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Grecian (barque)
''Grecian'' was a sailing ship which was wrecked in a storm off Port Adelaide, South Australia in October 1850. History ''Grecian'', a fine barque, of 518 tons, sailed from The Downs bound for South Australia on 15 June 1850, almost exactly one year after her first such voyage. The trip was uneventful and she arrived in Gulf St Vincent on Sunday, 13 October, and made the light ship at about 4 pm. The weather was very stormy, with the wind blowing a full gale from the west-north-west. ''Grecian'' was anchored in apparent safety riding with a single anchor, with 65 fathoms () chain, and the passengers were served their dinner. At about 5:30, the gale increasing, another 75 fathoms were added to the anchor chain. About 7 pm, the gale still increasing, and the ship driving rapidly towards the shore, the second anchor was let go. Despite the two anchors, of 70 and 90 cwt. (3.5 and 4.5 tonnes), the ship continued driving until 9 pm, when she struck the beach. The rudder and sternpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the city of Adelaide. Port Adelaide played an important role in the formative decades of Adelaide and South Australia, with the port being early Adelaide's main supply and information link to the rest of the world. Its Kaurna name, although not officially adopted as a dual naming, dual name, is Yartapuulti. History Prior to European settlement of South Australia, European settlement Port Adelaide was covered with Avicennia marina, mangrove swamps and tidal mud flats, and lay next to a narrow creek. At this time, it was inhabited by the Kaurna people, who occupied the Adelaide Plains, the Barossa Valley, the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and northwards past Snowtown. The Kaurna people called the Port Adelaide a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Downs (ship Anchorage)
The Downs is a roadstead (area of sheltered, favourable sea) in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England. In 1639 the Battle of the Downs took place here, when the Dutch navy destroyed a Spanish fleet which had sought refuge in neutral English waters. From the Elizabethan era onwards, the presence of the Downs helped to make Deal one of the premier ports in England, and in the 19th century, it was equipped with its own telegraph and timeball tower to enable ships to set their marine chronometers. The anchorage has depths down to 12 fathoms (22 m). Even during southerly gales some shelter was afforded, though under this condition wrecks were not infrequent. Storms from any direction could also drive ships onto the shore or onto the sands, which—in spite of providing the sheltered water—were constantly shifting, and not always adequately marked. The Downs served in the age of sail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf St Vincent
Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger Spencer Gulf, from which it is separated by Yorke Peninsula. On its eastern side the gulf is bordered by the Adelaide Plains and the Fleurieu Peninsula. Description To the south it is defined by a line from Troubridge Point on Yorke Peninsula to Cape Jervis on Fleurieu Peninsula. Its entrances from the southwest are from Investigator Strait, and to the southeast from Backstairs Passage, which separate Kangaroo Island from the mainland. Adelaide lies midway along the gulf's east shore. Other towns located on the gulf, from west to east include Edithburgh, Port Vincent, Ardrossan and Port Wakefield and Normanville. History The Aboriginal name given to it by the original inhabitants of the area, the Kaurna people was Wongajerla, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Ship
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightvessel was off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in England, placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734. The type has become largely obsolete; lighthouses replaced some stations as the construction techniques for lighthouses advanced, while large, automated buoys replaced others. Construction A crucial element of lightvessel design is the mounting of a light on a sufficiently tall mast. Initially, it consisted of oil lamps that could be run up the mast and lowered for servicing. Later vessels carried fixed lamps which were serviced in place. Fresnel lenses were used as they became available, and many vessels housed them in small versions of the lanterns used in lighthouses. Some light ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Australian Register
''The Register'', originally the ''South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register'', and later ''South Australian Register,'' was South Australia's first newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836, moved to Adelaide in 1837, and folded into '' The Advertiser'' almost a century later in February 1931. The newspaper was the sole primary source for almost all information about the settlement and early history of South Australia. It documented shipping schedules, legal history and court records at a time when official records were not kept. According to the National Library of Australia, its pages contain "one hundred years of births, deaths, marriages, crime, building history, the establishment of towns and businesses, political and social comment". All issues are freely available online, via Trove. History ''The Register'' was conceived by Robert Thomas, a law stationer, who had purchased for his family of land in the proposed South Australian province after b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poop Deck
