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Sir James Smith Group
HISTORY
Sir James Smith group
The Sir James Smith Group was named in July 1820
by Lieutenant P. P. King, RN, during his second voyage through the area
in HMS Mermaid. The naming is undoubtedly after Sir James Edward Smith
(1759-1828) prominent botanist and president of the Linnéan Society in London
in those years. King named the group 'Sir James Smith's Group' but by 1847 charts had dropped the possessive 's' (King, P. P. Narrative of a Survey of
the Intertropical and Western Coasts of
Australia. London 1827).
In deference to Allan Cunningham, the botanist who travelled with King in Mermaid
in 1819 - 20 and in Bathurst in 1821, King named a number of features
after prominent botanists and naturalists of the time (see Linné, Dryander,
Shaw).
King named the group only and not the individual islands, most of which were
named in 1878 - 79 by Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, RN, in SS Llewellyn.
Bedwell played on the name 'Smith' and all his namings relate in one way
or another to the trade of the smith and later surveys followed the same
procedure (Bedwell's charts). Bedwell gave the following:
Anchorsmith, Anvil, Bellows, Blacksmith, Bullion, Cash (now Farrier), Forge,
Goldsmith, Hammer, Ingot, Silversmith, Specie, Tinsmith. Over the
following years subsequent surveys gave: Coppersmith Rock: Bedwell
had treated this rock as a part of his Silversmith Island and it was not until
1925- 26 that Lieutenant Commander H. T. Bennett, DSO, RAN, in command of HMAS Geranium
gave the rock its own name.
Farrier Island: Originally named 'Cash Island' by Bedwell
The Information on the Whitsundays Island is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Ray Blackwood from his book
" The Whitsunday Islands An Historical Dictionary " Please visit his site here. It is well worth the time!