A local tourist information sign gives an intriguingly false
story of the past
In
the far south of Tasmania verbal history of the State’s third
worst shipwreck, fostered by opposition to the convict
system,
challenges official versions 166 years on. The
verbal story
shows links to known facts, and some possibility exists that the
official version is less than the whole truth. As the story
unravels, this is a fascinating example of how history transforms into
legend.
A Southport
local, descended from
a convict forefather when asked about it, defended the truth of a
tourist sign which
describes a massacre of convicts during the wreck of the George 111,
saying "politicians were corrupt then and they are still corrupt today".
However it is
also highly
unlikely that during a shipwreck soldiers could have fired on convicts
in the sea, let alone even load their weapons.
I originally
exposed inaccuracies
in the tourist information in an article in the region's Huon News
10/9/1998. Recently revisiting the area it became apparent to
me
that rather than being merely wrong, the local version was a verbal
history artefact.
The sign on
the changing rooms at the beach describes local attractions and states:
"George 111
reef lies south of
Southport Island and was named after the convict ship George 111 which
was wrecked there whilst on her way to Port Arthur. The
convicts
were released into the sea but were shot by the ship's officers.
"A ten year
old cabin boy was
saved by the captain's wife who hid him under her dress. He
was
the only convict who survived the wreck."
part of the report in the
Hobart Courier, April 17 1835
By contrast
The Hobart Courier of
April 24, 1835 reports the results of the Board of Inquiry appointed by
Governor Arthur to inquire into the wreck. The report states
that
81 convicts survived, and lists their names.
"It was
naturally to be expected
that on the striking of the ship, the prisoners would endeavour to
extricate themselves from a situation which must have appeared to them
one of imminent peril, and it appears they broke down a barricade of
the prison with a view to get on deck.
"It was at
this period that the
sentries over the main hatchway, in obedience to the positive orders
they then received, to keep the men below … fired - and
painful
as it is for us to report upon a subject of such a distressing nature,
that, at such a crisis, man should feel himself compelled, through a
sense of duty, to add to the desolation of the scene and fire upon his
fellow creatures, yet it is gratifying to observe, from the concurring
opinions of all the officers, according to the then existing state of
circumstances, it was absolutely necessary that the prisoners should be
kept down, for had they at that time got on deck, the long boat upon
which alone the survivors could look with any hope of rescue, would
have been rendered useless, and thus to all human appearances a much
greater loss of life would have ensued."
The report
concluded:
"The conduct
of all was most praiseworthy and entirely free from blame of any
description."
The Hobart
Courier reported
evidence from convicts including James Elliott: "I was in the
hatchway several minutes before I could get up. The soldiers
kept
me down and threatened to fire; I heard two shots fired: the
first shot killed Robert Luker, and about three or four minutes after
another shot was fired and I saw another man fall."
Following
newspaper reports that
four bodies had been washed ashore near the wreck with gunshot wounds
and sabre cuts, the Coroner had 17 bodies disinterred. It was
concluded that the wounds were caused by the rocks. These
rumours, still being passed on, are most likely the basis for the
verbal history on the Southport sign.
Most likely
the story of convicts
being shot while attempting to escape a sinking ship continued to be
retold amongst them. The gentleman I met said his
forefather
was one of the last convicts sent to the Colony, and arrived in the
1850's, which is nearly two decades after the wreck.
The second
part of the legend
relates to: "A ten year old cabin boy was saved by the captain's wife
who hid him under her dress. He was the only convict who
survived
the wreck." Forty Juveniles were among the 220 convicts,
but the Captain's wife was not on board the ship.
More than
likely this part of the
legend relates to a painting by H. E. Dawes, which was also
produced as a lithograph, depicting a soldier's wife, Mrs Martin,
heroically described: "She contrived
to secure herself
on the forechannel of the ship among the Laniards and although the sea
ran mountains high with frost and rain the poor creature was exposed
for 48 hours to the weather with two babes suckling at her bosoms and
her elder child held between her knees.." (Mitchell Library,
State Library of NSW)
In fact Mrs
Martin endured only 8
hours on the wreck until the ship’s long boat returned at 6am
for
its second load. Embellishment of the story occurred almost
immediately. The powerful image of the woman protecting
children
has merged with the rumours of a massacre in the legend that survived.
A lithograph was produced for sale to the public with
typical
Victorian era melodrama, and convicts also built their own legend.
After my first
visit to the area
I wrote a story about the wreck, and contacted G.A. Mawer, author of
“Most Perfectly Safe” as part of my
research. Mawer
had not heard the local story but commented:
“It
is hard to see how (they) could have got it so wrong. * The
convicts were not released but freed themselves * Some
were shot, but before release, and by the military, not
ship’s officers * I
have never seen reference to a cabin boy, but Major Ryan had his 6 year
old son with him. * Mrs.
Martin was not the Captain’s wife, who if he had one, was not
aboard. * How
could the cabin boy be a convict? * There
were 81 convict survivors."
Mawer
concluded: "I suspect it
is a classic example of the distortions of oral history.”
Southport,
Tasmania
Having
recently visited the area
again I sought out a local opinion, finding the local identity who
averred to the truth of the tourist sign, and also sought out local
historians. Subsequently I wrote another story for the Huon
News
on the significance of the oral history.
Bruce Poulson
is researching the history of the area between Southport and Recherche
Bay. He comments:
"I
have read a dozen or so
accounts of the wreck and aftermath and the topic has come up a couple
of times in interviews with old-timers (although there are only six
over-90 left from the original families).
"The older
sign at Southport
Beach was erected either by the old Esperance Council or the State
Government during a minor historical revival about the time of the
commemoration of D'Entrecasteaux's visits.
"The new
plaque was put there
last year as part of "The Huon Trail" tourism initiative, a joint
project between the Huon Kingborough Tourism Association and the two
Councils (Huon and Kingborough). The sign near the George 111 monument
itself at Southport Bluff belongs to the TPWS (Tas. Parks and Wildlife
Service). It is the best of the three and gives a balanced report on
the disaster mostly from original sources.
"There have
always existed two
views ... right from day one, so to speak: (1) those who believed that
unnecessary killings had occurred and (2) those who accepted the
Coroner's findings, even though the inquest, when it adjourned to
Southport, was probably held too late to tell whether the disinterred
bodies contained gunshot etc. One old timer, still alive, insists that
the grave-diggers told his father of foul play. This view has been the
majority one in this largely ex-convict district for generations."
Looking over
the facts and
various opinions, despite the
fact that it would be
easy to reject the legend as erroneous, which was my first
reaction, there is possibly a
level of insincerity in the official version at least at the level of
minimising events to give the best possible appearance.
During the time it took to release the convicts the lower
decks
flooded leading to loss of life; other convicts succumbed no doubt due
to the poor diet and inadequate clothing.
This much at
least is true, that
the possibility of a "massacre" tags onto rumours of the time, and the
"cabin boy" connects with the lithograph of Dawes' painting.
Two major well
researched sources
on the wreck are "The Convict Ships" by Charles Bateson (1959), and
"Most Perfectly Safe" by G. A. Mawer (1997).
Bateson gives
as full a description of the events of the wreck as possible, Mawer
adds valuable circumstances both before during and after the voyage,
which give a context into events.
