As mentioned earlier, the South Australian Company required all its employees to fulfil three-year contracts and these were strictly enforced. Accordingly, after arriving on the Africaine and working on shore for a time, Ben was apparently transferred to the Tam O’Shanter as ship’s carpenter, and Martha joined him on board as companion to the Captain’s wife and governess to her children. The ship had undergone repair by the shipwright, Daniel Simpson, for the damage sustained on her entry to harbour when under Command of Captain W. Freeman. When she was almost ready to sail, the following announcement was inserted in The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register on July 7 1837:
The Barque TamO’Shanter, P. Mitchell, Commander, having undergone a thorough repair will leave Port Adelaide for the above place (Sydney) on Monday, 17th instant and call at Holdfast Bay to embark passengers on the eighteenth. Most of her cabins being already engaged an early application for passage is necessary, to Captain Mitchell on board or to the Agents.
Oakden and Company
The same newspaper reported the departure of the ship for Sydney on 16 August 1837. She was, however, destined not to arrive at Sydney, and on Thursday, 28 September, The Cornwall Chronicle of Van Dieman’s Land carried this report:
The Barque TamO’Shanter, from South Australia to Sydney, being at sea twenty-four hours, made so much water that the Captain determined to run to Launceston for repairs. On Sunday the wind being in the N.E. she stood off to Eastward to be ready to run in at daylight, when the wind suddenly changed round to W.S.W: she endeavoured to work in but the vessel being waterlogged, the men exhausted from unceasingly working the pumps, there was no recourse but to run her on shore to save their lives: but thinking it possible by anchoring the vessel might still be kept and enable them to keep her afloat until assistance might arrive, they ran on shore and let go both anchors: but the vessel driving they were obliged to slip and beach her which they did in a sandy bay to the Eastward of Stony Head where she now lies without the possibility of being got off. The crew and passengers were safely landed and the baggage and most of the stores were on shore when our informant left George Town.
Martha stated that she and the other women spent the night in a small hut, and the next day all tramped the twenty odd miles to the nearest town. On the way they sighted a group of aborigines but no one was molested. Thus did they arrive at George Town – a town which was the first settled part of northern Tasmania and which was later to lose its importance to Launceston.
At this point there is a large gap in the record of activities of Ben and Martha: but obviously they returned to Adelaide because William Benjamin Smith was born at Adelaide on 29 April 1839, and when he was baptised on 9 June 1839 at Holy Trinity Church, North Terrace, the family was recorded as living in Waymouth Street. It is certain that during the interim Ben served the Company both on its ships and shore stations, and that here the family stories of his whaling days had their origin. In late 1839, after expiry of his contract, Benjamin and Martha, with the baby, William Benjamin, returned to England. They could see no prospect of obtaining land in South Australia and of making a success, for the Colony was not fulfilling the promise which the Colonisation Commissioners had given the immigrants. Three years later, a correspondent to The Adelaide Examiner was to write:
Land of Promise
We arrived here and found Australia in reality a land of promise. We had to live and did live on promises: inasmuch as bills and promissory notes were the circulating medium of the place. The and produces nothing but grass; but promised everything if it were only tilled. There were ships bringing cargoes of sovereigns and emigrant capitalists by every breeze. Many things were promised – many remain yet to be performed. Times became bad. Still we have promises to eat, promises to drink and promises withal to clothe ourselves. The land promises fruitfulness: the debtor promises to pay when he can: the banks promises forbearance: the Governor promises to do all he can as soon as he received instructions from England. The wine cutting association promises us some grape leaves next season: the sheep’s backs promise us exports of wool amounting to nearly half the imports for brandy and rum.
It was not only the settlement itself which was not making progress. The South Australia Company had also run into difficulties, mainly because of the high cost of stores and provisions for its ships and shore stations, the low prices being obtained for black whale oil in England, and the costs in shipping the oil to London. Men deserted, which resulted in low manning of boats and poor oil tonnage. By 1839 the Company had combined with the opposition, Hack and Company, of Encounter Bay: however, it was not long before the Directors recommended the cessation of whaling operations and sold off their supplies to Hack, Watson and Company. To increase the Company’s loss, the Katherine Stewart Forbes, which had been chartered in July 1839 to take whale oil to England in October, did not commence loading until January – with a consequent loss of oil through storage and leakage and a loss of profit to the Company. After only three seasons the Company ceased whaling and their employees had to decide whether to remain in the Colony or return to England. Poor administration had ruined what could have been a profitable venture.