henry horn mennie was a deep-water sailor from devonshire who was captain of the schooner "josephine l'oizeau" (owned by the river murray navigation company!), when she was wrecked at port elliot on 10 july 1856, but with no loss of life; mennie and the harbour master nation were highly praised for their conduct and mennie was absolved of any blame. (the river murray navigation company's new iron barge "goulburn", being towed by steamer "melbourne" from port adelaide, was lost off cape jervis in the same storm with the loss of several lives.) he then captained the murray steamer "gundagai" for the 1856 season. he returned to the sea, in charge of the schooner "james gibson" which was wrecked on an uncharted reef off the island of rodriguez on 20 january 1858 on his way from adelaide to mauritius; again he was praised for his efforts and exonerated. he was granted the publican's licence for the sportsman's arms, rockhampton, queensland in 1864.