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Current Newsletter Our newsletter The Cemetorian is produced quarterly. THOMAS WEBB - Mariner and Merchant The arrival in the early1850's of the little iron screw steamer the Express into Hobsons Bay, would create for it's owners Captain William Howard Smith, who navigated her, Mr.S. B. Skinner, the chief engineer and crew Thomas Webb, the 2nd officer, an opportunity to lay the foundations for a shipping company that would one day own vast numbers of ships, properties, collieries and even a significant slice of a pioneering airline. In the busy waters of Port Phillip, at the height of the gold rush that saw the arrival of hundreds of immigrants, the Express rigged as a schooner, used her sails as well as her engines to begin trading between Melbourne and Geelong. In 1855 The Express Steamer Agency was established by partners Captain Smith and Geelong merchant Thomas Parker. John Trail was manager and Thomas Webb was Captain of the Express. Thomas Webb was born in the village of Snettisham Norfolk in 1830. The son of servants and labourers he left home at the age of fifteen to go to sea. Having seen the vast prospects for trade that Port Phillip offered he retuned to England in 1856 to marry a cousin Ellen Webb. Webb returned to Melbourne with his bride and together they raised eight children, Thomas Langley, Ellen Victoria, Minnie Rutland, John Langley, William Langley, Sara Ada, Robert Langley and Ivie Constance. Captain Howard Smith sold his half share in the Express to Mr. Parker and when Mr. Skinner died in 1867 his share in the Express was purchased jointly by Mr. Traill and Captain Webb. The association between Webb and Parker would last for many years and extend to future generations. Parker, Trail and Webb built their second steamer the Dispatch and next came the Alert and the Excelsior. Captain Webb was the commander of the fleet. Their steamship Luna made newspaper headlines in February 1868 when she collided in the bay with rival the Black Swan. In the meantime rival, Captain Peter Huddart, with his nephew, Mr. James Huddart, built up a prosperous coal carrying business with his fleet of small sailing vessels. In 1876 James Huddart, Thomas Parker, J. H. Traill and Captain Thomas Webb as equal partners established the firm of Huddart, Parker& Co., coal importers and merchants at Geelong.. By 1878 they had bought William Morley's coal business in Melbourne where they made their headquarters. They used sailing ships until 1880 when three modern steamers were bought. The expansion of the coastal trade in coal, cargo and passengers meant continual additions to the fleet and new branches at Newcastle in 1880 and Sydney in 1881. Regular trade with Queensland began in the mid-1880s, with Tasmania and New Zealand in 1889 and with South and Western Australia in 1890. In 1889 the firm became a limited liability company with a capital of £300,000, the four partners taking up equal shares and the dynamic Huddart becoming managing director. Captain Webb was master of many of the company's ships carrying an average of five hundred passengers a day. He was to ague in November 1883 to an enquiry by the board of The Steam-board Navigation Office that after thirty years on the river the required speed of three knots would keep his passengers in the "Melbourne sewer" for more than two hours and that six knots would not create a disturbance of water damaging other ferry's and rivals stocks which had been the complaint. Captain Webb also had a run in with the excise agent who boarded his steamship Alert. The agent ordered a nobler of whiskey from the chief steward and tasting it found it's contents to be an inferior, raw and impalpable spirit and not the quality of Mitchell's Whiskey as the label showed. Fortunately Captain Webb was not aboard that day. Webb was chairman of the Steamship Owners Association of Australia, executive member of the Employers Union, and member of the Coal Importers Association. In 1889, Thomas Webb a wealthy man, left for an eighteen months European tour. With him, his wife Ellen and they included their hometown of Snettisham in England. When Captain Thomas Webb died after a stroke in 1898 the offices of Huddart, Parker & Co ran a flag at half mast. He was buried at Brighton General Cemetery survived by his wife and children. Sources : Marilla James nee Webb, Susan Aird nee Hammond, Brighton Cemetery Reg, notes Jan. Rigby | |
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Last Updated: 01-Oct-2007 19:08.