Wreck of the Brig Maria with the New Guinea Expedi…

Scarce, c.19th hand coloured engraving showing the wreck of the Maria, on Bramble Reef, Queensland in 1872.

In late 1871, a group of adventurous young men, many drawn from Sydney’s leading families, organised an expedition to New Guinea, where reports claimed that gold existed in abundance. Inspired by memories of Australia’s earlier gold rushes and eager to make their mark on a new frontier, they formed a committee and established the New Guinea Gold Prospecting Association. Prospective members were charged £10 towards the costs of the venture, and some seventy men eventually enrolled, all hopeful of striking gold.

The committee’s first challenge was securing a vessel. Unable to lease a ship within their limited budget, they purchased an ageing brig, Maria, which was judged barely adequate for the voyage north. By then more than twenty-five years old, Maria had long passed her prime and was being used chiefly to carry Newcastle coal to Sydney. Her principal attraction was her low price; indeed, after a month’s searching, she was the only vessel the association could afford. One of the expedition’s survivors, William Forster, later recalled that “it would, perhaps, have been difficult to find a more unseaworthy old tub anywhere in the southern waters.”

When preparations were complete and Maria was ready to depart Sydney, port authorities refused clearance under the Passenger Act, citing overcrowding, unseaworthiness, and inadequate provisions and safety equipment for those on board. Rather than address these deficiencies, the committee circumvented the regulations by signing most of the passengers on as crew, thereby removing the vessel from the Act’s jurisdiction.

Further warning signs followed. At the last moment, the captain engaged for the voyage declined to take the ship to sea, feigning illness but evidently unwilling to command an overcrowded and ill-found vessel on a 3,700-kilometre passage through the Coral Sea during the North Australian cyclone season. Instead of seeking another qualified master mariner, the committee accepted the first mate’s offer to assume command. He was elected by vote, though he lacked both experience and authority, functioning more as a sailing master than an independent captain, and remaining subject to committee control.

Maria finally cleared Sydney Heads on 25 January 1872 with seventy-five people crowded on board. The early days of the voyage passed without incident, though tensions soon emerged among the passengers, who fell broadly into two groups: well-educated young gentlemen of means, and working-class miners and labourers seeking opportunity on the new goldfields. It was likely the first time many of these men had lived and worked together as near equals, and the uneasy social mix proved volatile even before the voyage reached its tragic conclusion.

From the original edition of the Illustrated Australian News. 

Collections:
University Queensland: Identifier 991000982479703131
State Library Victoria: PCINF IAN 04-09-76 P.133
National Library Australia: Bib ID 2495305
State Library New South Wales: CALL NUMBERS F079/55, TN380
Royal Geographic Society SA: RGS Special Coll. 079.94 I29d

References:
Syme, E. & D, Illustrated Australian News. ISSN 2208-5386.