Memorandum of Agreement between the Whaling Company at Encounter Bay and Alexander Ewen of Port Victor

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Memorandum of Agreement between the Whaling Company at Encounter Bay and Alexander Ewen of Port Victor

Date1871

Object number00008257

NameContract

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 340 x 415 mm

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionThis is a handwritten contract between Alexander Ewen, Henry Ranford and Henry Simpson written in 1871. It outlines the conditions under which Ewen is to take over the management of the whaling station at Encounter Bay and what his financial reward will be. It was to be the last year of the whaling company in the bay and the last time a whale was caught by Alexander Ewen.HistoryAlexander Ewen arrived in South Australia in approximately 1848 from Scotland aboard the DAPHNE. He was initially had work at the whaling station The Bluff in Encounter Bay. The whaling station operated for the next 23 years but was not buoyant enough to provide work all year and was thus only a winter employment. Being a ships carpenter Ewen found work building jetties. He and his wife Mary had 14 children and Ewen died in 1893 ("Encounter Bay Family History Group", 2013)SignificanceThe whaling tradition in Encounter Bay was established around 1837 although rudimentary sealing operations on Kangaroo Island was recorded as early as 1808. The sealing and whaling industry had bought essential economic benefits to the fledging colonies yet by the 1870's the boom seasons were over and men such as Alexander Ewen took took to land based operations but as whalers had given the colony a valuable foundation.