The brig Thorne and the American Ship Panther at Plettenberg Bay, July 1831

South African Commercial Advertiser 7 July 1831

Note that the brig Thorne was reportedly the ship on which Captain William Bell was serving in the capacity of '2nd Officer’ according to one source, but this is uncomfortable terminology for a merchant ship of Thorne’s type and size (251 tons) in the 1830s. Usually such a vessel would have the following crew structure: Master, Mate, 2nd Mate, Carpenter, 6 seamen, 2 Apprentices. Nevertheless it appears that Bell was on board the Thorne in 1834 i.e. at the time of her wreck and that this was when he decided to remain at the Cape. 

See molegenealogy.blogspot.co.za/2013/06/coastal-ships-mariners-and-visitors_28.html

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape 19th c 4

Reference to Conch & William Bell
April 1837; note J Smith & Co, Agents

Although several local newspaper references to William Bell and the Conch came to light from January 1837 onwards, the date of his arrival at the Cape remained obscure. It has now emerged that he was on board the Thorne at the time of her wreck in Table Bay in 1831.

The source of the information describes Bell as ‘2nd Officer’ of the Thorne, but this is uncomfortable terminology for a merchant ship of Thorne’s type and size (251 tons) in the 1830s. Usually such a vessel would have the following crew structure: Master, Mate, 2nd Mate, Carpenter, 6 seamen, 2 Apprentices.

In 1831, the date the Thorne was lost, Bell would have been 24, the right age for either Mate or 2nd Mate. It is a known fact that he had been apprenticed to John Ritson, founder of a large Cumbrian shipbuilding and ship-owning company. During his indentures Bell would learn everything required to build ships as well as handle them and he may have gone to sea as an apprentice for a year or two. After this he would be eligible to be contracted as a fully-fledged seaman, and thus gain further practical experience.

The Thorne sailed to India in 1828 and this was unlikely to have been her only visit there.  Bell would have had the opportunity to observe the use of masulah surf-boats at Indian ports, an idea which he later successfully implemented at Port Natal. That he was well-informed about these boats is explained by Bell’s travels on Thorne.

Masulah Surf-boat, Madras

Also, since the Thorne was a regular visitor at Cape ports, Bell would have gathered experience of the coast and the vagaries of its wind and weather. He was to become closely acquainted with every safe anchorage between Table Bay and Delagoa Bay, including the Bay of Natal, knowledge which would stand him in good stead in the years to follow.

Returning to the reference to Bell’s having been ‘2nd Officer’, it seems that when Thorne’s Captain Johnson died, and command passed to the then Mate, W Poole (aged thirty), someone would take a step up the ladder to fill the vacant place of Mate. This was either Bell, or another unnamed man. In the latter case, Bell may have moved up a rung to 2nd Mate and therefore would have been in that role when the Thorne met her fate on the rocks of Robben Island. He was qualified to perform the duties of either Mate or 2nd Mate at the time.

When a ship was wrecked far from its home port, efforts were usually made to repatriate the surviving crew members. So far it hasn’t been possible to establish whether Bell did go back to England in 1831, returning to the Cape later. An alternative is that he stayed in the Cape after the Thorne wreck and in due course became acquainted with the agent J O Smith who presumably liked the cut of his jib and took him on as a mariner on coastal vessels. Bell proved reliable and by at least 1837, possibly before, acquired command of the schooner Conch. Until he made captain he would have remained invisible in local records.

JOHN OWEN SMITH AND HMS THUNDERBOLT

Information on John Owen Smith wasn’t easy to find, though his name appears often enough as ship’s agent in the Cape papers. Browsing through one of Lawrence Green’s volumes I found an intriguing reference:

Thunderbolt Reef from Cape Recife

In 1847, the man-o’-war H.M.S. Thunderbolt was wrecked on the reef which later bore her name. She was a thousand ton paddle-wheeler and mysteriously ran on to the reef in calm, clear weather. Her captain, Commander Alexander Boyle, R.N., refloated her and beached her on the shores of Algoa Bay, but she broke up.



‘Mr J O Smith, a settler, bought her for 102 pounds and sold the ship’s timbers to people building houses. Smith’s Folly became a profitable business. In the end Smith was ordered to remove the wreck. He did so with a huge charge of gunpowder that shook early Port Elizabeth to its foundations.’

