[1] Owner of many ships, Curtis sent the Fanny, which weighed between 25 and 36 tonnes, to Java, Indonesia, in December 1834,[2] and also purchased the Lady Sterling in the same year.
[3] Born in London, he ran away from home and became a ship's boy in the Royal Navy.
In 1834 he purchased the schooner Fanny (36 tons) which then traded between Albany and Fremantle.
He had the lease of the Bathers Bay whaling station at Fremantle in the 1840s in partnership with D.
He traded to Mauritius, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).