 1839 (see Figure 10). The structure billowing smoke by the shore is
probably the try works (though no blubber had been boiled for oil since 11 June).
There were probably two try works on Rosetta Cove. In Figure 6 (a), the ‘South Australian’s Tryworks’
is identified in the little cove below the Bluff, which could be approached without crossing the reef.
The oil and bone from the two parties, on which their pay was based, would have been assessed
separately, so it is plausible that the oil was recovered in separate try works and stored separately.
Figure 6 (a) also shows the cooperage where the barrels were prepared conveniently located between
the two possible sites for try works.
The Kangaroo and Hindmarsh Rivers are not named, but Light noted that ‘The ground here rises
all the way to the hills and certainly not adapted for a Capital. The banks above the beach are
precipitous, and there is no fresh water within three or four miles and that not very good’.
Two buildings are shown just to the north of the point opposite Granite Island; Light apparently
distinguishes the northernmost as Captain Blenkinsop’s [house] [Anna Vale] and the southern as the
fishery [Hind Cove]. An anchorage is shown directly north of Granite Island with the annotation:
Not more than 3 or 4 ships can lay here at the same time, very unsafe in Easterly winds,
and always a great swell thrown in by westerly and southerly breezes. Only consider for
a moment that this is the very spot, said by Captn. Lipson R.N. to be the finest harbour
in the world, is open to the send of the whole Southern Ocean, and it requires not much
judgement to imagine what sort of sea there must be in fresh breezes. It is only in one spot
under the Island where 3 or 4 ships can anchor. What is to be done with ships coming
from England, had this been the capital? They must run for Kangaroo Island and wait
there until there should be room enough in Captn. Lipton’s finest harbour in the world for
them—or they must put up with some inferior berth and most likely be lost altogether.
Finally, Seal Rock and the reef extending towards Granite Island draw the comment that ‘a surf breaks
had paid £4 4s for it in the March sales.
27
Driscoll
all the way from Seal Rock to Granite Island in blowing weather’.
The ‘blowing weather’ gave Fisher and Light a foretaste of things to come. An easterly wind blew up
on 25 June and the Cygnet was soon in trouble. Without enough crew to warp his vessel clear of the
rocks, the master, John Rolls, requested assistance from the South Australian. As the gale increased,
the Cygnet threatened to foul the anchor ropes of the South Australian but she held fast during the
night. The following day the wind remained from the east and prevented the South Australian’s
boats from towing the Cygnet out of Rosetta Harbour. Findlay went on board the Cygnet and finally
managed to get her clear on 27 June.
It may be doubted whether the visit of Fisher and Light changed the situation at Encounter Bay, but
there is some evidence that personnel from the two fisheries could cooperate on occasion.
Driscoll
One of the men who defected from Blenkinsop’s fishery during the latter’s absence was John Driscoll44 .
Thomas Stacks testified at the end of July that Driscoll had come from Sydney with Blenkinsop but
had soon quarrelled with him and been confined on the Hind . After escaping, he went over to the the
South Australian Company and was living with William Walker, a sealer from Hog Bay on Kangaroo
Island. Stacks added that Blenkinsop ‘objected’ to this, but appeared to take no action.
Then, on 29 June, Edward Stephens wrote to Hindmarsh, enclosing another letter from McFarlane; it
reported the ill-treatment of natives by whalers at Encounter Bay and stated that ‘two of the parties
so charged are now on their way to this town’. This may have prompted Price [25] to conclude that
Stephens sent Driscoll off to Adelaide overland when Blenkinsop attempted to regain him, but the
later testimonies make no mention of this fact.
Instead they suggest that it was well known at Encounter Bay that Driscoll had arranged that an
Aborigine, named variously as Elick, Alick, Ronculla, Reppindjeri or Reppeenyere, should guide him
to Adelaide. Driscoll was living at Encounter Bay with a wife of Elick, apparently with his consent.
They must have left Encounter Bay early in July. About a fortnight later, William Walker was told
by his ‘wife’, Kalinga or Sarah, a native of Jervis Bay (and related to the Encounter Bay tribe), that
Elick had killed Driscoll and taken a bundle of clothes. This she had learned from her uncle, who had,
in turn, been informed by one of Elick’s wives.
The next day, Walker took Elick into custody; the log of the South Australian records on 21 July
that ‘the stewart’ [steward45 ] of the fishery came on board with Walker, his woman (‘a native of
Newholand’) and Thomas Stacks (‘a comrade of Wm Walker’), bringing the alleged murderer [2].
Due to the presence of ‘a great number’ of Aborigines at the Rosetta Cove fishery, Findlay thought
it expedient ‘not to secure him openly in the presence of his friends but to entice him on board of
the ship [South Australian ]. We succeeded in doing so by pretending that we were going to give him
bread, etc. When we got him on board and stated the circumstance to the captain, he assented to
his being put in irons, which was done.’ Findlay noted on 22 July that the prisoner was given ‘plenty
to eat and drink, also a sail for a bed’. After breaking one of the padlocks fastening him, Elick was
chained by the neck on 24 July.
Back on the morning of 22 July, Walker, Stacks and Edward Munday, of the South Australian Company, were taken by one of Elick’s wives to the spot where the body was partially hidden by boughs,
about a mile off the normal path to Adelaide and about six miles from Encounter Bay, a spot then
known as Mooteparinga in the Hindmarsh valley. They found the body so ravaged by birds and
44 He was often named ‘Driscall’ in contemporary documents. There is also some confusion over his Christian name.
Subsequent testimony by those who knew him referred to him as John, and this is consistent with his being called
‘Little Jack’ by the Aborigines. The Advocate-General, Charles Mann, apparently made a mistake when he wrote his
summary of the case and the name ‘Thomas’ thereafter appeared in government records.
45 Probably Abraham Clegg.
28
Driscoll
Figure 4: Elick secured to the deck of the South Australian. An engraving from a sketch presumably
made by William Henry Leigh at Encounter Bay in at the end of August 1837 [18].
animals as to be unrecognizable. However, the feet were covered by American peg-shoes, a type that
Driscoll was known to wear. The party buried the body and returned to Encounter Bay. The following
day, Blenkinsop went back to the spot, exhumed the body and reburied it at Encounter Bay46 .
Towards the end of July, Walker, his wife and Stacks made their way to Adelaide, where they offered
their statements on 29 and 31 July. Walker billed the government on August 13 for £9, being expenses
incurred in finding the body and travelling to Adelaide with his partner [Stacks] and a native woman
[his wife] for 9 days [30]. Stephens in the meantime had transmitted the Governor’s orders to the
South Australian that Elick be kept in safe custody. Findlay on 10 August noted that ‘as the Prisoner
has repeatedly endeavoured to escape we secured him by a chain round his waist allowing him his
hands and feet to be at liberty, it being the easyest way for him that we could confine him. I always
pay strickt attention to all his wants and gives him plenty to eat and drink.’
A sketch of ‘the murderer’ chained to the deck of the South Australian was included in Leigh’s book,
published in 1839 [18], Figure 4. Leigh must have seen Elick at the Bay at the end of August (he
arrived there in the Emma on 26 August) or beginning of September, shortly before he left Nepean
Bay for Sydney in the Lord Hobart on 11 September, and he claimed that the prisoner suffered badly
from syphilis; as a surgeon, he might be expected to know but he was an unreliable reporter.
This case presented the government authorities withe several problems. Mann, who examined the
statements as Advocate-General, pointed out that they did not constitute evidence and that Elick’s
wife needed to be examined. To be recognized in English law a statement would have to be sworn to by
someone with a belief in the after-life, so Elick’s wife’s testimony would be inadmissible. Furthermore,
it was feared that her tribe would spirit her away so as to prevent her from giving further information.
Still another problem was that the Protector of Aborigines would have to be involved, but the longwinded Walter Bromley had lost the confidence of the Council. Mann later wrote in the Southern
Australian of 10 May 1839 that the murder prompted discussions in the Council, which led to the
replacement of Bromley by William Wyatt on 1 August. In the meantime, Gouger wrote to Blenkinsop
on 1 August requesting him to retain the shoes and other possessions of Driscoll. Strangways, who
had replaced Gouger as Colonial Secretary on 22 August, wrote to Mann on 28 August ordering him
46 Leigh[18] claimed to have disinterred the body about a month later and discovered ‘a fracture under the ear, with
a hole drilled in the skull by the introduction of the waddie’. The decomposing body was then reburied for the final
time.
29
Driscoll
with all possible despatch to Encounter Bay to take evidence. He was to be accompanied by Wyatt,
who was to look after the interests of the accused. According to Hodder [16], Hindmarsh wrote to
Angas on 3 September that ‘we have not yet decided how to proceed, but evidence is being collected’.
According to Wyatt’s account of the visit to Encounter Bay in the South Australian Record of 11
July 1838, he, Mann, Thomas Powys, William Cooper (the interpeter) and ‘a man to take care of the
horses’, set off on 5 September.
Arriving at Encounter Bay they were entertained by Blenkinsop from 8–16 September. There, despite
their fears, they were able to interview Elick’s wife. They now learned that Driscoll was given a bottle
of rum shortly before departing with Elick and his wives for Adelaide, and no-one doubted that he
consumed it immediately. On the way, the two wives trailed Driscoll and Elick until they reached
Mooteparinga. Then Driscoll called up the women and started to molest them. Elick objected and
hit him with his waddy, breaking his jaw; Driscoll hit back with the bottle, and was killed in the
ensuing fight. Mann and Wyatt went on board the South Australian [2] on 9 September and Elick
apparently claimed that it was his wives who killed Driscoll. The case against Elick now appearing
so doubtful, Mann proceeded no further, but left Elick in custody on board the South Australian.
Whilst they were at Encounter Bay, Blenkinsop, Wyatt and Powys took the opportunity to explore
the inlet from the mouth of the Murray to Lake Alexandrina by land, following its margin 7 miles
towards the lake on 12 September. Mann tried to enter the mouth of the Murray from Encounter
Bay with two whaleboats, but failed owing to the ‘immense rollers’. His account was published by
Stephens [27]:
The whale-boat sailed from the station of Captain Blenkinsopp till we neared this shore,
and we then pulled for about three miles towards the Murray. The wind was about N.N.W.,
and it was far from blowing freshly; yet I could trace an immense surf running upwards
of from six to eight feet in height along the whole coast as far as the eye could reach. At
from four to five miles distant the entrance to the Murray is rendered strikingly obvious by
an immense wall of foam, which appears literally to stretch directly athwart the entrance.
I cannot think, from contrasting it with the shore surf, that it could have been less than
from ten or twelve feet in height, and this was the opinion of the men with me in the boat.
