NAME: Whittle DESCRIPTION: He was an emigrant boy on board the Kapunda.

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1 ACTIVITY: Sea disaster CASE: GSAF DATE: Thursday January 20, 1887 LOCATION: The accident took place in the South Atlantic. One source describes it as off Maceio, Brazil, about 150 miles south of Pernambuco. 13º45'S, 27º20'W. NAME: Whittle DESCRIPTION: He was an emigrant boy on board the Kapunda. The Emigrant ship Kapunda BACKGROUND The 1095-ton Kapunda was built on the Clyde in Owned by Messrs. Trinder, Anderson, and Co., she was an iron ship of the highest class. On December 11, 1886, she left London under the command of Captain John Masson, bound for Freemantle, Western Australia. There were 313 persons on board: a crew of 41 and 272 passengers. Of the latter four were in the saloon, 217 were Government emigrants under the supervision of Dr. Newton Bentham, and 51 paying steeragepassengers. Most of the emigrants were Scotch and Irish, poor people from the agricultural districts, and many of them were "nominated" emigrants, sent for by friends already in the colony, others were going to help in construction of a railway from Beverley to Albany. TIME: 03h30 NARRATIVE: The Kapunda was off Brazil when she was run down during the early hours of the morning in dense fog by the British barque Ada Melmore, an ore carrier from Belfast. Two persons from the Ada Melmore drowned. All but 16 of the Kapunda s crew and passengers perished. The boy was one of many on the Kapunda who was thrown into the sea by the collision. Some of the survivors were rescued by the Ulysse, a French barque, which conveyed them to Rio and Naceio.

2 INJURY: Fatal SPECIES: Not identified. SOURCES: The West Australian, Wednesday February 2, 1887, page 3 True Republican (Syracuse, Illinois), February 5, 1887 The South Australian Advertiser, Saturday March 12, 1887, page 5 The Brisbane Courier, Thursday April 14, 1887, page 3 Original article on next page THE LOSS OF THE KAPUNDA. Narrative of the First Mate William Cottrell, first male of the Kapunda, has given the following narrative of the disaster: - We were bound from Plymouth to Freemantle with general cargo, 279 passengers and emigrants, and a crew of forty hands. About half-past 3 on the morning of 20th January, when in lat. I3deg. 45min.S., and long. 27deg. 20min.W., I saw the Ada Melmore when she was quite close upon us. The collision was then inevitable, and a few minutes afterwards she ran into us, striking the Kapunda just before the fore-rigging, cutting her right down to her keel. The bowsprit and jiboom of the Ada Melmore came right across our decks. At the first alarm about fifty passengers rushed on deck. Many of these were killed by falling spars, and others were injured. In a minute or two after she was struck the Kapunda heeled over to starboard, and, amid a terrific din from the crashing spars and the bursting decks and hatches, I found myself in the water. I was sucked down to a great depth, but I struck out, and when I rose to the surface I became entangled in some of the floating wreckage. Several people were clinging to the broken spars, and all around me I heard shrieks and appeals for help from the drowning people. I got clear of the rigging and clutched a floating cask by the bunghole, but it rolled so violently in the waves that my fingers were nearly wrenched off. I therefore relinquished the cask and swam off to a stanchion which I saw floating. In doing this I passed a boy named Whittle, one of a numerous family of emigrants on board, who was also swimming towards some floating spars. I said to him Cling to me, my boy, but he replied, cheerily, I am all right, sir, and continued striking out for himself. A moment afterwards I heard a sudden and loud shriek, and looking round saw the boy was gone. I believe, from his sudden cry of terror, that he was seized by a shark. Others, I fear, suffered a similar death. I went on swimming towards the Ada Melmore, still holding on to my stanchion, but the vessel drifted away and I could not reach her. I found it more and more difficult to retain my hold on the stanchion, because my hands were benumbed. All at once I felt something flapping against my face, and to my intense joy found that it was a woolen comforter that I was wearing, and which up to that moment I had forgotten. With this I lashed myself to the stanchion. Afterwards I heard the voice of Mounter, an able seaman of the Kapunda, shouting, Pull, my lads; it s our first mate. I just remember being hauled into a small boat, and then became unconscious. When I recovered, I found myself in the cabin of the Ada Melmore. Our carpenter, Forbes; the baker, Meeks; seaman Mounter; Noah Broadhurst, emigrant; William K. Russell, emigrant; Henry Barnes, emigrant; Philip Daly, emigrant; and Cornelius O Callahan, emigrant, boarded the Ada Melmore at the time of the collision, and at first we thought no others were saved; but at half-past 10 the same morning the Kapunda s lifeboat came up astern with the remaining survivors. Three of the crew of the Ada Melmore Thomas Searle, of Plymouth, Robert Buckman, and a Swede who jumped on board the Kapunda, were among the drowned. The Ada Melmore suffered severely in the collision, and to keep her afloat it was found necessary to jettison a portion of her cargo of manganese ore. Distress signals were hoisted, and in response the French barque Ulysee, from Marseilles for Mozambique, hove to on 25th January. The survivors were taken on board the French vessel, where they met with every attention, the captain being especially kind to the apprentice William Norman, who had suffered terrible injuries, from which he very nearly died. He is, however, much better. The English chaplain at Bahia took us in and lodged some at his own expense. We all feel very grateful to him, and we left a little memento with his wife when we came away.

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5 The West Australian Wednesday February 2, 1887 page 3