Brothers (1878/07)

Esperance-Fremantle

The two-masted topsail schooner Brothers was built by David James Storey in his yard at South Beach, and launched on Thursday 20 January 1876.
On the 20th inst. Mr. James Storey made another successful launch of a pretty model schooner of 50 tons burden; she is built of Jarrah, the most durable wood known, for ship building purposes, and effectively resists all attacks of marine insects. Her owners are Messrs H. Higham and Son who have had her built expressly for the pearl shell fishery trade and christened her the Brothers (W. A. Times, 25 January 1876: 3a).

It appears that the Brothers saw little if any service in the pearling industry, as almost immediately after the launching it was involved in the salvage of the brigantine Kitty Coburn off Augusta, which took most of 1876. By mid-1878 it was again heading south from Fremantle, having been chartered by Andrew Dempster to carry him, his wife and six children to Esperance, departing Fremantle on 23 June. Dempster had secured the contract to build the police station at Esperance, and also had on board material to undertake this task. The Brothers arrived in Esperance safely after encountering a storm during which the captain, J. Taquer, became drunk, leaving the navigation to Dempster. The vessel leaked badly and the crew were constantly at the pumps.

THE LOSS
After offloading the Dempster family and 11 other passengers at Esperance, the Brothers sailed out of Esperance on 12 July 1878 bound for Fremantle. It was not seen again, and despite checks being made by mounted constables of schooner sightings at Hamelin Bay in September and Cape Naturaliste in October, the fate of the vessel remains a mystery.