This entrance is, I should say, more than a quarter of a mile in breadth. At a distance of
four miles the men became alarmed, and remonstrated; but I induced them to continue
their course. When upwards of two miles from the river, an immense roller turned the boat
on her beam-ends. On looking along the interval from this spot to the Murray, I could
see repeated lines of rollers rising and breaking; and I became convinced that it would be
impossible to effect the desired object, and that any further perseverance would uselessly
risk the lives of the men, I therefore reluctantly gave the signal of retreat. The land-party
were more successful, and Captain Blenkinsopp ascertained that on the south-eastern or
right-hand side of the entrance there was a channel of very deep water; this was rendered
almost certain by the difference in the number and the force of the rollers on the respective
sides. On the left eleven were counted, on the right three only were perceptible. Hence
Captain Blenkinsopp was of opinion that if the whale-boat had passed the mouth of the
river for about a mile and three quarters, she might, by pulling close inshore, have effected
a passage into the river.
Blenkinsop, of course, took this opportunity to complain again of the behaviour of Stephens and
Wright. But he was not at liberty to travel to Adelaide to make formal representations before a
magistrate, as he intended: the whaling season was in full swing.
30
The whaling season
The whaling season
The log book of the South Australian not only covers the whole season but is especially valuable
because it was kept by the mate, David Findlay, who was also a headsmen and therefore had a stake
in whatever whales were caught.
Two days after putting in to Rosetta Harbour on 23 May, the topgallant masts and yards of the South
Australian were taken down and the fore and mizzen topmasts struck, as shown in Light’s sketch
(Figure 3 (a)). By 30 May, Captain Allen’s boat was already on the water and that of the mate,
Findlay, was being prepared.
The only difference to the operation described by William Allen (see page 5) was that the whales
were towed to the South Australian for cutting in, presumably because the shallow, sandy shore was
unsuitable. Cutting blocks and falls had been rigged the day before to turn the whale’s body as the
blubber was stripped off47 . The blubber was then taken to the shore to the try works.
The first record of a whale being killed was on 30 May, when the shore party in Rosetta Cove took
one. The ship’s crew assisted the shore party to cut in the whale alongside the South Australian the
following day. Over the next few days several whales were spotted, some were chased but none caught.
The ship’s boats had their first success on 5 June, when both boats, apparently under Alexander
Clark and Findlay, harpooned a whale at 9 a.m. and brought it alongside at 3 p.m. The shore party
killed another that day. The next day was spent cutting in and towing the blubber to shore, where
the try works was being prepared for boiling out the oil48 . This occupied them until 11 June. Heavy
rain on 10 June interrupted the trying out and a heavy swell during the night swept the ship’s long
boat from its moorings. It was replaced with a boat from the shore party on 22 June.
The strong gales which prevented Stephens from returning to Kangaroo Island also prevented the
whaleboats from going out between 16 and 19 June. The gale blew up on 15 June, the day that
Findlay lost a whale. At 9 a.m. he harpooned one but the captain [James Williamson] of the Francis
Freeling got fast to another and their lines, attached to the harpoons and secured to the boats, fouled
one another. The latter cut himself loose and Findlay was forced to do so as well after being towed
ten miles out to sea in deteriorating weather. A sharp knife or hatchet was always kept at hand in
the bow of a whaleboat to sever the line when the situation became too dangerous.
The boats took to the water again on 20 June, when the Company’s shore party took a whale with
assistance from the Statesman’s boats, thereby sharing the catch. A lookout was kept on the large
island49 on 23 June, whales were seen and chased, but none taken as they were travelling too fast to
be overtaken.
The Statesman took another whale before the gale of 25 June threatened the Cygnet with disaster.
While the South Australian’s crew were assisting the Cygnet, the shore party killed a whale and spent
the next couple of days cutting in while the ship’s boats were out without success. Findlay was miffed
by the actions of Charles Smith, a headsman in the shore party, on 29 June: ‘Saw one whale. Mr.
Smith started it on; we could have got it, ship’s boat being astern of it while he was on one side of
it’, which presumably means that Smith, who was to one side of the whale when it surfaced, scared it
into diving again before Findlay, who was in a good position to come up unseen from behind, could
harpoon it.
After a break enforced by ‘thick rainy weather’ on 1 July, both the shore parties, i.e., the Company’s
47 Blenkinsop did not use the Hind. Mann noted in [15] that he had erected shearlegs for that purpose midway along
the north side of Granite Island, where there was deeper water.
48 This supports the surmise that the ship and shore parties used different try works: preparations would have been
unnecessary if the ships’s party were using the same one as the shore a week before.
49 It is not clear whether Findlay here refers to West Island or Granite Island. If the Statesman was in Victor Harbor,
the context suggests that it was Granite Island. If so, it suggests that there was no open hostility between the whalers
in Rosetta Cove and Hind Cove.
31
The whaling season
and Blenkinsop’s, killed whales on 2 July, the former being towed to the ship for cutting in as the
weather deteriorated again. A gale started from the north-west on 4 July and swung round to the
north and then back to westwards on 9 July, forcing the South Australian to secure everything on
board. No boats were launched. The Francis Freeling broke from her anchor on 5 July and was driven
from the Bay almost on to Seal Rock, but managed to regain the anchorage on 9 July. She left on
23 July on a voyage taking in Sleaford Bay, Pirates Bay and Van Diemen’s Land, before returning to
Sydney with 1100 barrels (also reported as 140 tons [tuns], which suggests an equivalence of almost 8
barrels to the tun) of black oil and 6 tons of whalebone on 23 October.
Operations in the Bay recommenced as the wind moderated. On 10 July, the ‘other Shore party’,
i.e., Blenkinsop’s, took another whale. The next day, the South Australian Company’s shore party
sent out five boats in addition to the ship’s boats but no whales were seen. The weather turned dirty
again on 12 July and Captain Allen was not able to regain the South Australian in his boat and had
to beach it on the shore for the night. At 3 p.m. the following day, the John Pirie called at the Bay
and was assisted to her moorings by the crew of the South Australian. She discharged her cargo of
oil casks, and departed twenty-eight hours later, taking back the cooper and the carpenter, Gregory
Cummins50 .
For over a week few whales were seen although boats were stationed variously on the ‘island nearest to
the Ship’, presumably the small Wright Island, ‘Middle island’, perhaps Granite Island again51 , and
the Bluff52 . Finally, on 19 July, five whales appeared. One was killed and towed alongside the South
Australian for cutting in. Previously, the blubber strips cut from the whale known as ‘blanket pieces’
had been towed to shore for slicing up preparatory to being boiled for their oil, but it was found that
they picked up sand from the shore when being landed and this spoiled the oil. So blubber was now
given the preliminary treatment of being cut into ‘horse pieces’, some six feet by one foot in size (the
blubber would have been somewhat less than a foot in thickness) on board. These were presumably
small enough to carry over the sand to the blubber room on shore, where they were cut into thin
slices, forming a ‘book’ or ‘bible leaves’ suitable for the try pots. Findlay was engaged in trying out
the oil on 21 July, a process which attracted ‘a great number of natives, men, women and children,
all engaged roasting and eating whales’ flesh close by our try works’.
Generally fine weather ensued. Both the ship’s party and the shore party took whales on 24 July. The
former was brought alongside for cutting in but the latter sank and had to anchored and left. Two
lances were lost in the action and one broken. The anchored whale must have been retrieved because
cutting in commenced on 26 July, the day that the ship’s party started to try out their blubber.
The shore party was again successful on 27 July, but this was overshadowed by the appearance of the
William under Wright bringing potatoes and spirits. This drew critical comment from Findlay: ‘the
which I think highly improper to be done’. Findlay was soon justified. The following day the crew
of the South Australian refused further duty as ‘wine and grog’ had been supplied to the shore party
but not to the ship although their contracts specified an allowance of three gills ( 34 pint) per day53 .
Findlay must have been promptly despatched to Kangaroo Island to redress the matter because the
log entry for 1 August reads: ‘At 10 p.m. mate arrived from Kangaroo [Island], brought 35 gallons of
wine’.
Only one whale was taken in the interim and that was by the Statesman, but the shore party killed
a whale on both 3 and 4 August despite high winds.
On board, however, problems were multiplying. The master, Alexander Allen, stood down the second
mate, his brother John, for unexplained reasons on 2 August and then took to his bed, where he
remained until 12 August. William Prout was also taken ill on 6 August. Whether these incidents
50 Martin
[15] says that he delivered the oil casks at the latter end of June, staying only one day.
Findlay meant by ‘middle’ can only be surmised. Perhaps, from his standpoint on the South Australian,
Wright Island, Granite Island and Seal Rock formed an arc with Granite Island in the middle.
52 Mention is also made later to boats stationed on an island to the westward or southward, presumably West Island.
References to whales seen off Freeman’s Knob suggest that a lookout was posted there as well.
53 The Whaling Report gave the spirit allowance as 2 quarts a week or 2 2 gills per day.
7
51 What
32
The whaling season
had anything to do with the departure of Harper in a boat to Kangaroo Island on 7 August, as noted
by Sexton [26], is unknown, but Harper was back within three days.
Cutting up the whales and towing the blubber to shore occupied the days of variable weather until
9 August. Then further contention arose between the ship’s and the shore parties. At 9 a.m., two
whales were seen close to West Island where two boats of the shore party was stationed, the ship’s
party being at the Bluff. By Findlay’s account the ship’s boats put off after them but John Smith, a
headsmen of the shore party, was there first and harpooned one. The other was harpooned successively
by Alexander Clark and Findlay and killed on behalf of the ship’s party. However, Edward Munday
claimed a share for having harpooned the whale before Clark. This was disputed in a statement signed
by Findlay, Inston, Hutchison and Clark. The following day, the shore party started to cut in their
own whale alongside the South Australian and demanded that the ship’s party desist from cutting in
their’s until the former had finished. This allowed time for McFarlane, Harper and Munday to come
out to the vessel the next day to pursue the claim. Findlay foiled their attempt by getting Munday
to specify where his harpoon had struck—‘on the back a little on the left side’. On the whale being
rolled over, ‘there was no iron mark to be seen’, actually one, that where Clark’s harpoon had entered.
On 13 August, the disputed blubber was finally towed to shore for trying out, Findlay suggesting that
the delay was designed to spoil the oil as an act of revenge.
Blenkinsop took a whale on 10 August but although several whales were seen in the succeeding days
the Company’s parties were without success. Munday harpooned one late on 15 August, but had to
cut the line as it was too late to attempt to kill it; the others were too far away. Blenkinsop, on the
other hand, was seen towing a whale on 16 August and reportedly took another on the following day
‘close to their place’, i.e., Victor Harbor. Frustration must have increased on 18 August, when the
Company had all its boats ready but failed to catch a cow and calf, whilst Blenkinsop took a further
two whales, again close to Victor Harbor—though the next day they learned that one of the whales
was lost together with two boat lines and that one of Blenkinsop’s boats had been stove in. That
day, the boats of McFarlane and Findlay had chances to fasten on to a whale but failed and Smith’s
harpoon worked free when chasing a pod of three whales.
