Arthur Devlin advanced money to get the Stirlingshire completed and launched, before sailing it to Auckland and on to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), where he first bought it at auction, then sold it in Launceston. Later in the 1860s he became a founding member of the Athenaeum Club[1] in Collins Street, Melbourne. He was the son of an Irish activist of the same name who had been given a choice by the British Government - prison or a new life and land in Australia. Devlin senior chose the latter and arrived on the convict ship ‘Tellicherry’ around the turn of the century. Arthur junior was born in 1810[2]. By age twelve, young Arthur had crewed on trading ships to South America. By age eighteen he was worth £48,000, a large fortune for the time, having got into the whaling industry and voyaged to China. Owning and selling several vessels, he again branched out and imported a racing gig in which he and his five team mates rowed in the six-man New South Wales championship of 1830 - and won it[3]. “All standing well over six feet in height” they were never beaten[4]. Along the way he had had built Australia’s first steamship the Surprise,[5] and supplied New Zealand timbers used to build Adelaide’s first wharf. In New Zealand he had bought land at Piako off William Webster, later the subject of a land claim. With several others he bought from the South Australian Commissioners the brig ‘Rapid,’ afterwards buying out his partners in October 1840, before securing another, this time equal, partner in the vessel.
“The price of tea being great in Australia, the first war in China 1840, I decided to fit the Rapid with six guns and proceed to the Eastern Coast of China for the purchase of a cargo taking dollars and other specie and cargo amounting to $16,000. The Insurance Companies took fright, and the fitting out of the Rapid as a Man of War was a fatal blow to my getting Insurance at anything like a reasonable rate, and I took my departure from Sydney in the
Rapid uninsured on the 16th Dec.1840”[6] Arthur Devlin (1810-1893 )
After calling at Norfolk Island, persistent contrary weather meant the crew used up more water than was sufficient to last the voyage to Guam Island, their next intended waypoint. Devlin therefore laid off a course for Rotumah in the ‘Feegee’ Islands some two hundred and fifty nautical miles to the north -east to obtain more. They were in the vicinity of Conway Reef, the position of which was inaccurately shown on the ship’s chart. On 13th March, 1840 around midnight, Devlin handed over the watch to an officer, telling him to ‘keep an eye out for breakers’…and went to bed. Twenty minutes later the ship struck. From that moment until arriving back in Sydney aboard his good friend Captain George Cole’s barque ‘Avon,’ Devlin was challenged in many of the same ways as had been Bligh on his epic voyage in an open boat some years before.[7]
He persuaded Edward Lucette[8], part-owner of the 96 ton brig Curlew, (and who had sailed into Nagle Cove at Great Barrier Island in early 1841), to recover the thousands of Spanish dollars[9] that he had hidden on the sand island within Conway Reef. In his ‘Reminiscences’[10] Devlin relates how he came to organise the completion of the Stirlingshire at Great Barrier Island….
 “In the Guiana brought a small cargo of Sugar to Melbourne, difficulty in getting clear of small cargoes. In 1846 married Esther McLelland a native of
the County Armagh, Ireland; for about 18 months conducted the business of Robert Jamieson & Co, receiving consignments from the United Kingdom, selling
them and making remittances in wool and tallow; about the latter part of 1847 [he is mistaken here, as it was 1848, not 1847- dja] proceeded with some
carpenters, rigging and sails to the Great Barrier Island, New Zealand. I chartered and commanded the William Brig for the occasions, [there is other evidence
that Captain Jeremiah Nagle was the commander-dja], these proceedings to finish and fit out the Sterlingshire [sic] of cargo of timber, proceeded and sold same in
Adelaide thence to Launceston where I sold the Eldorado in California, however, they could not fulfil and I subsequently sold to Ducrow & Co[11] of Launceston
having disposed of the Sterlingshire returned to headquarters, Sydney.”
Don Armitage © 2008
Link to the book 'Multiple Stains' Stan Devlin 1999
 Adelaide (click to enlarge)
I appreciate the assistance of Brigadier Stan Devlin (Ret).
[1] ‘Windows on Collins Street’ A History of the Athenaeum Club, Melbourne’. John Pacini and Graeme Adamson, 2001. [2] ‘Multiple Stains’ Stan Devlin. 1999. [3] Source: ‘Aquatic Sports in Australia’ George E. Boxall, p 146-7 [4] The Scottish Australian 2nd September, 1893. [5] Now preserved in the Sydney Maritime Museum [6] Reminiscences of Captain Arthur Devlin. [7] Amply described in ‘The Fate of the Rapid’ by John Healey [8] ‘Rovings in the Pacific, from 1837 to 1849’ by Edward Lucette, 1851 Two volumes. Publisher Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. [9] A commonly used currency at this time. [10] ‘Multiple Stains’ Stan Devlin 1999. p180. [11] Actual spelling is ‘Du Croz’ but his spelling is useful as it indicates how it was probably spoken. |
 The authoritative site about the human and natural history of Aotea Great Barrier Island. |
Captain Arthur Devlin 1810-1893 |
