Sunday, March 20, 2011

DEATH OF ALFRED AUSTRALIA HOWE


Article written in The Sydney Gazette.31 January 1837
At the M'Leay River, on Wednesday evening, the 17th January, Master Alfred Australia Howe, aged 12 years, second son of the late Robert Howe, Esq., Printer, of Sydney. This unfortunate youth whilst washing his feet in shallow water, on the banks of the stream, in the charge of a man servant, was suddenly seized by a large shark, near fifty miles from the harbour, and dragged into the current. The man rushed in and grasping the boy at the hazard of his own life, pulled him out of the monster's month and swam to land, just as the fish pursued them furiously to the shore, The effusion of blood was instantly stopped, but symptoms of mortification exhibiting themselves.  The Surgeon in attendance peremptorily ordered a removal to Port Macquarie, for amputation of the limb, but death terminated his sufferings by locked jaw, in a litter on the road.
Eight years ago this unfortunate boy was miraculously saved from a watery grave, at the time his equally unfortunate father was drowned by the upsetting of a boat off Pinchgut. The good qualities and high promise of the youth are justly appreciated by all who knew him ; and time itself can never efface from his unhappy relatives, the dreadful catastrophe which  has deprived a mother of her fondest hope, and two sisters of their dearest brother. He will be removed to Sydney for interment in the vault of his family, so that the bodies of the father and son may mingle in dust together.