Eliza (1839/06/11)

Lost South of Casuarina Point between Port Leschenault and Fremantle

The Eliza was built by William Hugh Edwards at his yard at the bottom of Spring Street in Perth for William Heard, owner of the Watermen’s Arms Hotel. It had a reputation for being fast, taking only 15 hours to sail from Fremantle to Bunbury and 16 hours for the return journey (Gazette, 2 March 1839: 1a). The cutter left Port Leschenault on 11 June 1839 bound for Fremantle.
THE LOSS
When, after 18 days, no word had been received of the Eliza it was presumed to have been wrecked and the crew drowned.
Serious apprehensions are entertained that the Eliza, a large boat, which left Port Leschenault about 18 days ago, is lost. The passage has been frequently made between that port and Fremantle in a day and a half; we fear therefore, that the presumption she has been wrecked is but too well grounded. Happily only two men, a boatman named Prince, and a man known by the name of Black Harry—and the cargo consisted of a few kegs of butter (Gazette, 29 June 1839: 2a).
The Eliza was wrecked on the Giant’s Causeway, just south of Casuarina Point. The two crewmen took to the vessel’s dinghy and made their way, according to one newspaper report, to the Vasse:
The two men in her were perfectly incompetent to the task of managing her but fortunately they escaped and although within a mile of the Elizabeth foolishly went to the Vasse. I have every reason to believe they thought themselves to the northward of Fremantle (Gazette, 25 June 1839, quoted in Henderson, 2007: 217).
According to another newspaper report published a week later, the men went to Bunbury:
The two men who were supposed to be lost in the cutter Eliza between Fremantle and Port Leschenault, have found their way to the latter port, being obliged to abandon the boat, a total wreck (Gazette, 6 July 1839: 3a).
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
SOCIAL (3)
It appears that the men in charge of the Eliza had little experience, so they were probably not the men who had made the fast passages mentioned above. The lack of reliable information on this wrecking reflects the difficulty of communication between isolated settlements and the Swan River in those early years.
REFERENCES
Dickson, R., 1998, They Kept this State Afloat: Shipbuilders, Boatbuilders and Shipwrights of Western Australia 1829–1929. Hesperian Press, Victoria Park.
Henderson, G., 2007, Unfinished Voyages: Western Australian Shipwrecks 1622–1850. University of Western Australia Press, Crawley.
The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 2 March 1839: 1a, 29 June 1839: 2a & 6 July 1839: 3a.