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"EMPRESS OF INDIA" LAUNCHED 1877

In Taree during the latter part of 1876 and early 1877, the brothers George and William Fotheringham, laboured on a slipway on the bank of the Manning with the construction of a ship - a two masted schooner of some 62 gross tons, which they finally launched on March 1, 1877.

As was the custom in those days, ship owners plying between the North Coast ports and Sydney carried the products of the land to the city markets, to satisfy the needs of a growing population, and on return carried the manufactured goods needed in the country back to the coastal ports.

The "Empress of India", which was the name of the Fortheringham Brothers' ship was no exception and carried farm produce, cattle, pigs and maize to the city, but as was also a custom, each ship was also laden with as much timber as she could carry.

Timber was an urgent need in the city and both sawn timber and poles were carried, and if there was insufficient in the home port, ships called at other ports on the way to supplement their loads.

The "Empress of India" sailed the sea lanes successfully for her owners until July 23, 1900, when after entering the port of Cape Hawke for additional cargo, set out again to sea over the bar on a racing tide into a vicious chop. As she crossed the bar she bumped, slewed and drifted side on to the sand spit off the Tuncurry Shore.

She rolled, and with heavy seas began to break up. Captain Peter Williams and his two seamen rapidly launched a boat and made for the shore but were caught in the swirling waters, capsized and the three were drowned.

Their bodies were recovered and they were buried on the seaward end of where the camping reserve stands today. Later however when other uses were devised for the ground the bodies were dug up and reburied in Tuncurry Cemetery, where today stands the tombstone of Peter Williams which was provided by his wife. Close beside the stone the grave of the two unknown seamen who had died with him.

The ship and her cargo lay scattered along the beach, now flotsam, which in those days became the property of those who rescued it. The timber was rescued by local citizens.

At the outset, Tuncurry was a leasehold property leased to John Wright and upon which "his people" dwelt and worked at the mill which they had built there. However soon surveys were made and a plan of village laid out providing lots for purchase as freehold residential lots.

Simon Hemmy, son of Fred and Sophie Hemmy, bakers, bought the lot on the corner of Manning and Kent Streets. Simon was an engineer who was an essential part of the mill - for in those days it required a trained man to operate a steam boiler and engine, but Simon left the mill to become engineer aboard the "Marion Mayfield" under Capt. Frank O'Beirne. "Marion Mayfield" being John Wright's first major vessel built in this port, in 1883.

Simon had rented the home he built on that lot to a newly arrived Italian emigrant, and when he married Hannah Maria Newton in 1891 he and his bride sold the house to a Italian family and rebuilt elsewhere. This sale took place in 1902.

The Italian was Vincenzo Fazio, born on the Isle of Lipari off the coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean, July 11, 1865 and arrived as an emigrant on October 20, 1886 on board the "Jeira" at Port Melbourne but apparently not liking the more southern climate soon moved up to Sydney where he joined other Italian fishermen and for the next ten years prospered in the city.

Eventually he sickened of the city and moved up the coast to Port Stephens where local fishing was good and the annual trips to Sugar Loaf Point for the lobsters a profitable undertaking.

However, Vince still not satisfied moved up the Myall Lakes to Bungwahl, where he hired a bullock wagon to transport his equipment and boat across to the southern end of Wallis Lake.

Here he moved to Tuncurry where he settled in 1896. He courted and won local lass, Miss Lilian Hardy from Darawank and Vincent continued with the business of fishing - early in the piece shipping his catch by sailing , then steam ship in huge wooden cases packed in ice and sawdust, then after the opening of the railway in early 1913, by truck to Taree.

There was also a local market where a price could be put on the catch to yield often a better price than one would get in the city and to take the opportunity of this the Fazios opened a small shop at the rear-on the Kent Street frontage of their home lot.

The timber used to erect this structure was mostly that salvaged from the unfortunate "Empress of India'.

The house still exists (2002) - now one of the oldest untouched buildings in Tuncurry, the shop having evolved into a laundry, but the original home and its "annexe" was as shown in accompanying picture.

How fascinating the relationships that exist back down the ways of our development and how interesting these when unfolded years later.