If this story is true, and it is the same J O Smith, he seems to me to have been the type of man who would have appreciated the rugged and eccentric Captain William Bell.



Grateful thanks to Derek Ellwood, friend and maritime historian.

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape 19th c 3

THE WRECK OF THE THORNE 1831

Table Bay 1834

On Wednesday 18 May 1831 the 251 ton British brig Thorne, a frequent visitor to the Cape, sailed out of Table Bay destined for London with a cargo of colonial produce. When the vessel was near Robben Island, a sudden, dense fog arose making visibility impossible. Shortly afterwards the Thorne struck a rock on the western side of the island. Boats including the Northwester and Messrs Sinclair’s and others were immediately sent out to assist. The Port Captain was first on board the stricken ship but ‘he found the rudder unhung and the water up to the hold-beams’ and there was no hope of saving her.

The following evening, the boat Northwester took off part of the Thorne’s cargo of beef, hides and skins. Mr Sinclair superintended the landing of goods on Robben Island. The passengers’ baggage was saved, as were the passengers and all members of the crew.

A report on the wreck made the front page of the South African Commercial Advertiser on Saturday 21 May, smugly mentioning that the Cape Underwriters could congratulate themselves ‘on their fortunate escape … not a single policy, either on the Thorne or her cargo, was affected at the Cape. The insurance of both was done in England and Calcutta.

The parties insured, however, will have to wait about 12 months for the settlement of their various claims, a fact which speaks most powerfully in favour of Colonial Underwriting.’

It had been a disastrous year for the Thorne. In June 1830, on her way to Table Bay, she had experienced severe gales which had washed away her bulwarks and caused other damage to the ship, forcing her to put in at Plettenburg Bay. At that time she was commanded by William Johnson (or Johnston). The Thorne was not a coastal vessel, but sailed further afield to India, England and Mauritius as well as the Cape ports, carrying a variety of cargo (on the Mauritius to Cape run she carried sugar, from Knysna she carried timber), passengers and mail.

Johnson was still her captain in January 1831 when she made a voyage from Table Bay to Algoa Bay. However, on 25 March of that year, the Thorne arrived in Table Bay under W Poole who had taken over command when Captain Johnson died during the voyage. The South African Commercial Advertiser announced on Saturday 26 March 1831, the death on 21 March, of Mr William Johnston [sic], master of the bark Thorne, aged 30 years.’

Poole continued as captain of the Thorne for the succeeding months and it was under his command that the brig struck the rocks at Robben Island in May 1831.

The press reported that young Poole was ‘plunged into utmost grief and distress of mind; but from all we can collect, it appears no blame attaches to him – the heavy fog and the darkness of the evening assisted perhaps by the current, being the immediate causes of the misfortune.’

Despite Poole’s youth and inexperience as a master, he probably was not responsible for the loss of the Thorne. Fog was a common cause of shipwreck along South Africa’s coastline, vessels running on to islands or reefs, and sometimes into each other. Early 19th c mariners relied on visibility as well as on charts which might not be entirely accurate. Navigation at night was particularly difficult when instrument readings could not be followed up by clear observation of the area, and depending on date there may not have been lighthouses to help delineate hazards.

The Robben Island lighthouse was not in commission until 1865, thirty-four years after the wreck of the Thorne, though Jan van Riebeeck apparently thought it important enough in 1656 to select personally a suitable site on the Island for making signal fires – this was the highest point on Robben Island, known as the Vuurberg, and the present lighthouse stands on the same site.

Robben Island Lighthouse

Archival records held in the Cape and local newspaper reports allow us to track the Thorne in some detail. In February 1828 she left Bombay bound for London; arrived in Simon’s Bay 3 June, left 8 June; with a cargo of sundries and two passengers. The following year she left the Downs (England) bound for Cape Town, arriving Table Bay 13 August, left 28 September; agents were Thomson and Co.; cargo sundries and 1 passenger; brought mail. On 4 May 1830 Thorne left Mauritius bound for Cape Town; arrived at Table Bay 29 Jan, left 3 March.; agents were still Thomson & Co., cargo sugar & passengers; brought a small mail. The significance of these activities, which were all in a normal day's work for this type of ship in the 19th c, becomes clear as we pursue the Thorne’s story.

In June 1830 the vessel was damaged during severe gales. The following year, in March 1831, her captain, Johnson, died at sea, and two months later the Thorne was wrecked. Superstitious mariners might at that stage have described her as an unlucky ship.

