Charles Eaton (1833 ship)
Charles Eaton was a barque, launched in 1833 for use as a merchant ship. Whilst under the command of Captain Fowle, she was wrecked in 1834 among the Torres Strait Islands, off the northern coast of Queensland, Australia, and her passengers and crew attacked and nearly all killed by Torres Strait Islanders on Mer Island. A cabin boy and small child survived and lived with the islanders until being rescued by Captain Lewis and crew on Isabella in June 1836, who also found skulls of some of the murdered people on a nearby island and took them back to Sydney for burial.
Charles Eaton (1833 ship)
Image from John Ireland’s book The shipwrecked orphans: A true narrative of shipwreck and sufferings of John Ireland and William Doyly (Teller's amusing, instructive and entertaining tales).
The rescue of William D'Oyly, 1841
Memorial to Thomas Prockter Ching in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Launceston, Cornwall.
Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. Today, there are many more Torres Strait Islander people living in mainland Australia than on the Islands.
Geographical distribution of people with Torres Strait Islander Indigenous status.
Geographical distribution of people with both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous status.
Geographical distribution of people with Torres Strait Islander ancestry.
Indigenous Status of population in localities with significant share of Torres Strait islander population.
