Barbara Thompson (castaway)

HMS Rattlesnake
by Oswald Walters Brierly

Barbara Crawford Thompson (1831—1916) was a Scottish girl who at 13 years old was possibly the sole survivor of the 1844 wreck of the cutter America, which ran onto Madjii Reef at Horn Island in Endeavour Strait near Cape York, Queensland, Australia.

Shipwreck

At the time of the shipwreck, Barbara Crawford Thompson had lived for twenty months in Brisbane with her lover William Thompson as his de facto wife. Thompson is presumed to have died while trying to swim ashore after his cutter wrecked. Barbara survived and was taken in by one of the buwai gizumabaigalai (clan leaders) of the Kaurareg people who believed that Barbara was the returned spirit (markai) of his recently deceased daughter.

Barbara lived on Muralug ['moorralahg] ( Prince of Wales Island ) for five years and was called "Gioma" or "Giom" by her adopted family.

Rescue

On 16 October 1849, Barbara/Gioma managed to make contact with the British survey ship, HMS Rattlesnake, at Evans [Paduga] Bay near Cape York and was returned to Sydney. The Rattlesnake's artist, Oswald Brierly, made detailed notes of her stay with the Kaurareg.

After being rescued, Barbara Crawford Thompson married twice.^[1]

Books

The story is fictionalised in the 1947 book Isles of Despair by Ion Idriess.

Raymond J. Warren documents the events in the book Wildflower: The Barbara Crawford Thompson Story.^[2]

References

1. Torres Strait Islands' Shipwrecks
2. Warren, Ray (1 Feb 2008). Wildflower: The Barbara Crawford Thompson Story (2nd Revised ed.). Raymond J Warren. ISBN 0646490931.