However, for me, as well as for other interested descendants, the Thorne has a redeeming feature: she was responsible for the arrival at the Cape of our ancestor William Bell and the start of his career as a mariner in the coastal waters off South Africa.



Thanks to Anita Caithness (family historian, friend and archivist for references to Thorne), Sue MacKay (newspaper transcriber and provider of many Bell and Conch references), Harold Williams (the lighthouse man) and Malcolm Turner (the shipwreck man).

Coastal Ships, Mariners and Visitors: Cape Colony 19th c

A DANGEROUS COAST

On 18 June 1830, the brig Thorne, bound for Table Bay, put in at what was then called ‘Plettenburg’s Bay’ in distress, having suffered ‘considerable damage in her upper works’. The report in the South African Commercial Advertiser mentioned that those on board were in ‘a miserable condition’ but were given assistance by Captain Harker (of Plettenburg’s Bay) whose ‘humanity and kindness’ were highly commended.

Severe weather prevailed along the coast that month, for another vessel, the Usk, arrived in Algoa Bay on 20 June, without her stern-boat and divots; part of her bulwarks had also been carried away.

About a year later the Thorne, a frequent visitor to Table Bay, was wrecked at Robben Island. (We’ll return to her story in due course.)

These incidents and numerous total wrecks are a reminder that the southern coastal waters off Africa could be extremely perilous and though the voyages between ports might be of relatively short duration, mariners needed skill and experience to avoid disaster. Passengers required courage to venture on board sailing vessels of 100 tons or less. Sometimes a successful arrival at a destination was accomplished more by guess than by God, as shown in the circumstances described below.

WILLIAM CORNWALLIS HARRIS

The hunter and traveller William Cornwallis Harris in 1836-37 undertook a ten month expedition from the Cape into the interior and later recorded that he and his companion William Richardson:

'... embarked on 2 July in a small schooner bound for Algoa Bay, one of our fellow-passengers from India accompanying us to the pier, unable to persuade himself, until the boat had fairly pushed off, that we really intended to venture upon a second voyage in such a craft so immediately after the troubles we had undergone. In addition to a mate, a cook, and a Mozambique negro … our crew consisted of three men and a boy; our fellow passengers being two adventurers who occupied the berth opposite to our own in the only cabin, and a tailor with his wife and nine daughters, some marriageable, others at the breast. This unfortunate family, every member of which was sea-sick during the whole voyage, located themselves in the steerage, an apartment about eight feet square, ventilated only by the hatch way.  

The passage up the coast at that season seldom occupies more than three days, but the fates decreeing that our progress should still be opposed, adverse winds had taken the place of the north-wester, which had been blowing without intermission during the preceding six weeks, and which, had it but continued a day longer, would have wafted us to our destination. 

HAZARDS OF COASTAL SAILING

The little vessel was usually gunwale under. Stormy seas breaking over her obliged the tailor to seal up his family hermetically; heavy lurches during the night ejected us from our narrow precincts, and more than once brought my companion and myself into awkward and violent collision, whilst the rolling during the day repeatedly swept the table and deposited the viands in our laps.

Being the whole time within sight of land, no observations were taken, and on the afternoon of the eighth day we entered St Francis’ Bay, in mistake for that of Algoa, not discovering our error until we were about to let go the anchor. The tailor, who had made the voyage before, courageously ascended the mast-head … to make an attempt at recognition and regaining the deck gravely assured us that we were in Plettenburg’s Bay, nearly 2 degrees to the westward.  The chart was produced, and being satisfied that we were close to Cape Recif [sic], a dangerous reef of rocks, we advised the ship to be hove to …. but we contrived to weather the point and having narrowly escaped foundering on the Bird Islands floundered into the harbour of Port Elizabeth’. (i.e. Algoa Bay)

Map shows Algoa Bay

Sable Antelope by Cornwallis Harris

[Extract from Cornwallis Harris’s volume, initially entitled Narrative of an expedition into Southern Africa during the years 1836, and 1837, from the Cape of Good Hope through the territories of the chief Moselekatse, to the Tropic of Capricorn etc.,  later known, more simply, as Wild Sports of Southern Africa. The first edition was illustrated with 26 plates of the author’s beautiful paintings of the local fauna.]