Flying Foam (1872/03/10)

Abrolhos Area

Flying Foam (1861–1872)
Official number: 36544
Where built: Fremantle
Year built: 1861
Registered: Fremantle
Rig type: 2-masted schooner
Hull: Wood
Length: 60 ft (18.3 m)
Breadth: 15.75 ft (4.8 m)
Depth 6.9 ft (2.1 m)
Tonnage: 33.32 gross
Port from: Champion Bay
Port to: Fremantle
Date lost: Presumed 10 March 1872
Location: Area south of Abrolhos Islands
Chart number: Aus 81
Protection: The site when found will be protected under the general provisions of the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Significance criteria: 1
THE VESSEL
The Flying Foam was a two-masted schooner with one deck and square stern built at South Beach, Fremantle, by William Jackson. The joint owners were John and Walter Bateman, merchants of Fremantle. The Batemans employed Jackson as a shipwright after he came to Western Australia. He had previously worked as a shipwright for the Royal Navy. At the launching the design of Flying Foam was praised, together with the high standard of cabin accommodation.
THE LOSS
Flying Foam under Captain Charles Reeves with crew and three passengers left Champion Bay on 7 March 1872, and was seen by the schooner May (Captain Vincent) about 11 km west of Geraldton and heading for Fremantle. There is some confusion regarding the passengers who lost their lives in this tragedy. The Inquirer and Commercial News gives them as being Mr Arthur Patten, his wife and child. Further research however seems to indicate that the family involved was that of Walter Hicks Patten. He had previously been in the Police Force stationed at Greenough. The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians 1829–1888 states that Walter Patten, his wife and child, were lost at sea in March 1872. A severe storm with winds from the north-west (referred to as a cyclone in the shipping register) struck on 10 March. The Flying Foam was not seen again. Prior to this voyage, it had damaged its stern when it hit the Fremantle jetty, and the damage had only been patched over with canvas. It seems likely that this inadequate repair was a major factor contributing to the loss of the vessel.
INQUIRY
Geraldton residents chartered the brigantine Clarence Packet to search the Abrolhos Islands for the missing Flying Foam. Authorities in Dongara obtained the use of the cutter Arabian to also search the Abrolhos Islands and the mainland. Two whale-boats from Fremantle were sent to search the coast northwards from that port, one under the command of Captain Charles Gabriel Hanham and the other skippered by John Tapper. No trace was found of the vessel and no bodies were recovered.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
HISTORIC (1)
Flying Foam was one of the best known vessels working along the coast north of Fremantle during the 1860s and early 1870s.
In 1861 Bateman sent his new vessel to Nickol Bay to try pearling. However it returned with the disappointing news that the pearl shell beds were too scattered to be economically viable. Flying Foam Passage leading from Mermaid Sound to Nickol Bay was named after the vessel. In 1868 Flying Foam Passage was the scene of a massacre of an estimated 60 Aborigines by a punitive party sent out to avenge the deaths of Police Constable Griffis, his Aboriginal assistant Peter and a seaman, George Breem.
In January 1864 the Flying Foam was chartered by Maitland Brown to take 165 sheep and 2 horses with stores from Champion Bay to Shark Bay, in one of the early attempts to establish the pastoral industry in that area.
REFERENCES
Dickson, R., 1996, Ships registered in Western Australia from 1856 to 1969: their details, their owners and their fate. Report—Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, No. 80.
Dickson, R., 1998, They kept this State afloat—shipbuilders, boat builders, and shipwrights of Western Australia 1829–1929. Hesperian Press, Victoria Park.
Erickson, R., (ed.), 1988, The Bicentennial Dictionary of Western Australians, pre 1829–1888, Volume III K–Q. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands.
Henderson, G. and K., 1988, Unfinished voyages: Western Australian shipwrecks 1851–1880. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands.
McKenna, R., 1959, Vessels registered with the British Register of Ships at the Port of Fremantle, WA. Book one. Unpublished manuscript.
The Inquirer and Commercial News, 3 April 1872.
Totty, D., 1979, Wrecks of WA’s central mainland coast (Jurien Bay to Port Gregory). Unpublished manuscript.