The cache location does not look like a construction site now, but it did in 1838 when the “Emma Sherratt” a 150 ton brig was built here. The boat, was built originally for Thomas Brooker Sherratt, a merchant from Frederickstown (the original name for Albany), who wanted to use it for whaling. The building was supervised by William Jenkins, a carpenter who had arrived Frederickstown in 1833 with Sir Richard Spencer, the Government Resident. The “Emma Sherratt” was named after Sherratt’s daughter, and took a few years to build - it was first registered in 1845 at King George Sound, but had been used locally for whaling for some time before then. After its registration, it was used as a trading vessel and made journeys to the Swan River, Port Adelaide, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape of Good Hope and Hong Kong. The “Emma Sherratt” made its last journey at the end of 1850 to San Francisco with a load of wheat from South Australia. On the return journey, it was wrecked on an uncharted reef north of Fiji, and the crew were stranded on a small island for several weeks before they were rescued, and eventually returned to Sydney.
The location of the construction site has been identified from a map of Torbay made in March 1838 after a survey by the crew of HMS Pelorus under the command of First Mate, Charles Codrington Forsyth. That map showed the location of the shipbuilders hut, and the position of the vessel being built in the stocks. Forsyth named the sheltered waters between the beach and Migo Island as Port Harding, after Francis Harding, the captain of HMS Pelorus. He also named the headland to the south – Forsyth Bluff.
Forsyth's map is available on line at the State Records Office website:
https://archive.sro.wa.gov.au/uploads/r/srowa/4/8/489800ee30f61524c2040dd09610993d30a40e8aa45ab4eaeadcc578f3d37511/3844-180.jpg