Gothenberg Gold

The Wreck of the Gothenberg

On the twenty-fourth of February 1875, the Steamer Gothenberg was making her way from Port Darwin in the Northern Territory to Adelaide in South Australia. At the time the Northern Territory was administered by South Australia and the most practical way to travel between Adelaide and Darwin was by boat, the alternative being a long overland trip. The Gothenberg had been contracted to carry the mails the two capitals.

The Steamer Gothenberg

On board were eighty-five passengers and thirty-five crew. Only twenty-two would survive.

Among the passengers was the Queen's Bench of South Australia, including Mr. Justice Wearing who were returning from holding sessions at Darwin.

In the captain’s cabin was a strongbox containing 3000 ounces[1] of gold, the property of the English, Scottish, and Australian Chartered Bank.

Details of just how the “Gothenburg” came to grief were recalled years later by 83 years old retired engineer, Mr. T. C. Pengelly, a crewman on one of the rescue boats, the Bunyip.

The vessel called at Townsville after leaving Darwin, but in negotiating the reef off Cape Upstart mistook for the passage an indented portion of the reef known as 'The Horseshoe." The result was that the forward portion of the hull was driven high up on the reef, and as the back of the vessel   broke, the after part fell into the water.[2]

Cape Upstart 1843,  by Edwin Augustus Porcher

A detailed account of the wreck of the Gothenberg was published in 1911.

She was running under both steam and sail before an increasing gale in which she rolled heavily.     Suddenly the rolling ceased and the passengers were just congratulating themselves on the fact, when the Gothenburg ran on to a reef 40 miles north-east of Port Denison, and 28 miles N.N.E. of Cape Upstart. Sails were at once taken in and the passengers all ordered aft.

Attempts to refloat the vessel failed, and a gale of such severity was blowing that further disaster came upon the travellers before the boats could be brought into use. The steamer swung round broadside on to the reef and the heavy seas swept her decks, washing off sheep, dogs, and everything not fast on the deck. The port boats had already been  lost in a vain endeavour to reach the starboard side and the starboard boats were swinging in the davits, containing food and water, ready to receive the women and   children, but the ship heeled over so much   that the boats could not be lowered. [3]

First reports of the disaster appeared in the Brisbane press a week after the disaster. A steamer happened to come across a lifeboat contained four crew members of the Gothenberg.

News of what seems, with present information, to be a serious catastrophe, is brought by the “Leichhardt”, steamer, which arrived from the North last night. A few hours after leaving Bowen harbor the “Leichhardt” picked up a boat containing four men, named Harry Nelson, fore-cabin steward; Salvee Hermonson, A.B.[4];   William Burns, lamp-trimmer; and Joseph Hudson, coal-trimmer, of the steamer “Gothenberg”, from which the boat had been washed away twenty-four hours' previously. [5]

The Leichhardt immediately changed course and steamed to the wreck but found no survivors amid the mangled remains of the Gothenberg.

The Gothenberg under full sail and steam

The Leichhardt, on the men's story being told, at once reversed her course and steamed for the spot where the Gothenberg had been left by the boat. The scene was reached the same afternoon, and the wreck of the Gothenberg discovered sunk nearly to the eyes of the lower rigging. The funnel was gone and the fore-mast toppling. 

A boat's crew was sent to search the rigging, but not a living soul was found, the only signs being parts of a lady's shawl, a comforter, and a straw mattress, hanging to one of the yard-arms. From tho masthead of the Leichhardt an anxious lookout for the other boats was kept, but not a sign of them was in sight.[6]

Over the next days and weeks other survivors were found on nearby islands and atolls but the total loss of life was finally put as ninety-eight souls.

Understandably, the news of the wreck spread quickly though the colony and reached the ears of two enterprising men in Brisbane. They were particularly interested in the mention of gold on the abandoned boat. Putwain owned the only diving apparatus in the colony and Captain Phillips was the master of the Florence Irving then berthed in Brisbane.  

Recognising the potential profits in salvaging the gold, they formed a partnership and set sail for the wreck. Putwain later told his story.

“We were cast adrift from the Florence Irving when near the scene of the wreck at noon the same day, and the steamer proceeded on her voyage to the Northern Ports. The wreck was found lying with her head N.E. and S.W., with a strong list to port, the stern in about ten fathoms of water, and the bows in about five fathoms, with her foremost yards lying awash.

Diver Putwain in the Wreck of the Gothenberg
(Illustrated Sydney News, Thursday 8 April 1875)

I found much difficulty in getting down, in consequence of the strong current and heavy wash on the reef, and finding it was impracticable to go down from the boat I rigged a temporary stage from the maintop of the steamer, which was a few feet out of water.

