ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JOURNAL s..;

Volume XIV, No.3 August 1990

THE ADVENTURES' OF JOSEPH BRADLEY

by Mervyn D. Cobcroft

Read at a meeting of the Society on 22 February 1989

Around 1860, a general printer in Parramatta, J.J. Beukers, published a slim, octavo volume for Joseph Bradley. The original is one of the great rarities of colonial publishing for only one copy is known to exist. This is now housed in the John Oxley Library, Brisbane. A curious production, its rarity probably stems from its being an interim or proof copy of a project abandoned before completion.' Job Joseph (or Joseph as he preferred) was the son of convict First- Fleeter James Bradley, hence Joseph's assertion to being "a native of Australia". Born circa 1809, he went to sea as a boy to learn the maritime arts. By about 1825, he was engaged in the colonial Sperm Whale Fishery out of . In the early 1830s, he was in succession second and first mate of the barque Lynx. He progressed to the command of several other whaling vessels. Twenty years on, he was saiUng master of the schooner Ariel, the tender to the iU-fated Wanderer.^ The Lynx and Ariel episodes were seen by Bradley as such high points of his career that he laboriously wrote them down and had them printed by Beukers.^ Although Bradley assures us his writings are "an abstract from my old logs, with some little additions from memory but aU facts".

Dr Cobcroft is a specialist anaesthetist in private practice in Ipswich. His spare-time interest is the maritime activities of Colonial Austrlia, particularly whaling, sealing and pearling, on which he has written extensively. 82 a superficial comparison with the historic record produces much disquiet. However, when one realises that Bradley is a year too early wUh his published dates, the whole fits neatly into place. As well, Bradley unwittingly introduces a few mysteries for us to solve.

THE FIRST ADVENTURE

On 13 June 1831 (Bradley wrote 1830) as the Lynx's second mate, he had charge of a six-man whale boat which latched onto a young bull sperm whale "360 miles eastward of cape Morton [sic]". Unfortunately, night fell during the tussle and they became hopelessly lost. With little water, no food, no compass, and no charts, Bradley with superb seamanship and survival skills guided the boat and her despondent crew westwards: "if God spare us, with His help we cannot miss the big Island", he wrote. Once onshore, he planned to "keep coasting it to the south till we could get to some place that was inhabited by whites". On the 21st "we saw the land right ahead, it was a beautiful sight". Where did Bradley come ashore? He claims "I discovered by the coast that we landed on Cape Promontory as there appeared to be a deep inlet on the northside tending into the westward, on the southside the land trended to the south-west". Cape Promontory was not then and is not now a recognized geographic feature in Southern Queensland. Commodore Ian Nicholson RAN, the authority on maritime place names, says "it can only be an unofficial or local name . . . perhaps Cape Moreton or that general area. Bradley's description fits Point Lookout".'* Bradley himself makes a clear distinction between Cape Promontory and Cape Moreton. From Bradley's story it is obvious they sailed close offshore to ocean beaches exclusively. The most northerly point of Moreton Island is the Cape itself. Two factors make me believe they never were any further north of this: firstly, Bradley does not mention the Glass House Mountains, the most prominent feature of the area and, secondly, they did not enter Moreton Bay which they surely would have if they had followed the coast southward. I believe their first landfall was Cape Moreton itself. Bradley's disorientation comes from not having the benefit of charts or navigation instruments and the confusing similarity of the ocean aspects of Moreton and Stradbroke Islands. There is a second mystery. Bradley writes "Next morning [25th] . . . found several pieces of wreck ... it seemed as though it happened some years past, and judging from the size of the timber, much of which was EngUsh oak, it must have been a large vessel." What ship could that have been? I can find no ship in 83 Bateson's Australian Shipwrecks, 1622-1850^ which unquestionably is this vessel. The narrative would seem to locate the wreck somewhere along the northern coast. As we have experienced, Bradley's memory is not completely accurate and he only had a vague idea of his location. So perhaps, he remembers seeing a wreck in Queensland waters, not necessarily a large oaken one? With these extensions, I would like to give two possibilities (there are more): perhaps it was the wreck of the fabled Spanish galleon rumoured to be beached on North Stradbroke Island — a theory of some currency'' or, the theory I favour, perhaps Bradley remembers seeing the wreckage of Pamphlet, Finnegan, and Parsons' vessel which ran ashore on the ocean side of Moreton Island in AprU 1825.^ Bradley and his crew continued southwards sustained by fresh water from coastal streams, shellfish and fish, and bird eggs, to Port Macquarie. There they endured a thorough interrogation from Commandant Smyth on the suspicion they were escaped convicts from Moreton Bay.

