6 July 1933

So tiny was the brig Lady Nelson, in which Lieutenant Grant discovered and named Mount Gambier, that the sailors of the British warships contemptuously christened her 'His Majesty's Tinder Box.' Nevertheless, the Lady Nelson had a much more adventurous career than many of the giant 'bulwarks' of the day, who regarded her so derisively.

The coastline of the western boundary of the province of South Australia was discovered by the Dutch navigator, Francis Thyss, in 1627; the eastern coastline by Lieutenant James Grant, of the Lady Nelson, in 1800. Like several other of the early English expeditions, the brig had been commissioned with the idea of forestalling the French, in this instance the navigator Baudin.

The English mariners, looking down from the decks of their huge men-of- war, jeered at the Lady Nelson as she sailed from England, calling her 'His Majesty's tinder-box.' She was a brig of 60 tons. She left England on March 18, 1800, and the first Australian land was made on December 3, when Mounts Schank and Gambier, and Capes Northumberland and Banks, were sighted and named.

The Lady Nelson was one of the first vessels to be built with a centreboard, and in labelling Mount Schank, Grant was complimenting the inventor, Captain James Schank, R.N., while Margaret Island, Westernport, is named after Mrs. Schank.

By the time Baudin had wandered into our seas in 1802, Flinders had discovered and charted most of the coast, and the north shore of Kangaroo Island, and the Frenchman could but rightly claim priority in discovering the land on from Cape Banks to his meeting with Flinders at Encounter Bay (three leagues), and subsequently the south and west coast of Kangaroo Island.

The Lady Nelson's career was romantic, and ultimately tragic. She was the first vessel through Bass Straits, followed within a few weeks' interval by two other brigs, and the first ship from which Port King (Port Phillip) was discovered and partly surveyed.

In between these sur veys the little brig was transporting wheat from the Hawkesbury, cedar and coal from the Hunter River to Sydney, or conveying pioneers to Risdon, Hobart, Maoriland, or Melville Island (Northern Territory).

While acting as supply ship to the military settlement at Fort Dundas (Melville Island), in 1825, the Lady Nelson met disaster. Scurvy had broken out. Fresh meat was needed, besides stock for future herds. So the brig was commissioned to convey buffaloes from the island of the Timor group. One trip was successful. But the second proved her last. Nobody knew what had happened to her until her hull was eventually found at Baba Island.

Probably the same fate befell the Lady Nelson as that of the schooner Stedcombe, which disappeared in the same year while on the same mission — seizure by pirates and crews massacred. Two boys, Edwards and Forbes, of the Stedcombe, were spared only to become the slaves of the natives.

Fourteen years later, through the persistence of Captain Watson, master of the schooner Essington, Forbes was handed over by the natives and eventually became a fisherman at Williamstown (Victoria). Edwards did not survive the harsh treatment, and had died some years before his mate's liberation. — 'Yacko,' Port Morrison.

Judge Bolted From Court

Pioneering had its tragic episodes, but it had its comic ones, too. There is an instance of Judge Cooper trying a man in one of the rooms of his home at Whitmore square, A sudden crackling sound, and an hysteric scream, "He's shot," sent jury and spectators helter-skelter through one French window, and judge and lawyers through the other.

Tolmer, the police inspector, Ashton, the governor of the gaol, and Joseph Stagg, the prisoner, were the sole occupants left in the room. Investigation found a beam of the floor over a cellar had cracked, and so caused the unprecedented commotion. — 'Yacko,' Port Morrison

There was considerable public interest in this case at the time, with many detailed references in the press of the pursuit, capture, trial and sentence of Joseph Stagg / Stag, from Van Diemen's Land, who was hung at Adelaide Gaol 18 Nov 1840, for the wilful murder of John Gofton.

Stranded On A Barren Island

In 1884 there was a lot of sealing on the south-west coast of Kangaroo Island. Most of this hunting was on the Brothers' Rocks, not far off the Island. The Brothers are two barren rocks standing well out of the water, and seals congregate there in great numbers at certain periods of the year.

On one occasion four men, Neilsen, Marsden, and Small, and an American blackfellow, took a boat on a waggon from Kingscote to a point opposite the Brothers, where they intended to kill seals. Two of the men were to camp on the Brothers to do the killing. The other two were to camp on the Island, and take food and water across every few days and bring back the skins. The latter had a snug camp on the Island.

One morning they started out to the rocks and landed Neilsen and Marsden, the killers. Then they started back for their camp on the Island, but were never seen from that day to this.

Nine days later one of the hands from Barratta Station, while riding along the coast, was startled to see the men on the rocks making frantic signals by waving a blanket. Sensing that something was wrong he searched the bottom of the cliffs and found portions of the sealers' boat broken to matchwood. He returned to the station, and a telegram was sent to Adelaide.