Things got no better on Monday, 21 August. Two boats of the shore party were posted at West Island
and two at Granite Island, while Findlay, Clark and Hutchison were on the Bluff lookout. When a
cow and calf were spotted from the Bluff to the westward, the ship’s party put out but the whales
surfaced too briefly for Findlay to harpoon one. By this time, Harper and Smith54 had come up
from West Island and were alongside the whales when they came up again, whilst Findlay was behind
it. Harper, who was nearest the whale, should then have shipped his oars so as not to frighten the
whale but, instead, ‘pulled right at her eye and so started her off’. According to Findlay, Harper’s
selfishness did not stop there: ‘although that he could have got fast to the calf, he would not allow
his boat-steerer to strike it; if he had fastened the calf, some of us would have got the whale. This is
the second occurrence of the same kind within these few days with the same person.’ This may refer
to the failure of 18 August.
Findlay must have been so indignant that he failed to record the killing of a whale, presumably by
the shore party because his log entry for the following day recorded two boats’ crews from the fishery
cutting in ‘the whale’ while the other three and the ship’s boats were on the water. That day some
dozen whales were seen and Blenkinsop’s party took one at Black Reef, the reef between the Bluff
and Wright Island. Findlay failed to get fast to one and others were chased but outpaced the boats.
Finally late in the afternoon, Munday killed one five miles from the Bluff and left it at anchor. This
was towed back to the ship the next day, when squalls of rain interrupted a spell of fine weather. No
other whales were spotted.
Fine weather returned on 24 August, but Findlay met with an accident. The ship’s boats and two
from the shore fishery (the others no doubt engaged in cutting in) were out when two whales were
seen two miles south of West Island. Findlay described the subsequent events:
54 Findlay
names him as Charles, but must mean John.
33
The whaling season
I got fast to one of them [but] it filled my boat with water, in consequence of which I
had to slip my line. Shortly after, our other boat got fast, but unfortunately got stove in
fastening. By this time, I had my boat dry. I took the lines from the stove boat and 4
of the crew; 2 hands stopped by the boat. I kept by the whale and lanced it and had got
it to spout blood, but both my lances broke. I then tried the spade, but as there was so
many hands in the boat and no boats in sight I cut, being then 7 or 8 miles from the shore.
When I left the whale, it nearly was dead. Mr. McFarlane got fast soon after I did and 2
other of the fishery boats came out. Mr. Harper took in the two men from the stove boat
and Mr. [John] Smith towed in the boat when he was returning to the shore. Remainder
of this day, shore party cutting in and towing in their whales. Lost two harpoons and part
of a line and two oars and spyglass and one boat anchor.
So the next day the ship’s hands were putting their boats back in order and half the shore party
were cutting in and trying out, the other two boats were out but failed to catch the only whale seen.
There was similar lack of success the following day in thick rainy weather, when both Munday and
McFarlane harpooned one without securing it. In Findlay’s matter-of-fact words:
Saturday, 26th. Commences with thick rainy weather. Keeping a lookout for whales from
the Bluff head. One seen. Went out after it. Mr Munday’s boatsteerer darted at it
once and Mr McFarlane’s twice, but neither got fast. At 11 am, brig Emma arrived from
Kangaroo Island. Wind variable.
A passenger on the Emma was Leigh, who came out on the South Australian to visit South Australia
rather than settle. His book of Travels & Adventures [18] is loosely based on a diary but it confuses
the chronology and embellishes the stories to the point where it is difficult to distinguish fact from
fiction. As an example, he wrote:
We had scarcely let go the anchor [of the Emma] when an enormous bull whale came,
diving and blowing into the Bay, and, in a very few moments, the boats from the shore
put off, full of men. They tugged after him, eight boats, all in full chase. The sight was
grand; and from my situation, (the tops of the brig,) I had a capital view of the whale,
which was invisible to those on deck. The enormous animal came close round the brig
several times, and once so immediately under the quarter, that I could discover the lice
by which he is infested. Each man was eager to plunge the first harpoon into him; at
length, he came up, blowing and spouting, just under a boat. In one instant, a harpoon
was buried in his flesh; but he gave a dart, and it lost its hold. For two hours did this
monster sail around the Bay, while eight or ten boats were pulling after him; till, at last,
a fatal dart entered his vitals, and we had the satisfaction of seeing him towed in by all
the boats, with a union-jack stuck to him.
This is pure fiction. Leigh was back in Kingscote by 11 September in order to catch the Lord Hobart,
which was to take him on the Sydney. How he got to Kangaroo Island is unrecorded, but it must have
been in a whaleboat or longboat, probably before the arrival at the Bay on 8 September of Wyatt
and Mann, who make no mention of Leigh, or vice versa.
Then succeeded days of increasing wind. On Sunday, 27 August, three boats from the shore party
took a whale but the ship’s company went on strike again because the Emma had brought no wine for
the ship. They resumed duty on the Monday but no whale was seen until sunset. The wind increased
to a gale for the next two days, despite which the whaleboats were on the water. A whale was chased,
but escaped, on each day.
When the wind dropped on the last day of August, the whalers in the bay had their greatest success of
the season. Both the shore party and Blenkinsop’s party each took two whales, while the ship’s party
chased several without luck. The dead whales were seven to eight miles from Rosetta Harbour, too
34
The whaling season
far to tow that day so they were left at anchor. One was brought in to the South Australian the next
day, the other presumably the day after, though Findlay does not mention this. Blenkinsop’s men
took another two whales at Black Reef on 2 September, whilst most of the shore party were cutting
in their whales.
Some ten whales were spotted the next day and two of the shore party’s boats and the ship’s boats
gave chase. Robert Hayes harpooned one in the early afternoon, but lost it. Findlay got fast to
another at 5 p.m. but could not kill it ‘before dark as the whale run fast and a loose whale along
with her, which prevented the boat from getting up to the fast whale and no other boat could keep
in sight.’
Only one whale was seen on each of the next two days. McFarlane harpooned the second but the
harpoon pulled out and the whale was lost. By this time, stowing the oil already taken was becoming
a priority and most hands were engaged in coopering. But on Wednesday, 6 September, Findlay came
up with a whale two miles offshore but it had run some ten miles from the ship before it was killed.
There was insufficient time to tow it back, so Findlay left it at anchor at 8.30 p.m. By next daybreak
the carcase had drifted away but was spotted five miles off from West Island. A strong offshore
breeze precluded the two ship’s boats being able to tow it back—the shore party being engaged in
an unsuccessful chase after two other whales were sighted—so they waited until the following day to
go out for it. At daybreak the two ship’s boats set off and had the whale in tow when, at 2 p.m.,
more whales were spotted. Findlay dispatched Clark after them. Munday in one of the shore party’s
boats beat him to it but requested Clark to assist in bringing it back. Findlay was unable to get his
whale back to the boat alone before a violent squall struck at 5 p.m. He had to leave the whale at
anchor again and even then had difficulty regaining the ship. A gale raged throughout the night and
the following day and no attempt was made to retrieve the anchored whale. The shore party did,
however, venture out and took a whale about three miles to the southwest of the Bluff but one boat
was upset by the whale and the boat-steerer and a pulling hand injured, so that whale was left at
anchor too.
Sunday, 10 September, was still squally and Findlay had to enlist aid from the shore fishery, thus
entitling them to half the proceeds, to tow in his whale. The ship was not reached until sunset. The
following day, whilst the two whales alongside were being cut in—the act witnessed by William Wyatt
(page 6)—three boats of the shore party brought in the other anchored whale. For the next five days,
all hands—except Maxwell Inston, who was sick—were employed in cutting in, carrying the blubber
ashore and trying out, with interruptions for gales with squalls and rain. This weather detained Wyatt
and Mann at Blenkinsop’s fishery. There they witnessed whales taken both by Blenkinsop’s party and
by boats from the Statesman 55 on 13 September.
Boats ventured out again on 16 September but no whales were seen until the next day, when the shore
party chased one unsuccessfully and Blenkinsop took another.
With the trying out completed, the next task was to clean the whalebone, but this was interrupted
on 18 September by the appearance of whale. The ship’s boats and three from the shore party set off
in pursuit, killed the whale and had it alongside by 5 p.m. Both the ship’s boats had got fast with
harpoons, so both had to be put back ‘in order’, i.e., the lines coiled in the line tub—carefully, because
a kink or anything else that prevented the line from running out smoothly was highly dangerous—,
new harpoons attached and the lances replaced or sharpened, as necessary. In the evening the John
Pirie called in at Encounter Bay for a day, resuming her voyage to Hobart at 9 a.m. on 20 September.
This provoked the usual trouble. Inston refused duty on 19 September day because the John Pirie
had not replenished the wine allowance of three gills a day, but his protest ended at noon and joined
his shipmates in ‘cleaning whalebone, getting water and cutting firewood’. Two boats from the shore
party were out, however, and took a whale at Black Reef and apparently left it there, since two boats
from the fishery and Findlay’s boat went out to the reef the following morning. A cow and a calf were
seen but were not caught, then another cow appeared at noon and was harpooned by both Hayes and
Findlay. She was killed and taken in tow but a hard blow came on at 5.30 when they were still ten
55 This
suggests that the Statesman was indeed stationed at Victor Harbor.
35
The whaling season
miles from the ship, so they anchored the whale. The boats did not reach the ship in the face of the
gale until 11 at night. The other whale, in the meantime, had been brought in by sunset. The next
day it continued to blow a gale, no whales were seen and no boats were launched. Most hands were
occupied in cutting in the two whales caught on 18 and 19 September.
The winds moderated on 22 September and Findlay with three boats of the shore party left to bring
back the last whale. It took the three boats two days to tow it in the ten miles. They anchored
the whale again at 5 p.m. and returned to the boat at 8 p.m. on the first evening, then finally got it
alongside at 7 p.m. on the second evening. Cutting in and trying out were completed on 25 September
and then all hands were employed cleaning the whalebone. This was effectively the end of the whaling
season: no whales were seen again and no further boats sent out.
The conclusion was overshadowed, however, by the renewed illness of the Alexander Allen. On 19
September, Findlay wrote that the captain was ‘sick and insane at times’ and he never recovered.
David McLaren made no bones about the cause in his letter to the London manager of the South
Australian Company on 14 February 1838 (State Library of South Australia BRG 42/31/7): ‘Captain
Allan incapacitated himself for taking charge of Ship Fishery or any thing else & hastened his death
by intemperance’. Findlay went on shore and fetched the captain’s brother, John Allen, to attend
him56 . McFarlane accompanied them back and bled Allen. The next day McFarlane, Blenkinsop and
Coffin, the master of the StatesmanStatesman, all came to visit the sick man and prescribed a blister
on the back of the neck. This had no effect. By 29 September, Allen was insensible and he died at 6
a.m. on the following day. A boat was immediately sent to the Statesman for wood to make a coffin
and the body was shipped to Kingscote in two boats at 6 a.m. the next day, John Allen accompanying
it.
