Despite losing his ship and much of his stock on his first - and last- attempt at taking livestock to New Caledonia, it wasn't all doom and gloom for Allan Hughan and his finances. An article published in the Brisbane Courier on Saturday, October 15, 1870, read:
" GLADSTONE: The last Gladstone Observer to hand has the following:-
The Au Revoir, for New Caledonia, takes 50 head of cattle and 250 head of sheep. This is the first purely local venture of this sort; but as Captain Hughan, of the unfortunate schooner Pilot, succeeded in obtaining seven pounds fifteen shillings per head for the cattle and eighteen shillings four pence for the sheep, that survived the wreck, we may hope that Mr Friend will succeed in opening a permanent trade."
I can't locate shipping records that tell me when the Hughans arrived in Noumea to settle permanently in 1871. My last official record of them was in Sydney in November of 1870, when the French ship Surcouf had transported Allan ( and presumably his family!) back to Australia.
Allan rarely mentioned his family-in all of his recounts of the shipwreck the word 'family' is used but once...in every other instance the story revolves around Allan himself and his crew. Phoebe and the girls may have remained in Noumea if Allan was intending to return very quickly- I just don't know at this stage.
It is know, however, that by June 7, 1871, the first reference of Allan Hughan as a photographer appeared in the Monituer (local newspaper of Noumea). I would love to know where Allan came up with the idea of photography for his career move. There is no evidence of photos taken by him on his previous jaunts, although two poorer quality under-exposed copies of photographs of his children exist in my Hughan records..perhaps they were amongst his first attempts?
I will post them here now, and would welcome any comments and opinions on the matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment