Who is William Smith?
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William Smith was Sue Wyatt's great great grandfather who served as captain of several whaling ships in the late 1800s, including the Marie Laure from 1877-1884. Through archives research, Sue discovered records of William Smith's voyages as captain, bringing back sperm oil and whale products. As captain, William would have needed certification or qualifications. He married Sarah Ann Tedman in 1874 and had 10 children before retiring from whaling.
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Who is William Smith?
- 1. Who is William Smith? by Sue Wyatt 1
- 2. He is my great great grandfather .. William Henry Smith Robert Edward Smith Irene Ellen Gertrude Smith Robert Wyatt Sue Wyatt 2
- 3. How did I find out about him? Looking through the archives for images and found this one of a Captain William Smith. 3
- 4. How do I know that is him? My grandmother said that was her grandfather who was dark because he had been on the whaling boats too long. 4
- 5. Intrigued!! Whaling now this sounds interesting. I wonder what else I can find out about him. Dark fellow - maybe aboriginal? Where would I find the info? 5
- 6. Smith folder Inside was a typed page giving details of William’s time as captain of the whale boat Marie Laure. Included dates of voyages and amount of whale oil collected. Where had someone found this information? 6
- 7. Part of the typed page William SMITH was listed as Master of the ship Marie Laure, 328 tons, Port of Registry Hobart, owner William SHERWIN, from 18 September 1877 until 9 June 1884. Departure Hobart Town Cargo – whaling grounds Arrival Hobart Town 8 October 1877 sperm oil 19 April 1879 May 1879 55 tons oil 13 January 1881 2 March 1881 61 tons oil 14 August 1882 September 1882 60 tons oil 22 May 1884 These records are found at MB 2/33/59, MB 2/39/36, MB 2/39/37 and MB 2/39/38 at the Archives Office of Tasmania. 7
- 8. Master of a ship Surely he would need some type of qualification to be captain or master of a ship? 8
- 9. Crew agreements ● Signatures of each crew member – both Christian and Surname in full ● Age when signing agreement ● Place of birth – can be any of these city/town/country/state ● Ship in which he last served and port the ship belonged to ● Place and date of discharge from that ship 9
- 10. Ships he crewed on ● Venus ● Offley ● Grecian/Friends/Frances? ● Calypso ● Prince Regent ● Flying Childers no agreements found so not verified yet 10
- 11. Waterwitch 1860-1861 Seaman Waterwitch at New Wharf, Lenna in background Built at McGregor's Slipyard, Hobart 1820 as a gun brig and named Falcon ; converted to a barque in Sydney c. 1842 ; registered in Hobart 1860 ; broken up 1899 Crowther - photographs (Stack) CRO.PHOTO CS 288 11
- 12. Maid of Erin 1860 2nd mate 1864-1866 2nd mate 1866-1870 chief mate 1870-1873 master Crowther - photographs (Stack) CRO.PHOTO CS 102 12
- 13. Short time on board Highlander 1861-1862 2nd mate Southern Cross 1862-1863 3rd mate Allport Library Store 8 STORE CONSERVATION (DE-FRAME) 13
- 14. Othello, Flying Childers 1873-1876 Chief mate 1876-1877 Chief mate The capture of a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean, 1835. Engraved, printed and coloured by J. Hill, from a sketch by Cornelius B. Hulsart. Hulton Archive/Getty Images 14
- 15. Marie Laure 1877-1884 Master Seaman’s Work Box Once owned by Captain William Smith, this seaman’s work box was used to carry his papers and personal effects. The work box was passed to his daughter, Maryanne, and later to his great granddaughter, Phyllis McDermott and finally to Phyllis’ son, Kim McDermott, in August, 2002. The whales teeth were taken from the jaw of a sperm whale on 8th July 1883 and presented to Maryanne Smith, daughter of Captain William Smith, master of the whaling ship, Marie Laurie (Pronounced Maria Lowery), on her 1st birthday. 15
- 16. Captain Smith’s family Married in September 1874 to Sarah Ann Tedman in Hobart. There were ten known children: James Henry (1876) and Mary Ann(1878) were the eldest. 16
- 17. Q&A time Do you have any questions or perhaps some suggestions of where I could take my research further. Thanks for listening and reading. 17
Notas del editor
- I have just completed an introduction to family history course at UTas. Ann, who was also on the course, invited me to talk about my main research person who was William Smith.What a troublesome name, so how do I start?
- I had been following family history principles of researching by starting with myself and verifying data at each new generation. Of course, I didn’t need to verify my father, Bob or his mother Irene as they were still alive when I began this task nearly 30 years ago. Nan could tell me a bit about her father Robert and his father William. But I wanted to know more.I also wanted to find out more than just birth, marriage and death dates and places. I wanted to flesh out the story of William Smith.
- After getting some basic information from my grandmother, I decided to head to the archives in Hobart. At that stage, they had a card catalogue of images they had in store. I found this one under Captain William Smith. There were quite a few William Smiths in Hobart during the 1850-1900 period so could this possibly be him?
- Back to my grandmother, showed her the picture, she verified it was her grandfather who was sunburnt because he had been on the whaling boats too long. She then showed me another picture of him on a boat.What a difference from well dressed in a shirt and tie, to clothing suited for sailing on a boat as a member of the crew.