Findlay appears to have taken charge during Allen’s illness. After Allen’s death, the ship was put
back into sailing condition again. Work on the oil casks was completed, as was the cleaning of the
whalebone. The ship was thoroughly cleaned and painted. On 9 October, the topmasts and yards
were sent aloft again and the rigging installed. Sails were then bent to the yards, the hold ballasted
with water and fresh water brought from the shore. All was ready by 12 October, when the William
arrived with Stephens and McLaren. They had come to gauge, i.e., measure, the oil obtained during
the season. The parties from the South Australian were found to have taken 28 tuns and 26 gallons;
their whalebone was later weighed at 2 tons 28 lbs. By the time Stephens and McLaren departed on
the evening of 14 October, the ship was taking on board the shore fishery’s whalebone—130 bundles—
and fishing stores. Wood had to be cut to protect the oil casks from the sun. There is no mention
of casks being transferred from the shore to the ship, so they must have been stored there awaiting a
vessel to take them to England for sale. This was the time that Blenkinsop and Freeman found the
opportunity to travel to Adelaide and institute proceedings against Stephens and Wright.
Work resumed on Monday, 16 October, when a gale blew up. At 7 p.m. it became so violent that a boat
was blown from its tackles and stove in its bows when it hit the water. Despite the weather, passengers
for Kingscote came on board: Harper, Hayes and McClure and their wives, Bailey, Fitzgerald, Espie,
Tindall and Scott. It was still blowing hard the next day when they acquiring a second kangaroo ‘for
the ship’, presumably as a pet (the first was on 14 October), and took on the pilot, unidentified but
presumably for Nepean Bay. After stowing seven boats the next morning, the ship got under way at
midday and anchored in Nepean Bay at 1 p.m. on Thursday, 19 October.
It was not intended that the South Australian return to England, so after payment was made for
service at Encounter Bay on 26 October, some hands ‘agreed to remain with the ship and some got
their discharge’. The London directors of the South Australian Company anticipated that the Hartley,
which sailed from London on 11 May 1837 (arriving in South Australia on 24 October), would return
with the season’s oil. But when she finally left Kingscote for Launceston on 17 December, it was to
return to South Australia with a cargo of provisions and stock. McLaren must have made alternative
arrangements for the oil and whalebone to be carried back to London in the Solway, a 337-ton ship
56 What John Allen was doing on shore was not explained. He might have worked there if he was not reinstated after
being stood down by his brother at the beginning of August.
36
The whaling season
commanded by Robert Pearson, which had arrived at Nepean Bay with German emigrants from
Hamburg on 16 October.
The South Australian Gazette & Colonial Register of 11 November 1837 contained an optimistic
assessment of the whaling season:
If the past season has not been unprecedentedly successful, it has not certainly been owing
to the scarcity of fish [whales] in the waters of South Australia. These have been most
abundant; and in one instance, no fewer than forty black whales have been counted from
the beach at Glenelg at one time. We have been informed by Captain Blenkinsop, who
commands a large party at Encounter Bay, and is well known to be an experienced whaler,
that the whales in that neighbourhood are very numerous. He states that had not the
fishing been interfered with and harassed by the injudicious proceedings of the persons
connected with the South Australian Company’s establishment at the bay; and had both
parties consented to fish amicably and in concert, they might with great ease have procured
400 tuns each. As it is, Captain Blenkinsop will only ship about 200 tuns. The Siren went
from Port Adelaide a few days ago to Sleaford Bay, near Port Lincoln, to take in a cargo
of oil from the station there; and our enterprising neighbours, the Henty’s at Portland
Bay, have collected upwards of 300 tuns, with only three boats and a small cutter at
anchor. There is not a doubt that the waters of South Australia offer the most substantial
inducements that can be derived, to a well organized and steadily conducted system of
whale fishing; and every thing about us promises that by next year, we shall be enabled
to urge, as a further inducement, the great facility in obtaining supplies of fresh meat and
vegetables that exists in Adelaide.
This is the only mention of whaling at Sleaford Bay in 1837, except for a visit lasting eight days made
by the Francis Freeling after leaving Encounter Bay in July. The Siren was reported back from South
Australia in Hobart on 3 December with 100 tuns of oil and four passengers—John Maney, John
Redgrove, Noland and W. Murray.
The reality was somewhat different. The Hind left for Sydney on 5 November57 and reached Port
Jackson on 20 November with, according to the manifest, just 100 tuns of black oil and 4 tons of whale
bone. McLaren in the South Australian Gazette & Colonial Register of 3 February 1838 suggested
that Blenkinsop had shipped less than 100 tuns.
The Whaling Report compiled in 1842 (see page 10) claimed that the South Australian Company
took 160 tuns of oil in toto.
The figures may be compared with the number of whales taken in Table 4.
Although there are uncertainties as to the allocation of the whales captured jointly, the total of 24 12
for the South Australian Company’s boats should be quite accurate. The total of 13 for Blenkinsop
is probably as underestimate since not all his catches would have been remarked by Findlay. If each
whale yielded the nominal average of eight tuns, the two fisheries should have accumulated some 200
tuns and a minimum of 100 tuns respectively. So it seems likely that the average yield was in fact
closer to 6 21 tuns, which would give totals of 160 and a minimum of 85 tuns respectively, which makes
Blenkinsop’s return plausible. Though why the six whales claimed by the South Australian yielded
only 28 tuns, rather than almost 40, remains unexplained.
By the calculations in the 1842 Whaling Report, these figure were well below that (150 tuns for a
three-boat party) required to make the venture profitable. Again according to the Report, an error in
calculation made the situation disastrous for the South Australian Company. With a double party,
the amount allowed to each member should have been calculated as if the whales were taken by two
57 Mann, in Gouger [15], implied that the Hind left Encounter Bay in the middle of September, which casts some
doubt on the accuracy of his dates.
37
The whaling season
Table 4: Summary of whales taken at Encounter Bay in 1837
Date
30 June
5 June
20 June
24 June
26 June
2 July
10 July
19 July
24 July
27 July
30 July
3 August
4 August
5 August
9 August
10 August
16 August
17 August
18 August
21 August
22 August
24 August
27 August
31 August
2 September
6 September
8 September
9 September
13 September
17 September
18 September
19 September
20 September
Totals
South Australian Company
South Australian shore party
1
1
1
Blenkinsop
1
2
Statesman
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1?
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
13
4 12
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
6
1
2
18 12
parties: ‘The quantity of oil procured by this double party should have been first divided into two,
and the lays of the two respective parties calculated each upon one half, whereas, by this mistake of
the Company, each man shared in the whole oil taken. By which the amount of the lays became more
than the value of the whole oil caught, so that the greater the quantity the greater the loss.’
There were, of course, recriminations. The Whaling Report put the blame on Stephens: ‘These
measures [undertaken for whaling] were, however, principally adopted before the Colonial Manager
had time to get the least insight into the nature of the undertaking, or to acquire a knowledge
of the men he was necessitated to employ from the neighbouring colonies. The persons sent from
England were, with very few exceptions, totally unacquainted with the system on which whaling
is conducted in these colonies (and of whom some seem to have been engaged for the purpose of
systematic imposition). A greater proof of this, and the want of knowledge displayed at home, need
not be cited than the appointment of the person who was sent out to fill the office of Superintendent of
Whaling.’ At first sight this seems to apply to Alexander Allen. Although never formally referred to
as the superintendent (a position that McFarlane later claimed), his inebriation and lack of authority
must have disllusioned MacLaren on the voyage out as well the two successive mates, Anthony and
Findlay. However, it appears more likely that the jibe was aimed at William Allen.
38
Repercussions
The South Australian Company in Adelaide was informed in a letter from London, dated 8 May 1838,
a month before the departure of the Winchester with Allen and received via the Africaine in mid
August, that Allen had been appointed for three years to take charge of whale fishing, and might be
given command of the South Australian to go sperm fishing. The timing suggests that this was in
response to being informed of Alexander Allen’s death at the end of September, but before the news
of the loss of the South Australian at the end of December was received. William Allen could not have
heard that he had no vessel to command until he arrived in the province in October 1838. If Allen was
disappointed, he must have disappointed the officials of the company more: a letter received from the
London office and dated 13 May 1839 (State Library of South Australia BRG 42/3/9) contained its
approval of the ‘dissolution of Captain Allen’s connections’, saying Allen’s ‘worthless character they
were surprized [with], for if any of our whaling captains ever possessed their general confidence it was
that individual’, but concluding ‘good riddance to “bad rubbish”’.
The Whaling Report hints that the men employed from the ‘neighbouring colonies’ might not have
been above reproach. No names are mentioned but James Walter Fell, the storekeeper at the Company
fishery at Encounter Bay in December was not reticent in his memoir (written some half a century
later), calling McFarlane, then master of the South Australian, a ‘silly conceited fool’ with a ‘demure
knowing look’.
Blenkinsop also blamed Stephens both for refusing cooperation and then encouraging his men to desert.
He wrote to Angas in November, claiming he had lost 54 out of 64 men and demanding compensation
of £11,827, a ridiculous figure given that the expected take for a single party in a season would be
around £3,000. Blenkinsop presumably remained at Anna Vale with his family after the departure
of the Hind because he was in earnest about settling in South Australia. It is not clear, however, if
Robert Campbell in Sydney intended to continue whaling there. He had sold the Hind before her
return to Sydney, to Daniel Egan for £1400. Egan was a shipping agent and the owner of the Francis
Freeling, amongst other vessels. Egan sailed with the Hind, ‘for the benefit of his health’, to Cook
Strait, New Zealand, on 26 December 1837 but returned in March 1838 with oil and whalebone. The
Hind then set off for South Australia at the end of April 1838, but she carried only sheep and flour
and was on her way to Mauritius [26]. She took no further part in whaling.
Repercussions
Early in November, Elick was transferred to Kangaroo Island. The South Australian Company billed
the government for £10 8s, a charge of 2s a day for detaining him from 21 July to 1 November; £6 for
damage to 80 yards of topmast studding sail used as bedding; 6s for four broken padlocks; and £10
for the mate and ship’s boys watching and attending him for 15 weeks; a total of £26 14s. Then, on
8 November, another bill was presented for 12s, board and lodging at 3s a day from 1 to 4 November
and £2 10s for his passage to Kangaroo Island. On 14 December, the Company reported that he had
escaped the previous night, no doubt to the relief of the law officers; no further action was taken over
Driscoll’s death.