A few days later the steamer Governor Musgrave was sent to rescue the stranded men. It was very rough, and the boat could not land. The sailors floated a line ashore and told the men to tie it around their bodies and they would pull them through the surf. Neilsen tied a baby seal to one of his legs to take with him, but the seal had too much rope and kept diving, nearly drowning Neilsen. However, both men were taken off safely. — 'M.J.A.,' Coorabie.

How We Lost The Sunday Dinner

When travelling sheep, down Mannum way some years since, I witnessed a peculiar incident. An ancient caravan, around which fussed an equally antique gentleman, was standing in the timber edging the road. From somewhere at the back of the vehicle there issued vast quantities of smoke.

Concluding that the old chap was in danger of losing his worldly goods, I dashed across, grabbing a teatree branch as I rode. But instead of beating frantically at the flames, 'Methuselah' was calmly hanging his quart pot on the rear axle over a nicely compact, and not too blazing fire. Ingenious I considered it.

Having explained my unceremonial appearance, I hung my billy on the axle next my host's browning leg of lamb, dug several murphies out of the tucker bag, hung them in a jam tin on the axle, then reclined awaiting our seventh-day feast. As we lolled in the shade, yarning, and breathing deeply of the roasting lamb, an unkempt figure of a man emerged as from nowhere.

The van horses suddenly slewed away from the apparition, and, feeling no restraining hand on the lines, broke into a hand gallop. My ancient friend did everything except spit blood; and as I gazed stupidly at our Sunday dinner galloping over yonder hill, the stranger, quite unconcerned about the tragedy he had started, was saying, 'Have yer got any 'bacca, mate.'— 'Pompoota.'

Explain It If You Like

About 50 years ago a large whale became stranded on the beach between Rivoli Bay and Port MacDonnell. Two brothers (Walter and William Carrison) set to work boiling down blubber from the leviathan in order to obtain the oil.

One day after they had finished work they took their muzzle-loading guns and set out in opposite directions to see if they could get a shot at anything. It was about dusk when William Carrison decided to return to the camp.

Having fired his gun, he paused to reload, and had just finished ramming the charge when he heard a most hideous and unnatural yell. Looking in the direction from which the cry came, he saw a strange figure of gigantic stature coming towards him.

As Carrison stared at the unearthly thing it appeared so weird and supernatural that he was paralysed with fear, while his blood chilled and his hair bristled. As it came close to him it uttered another blood curdling scream, and then suddenly Carrison regained a certain amount of control over himself. Hurriedly jamming a cap on the muzzle-loaded, he fired point blank at the apparition, which appeared to sink into the ground and disappeared, leaving no trace.

As Carrison made his way to the camp he tried to convince himself that he had merely been the victim of an hallucination, and had half decided not to mention the incident. Imagine his amazement, on arriving at the camp, to discover that his brother had met with an exactly similar experience about a mile distant. In this case also the spectre had screamed, his brother had fired at it with similar results, and it had dissolved into nothingness.

A satisfactory explanation of the phenomena was never arrived at. Whatever may be said regarding the occurrence, it is certain that the two men concerned were quite serious as to their experience, and it is to be remembered that they had nothing but ridicule to gain from their story. Many people in the neighboring towns were firmly convinced as to the authenticity of the tale. They believed the apparition to be the ghost of some person who had been murdered near the spot. — 'Memorabilia,' Adelaide.

Some Native Customs

On reading the article in 'The Chronicle' on 'The Mysterious Rites of Bone Pointing,' I came to the conclusion that we had a more practical race of native in the south and south-east, although the supremacy of mind over body is very much in evidence to this day, even unto the Nielgerie.

Many years ago, the natives had a custom of disposing of their dead by placing the body on a platform made of boughs, wrapped in a blanket, and putting it in a tree. Ti tree grows profusely about the lakes.

My dad had the experience of being under a huge ti tree on a windy day, when something hard hit him on the head. It was a skull, with a perfect set of teeth.

One day, when shooting with an old aboriginal called Jack Morris, my father shot some ducks, which Jack Morris cooked native fashion. He put some green rushes on some hot coals, then the ducks, some more rushes, and another layer of coals on top, making a kind of miniature oven.

Noticing how careful Jack was with the bones (my father's were everywhere), which he collected and burnt, my father asked him why. 'Blackfellow come along and gather the bones, and use them as Nielgerie,' he said. The natives would place the bones, already sharpened, in a dead body, leaving them there for some considerable time.

They would return for them later, when they were required to dispose of some enemy. The hostile nigger would creep to his enemy's wurlie at midnight, and pierce the skin with the bone. This would cause blood poisoning, and the victim, having little knowledge of treatment, eventually died.

In some cases, after a tribal fight, the prisoners were stuck with 'The Celungie,' a wooden waddy. They bruised their victim's body with it, mainly on the joints and the lungs, back and front. Then they let the poor devil go. In most cases the men thus maltreated went into consumption. The cure, it seems, was to get natives to massage all the bruises thus restoring the circulation.— Joan Botten, Meningie.

Real Life Stories Of South Australia. (1933, July 6). Chronicle(Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), p. 16. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90885501

See also

Oceania. (1921, November 5). The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128697275