The wreck of the William Salthouse, 1841: Early Trade between Canada and Australia

Abstract

This paper begins with an examination of the background and historical context to a voyage by the trading vessel William Salthouse that ended when the vessel was lost at the entrance to Port Phillip in July 1841. William Salthouse sank just a few years after the establishment of the colony to which it had been dispatched at the end of a voyage from Montreal and Quebec in Canada to the newly established Port Phillip (Melbourne) colony carrying a cargo valued at £12 000 that included flour, salted fish, salted meat, building materials and alcohol. Since 1982, archaeological and historical research has been conducted to investigate the cargo of William Salthouse and this paper presents and interprets some of the results of that research.