Alfred Edmund Brown - Master Shipbuilder
The port city of Fremantle is a significant part of the colonial history of Western Australia and the official opening of the Inner Harbour on 4 May 1897 attracted a large crowd. The Harbour, designed by the State Engineer CY O’Connor, meant that Fremantle was now a deep-water harbour. Among the crowd welcoming the SS SULTAN into the new harbour was 34-year-old New Zealander Alfred Edmund Brown. This short biography traces Alfred’s life as a Master Shipbuilder at a time when shipbuilding was a major industry in Fremantle employing a large number of artisans and labourers.
1897 May 4 Official
Opening of Fremantle Harbour ©SLWA
Alfred Edmund Brown was born in New Zealand of English
parents Mary Elizabeth Lane and William Paine (WP) Brown. There’s an
interesting story of how Alfred’s father came to be in New Zealand. WP Brown was
born in Kent England in 1815 and at 14 he was apprenticed to an English ship
building firm. As a young man WP spent many years aboard whaling ships in the
Pacific in search of sperm whales. It is said that the ship’s captain was a
cruel men and William Paine Brown together with another apprentice, William
Gardner, abandoned ship and swam ashore at Tauranga Bay, north of the Bay of
Islands in New Zealand. In 1840 the pair commenced a ship building business in
NZ under the name of Gardner & Brown. Legend has it that WP Brown was
present at the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and that he had a great
influence with the Maoris at the Bay of Islands.
In 1841 William Paine (WP) Browne married a 17-year-old Irish
lass Catherine Richley who had come out from England as a nursemaid with the
Busby family. After the birth of her 8th child Catherine died of pneumonia which
apparently she had contracted while rounding up sheep during a storm. In 1862
William married his children’s governess, Mary Elizabeth Lane, who was 25 years
younger than he. WP Brown had nine more children, the eldest being Alfred
Edmund Brown, born 23 February 1863.
The large Brown family grew up around boats and the ocean and
the sons learnt the ship building trade from a young age. William junior
(b1850) (son of WP and Catherine) went into business with Thomas Major Lane in
1870 on the Kaeo River. Two years later Lane and Brown moved to Totara North
where they developed a very successful ship building business on the northern
shore of Whangaroa Harbour.
Lane and Brown were regarded as the leading ship building
establishment in New Zealand at the time. The timber used in construction was
wholly cut on the premises in their own timber mill. As well as meeting New
Zealand’s shipping needs the company also supplied vessels to the South Sea
Islands, New Guinea and Australia including a fleet of 14 pearling boats for Mr
James Clarke and Co of Thursday Island. Lane and Brown were versatile ship
builders turning out pearling craft of 12 tons to sailers of 320 tons. The firm
employed about 60 men with an average monthly wages bill of £450. It was a
modern business with a telephone and post office on site which meant there was
no delay in the delivery of telegrams and letters to the firm.
It is likely that Alfred worked in his elder brother’s ship-yard and he possibly did his apprenticeship there. But like his father Alfred had an adventurous spirit. In 1934 Herman Kretchmar told a West Australian reporter the following story:
New Zealand was suffering from acute depression when news came early in 1886 of the Hall’s Creek gold boom and there was a sudden rush for passages to Australia. Alf. Brown, a young shipbuilder, and his two partners, William Taylor and George Brown, decided to go. Their ship was the Sovereign of the Seas, a top-sail schooner of about 150 tons, which had won many regattas in Auckland. …they engaged a captain, mate and two paid hands and set sail. Among her cargo was a 30ft. steam launch and also timber for two big barges. They had noticed on the map that the Ord River flowed through Hall's Creek and they hoped to tow their gear there. However, when they reached Wyndham after a smart trip of about five weeks they found that what had appeared a wide and noble river on the map was mostly mud half a mile from its mouth.
Herman arrived in Wyndham about a fortnight after Alfred
Brown. He had taken a steam to Sydney and then sailed to Wyndham on the Pathan,
an old China tea service boat.
I pitched my tent on the slope of Bastion Hill and
stayed there for four days, almost driven crazy by the heat, flies and shortage
of water. The gold rush was over and Wyndham's one street was piled 20ft. high
with stacks of flour, fodder and other goods which diggers had abandoned for
the price of a ticket to Fremantle or Darwin. Then Donald Ross, now Trade
Commissioner for Canada, who had left Auckland a few months earlier to set up a
store at Wyndham, told me that it was useless to stay.
