The year 1836 was an eventful one for the future of South Australia, and His Majesty’s Government in Britain hoped to build a perfect State in an area where there seemed to be unlimited possibilities for land development, for expansion, and for the disposal of surplus population. England was still suffering from the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, from massive unemployment due both to the cessation of production of war materials and to the rapid progress of industrialisation. There was little demand for farm produce, and the rural population, too, felt the results of economic depression – possibly to a greater degree than those in the cities.
The solution, in part, to the problem of overpopulation was deemed to lie in the unclaimed wastelands of South Australia, where the Government hoped a society could be built of settlers who ultimately would be free to follow their own pursuits. Religion would be a personal preference and not be controlled by the Established Church from London; for the voices of those who dissented from established Church of England were becoming troublesome. The Dissenters suffered many disabilities, and Eric Routley in his book English Religious Dissent sets out the problems thus:
Up to the year 1753 marriages in Dissenting meeting-houses were often held to be invalid: from 1753 to 1836 the law made it clear that they were always invalid. In 1747 a Dissenter who was married in the meeting-house at Fairford, Gloucestershire, was arrested for fornication. Baptisms in such meeting-houses were often declared invalid, although here, since no legal contract was involved, the judgement was a theological one and had no substance in law. Up to 1900, burial in parish churchyards was denied to Dissenters. The Universities were closed to them; and the first university to be open to them, that of London, was founded largely in order that they might circumvent the traditions which in respect of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham persisted until 1871.
South Australia, therefore, became very attractive to many English Non-conformists as well as to some German Protestants, who also suffered persecution in Europe.
The colony was not to become another New South Wales or Van Dieman’s Land – as Tasmania was then called. Each settler was to be able to hold up his head with pride. There certainly was to be no convict settlement; and indeed the word “convict” as far as South Australia was concerned was almost considered not to exist. Truly, the new land was to be a Paradise, with for its centre a well-planned city which would be given the lovely name, Adelaide, for the consort of King, William IV. The South Australian Colonisation Commission was appointed by the British Government to turn dreams into reality, to arrange the land surveys and to set up all the panoply of Government with Governor, staff, the usual array of officials and of course the Judiciary.
The South Australian Company was formed by G. G. Angas, a former Colonisation Committee member, to take care of the commercial development of the new Colony, and this Company soon owned a fleet of ships. There were passenger vessels, whalers to cull the wealth of the seas, coastal traders to ply to the other Australian mainland ports and to Van Dieman’s Land. It was not long before shore stations were set up and business began in earnest; but first there were trees to be felled, timber sawn, and store and residences erected for employees.
The South Australian Church Society looked after religion to the extend that it was able to do so. It arranged for the appointment of a Colonial Chaplain, for staff and for a prefabricated church – in the outcome, this church was not erected – to be shipped out to the new Colony on the William Hutt. The William Hutt had been named after Sir William Hutt, Member of Parliament for Woolwich, a member of the South Australian Company and later of the New Zealand Company. This ship, under charter to the Colonisation Commissioners, was owned by Henry French and commanded by Alexander Fleming. Henry French was probably a member of the family of that name who were members of the Dissenting Congregation of Woolwich. He travelled on board and according to Smith family tradition with his wife and her companion, Miss Martha Neavy of Woolwich. The family tradition appears to be confirmed in an article by L.J. Ewens entitled “The South Australian Colonising Ships of 1836” and published by the Pioneer Association of South Australia, which states: “Although it was expected that the William Hutt would carry emigrants, only one was reported”.
Each of the three above-mentioned organisations was very active. The Colonisation Commissioners promptly dispatched the Rapid with the newly appointed Surveyor-General, Colonel William Light, and his party. The Cygnet followed with more surveyors and officials, then HMS Buffalo with Governor Hindmarsh and his staff. The inland site for the city was finally selected and the surveys commenced. Surveying of outlying districts continued for some years and one of the explorers and surveyors was to become prominent in New Zealand a decade later as Governor of the Colony. He was George Grey.
