Fanny Nicholson

The painting belongs to a great grandson of Captain Batthews and is thought to depict the vessel on the Pearl River downstream from what was then the city of Canton (now Guangzhou),at a deep water port Whampoa. We think it was painted in 1858  presumably by a local artist.

Captain Batthews took his wife and some of the children on at least some of his trips and it is family belief that the figures on deck are the parents and one daughter, the grandmother of the current owner and sister to my grandmother who was left in England on that far eastern trip. In a letter dated June 13^th, 1858 from Hong Kong, he refers to taking a cargo to Buenos Aires and from there to Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope. Here he took on a cargo of horses etc. delivering them to Mauritious, then on to Penang for a cargo of rice, to Singapore, Macau, and thence to Whampoa, at which time presumably the artist painted the vessel. There he loaded a cargo of tea stating a plan to return direct to Liverpool via Hong Kong. He refers to "much sickness prevailing here and hereabouts" and "self with Elizabeth and the child very poorly" and two sailors "sick with fever"; sadly wife is recorded as dying early in 1859 (it's not known whether she died during the voyage or shortly after arriving at Sunderland).

In the painting the vessel is flying the Freemasons flag at the masthead as Captain Batthews was a Freemason and from writings in the letter very much a God fearing man.

As regards ownership of the vessel I note Lloyds register puts Rutherford as owner from 1856 through to 1870. It may be this refers to the owner at time of building but my understanding from family history notes is that Captain Batthews was part owner with a Mr. Williamson and the vessel was sold around 1862, either shortly after or before Captain Batthews death, to work in Australian and Pacific waters working in the coal trade, transporting Pacific Islanders to work in the Queensland outback; she was Registered in 1867 in Sydney, NSW with James Smith noted as owner and master. In 1869 he sold her to a Hobart (Tasmania) whaling syndicate and was converted for whaling purposes. On her 2nd voyage, in either November or December 1872 (dates vary from different sources), whilst at anchor in Frenchman’s Bay, close to the city of Albany on the south coast of Western Australia during a storm, she was blown ashore onto Goode Beach (also known as Vancouver beach presumably because he also anchored there when mapping the area). Whilst there was no loss of life, the ship was unsalvageable though the cargo of whale oil was saved.

Curiously about 10 years later another whaling vessel the "Runnymede", of similar dimensions, was also blown ashore in a storm apparently resting only a few yards away.

The proximity of the wrecks has apparently led to some confusion when formal studies by the marine archaeologists of the Western Australian Museum have been made. The two vessels differed however in their construction with the Fanny Nicholson having wooden frames and the Runnymede having steel frames. The Fanny Nicholson is the southern-most wreck. A couple of years ago I visited a marine archaeologist Michael McCarthy at the Shipwreck Section of the Western Australian Museum in Fremantle who mentioned that very little of the wreck remains and what there is may well be buried in the sand and only visible at times of the year when beach sand washed away.

Launched 17 June 1855; completed July 1855; Official No. 23706; Code Letters NSRH; single deck; three masts; wood barque; felt sheathed in yellow metal; 356g; 117.0 x 25.5 x 14.7; female figurehead; repairs to damage 1856 & 1861.

Owners: Nicholson & Rutherford, Sunderland; 1867 John Johnson & William H Andrews, Sydney, NSW; 1869 John McArthur, James Smith, William H Andrews (Sydney) & Co, Hobart, Tasmania.

Masters: 1855-61 Joseph Batthews (C.N. 7285 Liverpool 1852); 1862-64 T Lewis; 1864-65 Charles Cook; 1865 George Collins; 1865-66 T Lewis; 1866-69 George Mackay Andrew Carphin (C.N. 2657 London 1850); 1869-70 James Smith; 1870-72 William Gaffin.

Miscellaneous: 11 November 1865 George Collins, master of Fanny Nicholson was charged with assaulting a member of the crew, William Warren. On a voyage from Mauritius for Australia Warren had a fight with another seaman & the following morning Collins struck him twice with his fist causing a black eye. Collins was found guilty & fined 20s; 23 July 1869 David Simpson & Edward Logan, seamen, were charged with being absent from their vessel without leave, for which they were each sentenced to be imprisoned for 14 days; at Hobart Police Court on 4 March 1871 Joseph Clifford, seaman, was charged by the master, James Smith, with refusing to join the vessel. He was found guilty & was imprisoned for ten weeks with hard labour.

Voyages: February 1857 from Liverpool for the Brazils; 2 November 1859 Liverpool for Belfast; September 1862 Havana for Cronstadt; from Adelaide arrived Sydney 23 June 1864; from Hong Kong arrived Sydney 16 May 1865; from Tome arrived Sydney 24 April 1866; from Mauritius arrived Sydney 25 October 1866; from Port Denison arrived Sydney April 1867; from Bowen arrived Sydney 22 August 1867; from Saigon arrived Sydney 14 March 1868; from Saigon with rice arrived Sydney 6 December 1868; from Auckland arrived Sydney 5 September 1869.