Alfred Brown and his crew, together with Herman Kretchmar,
set sail and reached Fremantle about May 1886 where “Brown sold a little of
his Kauri timber and the steam launch, which was rather a novelty on the river
in those days, and settled down as a shipbuilder near Manning's Folly at South
Beach.”
It didn’t take AE Brown long to establish himself as a
reputable ship builder and within two years he was building a 11-ton lugger for
Mr J Clark to be used on the pearling grounds. It is possible that this is the
same Mr James Clark of Thursday Island that his brother’s firm in New Zealand
(Lane and Brown) had supplied luggers to.
In 1888 AE Brown was described as “one of our leading
yacht builders, has supplied the Government with a ' jolly' boat for use at
Derby. …The finish, like that of all work that leaves Mr. Brown's yard, is
without a fault.” Many of Alfred’s yachts were amongst the fastest sailing vessels on the Swan
River. Racing yachts was serious business as the owners put £50 a-side on the races. In February 1890 AE Brown in his
yacht IMP was narrowly defeated by Mr Mather’s yacht HIBERNIA but later that month Alfred won with the KARAKATTA, which was
deemed the champion all round yacht of Western Australia.
The newspapers always waxed lyrical when they described AE
Brown’s vessels. For example, the paper described the LILLA,
which AE Brown built for a lady located on the bank of the Swan, as “a thing
of joy, the beauty of which is enhanced by the facts that in design and
construction she is purely Western Australian.” The article concluded that
“She is a credit to the builder and an ornament to our splendid river.”
Having proven himself to be a champion sailor and expert boat
builder, Alfred moved in influential circles. He was also handsome and he
caught the eye of Lilian Gibbs, the youngest daughter of James Dagley Gibbs.
The Southern Times newspaper took the liberty of reminding its readers
that Mr JD Gibbs was one of the few surviving old settlers, who landed in
Bunbury in 1844 in the good ship TRUSTY.
Lilian Gibbs had a wide circle of friends from the active
part she took in the Bunbury community – the Wesleyan Sunday School, the Band
of Hope and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. At 21 years of age Lilian
married Alfred Edmund Brown on 3 November 1892 in the Methodist Church in
Bunbury. The bride wore a “handsomely made dress of mauve satin trimmed with
lace and orange blossoms with veil and wreath to match.” After the wedding
breakfast held at the house of the bride’s father “a host of friends
accompanied the newly-married couple to the jetty the same evening to bid them
a cordial farewell on board the FLINDERS” as they set sail for their
new home in Fremantle.
Lilian was busy in their Elizabeth Street home with two young
girls - Violet Alice Brown born 1894 and May Elizabeth Brown born 1895. Life
was going well for the young family until tragedy fell upon the household.
Lilian bore another seven children – none of whom lived more than three days:
Ernest born 1897 died at 3 days, Bertie born 1898 died at 2 days, a stillborn
girl 1899, a stillborn boy 1900, a stillborn girl 1901, William born 1903 died
at 2 days and a stillborn boy in 1905. It is difficult to comprehend the trauma that the family endured and the impact
it would have on Violet and May as they grew up.
In many ways it was probably easier for Alfred as each day he
was able to leave the sadness of the home for his beloved shipyards where he could
concentrate on building beautiful vessels. An example of Alfred’s workmanship
can be seen in the TI-TU, a Screw Steam Launch, that he built for
Septimus Burt, Western Australia's first Attorney-General. TI-TU was
used by the Burt family as a pleasure launch and for picking up dignitaries and
other people from sailing and steam ships docked at Fremantle Harbour. It
is the oldest luxury pleasure launch in Australia and in 1974 the TI-TU
was purchased by the Maritime Museum. It has since been restored and is now on permanent
display at the maritime museum in Fremantle.
The pearling industry in the north of the State was booming and there was an insatiable demand for pearling vessels. The naturally fertile, clean waters of Roebuck bay produced pearls of exceptional quality and in 1910 Broome was the largest pearling centre in the world. Driving this was the booming international pearl button market and new innovations in diving suits. Alfred saw an opportunity and he specialised in building the two-masted pearling luggers weighing about 12 tons. He launched more of that class than any other yard in Fremantle – at least 200 boats. He employed a large staff and many of the best-known pearlers were using the schooners built by AE Brown.
