with David Benson
David Benson came across a 1890 NSW 1d. postcard which he thought might be an interesting item for recording in the New South Wales Philatelist. The front and reverse of the postcard are illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 below.
The postcard is from Bathurst and is addressed to:
Captain Neilenstein
Training Ship “Vernon“
Sydney
The message reads:
Deanery,
Bathurst Jan. 5th. 1890
To Capt. Neilenstein
Training Ship Vernon,
Dear Sir,
A Labourer in this city named Henry Hadwell has a most unruly son who is going from bad to worse and yet appears capable of better things if put under control. Can you take him on board your ship and if so on what terms,
I am
Yours Truly,
John T. Marriott D.D.
Dean
David checked through Google and it appears that the Vernon was used a training ship for wayward boys.
From 1871 to 1880 the training ship, Vernon, was anchored off Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour and accommodated wayward and orphaned teenage boys. It was later replaced by the Sobraon. At the end of the decade Cockatoo Island prisoners were relocated to Darlinghurst Gaol and the prison buildings there became the Industrial School for Girls and a reformatory.
From 1880 to 1890 shipbuilding and repair activities expanded steadily on Cockatoo Island and Sutherland Dock was completed in 1890. However the island reverted back to a gaol from 1888-1899 due to overcrowding elsewhere. In 1899 it was condemned as a prison. And so to the January 1890 enquiry from the Dean of Bathurst to Captain Neilenstein.
According to NSW State Government Archives in Brief, The Vernon and the Sobraon, operated as nautical training ships for boys from 1867-1911.
The Vernon (pictured above) opened in 1867. It was used as an Industrial School and a Reformatory as there was no separate boys’ reformatory schools until 1895. The ship held boys until they turned seven. The Sobraon, replaced the Vernon in 1892, and was used until 1911, when the remaining boys were sent to the Mittagong Farm Home for Boys and the Brush Farm Home for Boys.
The anchors from the Vernon form part of the Memorial outside the entrance to the Aust ralian National Maritime Museum in Sydney’s Darling Harbour.
The Vernon is associated with the first winner of the Victoria Cross to settle in New South Wales following his arrival in Sydney on 29 April 1863. The life of James Gorman VC, from the time he boarded the 755-ton ‘FAIRLIE’ at Plymouth to sail to Australia on the 7th January 1863 till his death in Sydney on the 18th October 1882, is well recorded.
Gorman first resided at 259 Kent Street, from where he would have been able to look out over the busy wharves of Darling Harbour, once the centre of Sydney’s maritime industry, now the site of the National Maritime Museum, he was quickly employed as a Sailmaker.
While still working as a sailmaker he moved to a dockside house in Sussex Street, and met twenty year old Marianne (Mary Ann) Jackson. Mary Ann had emigrated with her parents Robert (a bricklayer) and Elizabeth (nee Coates) from Methwold, Norfolk on the “Beyapore” arriving in Sydney on the 6th January 1853.
On November 10th 1864 James and Mary Ann married at St Philip’s Church, Sydney. The following year while residing at 259 Kent Street, their only child a daughter Annie Elizabeth Gorman was born.
On 17th April 1867 James was employed as a foundation staff member on the Colonies first Nautical School Ship, the NSS Vernon which had been a East Indian paddle-wheel steamer before being purchased by the New South Wales government from the merchant Robert Towns for the sum of 3,950 pounds ($7,900). Her paddles were removed and she was converted to full sail and refitted as a training ship for the homeless neglected and destitute boys of the Colony. James was employed as drill master and gunnery instructor. As he was re-quired to live on board the NSS Vernon six nights a week Mary Ann and Annie moved to 230 Kent Street which was near a butcher shop owned by her uncle William Coates.
Henry Parkes, The Colonial Secretary, of New South Wales with the support of the Premier James Martin QC had been successful in having Legislation passed which empowered the police to bring homeless boys found vagrant or begging in the streets before two JPs, who could place the homeless boy on the Vernon. They
In 1869 while holding the position of Master at Arms and gunnery instruct or Gorman told a select committee of Parliamentarians that he believed the younger boys would be better served if they were given more schooling, recreation and rewards for good behaviour. In place of the continual scrubbing of the decks that they [the boys] were required to do daily, he maintained that from 4.30am till they went to bed at 8.00pm the boys did not have a half-hour to call their own during the whole day.
In 1872 he was promoted to Sail Maker and Officer in charge of the lower deck and many of his suggestions made at the inquiry were adopted to the benefit of the boys. Boys from 23 months to seventeen years of age were sent to the Vernon.
The annual reports from the Superintendent of the NSS Vernon, Captain James Seton Veitch Mein to the Colonial Secretary repeatedly show that James Gorman V.C. was well respected by both the boys and the other officers.
“… of the Scarlet Fever that had been in the ship for several months, and that at present we are quite clear of sickness. The great attention and care of the sick by Mr James Gorman, that was specially reported and commended earlier, I think is worthy of notice again here, for it was no doubt due to his skilful nursing that many of the boys recovered so quickly.
It affords me great satisfaction to be enabled to state that no death has taken place during the last twelve months.” (1873 annual report)
“There was one death during the year by accident, the second fatal accident since 1867, there were less colds and sore throats than any other year due to fumigating the lower decks, The Officer in Charge of the Lower deck, Mr James Gorman VC. is a careful and expert hand in the use of this remedy and preventative; he deserves every praise for the care of the sick.” (1874 annual report)
During the period James Gorman VC was employed on the NSS Vernon, no Officer had ever been appointed to look after the boys while they were in the sick bay. And following Gorman’s promotion there had been nobody allocated to replace him as drill master to instruct the boys in the art of sword, gun and sail drill. Gorman carried out these duties in addition to his appointed duties, when asked if he could drill the boys, he replied that he would drill the boys in his spare time. In February 1869 beside his allocated duties he was drilling boys for five and a half hours a day.
Gorman’s concern for the welfare of the boys, the lack of experienced staff and the attempt to keep the cost of running the establishment down, all contributed to the additional work carried out by Gorman who was kept fully occupied from 6am to 9pm each day. Besides Gorman only the two boatswains had served in the Royal Navy.
On Monday 1st April 1878, James Gorman VC was promoted to the position of Second Mate with a salary of 130 Pounds ($260) per year. He retained this position as third officer of the NSS Vernon until the 7th June 1881, when he transferred to the Ordnance Department to take up the position as the Foreman of the Magazines on Spect acle Island for a yearly salary of 175 Pound ($350).
On the 20th July 1881, just six weeks after taking up this position, he married for the second time. His new bride was thirty-five year old Deborah King, who with his daughter Annie, then lived with him in a st one cottage on Spectacle Island.
On the 15th of Oct ober 1882, aged only 47 years James Gorman VC suffered a severe stroke. Three days later with his wife and his sixteen-year-old daughter Annie Elizabeth at his bedside he died. (Ref: Digger History website.)
For the full story of James Gorman VC see 150 years of the Victoria Cross, 1857-2007 Crimea to Afghanistan. Edited by Harry Willey. Available at Public Libraries or direct from harry@victoria-cross.com
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