Challenger Family

Netherby page

This picture of the Netherby appears in the first volume of the Skerman family history. As there do not appear to be any pictures of the ship in any books in various reference libraries, nor in the archives of the builder Robert Thompson Jnr in Newcastle UK, nor in the archives of the Black Ball Line in Liverpool UK, and the masthead flag is not that of the Black Ball Line, this may be a picture of another, probably later, ship of the same name. In 2007 in the archives of the Merseyside Maritime Museum I met Michael Stammers, former Keeper of the museum and author of The Passage Makers, who confirmed that no picture of Netherby exists. The State Library of Victoria has two photos of a later Netherby, taken between 1886 and 1906: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/collections/pictures/index.html

Classification survey

This is page one of the classification survey of the Netherby, dated 11 March 1858, shortly after launching on 14 Jan 1858, Sunderland UK. Photocopy kindly provided by Christian of King Island. The ship was built for Edmund Graham, a shipowner of Newcastle. Graham was from the family which owns the country estate Netherby Hall, hence the ship's name. Its first voyage was to Calcutta under Capt. Bradshaw. The builder was Robert Thompson Jnr of Sunderland. Graham sold the ship to James Baines in 1860 to become part of Baines' Black Ball Line. She made three voyages to Australia before the ill-fated one, in 1861, 1862 (both to Melbourne) and 1863, the latter arriving from London in Sydney on 14 Oct 1863. All were under Capt EM Halman. On its return voyage to England in 1864 Netherby was attacked by pirates off the coast of China while briefly aground. On its fourth voyage to Australia, under Capt Owen Owens, Netherby was wrecked on King Island on 14 Jul 1866 with no loss of life. The survey above shows the dimensions and type of materials used in construction. Note the use of iron knees, heavy brackets joining the deck beams to the foothooks (futtocks, lower hull frames).

This is page 2 of the classification survey. Netherby carried 3 main anchors (bowers) and 3 others and had one longboat and 3 smaller boats. The hull had 11 pairs of diagonal iron plates between the upper deck beams and the first futtock heads (near the bottom of the ship) to strengthen it, a feature of Robert Thompson jnr's designs. Classified A1 for 13 years on 16 March 1858.

Voyages

I searched mainly the London Times and the Australian immigration indexes for references to Netherby. The following emerged:

1 Sunderland-Calcutta under Capt Bradshaw, dep abt 18 Mar - arr abt Jun 1858, maiden voyage.

2 Calcutta-London, dep abt Nov 1858 - arr 24 Jan 1859.

3 ? no information.

4 ? no information.

5 London-Calcutta under Capt J Starkey, dep abt 16 May - arr abt Aug 1860, first Black Ball voyage.

6 Calcutta-London, dep abt Nov 1860 - arr 28 Feb 1861.

7 London-Melbourne under Capt Edwin M Halman, dep 15 May - arr Oct 1861.

8 Melbourne-London, dep abt Nov 1861 - arr 24 Mar 1862, carrying 5450 oz gold.

9 London-Melbourne under Capt Halman, dep 10 May - arr 3 Aug 1862.

10 Melbourne-London via Colombo under Capt Halman, dep abt Nov 1862 - dep Colombo 20 Jan 1863 - arr abt May 1863.

11 London-Sydney under Capt Halman, dep 25 Jun - arr 14 Oct 1963.

12 Sydney-London via Fuzhou (then called Foochow-foo), China, dep abt late 1863 - dep Fuzhou 20 Apr - arr abt 19 Oct 1863; ran aground and attacked by pirates while off China.

13 London-Bombay under Capt Halman, dep 24 Dec 1864 - arr abt Mar 1865; originally scheduled for voyage to Melbourne, then Qld, finally Bombay.

14 Calcutta-London, dep abt Oct 1865 - arr 23 Jan 1966.

15 London-Brisbane under Capt Owen Owens, dep 31 Mar - "arr" 14 Jul 1866: shipwrecked on King Island.

Course

The ship's position was determined at noon every day, weather permitting. The Netherby Gazette provides this information for the final voyage. To keep things simple, I plotted only the Sunday noon positions during the voyage:

Wrecksite

About a month after the Netherby was wrecked, there was a picture published in Australian News for Home Readers, "home" meaning England. The artist clearly travelled to the scene, for, although the ship had disappeared by that time, the rocks in the wreck site are correctly placed. The rock centre left in the photo is bottom left in the picture. The channel where the people came ashore is centre right in the photo. Don Charlwood's book The Wreck of the Sailing Ship Netherby describes the events, and reproduces the picture. See: http://www.burgewoodbooks.com.au/

Ship's bell

The ship's bell from the Netherby was brought ashore during the rescue of the passengers and crew. It was used to call them together in their temporary camp on King Island for food distribution and when information and instructions were given. Some time afterwards it came into the possession of the Roadknight family, who lived near Geelong at Point Roadknight where the second officer John Parry came ashore after sailing from the Cape Wickham lighthouse to raise the alarm and initiate the rescue.

Some of the Roadknights moved to Swan Reach in Gippsland and took the bell with them. It was installed in St Columb's Anglican Church, in a wooden belfry. In the late 1930s the belfry collapsed and the bell was given to the Swan Reach Primary School where it hung, and was used, for the next 60 years. The bell has now been restored, minus its clapper, registered with Heritage Victoria and retired.

My thanks to the Principal, Andrew Kenyon, for the information and the school history A School beside the Lower Tambo.

In 2010 the King Island Historical Society obtained the bell on a six year loan. It will therefore be present on King Island for the 150 year anniversary of the wreck in 2016.

Newspaper reports

The Melbourne newspapers The Argus and The Age reported the events of the wreck, rescue and rehabilitation of the passengers in some detail. The Age had a reporter on the rescue ship Victoria who went ashore and interviewed passengers and crew. A summary of events was published on Friday 27 July 1866. Here is a transcription of the article:

Download age fri jul 27 1866.doc

Netherby Gazette

The Netherby had its own weekly newsletter for the information of the passengers. After the shipwreck, two of the passengers, William Townsend and Dunsterville Vincent, produced a booklet containing all the issues, as well as a King Island log, an (unattributed) article from The Age, Captain Owen's official report and several letters to The Age including the passengers' letter of appreciation for Capt. Owens. It is available as a very large download from the State Library of Victoria: http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/catalogues/index.html

Passenger list

I have put together a passenger list based on the unassisted passenger index available from the Public Records Office, http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/default.asp , the list in the Netherby Gazette, Qld Immigration indexes, http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/research/index/immigration.asp and various other sources. It contains some duplications and possibly some crew as there are 447 names instead of 413.

Download netherby passenger list.doc

Netherby crew

What happened to the senior members of the Netherby crew?

Capt Owen Owens, born Llangrannog, Wales in 1821, was on his first voyage in the Netherby. He received considerable praise from the passengers for his performance during the wreck and rescue (see Netherby Gazette). He returned to England on the Black Ball ship Flying Cloud and lost his job with the Black Ball Line on 7 Nov 1866. He was the captain of the Samuel 1867-74 and the Pegasus from 1874-83. He died 24 Jan 1893 and is buried in Morfa Nefyn, Wales. See http://www.rhiw.com/

There are two letters from Capt Owens in the archives of the Black Ball Line. One is unreadable, as if written on blotting paper and the second, above, is an office copy. He indicates that the wreck had been sold for £100 (not £10, the photocopy was clipped!), and the cargo for £175. He is not too happy with the purser's handling of the ship's money, and apologises for the loss of the Netherby. Image courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (Merseyside Maritime Museum)

Owen Owens had a brother Daniel who was also a ship's captain who had sailed on the Queensland run. In 1866 he was captain of the Queen of the Colonies, the ship which brought my Beirne ancestors to Queensland in 1863, arriving in Brisbane on 14 October 1866 shortly after Owen's return to England. Daniel Owens drowned, along with 26 other crew, in 1869 while abandoning the Black Ball sailing ship Calcutta following a collision during a storm in the English Channel. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1149087

The second officer was John Parry, born Liverpool, England about 1843, who walked from the wrecksite to Cape Wickham lighthouse, borrowed a longboat and, with three inexperienced passenger volunteers, (Attwood, Bluett and Springett) sailed across Bass Strait. He landed at Pt Roadknight, near Anglesea. Borrowing a horse, he rode to the telegraph station at Queenscliff and alerted the authorities. He then travelled back to King Island on the rescue ship Victoria and remained, with crew member D. McFadzean, to protect the salvage rights of the ship after all others had left.

He was highly praised for his efforts by Capt Owens and by the committee looking after the passengers in Melbourne who wished to make a donation to him. (Did they?) At some point he was presented with a sextant by the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society for his work in the rescue of the passengers and crew. He married Mary Carpenter in Melbourne on 28 Apr 1871 and had a family of five. He worked as a mail carter. He died in Melbourne on 30 Dec 1885 and was buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. His wife joined him in 1923.

The Surgeon Superintendent, responsible for the health and well-being of the immigrants, Dr Marshall Hall Webster was on his second voyage to Australia. The first, also to Brisbane, was in the Young Australia, arriving 19 Aug 1865. After the Netherby rescue he accompanied those passengers who continued the voyage, arriving in Brisbane on the City of Melbourne on 6 August 1866. Dr Webster remained in Australia and worked as a doctor in northern NSW and in Qld. He married Eliza Jane Stutchberry (who had been a passenger on the last voyage of the Netherby) in 1869 and died in Ipswich on 17 Nov 1890. He is regarded as a medical pioneer, see http://www.medicalpioneers.com/ . His grave is in Ipswich General Cemetery where he was joined by five of his children who died young, his wife and two daughters, one of whom was awarded the MBE for service to the Red Cross and the Cross of Lorraine gold badge by the TB Servicemen's Association of Qld for her work among tubercular ex-servicemen (Courier Mail 31 Jul 1951 p5).

Crew list

According to the Netherby Gazette, p4, "We remained at Plymouth until the 13^th April, when we sailed for our destination, with 413 passengers and 38 sailors as ship’s crew, having on board, all told, 451 souls."

I transcribed a list of crew members who were owed money, from a document in the Black Ball archives and added the names of several others who were mentioned in other documents. This amounted to 29 names. There are 9 names missing.

Download netherby crew.doc

The crew's wives

Many crew members allotted an amount of their monthly pay to their wives or other dependents. The archives contain quite a lot of these allotment documents. Here, the Captain's wife Elizabeth has signed for her monthly allotment of £10 and the British Government has charged one penny tax, just a few days before the shipwreck. Image courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (Merseyside Maritime Museum).