William Walker, who had visited to Adelaide to testify in the Driscoll case at the end of July, came
to Adelaide again in early November with exciting news, reported by George Stevenson in the South
Australian Gazette & Colonial Record of 18 November:
Walker, for some years resident on Kangaroo Island, and who has been an occasional
visitant here and at Encounter Bay, arrived from the latter place about ten days ago,
and stated that he, in company with another man, had discovered, twenty-five miles to
the south-eastward of the river discovered by Sturt [River Murray], a fine harbour, into
which a river, leading directly from Lake Alexandrina, empties itself. That ships of any
size may enter the harbour; and that vessels might lie close upon the banks of the river in
four fathoms of water, and discharge their cargoes. That the land in every direction was
beautiful, and the place altogether fit for a capital.
39
The Murray Mouth
However, Stevenson then went on to reveal his real reason for reporting a tale he did not really believe.
It was an opportunity to criticise Light yet again:
Walker, whose story we have narrated, is a sober, and to all appearance, a steady, intelligent
person. . . and if his tale cannot be wholly depended on, still it is sufficient to warrant some
immediate steps on the part of the Surveyor General to determine a fact of so much
importance to the Colony.
Light had no doubt of the truth of the matter, writing: ‘This man was here one day, he was drunk
the whole time, and said he would not tell anybody where it was, except he was paid £500’ [11].
In the South Australian Gazette & Colonial Record of 6 January 1838, even Stevenson had to declare
this report to be fanciful. This had been learned by Sir John William Jeffcott, the province’s almost
absentee Judge, while at Encounter Bay in late November. He was there as a result of the embarrassing
action initiated by Blenkinsop against Stephens and Wright.
The latter had been remanded in custody on 27 October but both were allowed out of custody to
consult Mann, who requested bail arguing that Blenkinsop’s absence to prosecute the charge should
have led to their discharge. They appeared before Jeffcott on 17 November, with Fisher appearing
for Stephens and Mann (who resigned as Advocate General and Crown Solicitor on the same day) for
Wright. Blenkinsop had been subpoenoed to attend, but had induced the constable to add the words
‘wind and weather permitting’ to the summons and again failed to turn up. So Jeffcott had no option
but to simply bind Stephens and Wright over until the next Court of General Goal Delivery.
Jeffcott and the other legal officer, the sheriff, Samuel Smart, quarrelled over the proceedings and
Jeffcott decided to seek advice in Van Diemens Land. He obtained leave of absence for this purpose,
although Edward Stephens suspected another motive, writing to McLaren on 30 November:
It is rumoured that Sir John Jeffcott will not return again. It is known that he is losing his
intended, a new suitor has been more successful58 , and Sir John, I opine, is going indeed on
very urgent business, but not so urgent to the Colony as he would make the Gov[ernmen]t
believe.
Fell, writing much latter [13], had no doubts: ‘Sir John’s errand was to get married to a Lady in
that Colony & young Mr. Hindmarsh was to accompany him in quality of Bridegrooms man’. True
or not, Jeffcott certainly left Adelaide in a hurry on 20 November.
Jeffcott sailed to Nepean Bay and then to Encounter Bay so as to join the South Australian for Hobart.
He and Hindmarsh’s son, John, junior, were taken by Thomas Lipson, the Harbour Master, in the
government-chartered 31-ton cutter Mary Ann. After landing the party on 24 November, Lipson
hurried back to Holdfast Bay to deliver his report to Hindmarsh. After the sketchiest examination
and on the flimsiest evidence, Lipson told the governor what he wanted to hear: there was a ‘sheltered
and good’ anchorage. But he was referring to Victor Harbor, not Rosetta Cove.
The Murray Mouth
At Encounter Bay, Jeffcott met three men, Edward Stone, John (Jack) Foley and a third, variously
named Henry Stanley or Manley59 , with a strange tale. They claimed to have left Port Fairy some six
58 If this is true, the engagement lasted some time. His ‘intended’, Anne Kermode, did not marry George Henry Moore
until 9 July 1839.
59 Manley is the name given in a single document, the deposition described below, and the only other references to him
are on Foley’s indictment and in Bull’s memoirs [5], where he is referred to as Stanley. Depositions were not without
errors in transcription, as was the case with the murdered whaler Driscoll, so the form Stanley is preferred here.
40
The Murray Mouth
weeks previously, with a horse to carry provisions and some dogs to help catch game. They followed
the beach mainly, though they struck inland behind Capes Nelson and Bridgewater, thus avoiding
Portland. They reached Rivoli and Guichon Bays, where they had their first encounter with a large
number of Aborigines. These were threatening but not overtly hostile. Continuing along the coast,
the party met another group as they approached Lake Alexandrina. These proved to be friendly and
familiar with the Europeans at the Encounter Bay fisheries, which they indicated were not too far
distant. Failing to cross the Murray Mouth, even with the assistance of the Aborigines, they turned
inland to somewhere close to Point McLeay and constructed a raft of pine trees, which they punted
across to Point Sturt, a distance they estimated to be five or six miles, though closer to four in reality.
After a further two days, they reached the fishery at Hind Cove.
Jeffcott took sworn statements from Stone and Foley on 25 November and 27 November, respectively.
They were the first Europeans to have seen the south-east of the province at first hand. Jeffcott was
careful to record their impressions of the countryside and its potential, especially as Stone and Foley
claimed to have had experience in farming. Foley claimed also to be a sailor engaged in whaling.
The story must have been broadly accurate, but it was carefully constructed so as not to incriminate
themselves. It is almost certain that they did visit Portland. Foster Fyans, the resident magistrate
at Geelong visited Portland in June 1839 and reported that ‘Mr. Henty informs me he has met
[at Adelaide] many of the Runaways who passed here—Fahey [Foley] and Davis are supposed to
be Runaways from Sydney—they remained near Mr. Henty’s for some months—and departed for
Adelaide—the day they left here, two horses were taken from Mr. Henty’s’ [3]. Fyans most probably
refers here to Thomas Henty, who, a few months before his death, was settled at Portland Bay with
three of his sons, Frank, Edward and Stephen. Henty was correct, at least as far as Fahey was
concerned. There is no reason to doubt Foleys own admission that his name was actually Lovett
because a thirty-year old John Lovett or Lovatt, a ploughman, was given a life sentence at Bury St.
Edmunds in Suffolk on 31 March 1821 and was transported to NSW on the Mary, which departed
on 28 August that year. He appears in the NSW musters of the 1820s but not in that of 1837. The
identification is confirmed by the report in the English newspaper, Bury and Norwich Post, for 30
October 1833 that Lovatt had escaped from NSW.
But the runaways had no reason to misrepresent their journey along the south-east coast. Their
evidence gave the lie to Walker: there was but one mouth to the River Murray.
The day that Jeffcott took the first deposition, the South Australian appeared back in Encounter Bay
to prepare the whale oil for loading on the Solway. McFarlane was now master of the vessel and
Harper first mate. David McLaren’s son, David, junior, was probably on board because he wrote
to his father from Encounter Bay on 29 November. He described the coroner’s inquest that Jeffcott
had had to convene at McLaren and McFarlane’s request. McFarlane, Harper, Charles Powell60 and
John Cranfield61 testified that a cooper, Jeremiah Calnan62 , became ill on the passage from Kangaroo
Island on Friday, 24 November. According to Fell’s graphic account [13], he was given two glasses of
grog and seemed to be recovering, but on landing he worsened and became ‘quite insane’. McFarlane
gave him medicine and gruel and bled him. He died at 10.30 on Monday night. The inquest was held
the following morning and returned a verdict of death from delirium tremens brought on by excessive
drinking. Calnan was buried at Encounter Bay, with Jeffcott officiating.
McLaren went on to say that:
The oil is not by any means in so bad a state as has been represented, although mostly
all the casks have leaked a little. That got by the South Australian is a good deal worse
than the other. We now have plenty of help. Having only one cooper, James Fell, the man
engaged by Clegg (who has not returned ), I have been obliged to retain as store keeper.
He assists Nelson in hammering the casks although not a cooper.
60 A
gardener according to the Company’s list of employees in May 1837.
bricklayer according to the Company’s list of employees in May 1837.
62 McLaren referred to him as John Calnan, perhaps because that was how he was known to his shipmates.
61 A
41
The Murray Mouth
Figure 5: The mouth of the Murray. The chart drawn by Pullen in 1840 is superposed on a modern
map. Pullen shows the navigable channel (light blue) within the banks of the eastern arm of the
Murray. The site of Goolwa is labelled ‘B’, the boat landing place ‘C’ and the point where Collet
Barker was killed in 1831 ‘c’. From the inset on the Plan of New Port Adelaide, South Australia,
drawn by William Light, 1841.
Here, McLaren must have been comparing the shore parties’ oil at Encounter Bay with that taken
by the South Australian, which had already been delivered to Nepean Bay. This paragraph is the
first reference to James Walter Fell, who claimed in his memoir [13] that he was ‘in charge of the
Company’s Whale fishing station at Encounter Bay’, and it implies that Fell was a late appointment
by Clegg, probably acting as steward in Clegg’s absence.
Another party arrived at Encounter Bay on 1 December. This consisted of Thomas Bewes Strangways
and Young Bingham Hutchinson, members of Hindmarsh’s coterie and recently appointed interim
Colonial Secretary and Emigration Agent by Hindmarsh, who had suspended Robert Gouger and
John Brown. As enthusiastic supporters of Encounter Bay as the focus of settlement, they were
intending ‘to ascertain if there were any other outlet from Lake Alexandrina than the one discovered
by Captain Sturt (for which object your Excellency was pleased to grant us leave of absence)’63 . After
a difficult overland journey with a bullock cart, they must have been disappointed to learn of the
runaways’ experiences, though this is not mentioned in their official report published in the South
Australian Gazette & Colonial Register of 20 January 1838.
Blenkinsop was absent when Strangways and Hutchinson turned up at his fishery, but he returned
with Webster from Adelaide the following day64 and supplied the promised assistance of a manned
whaleboat. They took the cart as a boat carriage in case the whaleboat needed to be carried across
63 Dutton
and Elder [11] apparently confused their expedition with Lipson’s visit.
visit to Adelaide is otherwise unrecorded, so it is likely that Blenkinsop travelled overland. If he had gone to
Adelaide in connection with the adjourned court case, he might have missed Jeffcott, but he must have seen Strangways
and Hutchinson in order to have offered them assistance.
64 This
42
The Murray Mouth
the peninsular dunes from the ocean to the arm of the Murray flowing around Hindmarsh Island.
