Tuesday 1 September 2015

BLACKBURN'S ISLE

David Blackburn is a name not nearly as well-known as Vancouver or Cook, but he was an explorer in his own right in a sense that he travelled far, noted what he saw, and wrote letters home describing it all. More to the point, he had Norfolk connections, particularly through his mother, Elizabeth, a member of the influencial Martineau family, and a Norwich woman.
In fact, Blackburn was born in 1753 in Newbury, Berkshire, the eldest son of the Rev John Blackburn. Before little David was ten years' old, however, his father died, and his widowed mother moved the family back to Norwich, where she still had connections. Thus he grew up in the city, but by 1787 he had joined the Navy and was waiting for a ship, short of money and in need of a commission.
Then in April of that year he was summoned by the Navy Office and given a warrant appointing him Master of HM Armed Tender Supply - bound, with the First Fleet, for Botany Bay.
And there the story might have been buried and forgotten were it not for the good fortune that David wrote letters home, someone carefully kept them, and decades later, that a local writer heard about them and recognised their importance and their interest.
He was Derek Neville, wanderer, writer, poet and restaurateur, then of Itteringham, Norfolk, who heard about the pile of letters during a casual conversation with friends, duly borrowed them, did some research, and finally wrote a book on the subject. That, at least, helped prevent David Blackburn from being totally forgotten.
Blackburn's letters described the voyage and the scenes at the convict settlement at Botany Bay. Later, the Fleet sailed again to explore and survey the Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, and it was here, in this remote locality, that a tiny island was named after him: Blackburn Island.
That was in 1788, but nearly 200 years' later - as Derek Neville discovered - modern maps had forgotten the association, naming the isle instead Rabbit Island. Neville sought to rectify the issue, and thanks to his campaigning over 2000 Norfolk people also subscribed to the cost of a new English oak seat which was duly shipped to Australia and installed on Lord Howe Island, overlooking Rabbit Island. He also campaigned in Australia, successfully as it turned out, and the name was changed once again to Blackburn Island.
The seat carried the following inscription: 'This seat was given by the people of England in memory of David Blackburn, Master of the HM Armed Tender Supply, who sailed with the First Fleet at New South Wales in 1787 and after whom Blackburn Island was named on the 12th of March, 1788.'
It is a fitting memorial, because Blackburn's letters are full of fascinating detail and worthy of their small place in history.
(Blackburn's Isle, by Derek Neville. Terence Dalton, 1975)  

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