Maria (1823 ship) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids History
United Kingdom
Name	Maria
Builder	Grand Canal Docks, Dublin
Launched	1823
Out of service	28 June 1840
Fate	Wrecked, Margaret Brock Reef
General characteristics
Type	Brigantine
Tons burthen	135, or 136 (bm)
Length	70.19 ft (21.4 m)
Beam	20.99 ft (6.4 m)
Draught	10.9 ft (3.3 m)
Sail plan	Brigantine
Armament	Single cannon
Notes	Passenger ship

Maria was a brigantine built in Dublin, Ireland, and launched in 1823 as a passenger ship. On 28 June 1840, she wrecked on the Margaret Brock Reef, near Cape Jaffa in the Colony of South Australia, somewhere south-west of the current site of the town of Kingston SE, South Australia. The wreck has never been located.

Aboriginal Australians on the Coorong massacred some or all of the 17 survivors of the wreck as they journeyed to Adelaide, an event known as the Maria massacre. A punitive expedition, acting under instructions from Governor Gawler that were later found to be unlawful, summarily executed two presumed culprits.

History

Background

Maria was launched from Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, in 1823. The data below are from Lloyd's Register (LR).

Maria no longer appears in LR in 1835 and subsequently. She may have transferred her registry to Australia.

Final voyage

Maria left Port Adelaide on 26 June 1840 for Hobart Town, Van Diemens Land, with 25 persons on board, including the captain, William Ettrick Smith, and his wife. Passengers included Samuel Denham and Mrs Denham (née Muller) and their five children (Thomas, Andrew, Walter, Fanny, and Anna); the recently-widowed Mrs York (sister of Samuel Denham), and her infant; James Strutt (previously with Lonsdale's Livery Stables, hired as Mrs Denham's servant); George Young Green and Mrs Green; Thomas Daniel and Mrs Daniel; and Mr. Murray. The ship's mate and crew were John Tegg, John Griffiths, John Deggan/Durgan/Dengan, James Biggins, John Cowley, Thomas Rea, George Leigh and James Parsons.

During the voyage, Maria foundered on the Margaret Brock Reef (named later, after the 1852 shipwreck of the barque Margaret Brock), which lies west of Cape Jaffa on the south-east coast of South Australia. Eight people died, and survivors made their way to the coast somewhere near the site of the present Kingston SE.

Massacre

Major O'Halloran's expedition to the Coorong, August 1840.

The passengers and crew safely reached land. Accounts suggest that the passengers commenced trekking on the land side of the Coorong coast towards the lakes (Alexandrina and Albert), with the sailors heading inland at some point.

According to a later account, around 60 kilometres (37 mi) from the wreck, in company with some friendly Aboriginals, they came across a track and at once had a dispute as to whether or not to follow it, and decided to split up: Captain Smith and the crew took to the track and most of the passengers continued along the shoreline. Two days later some of this latter group split from the party in the hope of rejoining the Captain. Around this time they were attacked and killed by a group of the Milmenrura (or "Big Murray Tribe", now known as Tanganekald, also known as Tenkinyra) and stripped of their possessions.

Such detail of how the Maria survivors came to be widely separated into three groups can only be supposition, as none lived to tell the tale. The body of the captain was found far removed from the others, and no trace of the crew members was ever found, so it is not known whether they suffered the same fate as the passengers. One contemporary noted that survivors of the schooner Fanny (Capt. James Gill), wrecked in the same area two years earlier (21 June 1838), were given every assistance by, presumably, men from the same tribe.

In 2003 Ngarrindjeri elder Tom Trevorrow said that the story was well known among his elders, and that he was told the survivors had met up with their people. According to Trevorrow, the Ngarrindjeri group offered them "fire, water and food...It was the duty of male people to help these people. But every time they'd come to a boundary line, they had to hand them over to the next lakayinyeri (family group) — the Milmendura". At some point after this, a violent fight broke out, and the survivors of Maria were all killed.

Afterwards

Maria's hull was never found, though pieces of wreckage washed ashore at Lacepede Bay. In 1972 a diver recovered a rubber gudgeon which may have come from either the Maria or the Margaret Brock. There have been rumours of gold sovereigns aboard the ship, but records have not confirmed this. There were stories of coins being passed around the Ngarrandjeri people, which may have been traded by survivors before the massacre.

It is hoped that the wreck may one day be located, using advanced remote sensing technology. This would be of great historical value. Senior maritime heritage officer Amer Khan of the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources State Heritage Unit, said that such a discovery could help to reveal the chain of events which led up to the tragedy. Khan suspects the wreck lies somewhere near Cape Jaffa, where the treacherous Margaret Brock reef is located.

A cannon reported to have belonged to the Maria and which "was probably carried for the look of the thing or for signalling" was purchased from the Lee family of Middleton by D. H. Cudmore around 1914 as a garden feature for his home "Adare" in Victor Harbor, South Australia, then as a family tradition fired to welcome each New Year. A bell, claimed to have belonged to the ship, was acquired by Nuriootpa High School in 1942.

A plaque commemorating the wreck of Maria was unveiled at Kingston SE on 18 February 1966.

Maria Creek was named as a reminder of the wreck.

See also

• List of shipwrecks of Australia
• Rufus River massacre