sketcher and naval officer, drew the illustrations for Thomas Braidwood Wilson’s Narrative of a Voyage round the World Comprehending an Account of the Wreck of the Ship 'Governor Ready’, in Torres Straits: A Description of the British Settlements on the Coasts of New Holland, more particularly Raffles Bay, Melville Island, Swan River, and King George’s Sound … (London 1835). Wilson was surgeon-superintendent on the convict ship Governor Ready which left Sydney on 18 March 1829 to return to England but which struck a coral reef in the Torres Straits in May forcing the thirty-nine crew and passengers to take to the longboats, skiff and jolly-boat. Wilson was rescued near Timor by the brig Amity and taken to Raffles Bay, Cobourg Peninsula (now Northern Territory), via Coupang, arriving on 31 June, fortunately just before orders arrived to abandon the settlement. On 29 July the man-of-war HMS Satellite and the merchant vessels Reliance and Thompson arrived to assist in the evacuation. Their crews included the artist Lieutenant Weston of the East India Company’s Service.
The following day Weston 'took a very spirited and correct sketch’ of some Aboriginal dancers, reproduced in Wilson’s book. It includes an incident in Wilson’s narrative: 'Dr. Davis joined them, but although he might “keep time” correctly enough for a civilized ball-room, yet he fell short in that necessary part, at least to a savage ear; so they, in very polite terms requested that he would not fatigue himself, but stand and look at them’. Wilson noted that on 3 August Captain Laws had ' a d é jeun é à la fourchette on board the Satellite , Captain Barker, Dr. Davis, Lieutenants Weston and Gray, and three ladies were present’. The Reliance departed for India on 7 August, followed by the Satellite ten days later. Wilson left the settlement in the Governor Phillip on 24 August and he and Weston are not known to have met again. The drawings for the two colour plates in the Narrative — Wreck of the Ship 'Governor Ready’ in Torres Straits and Jolly Boat’s Crew Soliciting To Be Received into the Long Boats —must therefore also have been imaginative reconstructions drawn by Weston at Raffles Bay from Wilson’s descriptions.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
