Samuel Sweet

Last updated

Captain Samuel White Sweet
Samuel White Sweet.jpeg
Born(1825-05-01)1 May 1825
Portsea, Portsmouth, England
Died4 January 1886(1886-01-04) (aged 60)
Riverton, South Australia, Australia
OccupationPhotographer & merchant ship master
SpouseElizabeth Tilly

Captain Samuel White Sweet (1 May 1825 – 4 January 1886) was an English sea captain who settled in Australia in 1864, and was involved in the early colonization of the Northern Territory. After the grounding of his ships Gulnare and Wallaroo, for both of which he was held culpable, he turned his interest in photography from a serious hobby and part-time occupation to a profession. [1] Sweet was a pioneer of Australian landscape photography as an art form, and kept abreast of technical advances in the medium. [2]

Contents

Background

Sweet was born in Portsea, a few km inland from Portsmouth, Hampshire, and had only a basic education.

In 1844 Sweet joined the Royal Navy at age nineteen, serving on the China Station until 1849. Sweet gained command of the merchant ship Pizarro in 1857 for which he kept the meteorological log for the Board of Trade for several years. These efforts resulted in Sweet being awarded "Letters of Honorable Mentions". In 1861 Sweet travelled the South American waters carrying out surveys for the charts of the British Admiralty. He married in Portsea and had several children in England. In 1864 Sweet and his family arrived in Queensland, Australia to grow cotton [3] having migrated from England on the Flying Cloud. In 1866 Sweet set up his first photographic practice in partnership with William Gibson. From this time Sweet committed himself to photography and in 1868 applied for the role of the official photographer for the Goyder Northern Territory Expedition, however was instead appointed as Commander of the Government Schooner Gulnare which supported the Goyder Expedition [4] and the new settlement at Port Darwin. Whilst Sweet was never the official photographer of this trip (Joseph Brooks was the appointee), Sweet did take on some of Brooks' photographic duties while he was busy surveying. As a result of this, during his return from the North Sweet organised exhibitions and lectures of his views surrounding the trip and secured sales of his prints through James Williams's Stationery shop. In 1870 Sweet was also commissioned to supply northern construction teams who were building the British-Australian overland telegraph link from Darwin to Port Adelaide. Sweet's views are the only record of this event. [5] At this time he was also commissioned to survey the Roper River. Sweet made five voyages between Adelaide and the Northern Territory between 1869 and 1872, taking photographs alongside managing his main duties.

Albumen print of a group of labourers taken by Captain Samuel Sweet in 1880 Group of labourers, Adelaide.jpg
Albumen print of a group of labourers taken by Captain Samuel Sweet in 1880

Schooner Gulnare

Previously a slaver in the Caribbean, [6] the 150-ton two-masted schooner was purchased by the South Australian Government in 1869 and refurbished as the Northern Territory supply vessel, replacing Sea Ripple, which had been condemned as unfit for service. [7] Within a few weeks Sweet had been appointed her commander [8] and left for the Northern Territory. [9] In 1870 Gulnare took the first Government Resident, Bloomfield Douglas, to Port Darwin. She then acted as a Goyder's supply ship. Sweet stayed on as captain and H. R. Marsh, later captain of Flying Cloud, was mate.

The wreck

Gulnare, under Captain Sweet, left Darwin Harbour for the Roper River at 7am on 5 October 1871, and that same night she ran aground on one of the reefs that surround the Vernon Islands. The Bengal under Captain Hummel set out from Darwin to render assistance on the 10th, and after removing twenty tons of cargo assisted in dragging Gulnare free, and returned to Darwin on the 13th. Gulnare returned to Darwin on the 14th and run onto the beach to have her hull inspected. At an inquiry on 19 October Sweet testified that he was confident that Gulnare was sufficiently seaworthy to return to Adelaide, but the crew had deserted her to work on the Overland Telegraph Line. [10] Sweet insisted that Gulnare could be repaired in a week at most, and could profitably make a return voyage to Adelaide, [11] but she was deemed unseaworthy[ by whom? ] and abandoned. The Darwin enquiry had no authority to judge Sweet's actions, and at a properly constituted Court of Enquiry held at Port Adelaide on 25 and 26 July 1872, Sweet was found to have been lacking in judgment and censured, but his certificate of competency was returned to him, [12] but he lost his government commission.

