''Stirling Castle'' was launched in 1829. She wrecked in 1836 on Eliza Reef on passage from Sydney for Singapore and Manila.

Career

''Stirling Castle'' enters ''

Lloyd's Register Lloyd's Register Group Limited (LR) is a technical and professional services organisation and a maritime classification society, wholly owned by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to research and education in science and ...

'' in 1830 with Fraser, Master, and Abrams & Co., owners, and trade Greenock–Quebec. Before her fateful voyage, ''Stirling Castle'' had sailed from Greenock,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, to the colony of Sydney in 1831 with John Dunmore Lang's "mechanics" with the intention of building the Australian College and the founding members of the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts. On the trip the mechanics set up a university to teach one another the trade and skills each one had. One family that was on board this trip was the

Petrie Petrie is a surname of Scottish origin which may refer to: People * Alexander Petrie (died 1662), Scottish minister * Alistair Petrie (born 1970), English actor * Andrew Petrie (1798–1872), Scottish-born builder, architect and first free settle ...

family that became a prominent

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

family after arriving in Moreton Bay penal settlement in 1837.

Loss

In 1836, ''Stirling Castle'' was under the command of Captain James Fraser.On 6 May 1829 Fraser was captain of when she was wrecked in

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

. She ran aground on 25 May 1836 on the Swain Reefs (near present-day

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

) while travelling from Sydney to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. The surviving members of the crew, including Fraser and his wife

Eliza ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, ...

, managed to journey to the nearby

Fraser Island Fraser Island ( Butchulla: ) is a World Heritage-listed island along the south-eastern coast in the Wide Bay–Burnett region, Queensland, Australia. The island is approximately north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is within the Fras ...

(which at that time was known as Great Sandy Island) where they camped for several days before being taken into the camps of the local

Butchulla The Butchulla, also written Butchella, Badjala, Badjula, Badjela, Bajellah, Badtjala and Budjilla are an Aboriginal Australian people of K'gari, Queensland, and a small area of the nearby mainland of southern Queensland. Language The Butchulla ...

people, the local group 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 ...

. James Fraser died while in their captivity (accounts differ as to whether he died due to starvation, or as a result of being speared), however, Eliza Fraser and some members of the crew subsisted among the Aborigines for seven weeks and were later rescued by a Lt. Charles Otter. ''

Lloyd's List ''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and is ...

'' reported on 14 March 1837 that ''Stirling Castle'', Fraser (late), master, had been totally lost on Eliza Reef.

Eliza Fraser Eliza Anne Fraser (c.1798 – 1858) was a Scottish woman who was aboard a ship that wrecked at an island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836, and who claimed she was taken in by the Bidjara language, Badtjala (Butchella) people ...

later returned to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

where her services as a storyteller proved to be very much in demand and became a celebrity due to her ordeal. As a result of her association with Great Sandy Island, it was by the 1880s known as

, though it is still known as K'gari by the Butchulla.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes Citations References *Alexander, Michael, ''Mrs Fraser on the Fatal Shore'' (Michael Joseph, 1971) * {{1836 shipwrecks Shipwrecks of Queensland Brigs of Australia 1829 ships Maritime incidents in May 1836