In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or " aft", part of the superstructure of a ship. The name originates from the French word for stern, ''la poupe'', from Latin ''puppis''. Thus the poop deck is technically a stern deck, which in sailing ships was usually elevated as the roof of the stern or "after" cabin, also known as the "poop cabin". On sailing ships, the helmsman would steer the craft from the quarterdeck, immediately in front of the poop deck. At the stern, the poop deck provides an elevated position ideal for observation. On modern, motorized warships, the ship functions which were once carried out on the poop deck have been moved to the bridge, usually located in a superstructure. See also *Common names for decks *Taffrail In naval architecture, a taffrail is the handrail around the open deck area toward the stern of a ship or boat. The rear deck of a ship is often called the afterdeck or poop deck ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jolly Boat
The jolly boat was a type of ship's boat in use during the 18th and 19th centuries. Used mainly to ferry personnel to and from the ship, or for other small-scale activities, it was, by the 18th century, one of several types of ship's boat. The design evolved throughout its period in service. Origins The term 'jolly boat' has several potential origins. It may originate in the Dutch or Swedish ''jolle'', a term meaning a small barque, bark or boat. Other possibilities include the English term yawl, or the 'gelle-watte', the latter being a term in use in the 16th century to refer to the boat used by the captain for trips to and from shore.Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, p. 340 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term appears in ''Chamber's Encyclopedia'' between 1727 and 1741. It is called simply 'jolly' in the early 19th century novels of Frederick Marryat. The word may have been in use considerably earlier, as the record of the voyages of Francis Drake and John H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torrens Island
Torrens Island is an island in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Adelaide metropolitan area in the Port River Estuary about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. Since European settlement of Adelaide in 1836, it has been used for a number of purposes. Geographical features An island in the Port River Estuary between the Port River to the west and Barker Inlet to the east, Torrens Island is located about north-west of Adelaide. Light Passage, named after founder of Adelaide Colonel William Light, lies in the Port River between Pelican Point and Torrens Island. Torrens Island is separated from the smaller Garden Island to the south by the Angas Inlet, but is connected to the mainland by a causeway and a bridge over the North Arm. History European discovery and use According to the ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Governor George Gawler in 1837 named the site after Robert Torrens senior, who was chairman of the South Australian Colonis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Gawler, South Australia
Port Gawler is a locality and former port on Gulf St Vincent on the central Adelaide Plains in South Australia. Port Gawler is located north west of Adelaide in the Adelaide Plains Council local government area at the mouth of the Gawler River. Port Gawler was named in 1867 and a government town surveyed around 1869, but was officially declared to have ceased to exist on 23 June 1960. The boundaries for the modern locality were created for the long established name in June 1997, incorporating both the former government town and the private subdivision of Milner. Local government The first local government body established in the area was the District Council of Mudla Wirra, proclaimed in 1854. Mudla Wirra council encompassed those parts of the Hundred of Port Gawler and Hundred of Grace south of the River Light as well as all of the Hundred of Mudla Wirra. This included Port Gawler itself. In 1856 those parts in the hundreds of Grace and Port Gawler seceded to form the Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Acraman
John Acraman (1829 – 22 June 1907) was a prominent businessman in the colony of South Australia, and has a place in the history of Australian football in that State. History John Acraman was born in England, a son of William Edward Acraman (c. 1800 – 27 November 1875) and Mary Acraman (c. 1801 – 9 February 1871) of Sidmouth, Devon, England. Theirs was an old and honorable Somersetshire family, whose surname was formerly spelled Akerman, or Ackerman. John's grandfather Daniel Wade Acraman, a Bristol businessman, was a noted connoisseur of art. This article gives father William Edward Acraman's life span as 1790–1875 John Acraman's early days were spent at Bath, Somerset and Clifton, Bristol, and he was educated in both places. His father was a wealthy merchant and industrialist, owner of several East India ships. At Bristol he was nominally apprenticed to his father, in order that he might qualify for membership of the prestigious Society of Merchant Venturers. His eldes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Observer (Adelaide)
''The Observer'', previously ''The Adelaide Observer'', was a Saturday newspaper published in Adelaide, South Australia from July 1843 to February 1931. Virtually every issue of the newspaper (under both titles) has been digitised and is available online through the National Library of Australia's Trove archive service. History ''The Adelaide Observer'' The first edition of was published on 1 July 1843. The newspaper was founded by John Stephens, its sole proprietor, who in 1845 purchased another local newspaper, the '' South Australian Register''. It was printed by George Dehane at his establishment on Morphett Street adjacent Trinity Church. ''The Observer'' On 7 January 1905, the newspaper was renamed ''The Observer'', whose masthead later proclaimed "The Observer. News of the world, politics, agriculture, mining, literature, sport and society. Established 1843". In February 1931, the ailing Depression-hit newspaper, along with ''The Register ''The Register' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