I then descended for the second time, and took a short survey of the ship. I found her broken abaft[7] the fore chains, and the funnel partially down, but the deck is not started abaft of where she is broken, and the captain's cabin was broken away except the roof and combings.

After a diligent search, I found the box supposed to contain the gold on the lee side of the combings of the captain's cabin, and at once slung it, and placed the box in a convenient position for hoisting to the surface.”[8]

Putwain then came upon a gruesome scene, two women locked in a deathly embrace, their long hair swirling with the current.

 I then endeavoured to descend the cabin stairs, but could only get down a few steps, in consequence of not having sufficient length of tube, but here a melancholy sight presented itself, for at the port side of the vessel, and at the foot of the saloon stairs, I saw the bodies of two women, one apparently having her arm around the other.

I was anxious to get to the spot to obtain, if possible, a portion of their hair (which was flowing loosely around them) or some other relic that might be identified by their friends and serve as a memento of their loss, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful for reasons previously mentioned.

Finding that at this time I could not do further good at the wreck and after making the gold secure in the boat I proceeded to Bowen, and duly reported all the circumstances to the authorities, and deposited the gold in the Australian Joint Stock Bank.[9]

Bowen Queensland ca. 1873, looking towards the sea.

Having left the gold at the bank, Putwain and his partner pursued their claim for their share of the value of the gold under the rights of salvage from an abandoned vessel. Negotiations started before the Admiralty Court in November that year.

The Admiralty Court is engaged in the salvage case of the gold in the "Gothenberg."

The Bank offered Putwin £1000, which he refused, asserting his expenses reached nearly £500 and the value of the salvage was between £9000 and £10,000.[10]

After Putwain rejected the initial offer, a long legal battle ensued which ended with a ruling by the Privy Council in London in 1877. The ruling was reported in The Times.

The Times (London, England), Friday, Jan 12, 1877

This was an appeal from a decree of the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Queensland of the 1st of December, 1875, in a suit for salvage.

The respondents asserted that in this act of salvage they had incurred large expenses, and they claimed £4,000 for the recovery of the gold. The bank tendered them £1,000, which they refused, and the suit was then instituted, the Judge, in the result, awarding the respondents £2,909, being one-third of the value of the box, £302 for expenses, and the costs of the proceedings. From that decree the present appeal was preferred.

Sir Robert Collier, Member of the Privy Council 1870, caricature.

For the appellants it was contended that the amount awarded was excessive and, in the real circumstances of the case, out of all proportion to the services rendered; that the narratives of the salvage and of the risks run were much exaggerated; and that the respondent Phillips was not a salver; and was not entitled to be a party to the suit.

On the other hand, it was urged that but for the services of the respondents the gold would have been lost, that great risk to life and property was incurred, and that the decree was justified by the evidence.

Their LORDSHIPS, after a brief deliberation, intimated their intention to advise Her Majesty to affirm the decision of the Court below and to dismiss the appeal, with costs. [11]

 © K. C. Sbeghen, 2012.

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[1] About 85kg., worth over £9,000 in 1875 and more than 25 million dollars at 2012 prices.

[2] Townsville Daily Bulletin Thursday 9 April 1936

[3] The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 28 March 1911

[4] Able Seaman.

[5] The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 2 March 1875

[6] The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 2 March 1875

[7] To the rear.

[8] The Queenslander Saturday 20 March 1875

[9] The Queenslander Saturday 20 March 1875

[10] The Northern Miner Saturday 20 November 1875

[11] The Times (London, England), Friday, Jan 12, 1877

“Black Steve” Spared from the Gallows

In the northern port town of Townsville in the 1880s, Jacob Stevenson, an Afro-American known locally as “Black Steve” was by all accounts a well regarded character. His popularity would one day save him from the gallows.

Flinders Street Townsville ca. 1889

In June 1885, Stevenson took part in a welcome ceremony for the Queensland Premier Sir S. W. (Sam) Griffith.

At the landing at the wharf in Flinders-street there was a large concourse of people assembled, and on the Premier stepping on to the landing he was greeted with enthusiastic cheers. The school children dressed in white and blue formed an avenue to the gateway, and strewed flowers as the Premier passed through.

Wreaths of evergreens were held over the heads of the Ministers as they passed to the vehicles awaiting them. A beautiful triumphal arch was erected at the gateway with the word "Welcome."[1]

Townsville ca. 1887

Playing the role of a slave, “Black Steve” appeared in chains atop the arch.

