Forlorn Hope -1864

by Russell Kenery

A flawed attempt to settle Australia’s ‘empty north’ triggered an epic 2,300NM open boat voyage along the unexplored northwest coast, from Van Diemen Gulf down to today’s Geraldton.

When the Colony of South Australia was given governance of the Northern Territory in 1863, no European settlement existed between Brisbane on the east coast of Australia and Perth in the west. Soon after, an attempt at settlement was made at Escape Cliffs on Adam Bay, approximately 75km from today’s Darwin. The Northern Territory Company called the settlement ‘Palmerston’ and promised investors the ‘promised land.’ Unfortunately, it was a God-forsaken place, mudflats, mangrove swamps, plagues of insects, and crushing, depressing heat. The settlement quickly became strife-ridden, and some settlers decided to quit. Jefferson Snow, a journalist, and six disgruntled others chose to sail to the nearest outpost, 550NM away at Camden Harbour.

Only two in the crew had boating experience; one, John White, had served in the Victoria Pilot Service. A passing trading schooner sold the group a lifeboat at an extortionate £60 (over $10,000 today), and with a touch of irony, they named it FORLORN HOPE. The craft was a 23ft double-ender with a 6ft beam, a two-masted spritsail rig, and a stem-mounted headsail. The freeboard was increased with extra planking, and small decks added at the bow and stern. FORLORN HOPE was heavy laden with the seven men, equipment, water, and provisions. For navigation, they had tracings from the BENGAL’s charts, several compasses, and two sextants.

On 7 May 1864, FORLORN HOPE pulled out from the Adelaide River, crossed Adam Bay, and sailed into the Arafura Sea. The men soon had a taste of what lay ahead when a volatile squall of driving rain soaked them cold. The northwest coast of Australia has some of the world’s trickiest waters, with massive tides that can range up to nine or ten metres. The fast-flowing waters of the ebb and flow generate conflicting tidal currents, often generating violent whirlpools, and sometimes FORLORN HOPE anchored miles offshore when reefs unexpectedly rose from the sea. The little boat attracted turtles, reef sharks, wildly coloured sea snakes, sea birds, and curious Aboriginals sometimes watched her from headlands, the smoke from their fires seeming to track her progress down the coast. 

Five days into the voyage and with water getting low, they fetched across Anson Bay to the mouth of the Daly River, but despite searching miles inland, they found only brackish floodplain water. Days later, they went ashore in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf but again only found worthless swamp water. Supplies of freshwater would prove to be a never-ending problem. At Cape Bougainville, they encountered a maze of hundreds of small islands. Snow later wrote,

‘There is about all of them an air of dreariness and gloom. No sign of life appears on their surface, and scarcely even a seabird hovers on their shores ... the islands were more inhospitable than the wide ocean.’

The sea would boil around the numerous islets with a combined confusion of seething eddies and tidal races between reefs, the receding tide creating waterfalls off great lumps of rock. They were in the treacherous Bonaparte Archipelago, and to escape, they headed miles offshore and days later closed the coast south of Augustus Island.

Painting by Andrew Murray

On 29 May, twenty-two days into the voyage, FORLORN HOPE struggled with big tides and a breaking sea to work into their objective destination, Camden Harbour. Snow knew that a group of farmers from Melbourne, the Camden Harbour Pastoral Association, were attempting to settle there and hoped to catch a ship south. But there was none, and no vessel expected. It was also clear to Snow that the impetuous settlers were ‘all ruined and intending to leave.’ FORLORN HOPE would have to sail on, the voyage suddenly outgrowing expectations. The settlers helped build a new rudder, generously supplied valued provisions, then waved off FORLORN HOPE as she sailed out of beautiful Camden Harbour.

FORLORN HOPE was not a weatherly boat, and near Cape Leveque, a severe weather front heaped up long cross-waves, forcing her to clear out to sea. She rose to the crests of big waves throughout the long night, under only a leg-of-mutton storm sail and surfed down into troughs. Around daybreak, as often happens, the wind moderated, so they hoisted a spritsail, but the strong breeze soon rose again, and the storm-sail reset. FORLORN HOPE hove-to, head to wind, throughout another dreadful night of constant bailing.

The fresh gale continued the following day and through the night, generating great patches of foam that gave the ocean an overall white appearance, dotted with colourful snakes drifting on the billows. The breeze was as severe as the previous day at dawn, and surging green breakers with toppling white tops brought avalanches of foam. For around 80 hours, FORLORN HOPE staggered up the crests and plunged into troughs, almost burying her bow, fighting for her life. The men, tortured with cramp but having to bail for their lives, were so utterly exhausted they could hardly stay awake. The wind eased for a short while with the next dawn then freshened again, forcing FORLORN HOPE to run before the fresh gale under bare poles. The wind would fall suddenly, in the trough of far bigger waves than anything yet experienced. The only way to slow her down now was to lower the masts, but the men knew that in their exhausted state, they would capsize trying, so, in desperation, they chopped the mainmast down using a light axe.

The following day the great gusts seemed to ease, the wild sea seemed to moderate, and the men kept praying for the weather to abate. And it gradually did. Under a jury rig, it took FORLORN HOPE more than two days to limp 200NM across huge swells back to the coast. Everyone was desperate to get ashore, but the roar of heavy surf kept them offshore. After rounding Cape Lambert, they landed in Nickol Bay, staggered ashore, and fell asleep in peace and calm on soft dry sand. Nickol Bay may have been a barren wilderness, but it was heaven after ten nightmarish days and nights onboard Forlorn Hope. Fortunately, they found life-saving fresh water and delicious boiled fish and turtles supplemented their meager rations.

After two days of rest and recovery in Nickol Bay, they sailed out into the Dampier Archipelago. Days of calms and contrary winds frustrated them, until around North West Cape, a moderate breeze carried them into powerful currents that swept them between islets and over reefs, some only 3ft below the keel. They had hard sailing in the Geographic Channel and managed to shelter in Shark Bay, but contrary winds held them there for four frustrating days until they coaxed FORLORN HOPE into the seaway and around Dirk Hartog Island. They continued south, coasting down the coastline and past Port Gregory, desperately hoping to see a settlement somewhere around Champion Bay. Approaching the Hutt River, a thick fog enveloped them for hours, then when it eventually cleared, it revealed a cluster of tiny houses, paddocks, and a pier on the distant shoreline. They had miraculously stumbled on the settlement at Champion Bay, today’s Geraldton. The settlers themselves were excited to see a small, badly weathered boat taking soundings on a strange course into the bay and thought it was survivors from a shipwreck, or a whaleboat from Port Gregory, 50NM up the coast, where whalers occasionally sheltered.

When the battered boat reached the shallows, seven emaciated men stumbled ashore, and it was said FORLORN HOPE let out a sigh, capsized and sank. The small boat had travelled an incredible 2,500NM on a 62-day voyage down the treacherous Kimberly Coast. The adventurers recuperated until they departed on the schooner ‘SEA BIRD’ for Fremantle, then returned to Adelaide. Meanwhile, the ‘Palmerston’ settlement went from bad to worse until abandoned in 1867, and aggrieved investors demanded a Royal Commission. None of FORLORN HOPE’s crew ever went near the Northern Territory again.

Many Thanks to Russell Kenery for letting us reproduce this article from his book “Curious Voyages”