Draft:Captain John Stein

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Captain John Stein, aka Steine, was an early navigator and whaler based in Hobart and Sydney, who lived from 1811-1841. When he was only 22, he circumnavigated the globe, and also set out on an expedition to Antarctica. Stein died after a Typhoon shipwrecked his boat "Mary," near Woodlark Island.

Biography

Early Career

John Stein was only 18 years of age when he first took the captaincy of the Henry Ariot (only partially legible), first mentioned in the Australian papers on the 19th of February 1829, taking settlers from Brazil after the Irish and German Mercenary Soldiers' revolt. After this, he appears as the captain of the brig Dragon, owned by Mr Briggs, on the 8th of Feb 1831, sailing to New Zealand from Hobart, carrying oil. By the 5th of June 1832, John had adopted the barque "William the Fourth", and was again sailing from Hobart to New Zealand. He arrived back 14th of August of the same year, baring three Māori, as well as timber and flax. He discovered a river in New Zealand which he named William the Fourth's river, but it is not now known what this river was. According to 'The old Whaling Days" by Robert McNabb it may have been the Pelorus River. On the 12th of August of 1833, John had again arrived in Hobart, this time from Rio De Janeiro, from which he had supplied tobacco and coffee. By this time he was the captain of the Emma Kemp, owned by Betts and Co.

Pioneering activities

Following this, the Sydney Monitor reports his plan to sail to the south pole. It entitles him "the Tasmanian Captain Cook," and refers to a circumnavigation of the globe by him in a sloop of thirty tons, with only five other men, none of whom were able to read, with no medicine on board, while he was only 22. This was lauded when he returned to Hobart on the 11th of August 1833 in the Austral-Asiatic Review, which says that he returned from Rio on the Emma Kemp, having circumnavigated the globe in "little more than seven months, his stoppages included.". The article referring to his South Pole expedition also states that he was first made captain at the age of 18, that he was likely to reach the continent in a week or ten days, and that he only sets out with the preparations of a normal voyage, without furs and blankets or anything else. Even papers in Wales and America referred to it, however claiming his intent was to circumnavigate the south pole. The result of his voyage is unknown.

Career in Sydney and court case

His next appearance in the paper is in the Colonist and Van Diemen's Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser, in 1834, and reads thus:

MARCH 28 -- Arrived the schooner Adelaide, 86 tons, Captain Stein, from the South Seas, which she left the 21st November, with a cargo of 32 tons sperm oil.

Mr Petchey was the owner of the Adelaide. For a while after his Antarctic adventure, John continued as a whaler in the Adelaide, until a mutiny involving an escaped convict occurred. He arrived in Sydney in early January or late December 1834/5, but he and his first mate, Charles Aldrich, were kept in the prison there, while the Adelaide set sail on the 6th of January under the command of Mansfield. They were taken to court for unknowingly assisting the escape of a convict, William Powers, to Howe's island, that is, Lord Howe Island. It seemed that the crew where using the fact that John had unknowingly taken William Powers from Van Diemen's Land to construct a counter-case to the one he was bringing about the crew mutinying. Notably, a witness in this case was Mr John Forster Church, a shipping agent who would become John Stein's father-in-law: he testified that John Stein had come to him saying the crew of the Adelaide were very insubordinate, so he obtained a warrant against the cooper, and when he attended the Police Office to prosecute the case, he was apprehended on a warrant on the present charge. The Adelaide had then discharged and was refitted, having been in port about a fortnight. Apparently, the court was crowded, and was considerably enthused to hear the verdict of Not Guilty. You can read more on this on Trove, in the Sydney Monitor. Following this commotion, Stein was given the reigns of a new ship in Sydney, namely the Lunar, as in the Sydney Monitor, 11th July 1835, and he arrives back in Port Jackson on the 30th of November 1836. After whaling in this ship a while longer, John Stein again appears in the Sydney Gazette in December 1836, where his ship is put in danger due to the negligence of harbour pilots as he is setting out. He is then absent from newspapers till the 11th of September 1837, as the commander of his last ship, the barque Mary.

Wreck of the Mary

During Stein's command of the Mary, many improvements were made to the ship, and he brought large amounts of sperm oil to the sperm whale fishery. Hughes and Hoskings owned his boat. On the 14th of November, 1839, Stein married the daughter of John Forster Church, Sarah Emma Church, at St Philip's Church, Sydney. They had one daughter.

The first report of the incident came on the 25th of March, 1843, in the Sydney Morning Herald. Captain McCarrol, of the barque Jane, first discovered the wreck of the Mary on the 22nd of November, 1842. He had landed on the north-west part of Lachlan's islands, when he found strewn around the island casks and various articles belonging to the wreck, and he found some belongings of John Stein, including the ship's clearance. He said that the natives pointed to John Stein's grave in particular, saying "he vomited a good deal a short time previous to his death." In 1845, his wife married again, to R K Broughton, in Tumut. It was so, that there was a great Typhoon in December 1840, while they were on the North side of Woodlark island. On the 1st, at 9 pm, they were at the mercy of the hurricane, and by the fourth hour of the 2nd, they had struck the reef on the south east point of Lachlan's islands. Four crew were tossed overboard, and one was crushed by the moving of the casks. After the winds had died down, they constructed a raft, and in a short time they had constructed huts on the island with the help of the natives. Seven more hands died naturally, over a period of nine months. After this time, they were made ready for a journey to some part of New Holland, though Captain Stein, the Doctor, the carpenter, and two others, had become ill. As they left, the people of the island attacked them and killed all the sick, including John Stein, but not the carpenter. The two boats, carrying fifteen survivors, and carrying three native women likely the subject of the dispute, landed on Woodlark island, and found a settlement. One of the crew, William Valentine, separated himself from the group to spend the night with a native tribe, but when he returned, he was told by a native women that the others had been killed by natives of the other island, as they had shot one. After jumping from tribe to tribe, he eventually escaped on a stolen canoe, to the ship named the Woodlark, of Captain Smith. Captain Eury, of the Tigress, met this ship, and questioned Valentine, who relayed the story to him, and then Eury to the paper. William Valentine later returned to Britain, after being declared unfit for serving as a sailor ever again because of his illness sustained while on the island.

Legacy

Stein's only daughter, Eliza George Stein, married Osman Edward Middleton. He was the third son of Rev. George Augustus Middleton, the early colonial chaplain of Morpeth and Maitland.

References

The Old Whaling Days, a History of Southern New Zealand from 1830 to 1840 by ROBERT McNAB, M.A., L.L.B published 1913 by Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.