Alfred’s younger brother Gilbert Soloway Brown also emigrated from New Zealand and he lived in Broome and worked on the pearl luggers. Alfred and Gilbert co-owned at least one pearling lugger, the WAITANGI, which Alfred built in 1903. There was much money to be made in the pearling industry but it was a dangerous business and many luggers and lives were lost especially during the cyclone season.
In December 1908 two luggers, the SAYONARA and VANDURA,
owned by Donald Sutherland went missing. The news headline on Boxing Day read:
THE BROOME HURRICANE SIXTY-NINE LIVES LOST
The two rescue boats sent out by the Broome Pearler's Association have not yet
returned and it is concluded that they found no one and all are wrecks. Other
rescue boats searched the beach between Port Hedland and Broome but found no
trace of Donald Sutherland, Gilbert Brown, W. Watt or any crew, these were the
only pearlers left unaccounted for. The total lives lost in the blow is 69,
including six whites. Two schooners and 16 luggers were wrecked, and in the
April storm four schooners and 37 luggers were wrecked. As a result of the two
blows 143 lives were lost and the damage done has been estimated at £40,000.
None of the crew aboard the two luggers were ever found and the
following year Mr Justice Rooth of the Supreme Court heard testimonies from
several people, including Alfred. In summing up Justice Rooth said that Gilbert
Soloway Brown, pearler, had left Broome on October 1, 1908 on Donald
Sutherland’s pearling lugger Sayonara, for the pearling grounds near Broome. On
December 8 there was a severe cyclone and the Justice determined that Gilbert
had died during this storm at sea.
The community mourned the loss of
life and luggers but the industry continued to grow. Just as the Broome
pearling fleet was approaching its peak with 403 luggers Alfred’s wife died. It was 1912, Lilian was only 41 years of age and she had
borne witness to so much sadness in her life. As had her two teenage daughters
– Violet 18 and May 17 – who were now motherless.
The world was sent into turmoil with the onset of World War 1
in July 1914 and the pearling fleet halved as owners and crew rushed to enlist.
In addition, the demand for pearl shell declined as a result of the European
economic downturn. The pearling industry and Broome businesses were dependent on low-paid workers
– both Aboriginal and indentured Asian labourers. The pearling masters and
influential businessmen lobbied the Government for Broome to be exempted from
the White Australia Policy so that they could continue to bring in cheap
labour. The 1916 Pearling Commission heard from many in the industry including those
who built the luggers.
Mr. Alfred Browne, a Fremantle shipbuilder, testified to the number of luggers built at Fremantle for the pearling trade. There had been a slump since the war, and his building yards were idle. The cost of a 12-ton lugger constructed at Fremantle of jarrah and delivered at Broome was £465. A boat built outside of the Commonwealth carried as cargo, paid 20 per cent duty. It was most important to Fremantle to keep the lugger building industry going.
When orders for pearling luggers started diminishing Alfred took
a large risk and constructed a huge shipyard in Rocky Bay. The new slip cost £1,000 but it meant he could now tender for and build large
ships. In the Rocky Bay yard AE Brown built much larger boats such as the schooner GERALDTON,
one of the Fremantle Harbour Trust's tenders and the much-anticipated ferry
boat, SS PERTH. At the time the only way for people
to travel between South Perth and Perth was by boat or via the causeway, which
was definitely too far to walk or cycle and a long journey by horse and cart. It
was an expensive project for the Government (in the vicinity of £3,700) but the investment proved to be worthwhile as the PERTH
continued to be used as a ferry until the 1970s. The PERTH can still be seen on the Swan River, although highly
modified, and perhaps unrecognisable as the ferry AE Brown built in 1914/15. In
the 1980s PERTH was converted to a Party Boat and it was last
sold in 2021.
With both daughters married and starting their own families, and the general downturn in the ship building business, Alfred was possibly thinking about leading a quiet life when in September 1920 his name was plastered across every newspaper in the State. Detective Sergeant Arthur Ebbeson, of the Criminal Investigation Department, had been arrested for attempting to blackmail AE Brown. The charge read as follows:
That he at Perth, on or about June 27, 1920, caused one Alfred Edmund Brown to receive a writing demanding from him money without reasonable or probable cause, and containing threats that the said Albert E. Brown would be defamed if he (the said Albert Edmund Brown) did not comply with the said demand, with intent thereby to extort money from the said Albert Edmund Brown, and the said Arthur Ebbeson knew the contents of the said writing.
