Captain Emanual Underwood was a sea captain, pioneer, and colonist born in Essex in 1806. He left his home near Liverpool in 1839 to emigrate to South Australia, claiming that “the English climate did not suit him.” Increased immigration to Australia was common at this time due to Britain’s worsening socioeconomic condition after the Napoleonic wars, and the promise of settler capitalism as the colony expanded. His wife and children remained in England and Underwood arrived in Australia on 3 March 1840. This arrival is detailed extensively in his only known published work, a five-part autobiographical recount of his life as an Australian pioneer. Recollections of a Pioneer was published in the South Australian Advertiser from 31 May 1878 to 7 August 1878.
He was renowned in both Australian ports and newspapers. A Tasmanian newspaper republished details about his arrival in Melbourne saying, “Captain Underwood, it will be remembered, has always made good passengers to this colony.” One of these passengers was Sir Richard G. MacDonnell, the Governor of South Australia, on one of his travels in 1855. This connection to the Governor demonstrates the type of prestigious public perception he had in Australia throughout his career.
Underwood was known for his ship, the Governor Gawler. It was built in Port Adelaide, and he claimed it was the first craft launched in the colony, with one paper saying that: “It is impossible to conceive that Captain Underwood has made any mistake in the matter.” This point was challenged, though, as another story said that “The Alice (30 tons), built in Port Lincoln, and the Jane Flaxman, built in Port Adelaide, were launched months before the Governor Gawler.” The Governor Gawler ended its run in August 1847, shipwrecked on one of the Sir Joseph Banks Islands in the Spencer Gulf.
The sea was not a kind environment in Underwood’s life and writing, as he was shipwrecked many times but managed to survive. Underwood’s youngest son, though, died in a shipwreck in 1859. At the time of his retirement, around 1864, Underwood passed on his current ship to his son Thomas and settled down in Edwardstown, South Australia.
He owned a store for settlers at Rivoli Bay in his lifetime. The couple who took charge of the store after his death were “strongly imbued with the missionary spirit, and soon after settling in their new home set about to Christianize and civilize, as far as lay in their power, the aboriginal [sic] inhabitants of the district.” Underwood himself held similar views towards Indigenous Australians, reporting of their interactions negatively.
Captain Underwood died on 24 December 1888 in Edwardstown at 82 years old.
This biography was researched and written by Stephanie Goltz.
Sources:
“Death of a South-Eastern Pioneer.” South Australian Register, 5 May, 1893. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48519989.
“Died.” South Australian Register, 24 August, 1859. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49828346.
“English News to the Fifth of March.” Cornwall Chronicle, 19 May, 1855. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/65720005.
Lloyd, Christopher. “The Emergence of Australian Settler Capitalism in the Nineteenth Century and the Disintegration/Integration of Aboriginal Societies: Hybridisation and Local Evolution within the World Market.” In Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives, edited by Ian Keen, 23–40. ANU Press, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hfhd.7.
“Pioneer’s Golden Wedding.” Border Watch, 8 April, 1911. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/77479876.
“Recollections of a Pioneer.” Trove. Accessed 3 November 2024. https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/254880176/version/286588448.
Redgum. “Early Days of South Australia: Story of Captain Underwood Pioneering the Coastal Trade.” Chronicle, 21 March, 1935. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/92361552.
Saunders, A. T. “Capt. Emanuel Underwood: Early Voyages and Adventures I.” Register, 29 August, 1922. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/4558085.
Saunders, A. T. “Capt. Emanuel Underwood: Early Voyages and Adventures II.” Register, 5 September, 1922. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64130508/4558161.
