Experiment 1802

[shipstamps]

On April 22, 1959, the Australian Post Office issued a 4d. stamp, significant of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the dominion's first official post office on April 25, 1809, when Isaac Nichols took up his appointment as the first postmaster in Sydney, N.S.W. The design of the stamp shows Nichols boarding the brig Experiment, the first vessel to reach Sydney from the United Kingdom after Nichols had received his appointment. The Experiment of 142 tons, dropped anchor in Sydney Harbour on June 26, 1809, with convicts and also his Majesty's mails. A merchant vessel, she had left Cork Cove on January 21, 1809, in a West Indian convoy (because of the war with France) and had reached Sydney via Cape Horn. This Experiment should not be confused with a local vessel of the same name, in port about the same time, and normally running between Port Jackson and the Hawkesbury. No doubt, Nichols would have received some mails by vessels returning from Van Diemen's Land or Norfolk Island and perhaps from whalers touching at Sydney after his appointment on April 25, 1809, and before the arrival of the Experiment two months later.
Settlement in Australia had its beginnings in 1788 with the arrival of the first fleet, under Capt. Arthur Phillip. History does not record the means of handling the occasional mails of the new settlement in New South Wales during its first few years. The first official record relating to mails was published in the Sydney Gazette of July 10, 1803, concerning boatmen plying between Sydney and Parramatta. Among charges which they were authorised to make was one of 2d. for each letter carried, except those on Government service. At this time there were no other regulations or orders concerning the handling of letters received into the colony but it is evident from the first regulations that some abuses had arisen in regard to the distribution and collection of letters from overseas. To overcome the undesirable practices which had developed, and at the same time to provide that adequate controls should be maintained, a general Government order, dated April 25, 1908, was promulgated. This read "Complaints have been made to the Lieut.-Governor that numerous frauds have been committed by individuals repairing on board ships on their arrival at this port, and personating others, by which they have obtained possession of letters and parcels, to the great injury of those for whom they were intended. "The Lieut.-Governor, in order to prevent the practice of such frauds in future, has been pleased to establish an office at which all parcels and letters addressed to the inhabitants of this Colony are to be deposited previous to their distribution, which office shall be under the direction of Mr. Isaac Nichols, Assistant to the Naval Officer, who has entered into security for the faithful discharge of the trust reposed in him. "The following regulations are, therefore, to be observed, viz. On the arrival of any vessel, Mr. Nichols, or a person properly authorised by him, is to repair on board, and to require that all letters and parcels directed for the Colony be delivered to him, for which he is to give a receipt to the master, mate or supercargo."
These rules detail the charges required for letters and parcels carried from the mail vessel to the Post Office established on shore. Persons to whom the letters were addressed were required to call for them; there was no postal delivery, for the Proclamation declares: "A list to be published in the Gazette of the names of persons to whom letters and parcels are directed." The effect of this order was to establish the Post Office in Australia.
The theme upon which the stamp was based, constituted the subject of an hitherto unused design for a departmental poster some years ago by the late R. Shackel. The various drawings subsequently made for the stamp design were based broadly on the poster design but due to the necessity of ensuring historical accuracy within the narrow limits of a postage stamp, the final design has been altered considerably.
The Australian 5d. stamp commemorating the first Australian Post Office has now been overprinted for use in Norfolk Island. Some further information about the ship depicted has come my way since the first stamp was issued. The stamp design which shows the first officially appointed Australian Postmaster arriving aboard the brig Experiment to carry out his first public duty (conveyance of the mail from ship to shore) gives no idea that the vessel was the smallest ship ever to be employed in the Convict Service and that below her hatches were 60 women prisoners.
She was the second convict ship of the name and the stamp shows her arrival at Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) on June 26, 1809. The vessel—a prize—was built in Georgia in 1802 and had a tonnage of between 142 and 146. Her hull was of live oak and cedar and pine were used in her construction. She belonged to a Dutchman, a prominent London shipowner, Peter Evet Mestaers, who had a small firm which built East Indiamen in a yard at Rotherhithe. The Experiment was commanded by Capt. Joseph Dodds, carried a crew of 12 and mounted eight guns. She was evidently a good sea boat and a splendid sailer for in a West Indies convoy after embarking her women prisoners at Cork, she ran out to Rio in 47 days, while the voyage out to Australia was completed in much less time than that of many ships twice her size. The little Experiment made only one Convict Service voyage to Australia and her name afterwards disappears from the records.
Aust SG331, Norfolk Is SG23

[john sefton]

Do you know the SG number for this stamp?