He then captained the barque Wallaroo, transporting coal from Newcastle to South Australia. [13] On 11 May 1875 Wallaroo became grounded on Office Beach, Wallaroo during a gale. An inquest attributed the grounding to Sweet's miscalculation, and he was censured for neglect, but again did not lose his ticket. [14] Sweet had already resigned his position with the Black Diamond Line; [15] he retired from the sea and opened a photographic studio in Adelaide, [1] marking the beginning of the most prolific period in his photographic career. [16]

Photography

By 1872 Sweet was an experienced photographer and opened a studio on Flinders Street, Adelaide, later moving to Rundle Street. At his studios Sweet took many portrait photographs but focused mainly on landscapes, [3] travelling around South Australia with a horse-drawn darkroom, taking pictures of the Australian outback and homesteads, [1] some of which were exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney. [3] Sweet became one of the colony's largest documentary photographers during the 1870s through to the early 1880s. He was also one of the first photographers to use the new dry-plate/gelatin process during this time.

Albumen silver photograph taken by Captain Samuel Sweet at the lake in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens Lake at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.jpg
Albumen silver photograph taken by Captain Samuel Sweet at the lake in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens

On 4 January 1886 Sweet died suddenly due to sunstroke at "Halldale", home of the Hall family, near Riverton, South Australia.

Family

He married Elizabeth "Betsey" Tilly some time before emigrating to Australia; they had five daughters and four sons, [17] including:

Recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Goyder</span> 19th century surveyor in South Australia

George Woodroffe Goyder was a surveyor in the Colony of South Australia during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The history of Darwin details the city's growth from a fledgling settlement into a thriving colonial capital and finally a modern city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Dundas</span> British settlement in Australia

Fort Dundas was a short-lived British settlement on Melville Island between 1824 and 1828 in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia. It was the first of four British settlement attempts in northern Australia before Goyder's survey and establishment of Palmerston, now known as Darwin. The three later attempts were at Fort Wellington, Port Essington and Escape Cliffs.

Southport is an outer rural locality in Darwin. It is based on the site of the abandoned Town of Southport, a thriving river port during the Pine Creek gold rush of the 1870s. It is located at the junction of the Blackmore and Darwin Rivers.

The Moonta Herald and Northern Territory Gazette was a newspaper produced on the vessel SS Moonta that was sailed by George Goyder in 1868 and 1869 from Port Adelaide to Darwin. The aim of the 41-day voyage was to provide an initial survey of what was to become the Northern Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Foelsche</span>

Paul Foelsche was a South Australian police officer and photographer born in Germany, remembered for his work in the Northern Territory of Australia from 1870 to 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Giles (explorer)</span>

Alfred Giles, born in Datchet, England, was a South Australian bushman, drover and explorer who crossed Australia from south to north seven times, mostly in connection with the building of the Overland Telegraph Line 1870–1872.

Edwin Stow Berry was a surveyor and explorer, who took a leading part in two important expeditions to the Northern Territory of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Rotherdale McMinn</span>

Gilbert Rotherdale McMinnCE, SM, was an Australian surveyor born in Ireland noted for his work in the Northern Territory surveying the Overland Telegraph Line. His middle name is occasionally spelt "Rutherdale".

Robert Peel was a medical practitioner in South Australia remembered for his membership of the Goyder expedition to the Northern Territory and for his association with Adelaide's horse racing clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cissy McLeod</span> Australian Aboriginal woman

Cissy McLeod sometimes spelt Cissie McLeod was the first Indigenous woman in Australia to receive a bronze medal from the Royal Humane Society for her act of bravery when saving her adoptive mother in Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Thomas Alexander Wells was a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin, Australia. He was known for having misdirected the jury in a high-profile case in 1934, which was later overturned in an appeal in the High Court of Australia known as Tuckiar v The King.

Ross Ibbotson Dalton Mallam, invariably known as R. I. D. Mallam or Justice Mallam, was a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darwent & Dalwood</span>

Darwent & Dalwood was a partnership of Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood put together expressly to tender for work on the Overland Telegraph Line.