Over the arch was the Union Jack, alongside which a blackfellow stood chained. On Mr. Griffith landing, a sailor who stood alongside the boy knocked off his chains, and held up a flag on which was inscribed "Griffith and   Liberty."[2]

Sir Samuel Walker "Sam" Griffith, Premier of Queensland, 1886

Further detail was provided in a reminiscence three years later.

Some three years ago Sir S. W. Griffith received a great ovation on his landing there. The Reception Committee had erected a triumphal arch over the entrance to the wharf, and on the top of it crouched Stevenson naked, all but a sort of Indian mat round his waist, and loaded with chains.

As the Premier landed the band struck up "See the Conquering Hero Come”, a man-o' war's man, cutlass in hand, struck off the "bondsman's" chains, and Stevenson rose to his feet free and unfettered.[3]

Two years later “Black Steve” was back in the news, this time on a much more serious nature. A local white woman had accused him of rape.  As was normal in such cases, the newspaper report did not go into detail about the trial. No mention is made of the evidence presented other that the alleged victim’s statement.

TOWNSVILLE, April 29.

At the Circuit Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Cooper, Jacob Stevenson, an American negro, was found guilty of rape and sentenced to death. The evidence showed that he entered the residence of a washerwoman named Bevis at night, and after he had accomplished the deed the woman followed him and saw him run under a gas lamp, thus being enabled to recognise him again.[4]

The steamer, Birksgate

Black Steve soon found himself on board a steamer making its way south to Brisbane at the gallows at Boggo Road Gaol. He was convinced his fate was sealed.

Fifteen prisoners, including Jacob Stevenson, sentenced to death for rape, have been sent to Brisbane by the steamer “Birksgate”. Since being sentenced Stevenson has not eaten any solid food, and has wasted almost to a skeleton. While being put on board the tender he never ceased praying.[5]

As "Black Steve” languished in a cell awaiting the hangman, he did not realise that his friends in Townsville were taking steps to save his life.  A petition was received by the governor containing thousands of signatures, including those of the jurymen.

Prison van at the entrance to Brisbane Gaol

On behalf of Stevenson, a long and powerfully written petition signed by nearly 2000 persons had been presented to his Excellency the Governor. The alleged character of the woman Bevis was clearly set forth in the petition and it was significant that the eleven living jurymen had signed the petition praying that the Governor would not allow the death sentence to be carried out. 

This petition and all the circumstances of the case having been considered the Governor, on the advice of the Executive Council decided to grant a full pardon to Stevenson.

Stevenson, who was at once released accepted his pardon calmly but was evidently glad to escape the ignominious fate which had appeared imminent.[6]

Boggo Road Gaol gallows

“Black Steve” at first failed believe he was to be freed. This would be understandable given his American background.

Stevenson from the time that he was sentenced regarded his doom as fixed, and when in the Brisbane Gaol he was told that he was pardoned he refused to believe the good tidings. He afterwards said that when his irons were struck off and he was led out of his cell he believed he was being taken out to execution.[7]

Even though he had been spared from the gallows and returned to Townsville, ‘Black Steve” died the following year – of natural causes.

From the Townsville papers we learn that Jacob Stevenson the American negro, who it will be remembered was sentenced to death a few months ago and who afterwards was liberated, has just died. This man was quite a well known character in Townsville.[8]

© K. C. Sbeghen, 2012.

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[1] Warwick Examiner and Times Wednesday 17 June 1885

[2] The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 16 June 1885

[3] The Brisbane Courier Monday 11 June 1888

[4] The Brisbane Courier Saturday 30 April 1887

[5] The Brisbane Courier Friday 13 May 1887

[6] The Brisbane Courier Friday 3 June 1887

[7] The Brisbane Courier Monday 11 June 1888

[8] The Brisbane Courier Monday 11 June 1888

The River Boat Captain

The River Boat Captain, George Holt

In May 1928,   The Brisbane Courier published the obituary of Ipswich resident George Holt.  He was 100 years old and had arrived in Australia 79 years earlier, one of the first free settlers to arrive in the Moreton Bay District. He was to become a pioneer of river transport between Brisbane and Ipswich.

In the early years of the settlement, Ipswich was the transit point for supplies to the western district and the wool sent down to Brisbane. The easiest and most proficient mode of transport was by river boat along the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers.

Studio portrait of George Holt

At his birthday celebration in January, he told his story to a reporter from the Brisbane Courier newspaper.

Yesterday a representative of the   "Courier" journeyed to Blackwall, which is about seven miles by road from Ipswich, to pay a call on the veteran, who is still residing on the farm that he selected exactly 70 years ago. The homestead is perched on a knoll overlooking the Brisbane River - the river upon which, in his young days, when he was "Captain" Holt, he navigated some of the earliest river steamers in this State.[1]

Mr. Holt loves to find a good listener to his stories of the "good old days," as he calls them. 

