South Australian Government Gazette
Colonial Secretary’s Office,
For Information of the public, his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governer
has directed the publication of the following extracts of a letter from the
Government Resident,
By his Excellency’s command CHAS STURT, Colonial Secretary
“It was on the afternoon of the 11th September, that I first
heard from a native of some things having been washed ashore. I immediately
went down,
with some others, to the beach, and found two or three casks, together
with different articles of slops, to the South of the Bay, which left no doubt
of the wreck of some vessel. Early the next morning everybody was on the
move, in different directions, about two miles and a half to the South was
found the boat, thrown in amongst the rocks, and it is on the reefs off
this part of the coast, about two miles from the shore, that Mr Reid thinks she
must have struck; nothing more in this direction was found. In the
afternoon, one of the party, that had gone towards the north, came in to report
that the body of a female had been thrown up on the beach in that
direction. I went to the spot, and saw the unfortunate woman lying on her back,
she was in her night dress with a sheet wrapped around her as if she had
rushed from her bed on to the deck; the body had sustained no further
injury than was caused by the birds; she was a married woman; two rings,
taken from her finger, together with her description, and the initials of
her name, cut from the night dress, are herewith transmitted. The body
was brought in and buried the next day. Near her and along the beach, towards
the north, were a great number of boxes, bags of flour, and other things
thrown up. In one of the boxes has been found an agreement, signed by eight
of them, and R Giles, Manager of the South Australian Company. Mr Reid,
the agent, is taking every care of the things, by airing and drying them,
and I have directed the police to patrol daily to the north and south of
the Bay, in case any more bodies should be washed ashore.
I forward various papers, handed to me by the agent, which may assist in
discovering the friends of the sufferers, some of whom appear to have
been emigrants lately arrived.”
Description of the body of a female, found on the beach, about five
miles from
Age about
thirty four years
Height Five
feet four inches
Make and form Stout
Head Oval
Face Oval
Eyes Light Blue
Eyebrows Very
light brown
Nose Medium
Mouth Medium
Neck Short
Hair Light
brown
Shoulders Rather
broad
Arms Medium length, Hands Medium
size, Feet Medium size
Remarks – Stout and rather good looking, one plain gold wedding ring,
nearly new, one fancy hair ring with the name of
“Margaret Thomas” upon it, on fourth finger left hand; the attached piece
of linen was cut from her night dress and is marked
with the letters OxR, in sewing.
Chas. W Kelham, Clerk to Government resident
The papers forwarded by the Government Resident can be seen on
application at the Office of the Colonial Secretary