In the event, it was not needed. Charles Mann, the former Advocate General, who stopped off at
Encounter Bay on the way to Hobart in the John Pirie on 15 December described the passage of the
whaleboat through the Murray Mouth [27]:
On Monday, the 2d December last65 , Captain Blenkinsopp dispatched a whale-boat to the
Murray; the men were directed to pass the south-east or right-hand side of the embouchure
for the space of a mile, and then to pull up towards the entrance of the Murray, keeping
close inshore. Following these orders, the boatmen landed on the south-eastern beach
considerably below the mouth of the river. There was scarcely any wind, and the weather
was very favourable; notwithstanding this, however, the surf was running on the beach
upwards of six feet in height as far as the eye could distinguish the line of shore. Here
it became apparent to the men that it was impossible to pull against the current; they
therefore determined to track [i.e. tow] the boat on. This they effected, some of the men
keeping out to seaward in order to prevent the surf from beaching the boat, whilst the
rest tracked her. After great labour and considerable danger, they passed into the river;
and, when in smooth water, they stood over to the western side, where they were joined
by the land party. The entrance once passed, the embouchure to the lake is reported to
present a calm and beautiful sheet of water, varying in depth from four to three and a half
and three fathoms. On the south-eastern side it is said to carry this depth of water up
to the lake. The current, however, is fearfully rapid, and the boatmen who survived are
of one opinion in respect to the impossibility of any vessel making a passage against the
united force of the current, and the immense sweep of rollers which rise and break for the
distance of from a mile and a half to two miles before the entrance to the river is attained.
That day Jeffcott went aboard the South Australian at anchor in Rosetta Harbour, so he was not
present when Strangways, Hutchinson and a party of eight (including two natives) set off with the
cart to meet the boat at the nearest point of the Murray channel, probably close to the ‘elbow’ at
present-day Goolwa. The following day, the boat proceeded up the channel, shadowed by the cart on
the western bank. The cart could go no further when the party came across a creek, at the head of
which they camped in a ‘fertile, well watered, and sheltered spot’. The creek they called Currency
Creek after the whaleboat that had brought them there. A reduced party continued in the whaleboat,
exploring the western channel of the Murray around Hindmarsh Island (which they begged to name
in honour of the governor) to its furthest point on 6 December. Two of the oarsmen in Blenkinsop’s
whaleboat were the runaways, which increases the likelihood that they had been whaling at Port
Fairy, and they pointed out the raft and pole used by them in crossing Lake Alexandrina. Strangways
and Hutchinson named the point on which they landed Point Sturt and that on the opposite shore of
the lake, Point McLeay.
On 7 December, a gale blew up which prevented them from leaving camp. Out in Encounter Bay,
the South Australian broke loose from her moorings on 8 December. McFarlane described the loss in
a letter to Mann from Hobart on 24 February 1838 (quoted in [15]: ‘I saw my fate the moment the
first bower [anchor] parted, and was prepared for it; I had lower yards and top-masts on deck to ease
the ship from labouring, but frequently the sea broke fore and aft’. The vessel was stranded on the
shore. Jeffcott and the young men, Hindmarsh and McLaren, were taken ashore by boat. So Jeffcott
had to await the next vessel.
To fill in time, Jeffcott decided to join the party examining Lake Alexandrina. On 10 December,
when Blenkinsop returned to the fishery for supplies, to took Jeffcott and Hindmarsh, junior, back to
the camp on Currency Creek. There was a pause on 11 December when two of the crew absconded,
and Blenkinsop had to return again to the fishery for replacements. The following day, 12 December,
they rejoined the party near the Goolwa camp, from whence Blenkinsop set off to exit the Murray
in the whaleboat. Jeffcott accompanied him. According to Fell[13], ‘the danger was known &
apparent’ and Blenkinsop called for volunteers and ‘these were soon obtained form the Common
65 Monday
was actually 4 December, as in the report of Strangways and Hutchinson.
43
The Murray Mouth
hands, but Blenkinsop a headstrong man taunted two of his headsmen with their pusillanimity, when
they reluctantly agreed to go in place of two of the Volunteers’. Fell named the headsmen as George
Wright and Harry Brooks, the other three oarsmen being George Mills, ‘little Punch’ and himself.
Fell does not mention the fact recorded by Strangways and Hutchinson that, before attempting the
Murray Mouth, the party came across ‘some hundreds weight of whalebone’ and loaded it forward in
the boat (Jeffcott occupying the stern). The boat negotiated the mouth successfully but it then faced
the breakers in Encounter Bay. The heavily-laden boat overturned and Jeffcott, Blenkinsop, Wright
and Brooks drowned66 . Fell, Mills and ‘little Punch’ were pulled from the surf by natives, the only
witnesses of the event.
David McLaren, junior, was taken on 12 December to Kingscote in Wood’s whaleboat, which had
been sent to collect him by William Giles. They must have left Encounter Bay before the tragedy
because they apparently brought news only of the loss of the South Australian.
The vessel Jeffcott had been awaiting put in to Encounter Bay three days too late. The John Pirie
had left Nepean Bay on 14 December to assist the stricken South Australian (to save her beef and
pork, according to Martin[15]) but carried passengers, including Mann, who were to be taken on to
Hobart when she had completed her task in Encounter Bay. Three days later still, the Solway, under
Robert Pearson, followed her to Encounter Bay to collect the oil.
Both were anchored in Rosetta Harbour when another gale struck on 21 December. Martin described
the storm in a letter to Gouger [15] from Hobart on 1 March 1838: a heavy gale from the southeast
created tremendous seas rolling into the Rosetta Bay. The Solway broke from her anchors and was
driven on to the reefs westward of the John Pirie. Martin had two anchors run out to the full extent
of their cables from the bow and had taken down her yards and masts. The gale increased in strength
for three to four hours after the loss of the Solway causing seas to break over the John Pirie; Martin
expected the vessel to ‘go down at her anchors, or tear her bows out of her’. He let go, hoping that
the ship would be forced over the reef under press of sail—Mann, an eye-witness on shore, said that
she carried only a jib. Although her bottom was nearly beaten out, this was successful and Martin
ran her on to the beach to leeward of the reef.
The John Pirie was able to continue on to Hobart on 8 January 1838. On the same day, Pearson left
in the longboat of the Solway for Nepean Bay.
Before leaving Encounter Bay in the new year, however, Pearson provided a remarkable coda to the
events of 1837. Some time in the two weeks following the wreck of his vessel on 21 December 1837,
he must have sketched the scene in the Bay from the Bluff.
There are two interesting variants of this sketch. The version is a lithograph of unknown provenance
in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection at the National Library of Australia (NK7157), entitled ’View of
Encounter Bay with the Fishery’ (Figure 6 (a)). The other version was published in London in 1839
as an illustration to Land of Promise by ‘One who is going there’ [John Stephens, the brother of
Samuel and Edward], and is entitled ‘View of Encounter Bay with the Fisheries’ (Figure 6 (b)). The
latter is based on another lithograph, a copy of which is held by the National Library of New Zealand
(A-096-047). Neither of these identifies the artist but a hand-coloured copy of a later state of the
same print offered for sale at The Antique Print Room, 455 George Street, Sydney, in 2009 attributes
the sketch to R. Pearson.
In the original of Figure 6 (a), various features are identified below the picture. They are:
1. The Solway herself stands are the head of the list, as would be natural if Pearson made the sketch.
She is facing seawards with anchors stretching out from the bow (Figure 7 (a)). Version (b)
shows her on the reef pointing landwards. Both versions show no topmasts; the spars removed
from the wreck were auctioned at Holdfast Bay on 9 February 1838.
66 Hutchinson’s
44
diary [17] confirms that the two lost seamen were George Wright and Henry Brooks.
The Murray Mouth
(a)
(b)
Figure 6: Rosetta Cove from the Bluff: The whaling stations of the South Australian Company and
Blenkinsop and the wrecks of the South Australian and Solway. The John Pirie, which escaped, is in
the foreground. Sketched around New Year’s Day, 1838, by Robert Pearson, master of the Solway.
(a) National Library of Australia, reproduced without permission. (b) From John Stephens’ Land of
Promise, 1839 (also in National Library of New Zealand).
2. The South Australian is shown close to the shore with topmasts and spars lowered, as McFarlane
reported that he done before the gale hit (Figure 7 (b)). The vessel again in shown facing opposite
ways in the two versions.
3. The small two-masted John Pirie is depicted in a similar manner in both versions (Figure 8).
Both show square spars on fore and main masts, but only (b) shows the fore-and-aft gaff behind
the main mast. This rig seems to have led to confusion at the time. In South Australian
documents she was described as a schooner. However, on a visit to Sydney in June 1838 she was
described as a brigantine. The drawings suggest that she was, in fact, a two-topsail schooner.
This had a series of fore-and-aft sails—jibs, foresail and mainsail, the latter two stretched between
a gaff and a boom behind the fore-mast and mainmast. There were also square-rigged sails
45
The Murray Mouth
(a)
(b)
Figure 7: The wrecks at Encounter Bay. (a) Solway. (b) South Australian. Details from the National
Gallery of Australia print, Figure 6 (a).
(a)
(b)
Figure 8: The John Pirie at Encounter Bay. (a) Detail from the National Gallery of Australia print,
Figure 6 (a). (b) Detail from the Land of Promise version, Figure 6 (b).
attached to yards in front of the topmasts in topsail schooners, just the foremast in a normal
topsail schooner but both masts in a two-topsail schooner. The fore-and-aft sails would have
been primarily topsails, but topgallants could have been added to further yards above them, as
appears to be the case in both versions. A brigantine differed only in having the foresail behind
the foremast replaced by a square-rigged foresail on a spar below the fore topsail67 .
4. The Rosetta fishery is shown arranged much as in Light’s drawing. The building close by ‘4’
has two external chimneys, each with smoke. There was no blubber to be tried at that time of
year, so this is likely to be the men’s quarters, the try works being in the buildings closer to the
water’s edge (see Figure 3).
5. Blenkinsop’s fishery appears beyond Point Stephen (now Victor Harbor).
6. The canvas structure with casks lined up in front is described as the Solway’s ‘Hutt’, presumably
where the oil was stored for ferrying out to the Solway anchored in Rosetta Harbour.
7. The ‘South Australian’s Tryworks’ was located in the little cove below the Bluff, which could be
approached without crossing the reef. The indentations of the two coves below the Bluff, from
which the view was taken, are accurately portrayed and the one with the try works was the site
where two platforms with shearlegs for cutting the blubber from the whales were erected later
in the 1840s.
8. The cooperage, where the oil casks were prepared.
9. A longboat which may well be the Solway’s longboat that took Pearson back to Nepean Bay.
A comparison with a photograph taken in a similar place (Figure 9) suggests that Pearson took
considerable liberties with the scale of the hills and the distance to Granite Island (on the extreme
67 The
46
rig was sometimes changed by the master to suit different voyages.
