William Uden the eye on and daily font of all knowledge of Adelaide ship movements at Semaphore from 1857
Signalman William Uden kept a watch and record on ships arriving in Adelaide for decades, indentifying them in advance with flags on the signals mast. Uden's daily durtes including setting up the 1 p.m. timeball drop from its tower. Uden is possibly the man in the suit shown sitting on the wall at Semaphore, in the 1877 image by Samuel White Sweet.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
William Uden was the remarkable signalman at Port Adelaide’s Semaphore from 1857 for nearly 50 years, continuing to identify and list ships coming into Adelaide’s St Vincent Gulf into the early 20th Century.
Born in Kent, England, Uden went to sea at 14, first to Quebec and then various parts of the world. He arrived in South Australia in 1855 on the barque Caucasian and accepted a postion on the fore-and-aft schooner Blanche, owned by the South Australia government. He moved to join the crew of topsail schooner Yatala until September 1855 when he was appointed signalman at Semaphore. At that stage, Semaphore was little more than scrub and sandhills.
Working from before sunrise to sunset every day as signalman at Semaphore, Uden was notorious for not taking leave of absence. Uden was the one-man information centre for all the ship movements in and out of Adelaide. His list of ship arrivals and departure was forwarded to the telegraph office and to Port Adelaide and Adelaide. The telegraph officials, in turn, would give reports to Uden on ships that had passed Cape Borda light station on Kangaroo Island on their way through Investigator Strait to Adelaide.
Signalman Uren scanned St Vincent Gulf southward with his telescope, reputedly able to discern steamers approaching as only dots on the horizon and able to identify the steamers by the smoke they gave off. With this early identification, Uden was able to hoist the house flags of the steamers on the signals mast. This was valuable advance information for shipping agents and wharfingers (wharf owners or keepers).
In between, with the arrival of the telephone, Uden fielded many enquiries from other people regarding the whereabouts of various boats. The demise of brigs and brigantines made it easier for Uden to identify ships in advance. With an incoming ship flying a flag indicating that she needed the services of a pilot, Uden pilot would signal for the next pilot to come on duty. Uden communicated with incoming ships with the signal code that had changed from Marryat's to commercial in about 1865 to the international code from January 1, 1902.
Another Uden all-day duty was giving long-tide signals, indicated from the yardarm of the flagstaff by black balls hoisted in various positions to denote the depth of water in the river channel. From day to day, Uden calculated the times of high and low water at the Semaphore 24 hours in advance, with reports supplied to the Adelaide Observatory, and at the end of each month he prepared returns for the marine department.
Uden’s everyday duty was to set the Semaphore timeball for it to be dropped at 1p.m. at a signal from the Adelaide Observatory and people could set their timepieces to the correct Adelaide time. Also part of Uden’s routine, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. were reports to be prepared for the observatory, showing the state of the weather, wind, and sea, and the times of high and low water.
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Information based on article in the Adelaide Observer, May 21, 1904, with additional information from Dorothy Erickson.
