Old Ships and Ship Masters

OLD SHIPS AND SHIPMASTERS.

EARLIER TIMES RECALLED.

[By A. T. Saunders.]

13 January 1917

The oldest seagoing vessel of Port Adelaide is the pretty schooner Beatrice, built in January, 1860, by Gray, of Newhaven, England, 99 tons, and in 1864 owned by Mr. Must, of Portland Bay, Victoria. Although she was originally only classed for nine years, she has been sailing for over 56 years, is now on a trip to and from Melbourne, and last November made a trip to Fremantle with explosives. Soon after 1884 she was bought by the Admiralty and stationed in Port Adelaide as a surveying schooner; and for many years Capt. Hutchinson, Lieut. Guy, and Lieut. Goalen carried on the survey of parts of the Australian coast in her. She was then a topsail schooner, and was as pretty a piece of marine architecture as one could desire, kept as she was in beautiful order, man-of-war fashion. My old Scandinavian friend, Mr. B. E. Lykke, of Alberton, was a seaman aboard her for some time, and could give a good account of some of the surveys made from her. Now, after 30 odd years of cargo carrying, since she ceased to be a surveying ship, her present master Capt. B. H. Evans, who is over 80 years of age, spruces and paints her up into something like what she was in 1870. Like the Beatrice, Capt. Evans is a veteran, a Welshman, but virtually a Tasmanian. He has for 50 years been master of various sail and steam ships sailing out of Tasmania or South Australia, and not withstanding his 80 years can and does handle the Beatrice as well as or better than a man of half his age.

—Interesting Mariners.—

Capt. Evans's brother, Mr. H. B. Evans, was 40 years ago a shipowner of Hobart Town, as it was then called, owning shares in such old vessels as the barque Freetrader, the Glencoe, and others, but he was not successful in the end. Capt. B. H. Evans first came here, if I recollect aright, in the schooner Annie Taylor, afterwards owned by Mr. Alexander Russell, and I remember him in 1875 or 1878 in Port Pirie, in the schooner Lily, which he kept like a yacht. Since then it is difficult to recall the vessels he has commanded. He had the three masted schooner Sedwell Jane—in fact, he went to England and bought her for a Port Pirie owner, and traded to Natal in her. 

On one voyage he took our old Portonian friend, "Dear Christian Friend'' Moodie, back to his old home in South Africa. Capt. Evans sailed the barque Heather Bell between this State and London, for some years was in the employ of the Steamtug Company, and was master of the Falcon screw steamtug when she was accidentally sunk in Port Adelaide, which was (so far as I recollect) his only marine accident in over 60 years of sea life. 

Capt. Evans married Miss Garth at the Huon River, Tasmania. Mr. Garth, her father, was one of the original Huon River settlers, and many interesting stories of old Huon days from 1850 have I heard from Mrs. Evans, who is still alive in this State. Tragedies are among them, including one of the upsetting of a boat with many passengers in sight of their friends, and the finding by the father of the body of one of them, a young mother with her dead baby clasped in her arms. In those days communication with the Huon was of necessity carried on from Hobart by sailing boats. The Garth family were well known in Tasmania; and in 1876 John Garth owned the schooner Caledonia, built in Tasmania in 1844, and going strong 32 years after. Mrs. Evans, who is nearly 80, is the granddaughter of a Frenchman, and it is a pleasure to hear her talk, for she uses such well-chosen, expressive, and appropriate words, and her tales of old Tasmania are those of an interesting period past and gone, of which, unfortunately, there is little or no record.

—A Marine Graveyard.—

Above the Jervois Bridge, Port Adelaide, is one of the marine graveyards of the port. There lay the hulk of the brig Harriet Hope, once with the schooner Belle and the barque Sea Gull, the property of the South Australian Coal Company, long since defunct. The Harriet Hope was sheathed with zinc instead of copper or muntz metal, and for some years she was a Government hulk off Glenelg in the bad old days when the P. & O. mail boats lay at Glenelg, and Mr. Arthur Searcy looked after them from a Customs point of view. In those days the steam launch Fairy (Capt. Newitt) took passengers and mails to and from Glenelg Jetty, and it was said that more than once in bad weather passengers from the P. & O. boats, who had to be lowered in baskets on to the Fairy, were landed on top of the smokestack. 

The schooner Eclipse, 78 tons, built at Footscray, Victoria, in 1864, is another old stager above the bridge. John Yeo was master of bar, and Mr. David Bower was part or whole owner. For many years Bob Arnold sailed her; and now, after 50 years of good service, she awaits her final end. Wallaroo was her usual trading port, but she has known a large portion of the coast of this State. John Yeo, who was a son of Mr. Yeo, who originally settled on Torrens Island, and whose house was (and I think now is) the nucleus of the Quarantine Station, was afterwards master of the screw steamer Kangaroo, 180 tons, owned once by those ill-fated millers, Beeby & Dunstan, whose mill was in Grenfell street, now part of Milne & Co.'s stores. About 1896 both Mr. Beeby and Mr. Dunstan died within a few days of each other, and the Kangaroo was sold to a Port Adelaide syndicate. Beeby and Dunstan also owned the brig Sea Nymph.

—Other Interesting Points.—

I suppose few Portonians know what barilla is, yet barilla making was a large Port Adelaide industry in the early days, and John Yeo and James Cranns were engaged in its production. It was produced by burning the mangroves, which then bordered the Port Adelaide creeks, and was an impure soda used for soap-making, now superseded by caustic soda. 