Epilogue
Figure 9: Rosetta Cove from the Bluff in 2013.
right), but is accurate enough68 for there to be little doubt that it was based on a sketch made on the
spot. Pearson was back in London on 4 October 1838, two months before Stephens wrote the preface
to his book on 7 December, so Pearson most likely himself supplied Stephens with his illustration.
Whether Pearson produced a revised lithograph to correct what appeared in the book, or whether
Stephens had just altered the ships whilst correcting their scale (clearly exaggerated in (a)) is not
known.
Whatever its topographic failings, the sketch records what concerned Pearson most—the vessels and
establishments associated with the whale fisheries in Encounter Bay in 1837.
Epilogue
Strangways and Hutchinson admitted in their report that the ‘the seat of government’ was located
‘elsewhere’, i.e., irrevocably in Adelaide. They nevertheless concluded that Encounter Bay was ‘the
most eligible [site for the first town] that we have yet seen in the colony for the first town’, fulfilling
six of the seven criteria given to Light by the Colonization Commissioners.
The very first such criterion which they believed to be met in Encounter Bay was ‘A commodious
harbour, safe and accessible at all seasons of the year’. Only the most partisan supporters of Hindmarsh
could possibly have reached that conclusion after the disasters that unfolded before their very eyes.
After 1837, Adelaide remained firmly established not only as the seat of government but also as
the commercial capital of the province. Boyle Travers Finniss, assistant surveyor in Light’s team,
conducted a more objective evaluation in April 1838 and concluded that ‘the balance of advantages
is against the eligibility of that district for the site of the capital; the two great objections being,
the want of that means of safely shipping the exports of the Colony essential to prosperity, and the
absence of such an area of fertile land in the immediate vicinity as would be required to place the
cultivators of the soil in contact with the market and the port.’69 . The dissenting party evaporated
68 The correct depiction of Brown Hill behind Blenkinsop’s fishery in (a) suggests that this is the original and more
accurate version.
69 Finniss also addressed the seventh criterion, the one omitted by Strangways and Hutchinson, namely, ‘Distance from
the limits of the colony, as a means of avoiding interference from without in the principle of colonization’. He noted
that ‘Encounter Bay could not be objected to on this point, because the Commissioners contemplated the possibility of
a settlement near the mouth of the Murray’, so it is curious that Strangways and Hutchinson implied that this was the
sole criterion not met.
47
Epilogue
when Hindmarsh received news of his recall in June 1838.
With the drowning of Blenkinsop, the action against Stephens and Wright lapsed. This made little
difference to the South Australian Company. Stephens had already suffered demotion with the arrival
of McLaren in April and the reports of his management of the initial settlement on Kangaroo Island
convinced the London directors to remove him from his position as Colonial Manager. The news
reached his brother Edward on 9 October 1837; thereafter McLaren was the sole manager in South
Australia. McLaren put Samuel in charge of the bullocks and flocks on the mainland but by December
it was clear that he was too irresponsible even for that, spending too much time racing horses with
other company employees and indulging in heavy drinking. Edward confronted him on 26 December
and refused to sanction his proposed purchases of stock; he accused his brother of having ‘incapacitating himself before dinner for business’, i.e., bring drunk before lunch. Samuel took umbrage and
submitted a letter of resignation, which McLaren accepted when he next visited Kangaroo Island in
February 1838. McLaren wrote to Edmund Wheeler, the London manager of the South Australian
Company, on 14 February 1838 that it was thought that Samuel Stephens might form a partnership
with Wright (State Library of South Australia BRG 42/31/7). McLaren had been scathing about
Wright, describing him as ‘uneducated and I think unprincipled. . . a self-conceited opinionated man
whose worthless character I was not long in discovering’, so it is not surprising that he foresaw little
success: ‘if they do not do better for themselves that they have done for the Company, they won’t
make much money’.
It would take a few years before the geography of Encounter Bay was firmly established. Light and
Finniss produced a sketch in 1838, and this was used as the basis for the plan of the sections that were
surveyed prior to selection, purchase and occupation in June 1839. It appeared as an insert to Light’s
Plan of New Port Adelaide, South Australia in 1841 and was used to construct Figure 10. This shows
the site of the township as first planned (1838) in grey and some of the sections from the 1841 map
outlined in black.
The Hindmarsh River and the mouth of the Inman River are accurately depicted. Place names have
become more familiar: Wright Island is where it is today, north-east of Cape Rosetta [Rosetta Point];
Findlay’s ‘Freeman’s Knob’ has become Freeman Nob in place of the earlier Rocky Point. Finally,
the point opposite Granite Island has been given the name Point Stephen, probably in reference to
George Milner Stephen rather than Samuel Stephens. Stephen was acting governor in 1838 before the
arrival of Gawler but was disgraced shortly after, so it is not surprising that the name quickly changed
again to Police Point.
The events at the end of 1837 did not mark the end of whaling in Encounter Bay. This continued for
almost two decades but was to give way progressively to other activities as the settlement laid out in
Figure 10 progressed.
48
Epilogue
Figure 10: Encounter Bay from the Bluff to Freeman Nob, based on the inset to William Light’s ‘Plan
of New Port Adelaide, South Australia’, 1841. Some of the sections selected in June 1839 are shown
in black outline, the site of the township as first planned in light grey. Subsequent whaling stations
at Rosetta Harbour, Victor Harbor, Granite Island and Freeman Nob are marked by a star.
49
References
[1] George Fife Angas. South Australian Company Papers 1834–1837. Angas papers in State Library
of South Australia, PRG 174/11.
[2] John Anthony and David Findlay. Log of the South Australian 1836–37. Manuscript in the State
Library of South Australia.
[3] Marnie Bassett. The Hentys. Melbourne University Press, Parklike, Victoria, second edition,
1962.
[4] William Loose Beare. Reminiscences of W.L. Beare. Typescript in the Royal Geographical Society
of South Australia, Ms 10c.
[5] John Wrathall Bull. Early Experiences of Life in South Australia and an Extended Colonial
History. E.S. Wigg & Son, Adelaide, and Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, London,
1884.
[6] J.W. Bull. Early Experiences of Colonial Life in South Australia. Self-published, Adelaide, 1878.
[7] Richard Crozier. Remark Book of HMS Victor. Manuscript and microfilm in State Library of
South Australia, PRG 185.
[8] J.S. Cumpston. Kangaroo Island 1800–1836. Roebuck Society, Canberra, 1970. Second edition
1975.
[9] Rachel Deane. Diary. Manuscript and two typed transcripts in State Library of South Australia,
D 5711 (L).
[10] Geoffrey Dutton. Founder of a City. F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1960.
[11] Geoffrey Dutton and David Elder. Colonel William Light. Founder of a City. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1991.
[12] L.J. Ewens. ‘The South Australian Colonizing Ships of 1836’. Pioneers Association of South
Australia, Adelaide, 1962.
[13] James Walter Fell. Account of the drowning of sir john jeffcott. Reproduction in State Library
of South Australia, D 5471 (L). The original is said to be held in the University Archives of the
University of Sydney.
[14] Paul Giambaba. Whales, Whaling and Whalecraft. Scrimshaw Publishing, Centerville, Massachusetts, 1967.
[15] Robert Gouger. South Australia in 1837. Harvey & Darton, London, 1838.
[16] Edwin Hodder. History of South Australia from its Foundation to the Year of its Jubilee. Sampson
Low, Marston, London, 1893.
[17] Young Bingham Hutchinson. Diary. Photostat and transcription in State Library of South
Australia, PRG 1013.
50
References
[18] W. H. Leigh. Reconnoitering Voyages and Travels with Adventures in the new colonies of South
Australia. Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill, London, 1839. Fascimile edition published by The
Currawong Press Pty Ltd, Milson’s Point, NSW, 1982.
[19] William Light. A Brief Journal of the Proceedings of William Light. Archibald MacDougall,
Adelaide, 1839.
[20] Thomas G. Lytle. Whalecraft, 2007. www.whalecraft.net.
[21] Max Nicholls. A history of Lord Howe Island. Mercury-Walch Pty Ltd, 5–7 Bowen Road, Moonah,
Tasmania, 1975.
[22] Michael Page. Victor Harbor from Pioneer Port to Seaside Resort. District Council of Victor
Harbor, 1987.
[23] Ronald Parsons. Tasmanian ships registered 1826–1850. Printed and published by Ronald H.
Parsons, Magill, South Australia, 1980.
[24] Joan Paton. John William Dundas Blenkinsop. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of
Australasia, South Australian Branch, 66:69, 1965.
[25] A. Grenfell Price. Founders & Pioneers of South Australia. F.W. Preece, Adelaide, 1929.
[26] R.T. Sexton. Shipping Arrivals and Departures South Australia 1627-1850. Gould Books–Roebuck
Society, Ridgehaven and Aranda, 1990.
[27] John Stephens. The Land of Promise. Smith, Elder, London, 1839.
[28] Samuel Stephens. Account of cash received and paid on account of the South Australian Company
from July 1836 to October 1837. Manuscript in State Library of South Australia, BRG 42/78.
[29] Charles W. Stuart. Diaries, 1833–1843. Manuscript in State Library of South Australia, D 6872
(L).
[30] Various. Letters and other communications received by the Colonial Secretary, Governor and
other Government officials. Microfilm copy in State Records of South Australia, GRG 24/1/1837
and 24/1/1838.
[31] William Wyatt. ‘Diary’. South Australian Record, 8 and 11 November 1837, 1837.
51
Index
Encounter Bay itself is not referenced in the in- Brooks, Henry, 15, 44
dex, only locations within it.
