Our Indooroopilly - Pamphlet shipwrecked on Moreton Island, Aust.

Readings from Primary Sources on Moreton Bay & Brisbane

These "Readings" from Barron Field's book, Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales are reprinted from J.G. Steele, The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830, Brisbane, 1972. They relate the first part of the story of the three castaways, Thomas Pamphlet, John Finnegan and Richard Parsons, Narrative of Thomas Pamphlet, as told to John Uniacke and published in Barron Field's book. Field's version has evidently been redrafted from a manuscript in the Mitchell Library which may well have been in John Uniacke's writing. Steele quotes the manuscript in footnotes whenever it appears to be more accurate.
Note that Footnotes are per J.G. Steele.

John Finnegan, Thomas Pamphlet, and Richard Parsons, all ticket-of-leave convicts, were sailing from Sydney to the Five Islands (Illawarra) to take on a load of cedar when they were blown northward by a gale. They had left Sydney on 21 March 1823 and were eventually shipwrecked on Moreton Island on 15 April 1823. They had become so thoroughly lost and confused by the storm that they thought they had been driven south. They walked north along the beach to Cape Moreton, then continued along the northern shore and down the western side of the island to the South Passage. They were assisted by the Nooghi Aborigines of Moreton Island.
The story is taken up just before the shipwreck on Moreton Island.

Extracts from the Narrative of Thomas Pamphlet

We continued the whole of this day, the twenty-fourth (15th April), running along the shore to the northward, without being able to effect a landing; and during the night we ran on the same course under easy sail. The next morning¹ Finnegan, who was at the helm, said he saw a bight² in which we could anchor, with a stream of fresh water running in it.³ We accordingly steered into it, the water being tolerably smooth, and let go our anchor at about half or quarter of a mile from the shore, and payed out about forty fathoms of cable to let her drift further in. I then stripped, and having made the running rigging fast to the keg, jumped over and attempted to swim for the shore; but I was so weak and exhausted that, what with the little surf, and what with the keg, I was in the water near an hour and a half before I could succeed in landing; but no sooner did my foot touch the ground than I ran to the fresh water, and lying down by it, I drank like a horse. I then returned to the beach for the keg, which I again left and ran back for another drink. This happened three or four times; and when I attempted to fill the keg, I was quite unable to do it, from weakness and the quantity of water I had swallowed. In the meantime it began to blow very fresh from the eastward, and my companions called very loudly to me to come on board to assist in hauling the boat off; but the surf ran so high, and my weakness was such, that I did not dare to venture again into the water: I therefore called to them, as the breeze freshened, to cut the cable and let her run ashore. This, after some time, they did; and with the help of a little swimming,⁴ both got safe on shore. The boat grounded on the sandy beach, and in less than five minutes her bottom was stove in. The eagerness of my companions for fresh water even exceeded mine. I had brought on shore a pint tin pot to fill the keg: Parsons emptied this thirteen times in succession; while Finnegan lay down in the water and drank to such excess that his stomach could not retain it, but threw it all up again. This he repeated four several times. We had all of us stripped off out clothes for the purpose of swimming on shore, and the surf now ran so high, that it was impossible to approach the boat for the purpose of getting them; so that we were all perfectly naked, with exception of an old rug jacket that Finnegan picked up next morning.

[Moreton Island, 15-24 April 1823]

The beach on which the boat struck was a low sand, surrounded by sand-hills which did not even afford fire-wood; but had it been ever so abundant, we had not the means of kindling a fire; we therefore ascended the hill, and lay down on the sand to pass the night. It was raining heavily, and I being the weakest was placed in the middle between my companions. We suffered much throughout the night from cold and hunger; and next morning, when day broke, we found the boat had gone to pieces, and that some few of the things in her had drifted ashore. We then went down to the beach, and found three bags of flour, two of which were totally spoiled; but the salt water had not penetrated above two inches into the third. We therefore emptied those which were not spoiled, and each took from twenty to thirty pounds pf good flour, being as much as we were able to carry. We still imagined we were far to the southward of Port Jackson. Four or five days before we were wrecked, we saw many flying fish and dolphins, and caught one or two of the former; but it never struck us on that account that we were to the northward of Port Jackson. Accordingly, after making a wretched meal of flour and water, which we mixed in a bucket that had drifted ashore, we set out along the beach in a northerly direction, and continued to walk, as expeditiously as our weakness would allow, till near dark.⁵ We then observed a native path striking into the bush, which apparently cut off a bluff head before us: this we determined to follow, and in a short time we saw before us a black woman and child, carrying water in a bark vessel. Fearing that if we were seen, this woman would alarm her tribe, we concealed ourselves till they had passed, and then continued our journey.

1.	15th April.
2.	Between Point Lookout and Cape Moreton; Cook's Morton Bay.
3.	The stream was 2¼ miles along the beach south from Cape Moreton headland.
4.	Pamphlett later stated that Finnegan could not swim (3rd June at Amity Point), and later still remarked that Finnegan and Parsons were poor swimmers (about mid June, on the banks of the Brisbane River).
5.	During this walk along the beach, they saw a large red canoe, and a log with a staple in it, washed up on the beach. Oxley made later mention of this in 1823. The canoe came from the "Echo", which had been wrecked on Wreck Reef.