Captain Whiteman Freeman

Captain Whiteman Freeman was a commercial seafarer. He had been master of the ship Edward Lombe and taken it from London to Sydney in 1832. He traded on the Australian coast sailing from Sydney to Van Diemen’s Land and the Swan River (later to become Tasmania and Western Australia) before leaving Sydney in April 1833 bound for London.

He became master of the barque Tam O’Shanter. It was chartered by Colonial Treasurer Osmond Gilles as a private venture and left London with 74 passengers and a cargo of building materials for  South Australia in July 1836. The first issue of the South Australian Register and Colonial Gazette was printed in London in 1836 and carried an advertisement seeking cargoes for the Tam O’Shanter which Captain Freeman would sail from South Australia to Hobart and Sydney.