The pride of Port Adelaide 50 years ago was the pretty and useful steam brig Eleanor, built in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1864 for "Billy" Wells, who at the time owned the wooden steam tug Young Australian. The Eleanor was brought out by Capt. Skelton for Capt. Wells, and some years afterwards he brought out the Kalshome, also for Capt. Wells. The Eleanor had the good fortune soon after her arrival to earn a large sum in salvage for Capt. Wells. 

The emigrant ship Electric during a bad storm got too close to the Marino rocks, and had to anchor. Four men were drowned while trying to board her, and or managed to make fast to her, and towed her out of danger and to the Semaphore. The Eleanor was a handy steamtug, a paddle boat of 80 horsepower. Her engines could be manipulated by one man, who could, by pedals in the eccentrics out of gear and with the levers move both engines as desired. 

About 1875 competition threatened Capt. Willis, and he sold out to Sir W. W. Hughes and Sir Thomas Elder; and thereafter the Eleanor was the property of the Tug Company till Mr. Cave bought her.

—More About Tugs.—

The first Port Adelaide tug was the Government tug Adelaide, a wooden paddle boat, built in London in 1848, which was never satisfactory, and she was afterwards sold, and the engines were taken out, and she was made a topsail schooner. She was wrecked on the Coorong beach in August, 1874. 

The Young Australian was the next Port Adelaide tug. She arrived in Port Adelaide on June 19, 1854, from Melbourne. She was a wooden vessel, built for a tug by Wigram & Green, London. She was 100 tons, and said to be 80 horsepower, which is doubtful. She was exactly the style of steamer shown in the frontispiece of The London News. She had one mast, a curved bow, one engine (a single cylinder), and unfeathering floats. The paddles slowed down at the end of the up and down strokes. In April, 1855, she went to the wreck of the Nene Valley, near Cape Northumberland, was stranded there, and was sold to Coleman & Wells, who got her off, and she arrived in Port Adelaide on July 16, 1855. From that on she towed in Port Adelaide till she was sent to the Northern Territory, Capt. Lowrie in command, and her wreck is in the Roper River, as Mr. Alfred Searcy can tell. Capt. "Billy" Wells commanded the Young Australian and Eleanor, and was succeeded by "Jimmy" Craigie, who had grown up in the service. 

The first engineer I can recall in the Eleanor was Mr. Monkhouse, next Mr. Barnes, and finally Mr. Randell —all dead; but Peter Funder, who was fireman for so many years, is still to the fore in Port Adelaide. 

The next steamtug was a wooden paddle vessel, the Letty, a one-cylinder host, owned by Jos Coleman, but she was a failure, and her engine was taken out. The Goolwa was imported about the same time as the Eleanor, but not as a tug. She was an iron paddle steamer, intended for the Port Augusta trade, and had a fine deckhouse aft for passengers. She was built at Jarrow, in 1864, was 116 tons, and 90 horsepower. She was a failure in the Port Augusta trade, and was commanded by Capt. Davidson, who brought for Capt. Cadell the Lady Augusta from Sydney in 1853, and was in command when she was taken through the Murray Mouth, and he went up the Murray with her on her first trip. Capt. Davidson, his second wife and family, and all his crew except his coloured cook, were lost about 30 years ago in the brig Emily Smith, on Kangaroo Island. The deckhouse of the Goolwa was removed, and she went into the touring business in Port Adelaide, but did not pay. Her engines took two men to manipulate them; so she was sold to Newcastle and became the property of the Co-operative Company and J. and A. Brown. 

The Sophia was next imported from Melbourne—a wooden paddle boat that sank in Port Adelaide. She was sold back to Melbourne a few years after. The Adelaide, an iron steam paddle tug, and the Yatala, also an iron paddle tug, were imported from England about 1876, and are now sailing vessels or hulks. The Glenelg, a twin-screw vessel, was built in 1874 in Glasgow, and was tried here as a tug; but she was a failure, and was sold in a few years. 

I have lost touch of Port Adelaide for 30 years, and know little of present-day vessels. In 1872, or earlier, the Young Galatea was built in Port Adelaide as a steamer and tug, but was a failure. In 1876 Mk. C. A. Brown, of Port Adelaide, built the Eliza for towing small craft. She was a screw vessel of 12 horse power, and also failed; her engines were taken out and she was made a schooner or ketch. 

In 1870 Capt. H. D. Dale built the Bronghton, a wooden screw steamer. She was & bad failure. Her engines were taken out and she became s ketch. In 1875 there was a wooden screw steamer, the Amy, which did some towing, and also the Derwent, which Mr. Jagoe imported from England. The Dolphin was built for the Kangaroo Island fish trade, which did not succeed; but the Dolphin ran for years, and was sold to Fremantle. 

Capt. Wilson imported two iron steam vessels, the Star of Hope and the Nelcebee, both of which did some touring in the 70's and 80's, and perhaps later. Two iron barges were also imported. These were made into ketches, one sank in a hurry in the gulf. One was named the Success. The first Port Adelaide steamer was the Courier, imported by Mr. W. S. Whitington, in 1839. She came out under sail, and had her engines fitted up here. She was a dismal failure. The only trip I know she made was when the Collector of Customs (Mr. Torrens), in 1840, sent her to seize the Villa de Bordeaux, which she failed to do: but the crew of the Frenchman mutinied and brought the ship back to Glenelg. Mr. Torrens seized her; the French warship Heronie arrived and took the matter up; and South Australia had to pay £6,000 for Mr. Torrens's seal.