Rare. An account of two of the most notorious shipwrecks in the 1830s, the Stirling Castle and the Charles Eaton.
Bound for Singapore, the Stirling Castle departed Sydney in 1836 and struck a reef off Rockhampton, Queensland. Equipped with two boats, the first was taken by ten people - Captain Fraser, his wife, Eliza, crew and passengers. The leaky boat landed on Great Sandy Island (now known as Fraser Island) and they survived by trading with the local Aborigines whilst repairing the boat. Mrs Fraser was heavily pregnant and gave birth to a baby, which didn’t survive. The party was compelled to head south when the six crew members took control of the extant firearms. The second boat fared even worse with six of its seven sailors perishing after landing at the Tweed River.
Curtis’s account of the wreck is based on Eliza Fraser’s version, published in 1837, and is substantially enlarged. He posits that the local Aborigines were cannibals and treated the survivors as slaves and tortured them. He also contends that Mrs Fraser was separated from her husband, who was later murdered. Both the Fraser and Curtis accounts appear written to capitalise on both sales and publicity. Other versions insist that Captain Fraser was already ill and died of natural causes. Moreover, they remark that the Buchulla tribe went out of their way to ensure the health and safety of the survivors. The party was rescued three months after the shipwreck at Moreton Bay by a party led by Lieutenant Charles Otter.
No controversy surrounds the wreck Charles Eaton, which ran aground in Torres Strait in July 1834. The ship was transporting 25 child emigrants, all of whom along with the crew were subject to appalling treatment by local natives. Indeed, only one of the children, the younger Doyley, and the cabin boy, Ireland, survived to meet the rescue party led by Captain Lewis on the schooner Isabella.
The John Fowles copy. His note on the front pastedown reads: “This is a famous piece of Australiana; Nolan has based a famous series of paintings on it. Engravings by Samuel Davenport (1783-1867).” In 1974 Fowles published a book on shipwrecks and makes specific reference to this copy. “I own a copy of this classic fragment of Australiana; and so much the that fine painter Sidney Nolan, who has immortalised poor naked Mrs Fraser in another way.” The tale provided the inspiration for Patrick White’s novel, A Fringe of Leaves. Ferguson, 2470; Huntress, 294C.
