James Duffy and George Brown

Pakington Whaling Station at Port Gregory was established in 1884 by Captain Henry Sanford, David Ronayne and Joshua Harwood. Henry owned the nearby station, was the superintendent of the Lynton Convict Hiring Depot and was the Resident Magistrate for the area.

The Depot was established in 1853 so that station owners and the local mine could access labour. The convicts were Ticket of Leave men who were close to the expiry of their sentence. Men granted a ticket from the Fremantle prison were sent to the hiring depot where they spent the last of their prison term providing free labour.

The first year of whaling yielded only one whale, and David left the partnership. In 1885 Henry battled on alone, with Joshua as headsman of a whaleboat. They lost two whaleboats but earned £800 from16 casks of oil.

In the following year Henry maintained a whaling party at Port Gregory with three whaleboats and 22 crew. John Bateman, a prominent ship owner and trader, established a second whaling operation from Port Gregory.

The whaling season started in June and ended in September each year when migrating whales passed close to the coast. The Port Gregory operations were shore whaling. Small whaleboats (longboats) launched from the beach chased whales and support boats towed them to shore for processing.

At the end of the season whalers were moved south, following the whales and working from other stations or whaleships. Ticket of Leave men living at Lynton Depot worked the rest of the year at the local mine or stations.

Lynton Depot was isolated, and it was difficult to get fresh fruit and vegetables. Consequently, scurvy was common.

One of the whalers from Lynton Depot was James Duffy. James was transported as Convict 2228 to Western Australia on the Robert Small. He was a single Irish labourer, aged 26 years. James’ sentence expired in April 1856, so he was granted a Conditional Pardon. One condition was that he continued to work, although he was able to earn a share of the proceeds from the catches made by the boat he worked on.

A second whaler in the same boat was George Brown. George was a free man, who migrated to Western Australia at the age of four with his parents, George and Janet Forsyth, and nine siblings. The family came from Lanarkshire in Scotland. George’s father and his two older brothers and his brother-in-law worked at the Geraldine mine.

On 29 June 1857 James and George were chasing a whale. There had been five weeks of continuous gales, preventing the boats from launching. The crew were eager to return to work. They had no pay when they were not catching whales.

The water was still rough, having been whipped into a frenzy during the previous weeks. Whaleboats were longboats which were rowed and sailed. They were solid enough for the work they did but could capsize when they were broadside to large waves.

And that is what happened to the boat James and George were in. They had harpooned a whale and were attached when the boat capsized. George and James were thrown in the water. They drowned.

The two bodies were recovered and buried in unmarked graves at Port Gregory. Both men were single at the time of their deaths.

Lynton Depot was abandoned in December 1856, the year before James and George died. The Geraldine lead mine closed in 1865. Convicts were no longer transported after 1868.

As for Henry Sanford, he resigned from his positions in 1863 when it was discovered he had built the whaling station from government timber and had used government resources in the construction. Henry sold his station and returned to England in 1857.

Whaling in Port Gregory continued, and John Bateman’s operation expanded to include bay whaling using his schooner Favourite. John built a port with a jetty in 1857. Processing was commenced aboard the vessel prior to the whales being brought ashore. Favourite was also used to transfer crews to follow the whale migrations.

Seasonal whaling ended in the area in 1875, when other methods of lighting were established and the demand for whale oil reduced.