Victorian Naval Forces Muster

Frederick Burns Peterson

Able Seaman

details by Lynne Moore

Frederick Peterson was born in 1842 at Helsingor in Denmark.   According to his son James, Frederick had two brothers and five sisters.   Of these eight children, “three girls married sea captains and all the boys went to sea”. His father , Peter Peterson, was a shipwright, so Frederick probably helped him in this business before he came to Australia with a group of friends in 1865  at 22 years of age.  

It is not known where he lived when he first arrived, but when he was married to Priscilla Hume on 16^th June, 1869, his usual residence was written as Sandridge.   In 1870 he was living at Brewster Lane Sandridge:  1872-76 at Station Place Sandridge, and from 1893-96 at 7 Ross Street.   Later in 1896 he moved to 23 Ross Street and he lived here until he went to his son Charles’ house at 36 Power Street, North Williamstown.   He was with Charles in 1925.   The houses in which he lived were important to his business in a way. His grand-daughter wrote about  this in an article about  her mother. “Her father owned a ship repair yard in Port Melbourne, and it was mainly foreign ships that came to port for repair. Grandfather always brought the ships’ Captains home for the noon meal, and Mother (Frederick’s daughter) was on the front porch with her telescope watching for him coming up the hill. She promptly reported to the kitchen, where she announced the number of guests Grandpa had with him“.

On the 1^st July, 1872, Frederick joined the Naval Reserves, Sandridge Division and was number 106 on the muster roll. He signed on again in 1875 and then 1^st April 1880, but resigned on the 7^th August 1885. At this time, Frederick had a business called Peterson and Slimmon, that operated at 117 Stokes Street, Port Melbourne.   Maybe it was because of his business that he could no longer participate in the Naval Reserves.  At one stage in the life of the business, they built a 32ft long motor launch for the Victorian Stevedoring Company, to be used on the bay.   It was principally designed for carrying goods to vessels in the bay, but could accommodate fifty people if necessary. The business was still a going concern in April 1897 as Captain Meifsel of Reinhsportdampfer “Gera” wrote a reference attesting to their good work. It is not known when the business closed, but at some stage he started working as the shipwright superintendent of the Archibald Currie line of steamers, which was later merged in the British India line.

Frederick obviously loved the sea, and  passed this heritage on to his descendants. An article in an Adelaide newspaper about 1950, reports about the family’s “long link with Navy”. At the time the article was written, Frederick’s great grandson, Kevin, was 19 years old and he was the 7^th generation in the navy. Since then there has been an 8^th generation with one of Kevin’s sons serving with the R.A.N.