Brown
John (c1801–1879), 42
Thomas, 15, 23
Brown Hill, 47
Aborigines, 13
Buchan, William, 17, 19
Adelaide, 13
Bull, John Wrathall (1804–1886), 2, 3
Alford, Henry (1816–1892), 21
bullock-driver, 12
Allen
Alexander (?–1837), 7, 17, 19, 28, 32, 36, 38, Bushell, Henry, 11, 12, 14
39
Calnan, Jeremiah (John), 41
John, 17, 19, 32, 36
Campbell, Robert (1789–1859), 9, 13, 39
Thomas, 21
Cann, John, 17, 19
William, 5, 7, 31, 38, 39
Cape Jervis, 4
Angas, George Fife (1789–1879), 3, 39
Cape Rosetta, 8, 27, 48
Angill, William, 12, 14, 24
Cape Victor, 16
Anna Vale, 10, 27
Capel Sound, 15
Anna vale, 39
Capel, Thomas Bladen, 15
Anthony
Chambers, John (1815–1889), 25
James, 17, 19
Chesser, William, 2
John (c1811-1881), 17
Clark(e)
Ayers, Henry, 12, 14
George, 14
William, 14
Backstair Passage, 3
Clark,
Alexander, 17, 19, 31, 33, 35
Backstairs Passage, 4
Clegg,
Abraham, 11, 14, 20, 28, 41
Bailey
Coffin,
Charles Norris? (1800–1848), 12, 22, 36
Charles, 11, 14, 36
Cole,
John,
22
Henry, 17, 19
cooper,
10
Baker, John (1813–1872), 10
Cooper, William, 8, 30
Barker, Collet, 8, 13, 20
Cranfield, John, 41
Barrett, William, 14
Crozier Hill, 16
Battye, William?, 5
Crozier, Richard, 13, 16, 17, 23, 27
Baudin, Nicolas-Thomas (1754-1803), 23
Cummins, Gregory, 32
Beare
cutting in, 6, 7
Thomas Hudson (1792–1861), 5
William Loose (1826–1910), 3, 8
Donoho, Jeremiah, 12, 14, 23
bible leaves, 32
Driscoll, John, 12, 15, 28–30, 39
Black Reef, 33, 35
Dubar, Henry, 22
blanket piece, 6
blanket pieces, 32
Egan, Daniel, 21, 39
Blenkinsop
Elick (Alick, Reppeenyere, Reppindjeri, Ronculla),
Anna Maria (c1817–1850), 10, 24
28, 29, 39
John William Dundas (?–1837), 10, 12, 13, Espie, John, 12, 14, 36
16, 23–26, 28–40, 42, 43, 46
Bluff, The, 8, 10, 20, 26, 32–34, 46
Fell, James Walter, 11, 14, 39, 41–43
boat-steerer, 10
Findlay, David, 17–19, 28, 29, 31–33, 35, 36
book, 32
Finniss, Boyle Travers (1807–1893), 47, 48
Brakehill, Thomas, 12, 14
Fisher, James Hurtle (1790–1875), 24–27, 40
Bromley, Walter (c1768–1838), 29
Fitzgerald, Thomas, 14, 18, 19, 36
52
Foley, John (Jack), 40, 41, 43
Freeman (Rosetta fishery), 12
Freeman Nob, 16, 17, 32, 48
Freeman, Sylvester, 13, 15, 24, 36
Fur Seal
Australian, 4
New Zealand, 4
Fyans, Foster, 41
Germein, John, 18
Gibbons, Josiah, 11, 14
Giles, William (1791–1862), 44
Gilles, Lewis William (1796–1884), 11
Glenelg, 37
Goolwa, 43
Gouger, Robert (1802–1846), 23, 29, 42
Granite Island, 8, 10, 15–17, 27, 31–33, 46
Green, John, 22
Griffiths, John (1801–1881), 2, 3
Gulf St Vincent, 3, 4
Hack, Stephen, 25
Hagen, Jacob (1805–1870), 10
Halbrook, Henry, 14
Harper, John Gordon (c1807–1847), 11, 12, 14,
33, 34, 36, 41
harpoon, 6, 35
harpooner, 13
Hart, John (1808–1873), 2, 3, 10, 18
Hayes, Robert, 11, 12, 14, 35, 36
headsman, 10
Henty, Thomas (1775–1839), 41
Hightam, 18, 19
Hind Bay, 13
Hind Cove, 10, 17, 27
Hindmarsh
John, 40, 43
John (1785–1860), 13, 16, 21, 24, 29, 30, 40,
42, 47, 48
Hindmarsh Island, 43
Hindmarsh River, 10, 16, 17, 21, 27, 28, 48
Hobart, 7, 11
Hobson, William, 16, 23
Holdfast Bay, 4
horse pieces, 32
Huggins, James, 12, 14, 17, 19
Hutchinson, Young Bingham (1806–1870), 42–44,
47
Hutchison
Gilbert, 17, 19, 33
William, 17, 19
Hutton, William, 18, 19
Index
Johnston, John, 17, 20
Jones
William, 13, 14, 24
Jones, William, 9
Kalinga (Sarah), 28, 29
Kangaroo River, 10, 16, 17, 27
Kermode, Anne, 40
Keubler, J., 11, 14
Kingscote, 5, 23, 36
Lake Alexandrina, 39, 43
lance, 6, 32, 35
large island, 31
Launceston, 2, 11
Leese, Henry, 12
Leigh, William Henry, 7, 12, 17, 23, 29, 34
Light, William (1786–1839), 4, 13, 24–27, 40, 47,
48
Lipson, Thomas (1783–1863), 27, 40
Long, James (c1813–1903), 18
Lord, Edward Robert, 18, 20, 21, 25
Lovett, John, 26
Maney, John, 37
Mann, Charles (1799–1860), 10, 22, 24, 28–31, 34,
35, 37, 40, 43, 44
Marshall, Thomas, 13, 15, 23
Martin, George, 3
Martin, George (1778–1842), 4, 5, 8, 18, 21, 25,
44
Mate, William, 22
McClure, Charles, 12, 14, 36
McFarlane, John Boyd Thorburn (1810–1857), 11,
12, 14, 23, 33–36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45
McLaren
David (1785–1850), 17, 36–38, 48
David (1810–?), 41, 43, 44
Mead, Thomas R., 13, 15, 24
Menge, Johannes Joseph (1788–1852), 3
middle island, 32
Mildred, Henry Richard, 17
Mill, William, 16
Mills, George, 12, 14, 44
Moore
George Henry, 40
John, 18, 20
Mootaparinga, 20, 21, 28, 30
Morphett, John (1809–1892), 4, 25
Munday, Edward, 11, 12, 14, 23, 28, 33–35
Murphy, John?, 11, 15
Murray Mouth, 30, 41, 43, 44
Murray, W., 37
Inman River, 10, 16, 17, 48
Inston, Maxwell, 17, 19, 33, 35
Natt, Richard, 16
Nelson
Jacob, William (1814–1902), 27
Isaac, 11, 14, 41
Jeffcott, Sir John William (1796–1837), 40, 41, 43
John, 4
53
Index
Nepean Bay, 3, 5, 17
Noland, 37
Pearson, Robert, 37, 44, 46, 47
Pierce, Richard, 12, 15, 23
Point McLeay, 43
Point Stephen, 46, 48
Point Sturt, 43
Police Point, 48
Port Fairy, 40, 43
Port Lincoln, 3
Portland, 41
Portland Bay, 37
Powell, Charles, 41
Powell, William, 15
Power, William, 12, 15, 24
Powys, Thomas, 30
Prout, William, 18, 20, 32
Pullen Island, 16
pulling hand, 10
Punch, ‘little’, 12, 15, 44
Rapid Bay, 3, 4
Redgrove, John, 37
Reeves, William, 15, 23
River Murray, 17
Roach, Reuben (?–1838), 5, 12, 15
Robinson
Charles, 15
George, 12, 15, 23
Rocky Point, 16, 17, 48
Rolls, John, 28
Rosetta Cove, 8, 10, 17, 27, 40, 46
Rosetta Harbour, 10, 15, 16, 26–28, 44
Rosetta Point, 16
Sandy Point, 16
Saunders, Joseph, 22
Scott, Hugh, 11, 15, 36
Sea Lion, Australian, 4
Seal Rock, 8, 16, 17, 27, 32
sealing, 3–5
Seaman, Jacob, 4
Sherratt, Thomas Brooker, 23
ships
H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 16
H.M.S. Victor, 13, 16
Africaine, 11, 17, 39
Coromandel, 2, 3
Cygnet, 21, 26–28
Duke of York, 2, 5
Elizabeth, 2
Emma, 4, 7, 11–13, 16, 29, 34
Francis Freeling, 21, 26, 31, 32, 37, 39
George Martin of Kingscote, 5
Hartley, 36
Highlander, 26
54
Hind, 8, 9, 13, 16, 21, 24, 28, 31, 37, 39
Isabella, 18
John Pirie, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 32,
35, 43–45
Lady Mary Pelham, 2
Lord Hobart, 12, 29, 34
Mary, 41
Mary Ann, 40
Rapid, 8, 9
Royal Sovereign, 22
Sarah and Elizabeth, 11, 18
Siren, 37
Solway, 36, 41, 44, 46
South Australian, 7, 12, 17, 18, 21, 24, 26, 28,
30, 31, 39–41, 43–45
Specimen of Kingscote, 5
Statesman, 22, 26, 31, 32, 35, 38
Union, 23
William, 2, 8, 18, 21, 24, 25, 32, 36
Winchester, 7, 39
Slater, J?, 18, 20
Sleaford Bay, 37
Smart, Samuel, 40
Smith
Bejamin, 17
Charles, 18, 20, 31, 33
George, 15
John, 11, 12, 15, 33, 34
Michael, 15, 23
Thomas, 15, 23
Sobey, Henry, 21
South Australian Company, 2, 5, 37, 39, 48
Southgate, John, 18, 20
spade, 34
boat, 6
cutting, 6
Spencer Gulf, 3, 5
Stacks, Thomas, 15, 24, 28, 29
Stanley (Manley), Henry, 40
Stephen, George Milner, 48
Stephens
Edward (1811–1861), 8, 23, 24, 40, 48
John (1806–1850), 20, 21, 44, 47
Samuel (1808–1840), 2–5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18,
21, 23–27, 29–31, 36, 38–40, 48
Stevenson, George (1799-1856), 24, 39, 40
Stone, Edward, 40, 41
Strangways, Thomas Bewes (1809–1859), 24, 29,
42–44, 47
Stuart, Charles William (1811–1891, 18, 21
Stupart, Robert Douglas, 16
Sturt, Charles Napier (1795–1869), 8, 13
Sydney, 32
Thomas, Nathaniel (1802–1879), 4, 21
Thompson (also Thomson), William (c1803–1882),
2
Index
Thompson, George, 11, 15
Tindall, Thomas, 11, 12, 15, 36
tonguer, 6
try pot, 6
try works, 7, 17, 27, 31, 46
tun, 7
Turner, George, 12, 15, 23
Victor Harbor, 10, 15, 17, 40, 46
Wade, John, 21
Walker, William, 28, 29, 39, 40
Watkins, John, 18, 20
Webster, 15, 42
Wedger, William, 17, 20
West Island, 16, 17, 27, 31–33, 35
Whale, Southern Right (Black), 3
whaleboat, 5
whalebone, 3, 6
Wheeler, Edmund, 48
Williams, [Peter?] Robert, 22
Williamson, James, 21, 31
Wistock, Samuel, 12, 15, 24
wives, 12, 36
Wood(s), William, 12, 15, 44
Woodforde, John (1810–1866), 2, 4
Wright
Edward (c1788–1859), 2
George, 15, 44
Joseph, 2, 18, 20
William, 2, 5, 7, 8, 18, 24–26, 30, 32, 40, 48
Wright Island, 2, 32, 33, 48
Wyatt
John Pearce, 17, 20
Richard, 9, 13
William (1805–1886), 6, 11, 29, 30, 34, 35
Yankalilla, 4
55

Encounter Bay 1836–1837 - The Durrant Family Website

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