Author(s): Marten Syme; Patrick Connelly

Local Nonfiction | Local Author | Local Content

The Mahogany Ship legend is questioned by the authors: why are the elements of the Foundation story inconsistent and improbable? Why are the recollections of the dozen people who offered their testimony about the supposed wreck so conflicted? Linked with this story, whaling at Griffiths Island at Port Fairy was undertaken by speculators from Launceston in 1836. John Griffiths and Michael Connolly established the whaling station and also commenced farming on the hinterland, but overreach and the 1840s economic collapse brought them both to insolvency. Alexander Campbell, John Cox and Walter Chiene are the other adventurers whose exploits are detailed in this story of the first entrepreneurs at Port Fairy