- I was now intrigued. I wanted to find more. Back again to the archives, talk with the archivists. Did they have any information about a Captain William Smith who was whaling during the 1850-1900 period around Tasmanian waters? They gave me lots of different sources to find more information including books written by locals, photos from the Crowther Collection, visit to the Maritime Museum and a folder they had out the back on the Smith family.
- Inside the folder was one single typed page. Not much to go on I thought.
- More questioning of the archivists. Where did this person find the information? What are those letters and numbers next to the information? Can I see the original of this information? Do you have a photo of the Marie Laure? As you can tell I was very inquisitive and wanted to know everything.
- This application for a certificate of service enabling William to serve as master of a foreign going ship gave me so much more information to follow up. I now knew where he was born - Navigators Island - where was that? I knew his birthdate and age to follow up on once I knew where Navigators Island was. He had been in the whaling trade continuously since 1852 - I knew the names of all the ships he had sailed on, I knew the positions he held on board. Maybe I could find out more about each of these voyages. More research needed.
- At this stage I began the uni course. Most people were starting from the beginning of their research and using ancestry.com for a lot of information or online databases. Why couldn’t my research have been online? So I headed back to the archives, showed them the certificate and asked where to next. Answer was crew agreements. Working backwards from the Marie Laure in 1877 I could follow in reverse order his journey as a whaler from the time he first joined in 1852 as a cabin boy through to the time he received his captaincy on the Marie Laure.Whenever he signed on to a new whaling ship he had to fill in the date he was discharged from his previous ship and the name of that ship. This allowed me to work backwards one ship at a time as long as there was a crew agreement available for that voyage.
- He crewed on these ships between 1852 and 1860, but as I have not found crew agreements yet none of these can be verified. Those listed in blue is a ship name that I can’t easily decipher on his certificate so will need to check out all three of them.I will also use Trove, the online newspapers of Australia, website to find out the names of whaling boats coming in and out of Hobart in the early 1850’s to try to work out this ship’s name.
- This was first cruise as a whale boat. Left March 1860 and returned in February 1861 with 30 tuns of oil worth 95 pound per tun in England. William’s lay was Black Oil 50 @12, Sperm Oil 70@40, Whale Bone 50@40 Wages advanced 4 pounds
- William served continuously on the Maid of Erin from 1864 until 1873, gradually moving up in the hierarchy until he became the master. He is mentioned often in reports in Trove about being a kind captain who looked after his crew including giving half rest time so they were refreshed when cutting up the whale the next day. One voyage in 1871 shows the rations in a logbook kept by William Thomas Morley. Rations consumed: 21 casks beef, 8 casks pork, 5 casks and 1 barrel of biscuits, 2 chests of tea, 3 barrels and 2 hogsheads of sugar, 6 casks of flour.
- While doing the uni course, many students helped each other finding sources for their information. One student who worked at a Queensland University had found mention of Black Bill in a catalogue from the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. I contacted them and they kindly sent a copy of the manuscript written by Alfred William Martin in 1862 while a seaman on the Southern Cross. In his diary he mentions my great great grandfather as a half caste Samoan, so this so far is the earliest mention I have verified of his birth in Samoa. Now who could his father and mother be? Maybe a white whaling captain and a Samoan princess as the family story has been passed down ….
- Trove report 10 May 1875:The Othello left here on 2nd November 1874, and proceeded to the Middle Ground, cruising there for about five months. Five whales were captured, and they yielded 16 tuns. According to Trove report on November 1, 1875 the Othello had lost three whales. One of her hands was unfortunately lost.
- But further research finds him mentioned in the book 'Harpoons ahoy!' by Will Lawson, published 1938 on page 18. "Dat's notting," Larsen broke in. "I remember de Marie Laure, when Black Billy de Samoan had her. Something lak a sheep she vos. Black Billy done no good in her. She vos a hoodoo with him, lak de Maid of Erin vos too, when he had her. De whales dey keep avay from her." Maryanne Smith learned to walk aboard the rolling decks of the Marie Laurie and was eighteen months old when she first set foot on dry land! The whales teeth are two of a set of four that were scrimshawed by a seaman aboard the Marie Laurie with the high fashion of the day depicting women in fur coats. They were also polished with resin, hence the dark amber colour of the teeth. It is not known what became of the larger two teeth, but it is believed they were stolen during the time Maryanne was living at Recherche Bay, southern Tasmania. The whales teeth were given to Maryanne’s granddaughter, Phyllis McDermott, who lived with Maryanne, at Strahan until she was married in 1950. In August 2002, the whales teeth were handed over to Phyllis’ son, Kim McDermott, for safe keeping.
- Also married on the same date and place was Domingo Jose Everall and Sarah Ann’s sister Rosetta Caroline. Domingo had been on many ships with William and was also a dark fellow but from the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off Africa. If I follow the naming pattern used by most families back in the 19th century, then why was William’s oldest son named James Henry? In my reading I have found a Captain James Smith born 1819 Clarence plains taken by bushrangers when a youth, then by South sea savages later in life. Could these have been Samoans? Could this be where William Smith was conceived? Further research is necessary.