"I'm one of the original 'Pommies,' " he declared with a smile at his own joke."I was born at Poole, in Dorsetshire, and to this day I can remember the beautiful stretch of river between there and Wareham. As a youth I was apprenticed to my uncle, Mr. Robert Cribb, who was a baker in London."

Robert Cribb in old age

Robert Cribb and others were recruited by the Reverend Doctor John Dunmore Lang, a prominent figure in the colonies and a champion of emigration from Britain and later from Germany. Cribb became a wealthy merchant in Ipswich.

"The late Rev. Dr. Dunmore Lang managed to persuade Mr. Cribb to emigrate to Cooksland, as the worthy doctor termed Moreton Bay, and Mr. Cribb, in turn, induced me to come, also. We sailed for Brisbane in Dr. Lang's first ship, which was named Fortitude, with about 250 other passengers, and we dropped anchor in Moreton Bay on January 20, 1849 - 73 years ago to-morrow.

I remember that at first we were quartered in tents on a site near the Exhibition Buildings. Brisbane was a very small place in those days - mostly bush. There was a running creek where Finney, Isles' building is now. The only means of crossing it was by balancing on a log which had fallen across it."

The immigrants were not expected in Brisbane, an oversight by the entrepreneurial Dr. Lang, hence the tented accommodation in what is now the inner city area known as Fortitude Valley. George soon found employment in Brisbane Town.

The emigrant ship Fortitude

"I first worked for Mr. William Pickering, who had a wine and spirit store on the corner of George and Queen Streets, where the Bank of New South Wales now stands. I got a wage of 8/ a week and found, my job being to bring water in casks from what was known as the 'Red Clay Waterhole,' near the site of the new Brisbane Town Hall. In those days there was a large lagoon there, caused by the drainage from Windmill Hill. 

Then 'Yankee' Wilson gave me a job in bringing down stone from a quarry near Oxley Creek for the erection of St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church, in Elizabeth Street."

George soon began his career piloting river boats between Brisbane Ipswich.  His first vessel was a punt, a long narrow flat-bottomed boat usually powered by a pole-man standing at the stern.  Because of the depth of the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers, George’s punt relied on the tides to travel up and down river, steering using a rear mounted oar.

The experience I gained then gave me a little later the position of 'skipper' of the punt Jenny Lind. The vessel was 50 tons burthen[2], and was named after the famous singer[3].   The vessel carried goods between Brisbane and Ipswich. She had neither steam nor sails. She just floated up the river with the tide, and came down in the same way.

 There was a long steer-oar at the stern, with which I guided her course, and I can tell you that in those days the navigation of the river was a ticklish job.

The ambitious young river pilot soon went into the transport business by himself, finally moving from punts to paddle steamers.

Large paddlesteamer docked at the Ipswich wharves

I managed to scrape up the money to buy a punt, and I then entered into competition with the Jenny Lind, and the small steamers Experiment and Raven. I carried squatters' stores up the river, and brought down bales of wool and tallow from the four boiling down works.

I subsequently sold my punts to Captain Bobby Towns,[4] a widely-known navigator, and in this way I had £400 in cash. By this time I had secured a bay and river navigator's certificate, so I put the whole of my money into the Bremer Steam Navigation Company, which had just been started, and was appointed captain of the Bremer, and subsequently of the Hawke, which was owned by the same company.

Unfortunately in the vicarious financial atmosphere of the rapidly growing settlements, the Company eventually went under.

I made a great many friends while I was engaged in the river trade. Unfortunately, the company was not well managed, and after three years it was wound up - and I lost all the money I had put into it.

Cribb and Foote London Stores, Bell Street, Ipswich, 1850s

 I then decided to go back to the baking trade which I had learnt as a boy. My uncle, Mr. Robert Cribb, purchased a bakery business in Bell-street, and put it in my charge. I worked there for three years, and then took up this piece of land here and went farming.

George spent the remainder of his long life on his farm outside Ipswich. His homestead stood on a hill overlooking the Brisbane River.

© K. C. Sbeghen, 2012.

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[1] The Brisbane Courier Friday 20 January 1928

[2] the carrying capacity of a vessel, stated as a certain number of tons. OED

[3] also known by the sobriquet “The Swedish Nightingale”.

[4] Robert Towns was a sea captain who became a prominent business man. The city of Townsville is named for him.

History Queensland Magazine

My article - "Entertainments & Diversions in 1912" - appears in the latest (September 2012) issue of History Queensland Magazine.

History Queensland Magazine is on sale at all good newsagents and is also available online at http://historyqld.com.au/.