The South Australian Company was equally active. In 1836, the Duke of York, a whaler, was dispatched southward with Company officers, servants and stores. She was followed by a second whaler, Lady Mary Pelham, with 34 employees, and then followed the John Price with 28 employees. On 28 June 1836 The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, at that time printed in London, carried an article to the effect that lying in St Katherine’s Docks were the barque, TamO’Shanter , and the whaler, Africaine, each preparing to sail – the former to Van Dieman’s Land and the latter to South Australia. This newspaper also carried the usual advertisement, which began:
For Hobart Town and Sydney, this fine British built ship TamO’Santer, A1, 500 tons burthen, Whiteman Freeman, Commander, lying in St Katherine’s Docks, has poop with elegant accommodation for passengers, and is well armed. For freight and passage apply to Goodwin and Lee , 117 Bishopsgate Street, Whithin. The ship is intended as a Colonial Trader and will open on her port of destination to make arrangements – with parties interested – to load oil and wood at Portlands Bay, Van Dieman’s Land and elsewhere as required.
The TamO’Santer carried 171 passengers in all – including thirty convicts to Launceston, their escorts, the Immigration Agent, and a few emigrants. After her arrival in Tasmania the ship was chartered by John White (now known as the Father of South Australia) and she conveyed animals and stores to Adelaide and suffered some damage, more significant than first realised, when she stranded on the Port River bar. She was aground for three days and at one time there was nine feet of water in the hold, and according to John White’s biographer, Geoffrey Dutton, much of the cargo was either lost or ruined. Although repaired, the damage was to cause her loss some months later on the coast of Tasmania.
While the TamO’Shanter had a mishap at the end of her voyage, the voyage of the Africaine was largely uneventful. The Colonial Secretary, Robert Gouger, travelling on board with his staff, complained of the idleness of the steerage passengers and the drunkenness caused by the availability of rum. The women were “drinking heavily and were quarrelsome”. He also complained that the crew had received no assistance from the passengers.
The Africaine, a whaler of 316 tons, left London on 28 June 1836 within two months of the Colonel Light’s Rapid and was the first ship to go out under independent charter. Commanded by Captain John Duff, she made her landfall at Kangaroo Island and six young male passengers asked to be put ashore at the Western end of the Island as they wished to walk overland to Nepean Bay and explore the country. Disaster struck this small party as they were ill-equipped for such a journey, and two of the party, Dr Slater and Mr Osborne, apparently died of thirst, two became lost but were later found by search parties, and the others were in a distressed condition on arrival at Kingscote. The subsequent inquiry was later fully reported in The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register in July 1837; however the circumstances concerning the loss of two men were not satisfactorily explained. The ship proceeded to Rapid Bay on the mainland coast and thence to Holdfast Bay, now Glenelg, where the passengers were landed on the beach.
Among the Company employees on board the Africaine was a 23-year-old carpenter named Ben Smith. He was engaged as a sawyer and this was his first voyage. He was a bachelor from the small Berkshire village of Longcot,
Longcot is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse District. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is about 5 km south of Faringdon and about 4 km north east of Shrivenham. The A420 road between Swindon and Oxford passes through the parish 1.6 km north west of the village.
The Bricklayers Arms, Longcot, Berkshire in the 1930s.
situated between Faringdon and Shrivenham, but now a part of Shrivenham. He was the youngest son of William and Temperance Smith, nee Franklin, and their tenth child. Temperance Smith was a descendant of Francis Frankling who was buried in the Chapel at Longcot in 1679, and of Mary, his wife. William Smith’s known ancestry is not so impressive, although family tradition manages to provide quite a romantic story.
There had been little work offering for carpenters in his native Vale of the White Horse, and so for Ben Smith adventure in the South Seas was an exciting prospect. The Company was offering three-year contracts with a passage home, if requested, at the expiry of these contracts. What more could a young man want?
The Africaine carrying Robert Gouger, his staff and the servants and stores of the South Australian Company, had arrived at her destination on 2 November 1836, and Benjamin Smith had trodden the decks of his first whaler – though at that stage she had not commenced the work of whaling. He had also assisted with the search of Kangaroo Island for the missing passengers, an island with which he was to become familiar while an employee of the company. At that time, the station consisted of a large tent containing stores and provisions situated near the shore, and beyond the immediate vicinity was a wilderness thickly overgrown with trees and bushes. Mrs Thomas, one of the passengers, later wrote a most graphic account of the character of the island. She was not at all impressed with its prospects for the future.