Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/612

 ;86 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The late Mr. Robert Woolnouo-h IN his smug complacenc)" the shore man is apt to take little account of the contribution of the sailor to the development of trade. He does not often r(cognise how important a part of commercial business ie^ coastal maritime transit. A railway looms large in his eyes, but a .sea trade is taken as a matter of course. He will agitate for privileges for the railway magnate and his employes, but he often forgets all about the sailor. In earlier years the coastal trade of South Australia was a very important feature in the development of various districts separated by long distances from each other. The navigators who conducted the .sailing vessels up and down the gulfs, and out into the ocean to the southern settle- ments, were therefore valuable links in the industrial chain. It is our wish to here give the biography of one of the most important of these m(Mi. The late Mr. Robert Woolnough was born in 1823 in a small village a few miles from Lowestoft, England. Mr. Woolnough dreamt of the sea as a bo)'. He was soon able to follow it, and became engaged on a coastal vessel which for years sailed from port to port in Great Britain. But there is not so much attraction in coastal work as in sailing boldly over the ocean to other climes ; hence Mr. Woolnough joined the ship Sarah Sands, making several trips with her to America, and to the Cape of Good Hope. Eventually he came in that vessel to Australia, and in .South Australia severed his connection with it. He was next engaged on the- schooner Bandicoot, carrying supplies to the settlements along .Spencer Gulf In this manner he obtained a very thorough knowledge of the navigation of South Australian waters, and on March I. 1854, was appointed a pilot, serving imder the auspices of what was called the Trinity Board, since named the Marine Board. While nK)st of the trading was carried on by sailing vessels, he was an important factor in the Province, and there was probably no