As mentioned earlier,\u00a0 the South Australian Company required all its employees to fulfil three-year contracts and these were strictly enforced.\u00a0 Accordingly,\u00a0 after arriving on the Africaine<\/i> and working on shore for a time, \u00a0Ben was apparently transferred to the Tam O\u2019Shanter<\/i>\u00a0 as ship\u2019s carpenter,\u00a0 and Martha joined him on board as companion to the Captain\u2019s wife and governess to her children.\u00a0 The ship had undergone repair by the shipwright,\u00a0 Daniel Simpson,\u00a0 for the damage sustained on her entry to harbour when under Command of Captain W. Freeman.\u00a0 When she was almost ready to sail,\u00a0 the following announcement was inserted in The South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register <\/i>on July 7 1837:<\/p>\n
The Barque TamO\u2019Shanter,\u00a0 P. Mitchell,\u00a0 Commander,\u00a0 having undergone a thorough repair will leave Port Adelaide for the above place (Sydney) on Monday,\u00a0 17th<\/sup> instant and call at Holdfast Bay to embark passengers on the eighteenth.\u00a0 Most of her cabins being already engaged an early application for passage is necessary,\u00a0 to Captain Mitchell on board or to the Agents.<\/em><\/p>\n Oakden and Company<\/em><\/p>\n The same newspaper reported the departure of the ship for Sydney on 16 August 1837.\u00a0 She was,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 destined not to arrive at Sydney,\u00a0 and on Thursday,\u00a0 28 September,\u00a0 The Cornwall Chronicle <\/i>of Van Dieman\u2019s Land carried this report:<\/p>\n The Barque TamO\u2019Shanter,\u00a0 from South Australia to Sydney,\u00a0 being at sea twenty-four hours,\u00a0 made so much water that the Captain determined to run to Launceston for repairs.\u00a0 On Sunday the wind being in the N.E. she stood off to Eastward to be ready to run in at daylight,\u00a0 when the wind suddenly changed round to W.S.W:\u00a0 she endeavoured to work in but the vessel being waterlogged,\u00a0 the men exhausted from unceasingly working the pumps,\u00a0 there was no recourse but to run her on shore to save their lives:\u00a0 but thinking it possible by anchoring the vessel might still be kept and enable them to keep her afloat until assistance might arrive,\u00a0 they ran on shore and let go both anchors:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The crew and passengers were safely landed and the baggage and most of the stores were on shore when our informant left George Town.<\/em><\/p>\n Martha stated that she and the other women spent the night in a small hut,\u00a0 and the next day all tramped the twenty odd miles to the nearest town.\u00a0 On the way they sighted a group of aborigines but no one was molested.\u00a0 Thus did they arrive at George Town \u2013 a town which was the first settled part of northern Tasmania and which was later to lose its importance to Launceston.<\/p>\n At this point there is a large gap in the record of activities of Ben and Martha:\u00a0 but obviously they returned to Adelaide because William Benjamin Smith was born at Adelaide on 29 April 1839,\u00a0 and when he was baptised on 9 June 1839 at Holy Trinity Church,\u00a0 North Terrace,\u00a0 the family was recorded as living in Waymouth Street.\u00a0 It is certain that during the interim Ben served the Company both on its ships and shore stations,\u00a0 and that here the family stories of his whaling days had their origin.\u00a0 In late 1839,\u00a0 after expiry of his contract,\u00a0 Benjamin and Martha,\u00a0 with the baby,\u00a0 William Benjamin,\u00a0 returned to England.\u00a0 They could see no prospect of obtaining land in South Australia and of making a success,\u00a0 for the Colony was not fulfilling the promise which the Colonisation Commissioners had given the immigrants.\u00a0 Three years later,\u00a0 a correspondent to The Adelaide Examiner <\/i>was to write:<\/p>\n Land of Promise<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n We arrived here and found Australia in reality a land of promise.\u00a0 We had to live and did live on promises:\u00a0 inasmuch as bills and promissory notes were the circulating medium of the place.\u00a0 The and produces nothing but grass;\u00a0 but promised everything if it were only tilled.\u00a0 There were ships bringing cargoes of sovereigns and emigrant capitalists by every breeze.\u00a0 Many things were promised \u2013 many remain yet to be performed. \u00a0Times became bad.\u00a0 Still we have promises to eat,\u00a0 promises to drink and promises withal to clothe ourselves.\u00a0 The land promises fruitfulness:\u00a0 the debtor promises to pay when he can:\u00a0 the banks promises forbearance:\u00a0 the Governor promises to do all he can as soon as he received instructions from England.\u00a0 The wine cutting association promises us some grape leaves next season:\u00a0 the sheep\u2019s backs promise us exports of wool amounting to nearly half the imports for brandy and rum.<\/em><\/p>\n It was not only the settlement itself which was not making progress.\u00a0 The South Australia Company had also run into difficulties,\u00a0 mainly because of the high cost of stores and provisions for its ships and shore stations,\u00a0 the low prices being obtained for black whale oil in England,\u00a0 and the costs in shipping the oil to London.\u00a0 Men deserted,\u00a0 which resulted in low manning of boats and poor oil tonnage.\u00a0 By 1839 the Company had combined with the opposition,\u00a0 Hack and Company,\u00a0 of Encounter Bay:\u00a0 however,\u00a0 it was not long before the Directors recommended the cessation of whaling operations and sold off their supplies to Hack,\u00a0 Watson and Company.\u00a0 To increase the Company\u2019s loss,\u00a0 the Katherine Stewart Forbes,\u00a0 <\/i>which had been chartered in July 1839 to take whale oil to England in October,\u00a0 did not commence loading until January \u2013 with a consequent loss of oil through storage and leakage and a loss of profit to the Company.\u00a0 After only three seasons the Company ceased whaling and their employees had to decide whether to remain in the Colony or return to England.\u00a0 Poor administration had ruined what could have been a profitable venture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As mentioned earlier,\u00a0 the South Australian Company required all its employees to fulfil three-year contracts and these were strictly enforced.\u00a0 Accordingly,\u00a0 after arriving on the Africaine and working on shore for a time, \u00a0Ben was apparently transferred to the Tam O\u2019Shanter\u00a0 as ship\u2019s carpenter,\u00a0 and Martha joined him on board as companion to the Captain\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}