[MARITIME] Joseph and Mary Ann Jewell, survivors of the wreck of the General Grant, shipwrecked in the Auckland Islands south of New Zealand in May 1866.

[Circa 1868]. Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 102 x 61 mm (mount); recto inscribed ‘9d pence each’ (presumably in the hand of a Melbourne print- or bookseller); verso with imprint of ‘C. Hewitt, Photographer, Australasian Studio, 95, Swanston Street. Melbourne’; a strong print but with scattered foxing; the back mark is faded.

The American merchant ship General Grant was wrecked on the Auckland Islands, some 465 km south of New Zealand, in May 1866, en route to London from Port Phillip. A small group of survivors remained castaway until November 1867, when they were rescued by a passing whaler. By this time, the survivors were only ten in number, out of the original ship’s complement of eighty-three.

This portrait by Charles Hewitt of Melbourne shows two of the shipwreck survivors, husband and wife Joseph and Mary Ann Jewell (née Hewitt – so quite possibly a relative of the photographer). They are wearing some of the seal skin clothing which the survivors made to help them survive the harsh conditions in the Auckland Islands. Hewitt also photographed another survivor, David Ashworth, in similar attire.