William Dutton

William Dutton (31 August 1811 – 20 July 1878), known as "Captain Dutton", was a whaler and seaman remembered as a pioneer of Portland, Victoria. Posthumously he has been referred to as "William Pelham Dutton".

History Early life Dutton was born in Sydney, a son of Henry and Margaret Dutton, who had emigrated from England some years previously; They were hunting seals, but they had become scarce and Portland Bay became better known as a whaling centre.

Career In July 1829 he returned on the schooner Henry under Capt. McLean, to set up a whaling station, and built for himself the first house in Portland, at "Single Corner" (aka "Whaler's Point") on the sandspit; in January 1830 he was picked up by the Henry to embark on another sealing expedition. James Moore was a recruit for Dutton's ship.

By 1833 he was in charge of the Henry, and established a whaling station at "Double Corner" in March of that year, and was in charge of a whaling party for the Henty Brothers that same year. The Hentys' whaling station at Portland was established in November 1834.

He was at one stage first mate for Captain Hart, who in March 1833 took the first whale oil from Portland to Hobart. Between 1839 and 1841 he commanded the barque (previously part of the First Fleet of South Australia) on several whaling expeditions to the South Seas. He seemed financially secure, and may have owned the Africaine, but was undone by the bankruptcy of Griffiths, Connolly and Co. in 1842.

Dutton commanded the whaler that outside the whaling season sailed as transport between Hobart and Portland for the Hentys from 1844. Lady Mary Pelham was built in 1816 as a brig, purchased by George Fife Angas (and converted to a barque by adding a third mast) for the South Australian Company as part of the First Fleet of South Australia. She was then fitted out for whaling.

Later life In 1847 Dutton gave up the sea and returned to Victoria, and purchased a farm at Narrawong at the mouth of the Surrey River to the east of Portland, though he was involved in the occasional whale hunt, and was responsible for the last whale killed at Portland Bay, in August 1868. Whales had been used by the Gunditjmara people and when they tried to maintain this practice European whalers stopped them culminating in the Convincing Ground massacre where there is unto an estimated 100 Aboriginal deaths, after which Aboriginal people would avoid the region. He had little success as a farmer at either Narrawong or Bolwarra, and died destitute She died at her home in Hurd Street, Portland.

Personal life Around 1830, Dutton bought an Aboriginal woman named Kalloongoo, also known as "Sarah", as a slave from James Allen, who had abducted her in the late 1820s. Dutton and Kalloongoo had a child, "Sophie", around 1830, who was baptised in Launceston on 28 December 1836.

Abandoning Kalloongoo, Dutton later married a Mary Sagers or Saggers