The first owners used her to make regular trips to Australia & New Zealand then from 1867, after being sold, she was used as a coal trader between Sydney, China & the Pacific Islands. In December 1869 the Tasmanian newspapers Mercury & Cornwall Chronicle, recorded that ahalf share had been purchased by Captain McArthur & James Smith with the previous owners in Sydney retaining the other half share. On 2 December 1869 James Smith, master, brought her into Hobart from Sydney. Her cargo of coal was to be immediately discharged & she was to be fitted out as a whaler.

Her maiden voyage as a whaler lasted almost twelve months & she returned in March 1872 having lost a member of the crew at sea & also a whale boat. She underwent a complete overhaul & was re-coppered all of which was completed on 8 April 1872. Her second & what was to be her last voyage began when she sailed from Hobart on 20 April 1872 with a crew of about 23 hands. On 13 October it was reported that she had 40 tuns of sperm oil on board. (tun was a cask that held about 52.5 imperial gallons).

On 23 November 1872 Fanny Nicholson was wrecked off Goode Beach, Frenchman’s Bay, Albany.

The crew left their vessel in three whale boats with the last one to leave reaching Albany at about 2.30am. The two boats that had left first had not arrived & their crew mates were worried that some accident had befallen them. They met up with a local police constable, Raftery, who informed his superintendent of their concerns. The sea being too rough to go out in the police boat he told PC Raftery to ask the harbour master, George T Butcher, if they could use his boat to conduct a search. Butcher, his crew & PC Raftery set out in a whale boat & on arrival at Rabbit Island found the missing men all safe. They had landed there as they thought it too rough to try & cross King George’s Sound.

The harbour master wrote in a letter to the Harbour Department in December 1872 that in the last five years about 60 whaling vessels had anchored in Frenchman’s Bay in all weathers & none had ever had an accident.

The inquiry was held at Albany, Western Australia on 23 December 1872 & the summary was that Fanny Nicholson had put into King George’s Sound to cut up a whale which she had in tow. She anchored at Frenchman’s Bay at 5.30pm on 21 November with the port anchor & 50 fathoms of chain. It came on to blow at 11pm on the same night, & as the wind continued increasing the master let go his second anchor at 7pm on the following day with 30 fathoms of chain, & paid out to 80 fathoms on the port. At 9pm the port cable parted & chain was then veered out to 45 fathoms on the starboard anchor, but it also parted at 1am on 23 November & the vessel then went ashore & became a total wreck.

From the evidence of the harbour master it appeared that the chains were very bad & that the link which parted was exceedingly defective; also that the master had omitted to pay out more chain because he was afraid to trust to what he had brought on board.

The Court were of the opinion that the loss of the vessel was principally due to negligence on the part of the owners & Lloyds agents in allowing the vessel to proceed to sea with defective cables & that the master was to blame for not having satisfied himself before leaving Melbourne that his cables were sound. Knowing as the master did that his cables were defective, he ought not to have remained in Frenchman’s Bay with a gale steadily & regularly increasing from ESE, but should have slipped his cables & made for Princess Royal Harbour before dark. The master was censured by the Court.

The owners placed an advertisement in the local papers in March 1873:

‘The undersigned requiring a SHIP to proceed from hence to Albany to bring to this Port about Sixty Tuns of Oil, and a quantity of Gear, Sails, Boats, & c, saved from the wreck of the Fanny Nicholson, and also to provide a Passage for the Crew of the said ship (about 26 in all), is now prepared to' receive

SEALED TENDERS for the said services until MONDAY NEXT, at one o'clock.

Tenders to be addressed to him to the care of Mr. Charles Colvin, Franklin Wharf.

No Tender necessarily accepted, but the ship that can leave with the least delay will have a preference.

JOHN MCARTHUR.’

The sperm oil she was carrying, her rigging & whaling gear were salvaged by Captain Robinson in the barque Free Trader which arrived back in Hobart along with the master & crew of Fanny Nicholson.

On 12 March 1873 an auction was held at the New Wharf in Hobart with the following items from the wreck offered for sale:
Five whaleboats, oil casks, chronometer, telescope, field glass, three casks of ship’s bread, five hogsheads, casks of flour, four casks of sugar, six casks of beef, boat compasses, standing & running rigging, wire rigging, wheel, tiller, cutting-in blocks, double and single blocks, oars & steer oars, cutting-in spades, harpoons, lances, masthead gear complete, fluke chains, small chain, kedge anchor, caboose & fittings, coolers, tubs, harness cask, buckets, whale lines, line tubs, tool chest, muskets, ship’s bell, boat masts & sprits, binnacle & compass, ship’s light-house, fishing lines, spun yarn, cabin fittings, gratings, iron work & sundry gear. Also the whole of the sails belonging to the ship, pea jackets, jumpers, blue serge shirts, striped shirts, woollen drawers, worsted stockings, mole trousers, blankets, comforters, men’s boots, & c. Later in March about two tons of metal stripped from the wreck was auctioned.

This painting of the Fanny Nicholson (owned by a great-grandson of Captain Batthews), is thought to depict the vessel on the Pearl River downstream from what was then the city of Canton (now Guangzhou), at the deep water port of Whampoa. It is believed to have been painted by a local artist in 1858.