THE SECOND ADVENTURE

Bradley found sufficient favour to be retained and even promoted. The Lynx left Sydney just before or on 12 December 1831 for ' 'another nine-months cruise after sperm whales". "After being out about seven month's and having some eighty tons of oil, cruising about sixty miles to the N.W. off Cotor [Cato] Banks" misfortune struck again. This time two boats went missing in a sudden squall which deepened into drenching rain and the darkening night. The next morning, Bradley pointed his boats towards Hervey Bay which they sighted at noon on 23 May. Once within the bay's shelter, they cruised along the entire lee shore of Fraser Island, around Inskip Point into Wide Bay where they were recovered by an anxious Lynx on 6 June, some sixteen days later. Fraser Island was inhabited by numerous Aborigines to whom the boat crews showed great wariness. Imagine their surprise when a lighter-skinned man amongst a throng yelled: "Will you let me come in the boat if I swim off", whereupon not one but two swam out and clambered aboard. They were escaped convicts. "One was an Irishman, and his name was Mick [surnamed Sullivan further down the account], the other was from England, and his name Ben [surname not given but known to the boat crews by the nickname 'Old Yellow Hide']. They had both been convicted for robbery, in Sydney, and were sent to Morton bay for seven years each, and the treatment they received when there was so bad, that after being there two years, they with eight others took to the bush and shaped their way to Timar [Timor] to get away from the lash." They were 84 apparently the last survivors of this scattered party, some of whom had certainly been slaughtered by Aborigines. But who were these men? The official report made back in Sydney when the prisoners were delivered to the not-too-kind arms of Authority (which, incidently, the absconders reUevedly embraced for a hard time they had had of it) clearly identifies them: I have the honour to acquaint you that the prisoners named in the margin [Henry Byrne per Ship Prince Regent and Joseph Jones, Ship Lady Castlereagh] runaways from Moreton Bay were captured and brought by the Barque Lynx which arrived last night. 1 have caused them to be placed aboard the Hulk to await the Disposal of His Excellency the Governor. Byrne a prisoner for life was sentenced by the Sydney bench on 17th November 1829. Three years to a Penal Settlement for uttering counterfeit coin — he states he has been an absentee from Moreton Bay for the last two years but has not been reported here. Jones became free of his original sentence but was subsequently convicted of felony and was on the 22 April 1826 sentenced to transportation for seven years. In time thereafter he was forwarded to Moreton Bay whence he absconded and was absent he states for four years but no report has been made of the circumstances. These men were found at a place called Frederick's Point and said to be 400 miles to the northward of Moreton Bay . . .^ The Moreton Bay Register' confirms their identifies: Henry Byrne; native of Warwickshire, 23 years, 5 foot 3V4 inches, sallow complexion ... Joseph Jones, native of Denbigh [North Wales,] 22 years, ruddy, freckly complexion, sandy hair . . . The case against Bradley's misidentification seems secure. Why did he make such a simple mistake? Was he foUowing the old, widely- used convention of not revealing true identity in writings by the device of the alias or the "Mr W " form. Bradley's naming sailors as "Jack Jones" and "Peter Brown" sounds suspiciously Uke he did just that. His use of "Michael Sullivan" and "Old Yellow Hide" as randomly chosen aliases is, however, stretching co-incidence taught for two convict runaways from Moreton Bay were, indeed, one Michael Sullivan and one known as 'Yelloman'. Mick Sullivan, native of Cork, 19 years, 5 foot 10y2 inches, fair complexion . . . convicted in Cork, Spring 1824, sentence 7 years. Transported to Sydney per Ann and Amelia. Convicted of highway robbery, Sydney Criminal Court, 7th February 1872. Sentence: All Life. To Moreton Bay per Mary Elizabeth, 2nd April 1827. Run (Absconded)'" James Davis, the famous convict who escaped Moreton Bay in March 1829 and lived in the Wide Bay district until 1842 when 85 Andrew Petrie persuaded him to return to Brisbane" reported on the fate of other absconders: 'At Wide Bay River ... he heard of the death of four runaways . . . murdered he thinks by the natives in these parts; he also heard of Yellowman to the north''^. Just who 'Ben/Old Yellow Hide' or 'Yellowman' was or were is unknown for run convicts from Moreton Bay to that time had no name remotely resembling these. My theory is that Byrne and Jones actually assumed the names Bradley gives to them to conceal their true selves for some perceived benefit. Perhaps the remaining penalties due to these two were much less? Perhaps Byrne and Jones had murdered the others at some stage and so wished to cover their crime by total confusion? One thing is certain: the harsh reception absconders endured on return to their gaolers was sure remedy for pretence. The final mystery concerns the official report's statement that "These men were found at a place called Frederick's Point . . . 400 miles to the northward of Moreton Bay". "Frederick's Point", like so many of the names employed by mariners of that era, was purely local with no official standing. We will never know its true location. The statement "400 miles to the northward" is in serious conflict with Bradley's story for this would place the action near the Tropic of Capricorn. In this vicinity are Shoalwater Bay (which cannot be sailed out of by a southerly route) and Curtis Island together with Keppel Bay (which can). Hervey Bay is barely half that distance. Bradley leaves no doubt that Hervey Bay is the right area. Either Bradley has mixed two separate incidents or the report writer got his facts wrong. 1 believe it was the latter.