Henry Richard Hancock almost invariably referred to as "Captain Hancock" was a mine superintendent in Moonta and Wallaroo, South Australia. He was noted for his business acumen and the respect with which he was held by both workers and mine owners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H. D. Packard</span>

Harrison Daniel Packard was a surveyor in the early days of the colony of South Australia. He served at Escape Cliffs under B. T. Finniss, and later under G. W. Goyder at Port Darwin.

Elrundie is a suburb in the Northern Territory of Australia located in Darwin about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) east of Darwin City overlooking a part of Darwin Harbour known as the East Arm.

A number of survey parties were sent by the South Australian Government to the "Top End" of the Northern Territory during the years 1864–1870, preparatory to founding a settlement. This article describes those attempts and the people involved. It includes lists of all known participants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Randall Knuckey</span> Surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line

Richard Randall Knuckey, often referred to as R.R. Knuckey and popularly known as Dick Knuckey, was a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line in central Australia from 1871 to 1872. He later became chief officer at the electric telegraph department in Adelaide.

Edwin Mitchell Smith was Surveyor General of South Australia from 1911 to 1917.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sweet, Samuel White (1825–1886)". Biography - Samuel White Sweet - Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Sweet In Adelaide -Part 2". Captain Sweet Online. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Cato, Jack. The Story Of The Camera In Australia. p. 110.
  4. ↑ "Sweet's Naval Career-Part 1". Captain Sweet Online. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  5. ↑ Newton, Gael (1988). Shades Of Light. Australian National Gallery. p. 51.
  6. ↑ "NT Place Names Register: Gulnare Street". NT Government. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "The Kapunda Herald". Kapunda Herald And Northern Intelligencer . Vol. V, no. 222. South Australia. 22 January 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia. Margaret Goyder Kerr, in The Surveyors presumed Gulnare to have been named for the SA town, yet she served in Victoria under that name some five years before her service in South Australia.
  8. ↑ "Local Intelligence". The Border Watch . Vol. 8, no. 554. South Australia. 17 February 1869. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Telegraphic Summary for England". South Australian Register . Vol. XXXIII, no. 6963. South Australia. 3 March 1869. p. 3. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "The Northern Territory". The Evening Journal (Adelaide) . Vol. IV, no. 947. South Australia. 12 February 1872. p. 3. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "The Government Schooner Gulnare". South Australian Chronicle And Weekly Mail . Vol. XV, no. 726. South Australia. 13 July 1872. p. 9. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "General News". The Southern Argus . Vol. VII, no. 333. South Australia. 2 August 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "Sweet's Naval Career-Part 2". Captain Sweet Online. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  14. ↑ "Latest News". The Evening Journal (Adelaide) . Vol. VII, no. 1997. South Australia. 27 July 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "Events of the Month". The Wallaroo Times And Mining Journal . Vol. XI, no. 1055. South Australia. 19 May 1875. p. 1 (Supplement to the Wallaroo Times). Retrieved 31 January 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ K. Magee. "Capt. Sweet's Colonial imagination" (PDF). Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "Family Notices". The Express and Telegraph . Vol. XLVIII, no. 14, 229. South Australia. 4 February 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 18 November 2018– via National Library of Australia. ADB has "four daughters and five sons"
  18. ↑ "Family Notices". South Australian Register . Vol. XLV, no. 10, 575. South Australia. 5 October 1880. p. 4. Retrieved 18 November 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "Obituary". The South Eastern Times . No. 4271. South Australia. 29 February 1952. p. 5. Retrieved 18 November 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  20. ↑ "Family Notices". The Chronicle (Adelaide) . Vol. 93, no. 5, 262. South Australia. 26 October 1950. p. 38. Retrieved 18 November 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ "Family Notices". The Advertiser (Adelaide) . South Australia. 24 September 1898. p. 6. Retrieved 18 November 2018– via National Library of Australia.
  22. ↑ "NT Place Names Register:Mount Sweet" . Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  23. ↑ "NT Place Names Register: Sweet Street" . Retrieved 31 January 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.