Francis Cadell (explorer)
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Francis William Cadell (9 February 1822 – 1879) was a European explorer of Australia, most remembered for opening the
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...
up for transport by steamship and for his activities as a slave trader.


Early life

Cadell was born in
Cockenzie Cockenzie and Port Seton ( sco, Cockennie ; gd, Cùil Choinnich, meaning "cove of Kenneth") is a unified town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is on the coast of the Firth of Forth, four miles east of Musselburgh. The burgh of Cockenzie was created ...
,
Haddingtonshire East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...
, Scotland, the second son of Hew Francis Cadell (ca.1791 – 27 April 1873), mine-owner and shipbuilder of a notable Scottish family. He first arrived in Australia in January 1849 as captain of the schooner ''Royal Sovereign'', visiting Adelaide,
Circular Head Circular Head Council is a Local government in Australia, local government body in Tasmania covering the far north-west mainland. It is classified as a rural local government area with a population of 8,066, and its major towns and localities ...
and Sydney, sailing in ballast for Singapore in June.


Steaming on the Murray River

In 1850 the
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
n government had offered a bonus of £4,000 to be equally divided between the owners of the first two iron steamers that should successfully navigate the Murray from Goolwa to the junction of the
Darling River The Darling River (Paakantyi: ''Baaka'' or ''Barka'') is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its conflu ence with the Murray River at Wentworth, New South Wales. Including its long ...
. When Cadell returned to Australia in 1852, he arrived at Port Adelaide in command of the clipper ''Queen of Sheba''. The government's bonus for the navigation of the Murray River had not been claimed and Cadell stayed in Adelaide, formulating a design for a suitable steamboat in partnership with his father's agent, William Younghusband. After several delays, on 16 August 1853 his steamer ''Lady Augusta'' (named for the wife of Sir
Henry Young Sir Henry Edward Fox Young, KCMG (23 April 1803 – 18 September 1870) was the fifth Governor of South Australia, serving in that role from 2 August 1848 until 20 December 1854. He was then the first Governor of Tasmania, from 1855 until 1861. ...
), commanded by Captain Davidson, successfully passed through the breakers at the mouth of the Murray, and on 25 August left
Goolwa, South Australia Goolwa is a historic river port on the Murray River near the Murray Mouth in South Australia, and joined by a bridge to Hindmarsh Island. The name "Goolwa" means "elbow" in Ngarrindjeri, the local Aboriginal language, and the area was known as ...
on a voyage up the Murray with Cadell in command. Among the passengers were the governor, Sir
Henry Young Sir Henry Edward Fox Young, KCMG (23 April 1803 – 18 September 1870) was the fifth Governor of South Australia, serving in that role from 2 August 1848 until 20 December 1854. He was then the first Governor of Tasmania, from 1855 until 1861. ...
and Lady Young, after whom the steamer was named. A few months later it was ascertained that the Murray was navigable as far as
Albury, New South Wales Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...
and the
Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...
navigable to
Gundagai Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Hon ...
. Cadell had carried a considerable quantity of wool and much trade was expected with the Riverina squatters. A gold and silver candelabrum was presented by the settlers to Cadell, with an inscription that it had been presented to him "in commemoration of his first having opened the steam navigation and commerce of the River Murray 1853". Cadell was also presented with a gold medal struck by the Legislative Council, and he joined with
William Younghusband William Younghusband (1819 – 5 May 1863), sometimes known as "William Younghusband junior", was a businessman and politician in the colony of South Australia; one of the promoters of the Murray River Steam Navigation Company, which enabled C ...
, George Young and others in forming the River Murray Steam Navigation Company, whose charter received royal assent in 1854. Cadell's claim on being the pioneer of inland navigation on the Murray is contested. J. G. and
William Randell William Richard Randell "Captain Randell" (2 May 1824 – 4 March 1911), was an Australian politician and pioneer born in Devon, England, who emigrated to the newly founded colony of South Australia in 1837 with his family. He was a pioneer ...
had constructed an earlier steamer which had traded on the Murray as early as March 1853, and at the time of the Cadell's first voyage upstream on ''Lady Augusta'', Randell's ''Mary-Ann'' had progressed further up the river and at a greater speed. Neither of the first two paddle steamers to grace the waters of the Murray River were eligible for the bonus offered by the government. A. T. Saunders was a perennial critic, calling Cadell an "overrated braggart".


Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria

During 1860 Cadell did exploring work in eastern
Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It cove ...
, and attempted to get the Government of Victoria to sponsor the establishment of a steamer service between Melbourne, the Snowy River and the Gippsland Lakes.


Relocation to New Zealand

In 1865 Cadell was in New Zealand employed by the New Zealand government as commandant in the Waikato Steam Transport Service, a support group during the
New Zealand Wars The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side and Māori and Māori-allied settlers on the other. They were previously commonly referred to as the Land Wars or the ...
. In March 1865 Cadell was involved in the mutiny of Captain Hannibal Marks, on . Cadell ordered the first mate of ''Sandfly'' to get underway without its captain. When Marks caught the ship in a row boat, he placed the mate under arrest for taking orders from Cadell. Cadell then ordered Marks to reinstate the mate, and fire another crew member. Marks refused and the crew sided with Marks.


1867 expedition to Northern Australia

In February 1867, following the failure of Finniss's settlement at
Escape Cliffs Escape Cliffs is a place on the northern coast of the Northern Territory of Australia and the site of the fourth of a series of four failed attempts to establish permanent settlement in Australia's Top End. The previous attempts were at Fort ...
, the South Australian government sent Cadell to the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
"to fix upon a proper site for the survey of ". His ''modus operandi'' was much criticised at the time, for his employment of men from New South Wales rather than experienced South Australians, for choosing the ex-paddle-wheeler ''Eagle'' for transport, and for taking few, if any, horses, without which any inland exploration was futile. He approached the Northern Territory by ship, and his choice of site was influenced by the navigability of the river. He traversed a strait between
Elcho Island Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem ...
and the mainland, which Matthew Flinders had previously noted as a ''probable island''. During the expedition an Aboriginal party-member called Tommy tried to desert three times and was imprisoned on the ship. Tommy reportedly drowned whilst making a fourth escape attempt, although Cadell indicated in a separate report that he had in fact been murdered by other party-members.


Later life and death

During the early 1870s, Cadell became involved in
whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...
,
trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
, pearling and
blackbirding Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...
in
North-West Australia The North West, North West Coast, North Western Australia and North West Australia, are usually informal names for the northern regions of the State of Western Australia. However, some conceptions of "North West Australia" have included adjoi ...
. Cadell and others became notorious for their coercion, capture and sale of
Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
as slaves. The slaves were often detained temporarily at camps known as ''
barracoon A barracoon (a corruption of Portuguese ''barracão'', an augmentative form of the Catalan loanword ''barraca'' ('hut') through Spanish ''barracón'') is a type of barracks used historically for the internment of slaves or criminals. In the Atl ...
s'' on
Barrow Island Barrow Island may refer to: * Barrow Island (Western Australia), Australia * Barrow Island (Queensland), Australia * Barrow Island, Barrow-in-Furness Barrow Island is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Origina ...
, offshore. In 1874 he engaged 10 people at
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
, described as Malays. In 1875 magistrate Robert Fairbairn was sent to investigate pearling conditions at Shark Bay, following reports that Malays employed by Cadell and Charles Broadhurst were unpaid, unable to return home and some had starved to death. Fairbairn held that Cadell was required to pay the 10 Malays plus an additional 4 months wages as amends for the lack of food, totaling £198. 14s. 4d. They received just £16. 16s. from the sale of Cadell's property at Shark Bay as Cadell had left the Colony of Western Australia some months previously. Cadell then took up trading in the Dutch East Indies, and when sailing in the ''Gem'' to the
Kei Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally specific plants such ...
near
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
he was murdered by the cook's mate, about March 1879.


References


Sources

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Further reading

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External links


The Cadells of Grange and Cockenzie
This genealogy site suggests that "Cadell" should properly be pronounced to rhyme with "paddle". {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadell, Francis 1822 births 1879 deaths 19th-century Scottish businesspeople Australian explorers Australian people in whaling Australian riverboat captains British people murdered abroad explorers of South Australia male murder victims people from Cockenzie and Port Seton Scottish explorers Scottish murder victims Scottish slave traders