IMPORTANCE

Bradley's unsophisticated chronicle has no pretentions. "His story is not about the issues of the 1830s: politics, land settlement, or the penal question but rather of human endeavour and fortitude". Bradley is a significant addition to such works as Pamphlet's "Narrative" published in Barron Field's Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales in 1825 and Eliza Eraser's Shipwreck of the Stirling Castle.^^ To the best of my knowledge, Bradley's tale is the only contemporary narrative from the great age of the Sperm Whale Fishery, colonial Australia's first and most important export industry prior to the Gold Rushes.'" There are many such whalers' stories from other countries, largely from the United States of America, and a smattering from England and France. Bradley's self-effacing calmness, courage, and command during his open-boat journeys rightly place this story alongside the best in the annals of sea-survival. Modern mariners can learn much from Bradley. Indeed we all can! 86 NOTES

1. M. Cobcroft, "J.J. Beukers, A Printer from Parramatta, Biblionews V.14 No.l (March 1989). 2. M. Diamond, The Seahorse and the Wanderer (Melbourne, University Press, 1988) p.187 et seq. 3. Bradley's first story was annotated and republished by Cobcroft through Amphion Press, Brisbane, in 1988. 4. Personal communication. 5. C. Bateson, Australian Shipwrecks, 1622-1850 (Sydney, Reed, 1982). 6. Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 27 December 1987 p.5. 7. J.G. Steele, The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District, 1770-1830 (Brisbane, University of Qld, 1972) p51 et seq. 8. Principal Superintendent of Convicts to Colonial Secretary, 67171832, CSO Letters, John Oxley Library A2.6. 9. Register of Convicts, Moreton Bay, John Oxley Library. 10. J.G. Steele, 'Brisbane Town in Convict Days, 1824-1842' (Brisbane, University of Qld, 1975) p.107. 11. J. Lang, 'Cooksland in North-Eastern Australia' (, Longman, 1847) p.418. 12. C. Sheehan, Foreword to J. Bradley, 'Adventures..' (Ed. M. Cobcroft, Brisbane, Amphion, 1988). 13. M. Cobcroft, "A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat" in "Patients, Practitioners, and Techniques" (Melbourne, University Press, 1985) p.65 et seq. 14. Many examples of these 'primitives' are located in the 'Eber Bunker Maritime Collection', State Library of Queensland, Brisbane.

Peter McLean, first head of the Department of Agriculture.