Alfred Edmund Brown was summoned to appear before the Perth
Police Court as the principal witness in the blackmail charge against Detective
Sergeant Ebbeson. But Brown was suddenly missing and he did not appear to give
evidence. A warrant was sought from the courts for Alfred’s arrest to make him
appear. The newspapers had a field day and rumours abounded including that
Brown had gone back to New Zealand. “As far as Brown is concerned we believe
that the absolutely last thing he will be likely to do is to return to W.A. At
all events not until the whole affair had blown over. Should he take the bull
by the horns and return then there is likely to be the devil to pay all round.”
The court was adjourned until October but again Alfred did
not front the court. Inspector O’Halloran said the evidence of the witness was
indispensable and the only course left open to him was to apply for the charge
against Ebbeson to be withdrawn. Without comment the magistrate allowed the
charge to be withdrawn and Ebbeson was discharged.
Alfred certainly went to ground and after this court case
there is very little information on the public record. The obituary written
upon his death on 18 December 1933 in Fremantle stated that “for many years
he was a prominent figure along the water front.” The article stated how AE
Brown had built up a successful ship building yards and that “about 12 years
ago the shipyards changed hands, and the present owners are the Swan River
Shipping Company.”
The following year the Western Mail published a
full-page spread celebrating the ‘Fremantle Pageant of Shipping’ paying homage
to the merchant shippers and shipbuilders of Fremantle. Included on its
list of prominent master shipbuilders was A. E. Brown.
References
William Paine Brown of Te Wahapu, Bay of Islands, NZ www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/a/r/David-John-Ward-Auckland/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0044.html
Waitangi, The Treaty House or Busby House, www.waitangi.org.nz/discover-waitangi/treaty-house/
Northland Regional Council, Historic Heritage Reports, Lane and Brown Shipyard,
www.nrc.govt.nz/media/x1tdzlxj/appendixbackgroundinformationforlaneandbrownshipyard.pdf
West
Australian, 6 March 1934, ‘An Odyssey of the Eighties; Story of the Old
Sailing Days’
Daily
News, 2 November 1888, ‘Our Fremantle Letter’
Western Mail, 8 February 1890, ‘Yacht Race at Fremantle’
Inquirer and Commercial News, 19 February 1890, ‘Yacht Race at Fremantle’
Inquirer and Commercial News, 20 December 1895, ‘A new steam launch’
Southern Times, 5 November 1892, ‘Wedding’
Department
of Justice, Births, Deaths, Marriages, https://bdm.justice.wa.gov.au/_apps/pioneersindex/default.aspx
WA
Museum, Ti Tu Steam Pleasure Craft, https://museum.wa.gov.au/research/collections/boats/maritime-history-boats-and-watercraft/ti-tu-steam-pleasure-launch
Western Australian Museum, Pearling Timeline, https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/lustre-online-text-panels/pearling-timeline
JK
Hitchcock 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia,
1829-1929, https://fremantlestuff.info/hitchcock.html
The
Umpire, 24 December 1901, ‘A E Brown Advertisement’
Kalgoorlie Miner, 28 December 1908, ‘The Pearling Disaster’
Murchison Advocate, 26 December 1908, ‘The Broome Hurricane’
West
Australian, 10 August 1909, ‘Presumption of Death’
Western Australia Museum, Master Pearlers, https://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/lustre-online-text-panels/master-pearlers
Broome
Museum, White Australia, https://broomemuseum.org.au/race-rights-rivalries/white-australia/
Journal, 17 May 1916, ‘Pearling Commission’
Fremantle Herald, 3 April 1914, ‘North Fremantle Notes’
Fremantle Herald, 20 March 1914, ‘North Fremantle Notes’
Grays,
MV Perth, 103 ft Converted Ferry, https://www.grays.com/lot/0001-70010083/power-boats/m-v-perth-103ft-converted-ferry
Albany Advertiser, 15 September
1920, ‘Detective Arrested’
Truth, 25 September 1920, ‘Ebby’s
Experiences. Brown Blows Away. Warrant for his Arrest.’
Western Mail, 14 October 1920, ‘The
Case of Detective Ebberson’
West Australian, 19 December 1933, ‘A Fremantle Ship Builder. Death of Mr AE Brown’
Western Mail, 7 March 1935, 'Fremantle Pageant of Shipping. Three Eras of Ships. The Building of the Harbour.'
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