Napoleon Passage.

How Did This Place In Torres Strait Gets Its Name?

(By Philip R. Firth, of Jervis Bay Island, Torres Strait.)

THE latest book on Australian history, Steven’s “New Light on the Dis covery of Australia,” is causing, and will cause, considerable thought for the student, in mapping out De Prado’s track during his passage through Torres Strait, from the description of islands given in the manuscript.

No one has yet discovered who named Thursday Island. Cook, Bligh, Flinders, and many others have been mentioned; but a search of documents gives no satisfaction, and the mystery remains unsolved.

Situated between Jervis and Banks Islands are two chartered passages, Napoleon Passage and Bligh Channel, both running, east to west, and running parallel, Jervis Reef separating them.

Bligh’s Channel —or, as Bligh himself named it, Bligh Strait—was named in 1792, during the visit of the “Provi dence” and “Assistant.”

But who named “Napoleon Passage”?

It first appeared on charts in 1859. The French Geographical Society (Paris) denies that Dumont D’Urville, who was there in June, 1840, passed through Napoleon Passage, and maintains that he sailed to Timor via the Bligh Chan nel. They even sent a chart, copied from D’Urville’s own papers, showing this to be the case.

Logan Jack, in Volume I of “North most Australia,” suggests that it was probably named after a British steamer, “Napoleon III,” which was in the Torres Strait in 1856. As this steamer passed through the Prince of Wales Channel, this suggestion can be ruled out. Napoleon Passage is nearly fifty miles northwards of Prince of Wales Channel.

The only feasible suggestion seems to be that of D’Urville. His log is as follows:—At 8 o’clock in the morning Two Brothers Island served as a guide to steer for Bligh’s way out; then we discovered the high tops of Banks, Mul grave and Jervis Islands. At three o’clock in the evening we left behind us Passage Island, and anchored under cover of a (Jervis) reef.”

Strange to say, on the chart he shows his anchorage on the windward side of the reef, in full force of a S.E. trade wind. That in itself is unnatural be cause, in anchoring on the windward side, he was liable to wreck his boat on the reef, should his anchors give way.

Incidentally, he did break an anchor at this position.

He then goes on to give a description of the Jervis Island natives, winds, cur rents, and here he observed smoke columns from Jervis Island. Yet all this time he is anchored nearer Banks Island, a bigger, and at that time a more populous island than Jervis.

“On the 12th, at six o’clock in the morning, we were under sails. Boats marked out the way. Soon we began to penetrate into a narrow channel, edged in the two sides by reefs.”

That is certainly not a description of Bligh Island.

Firstly, the two sides of Bligh Chan nel are not reefs. The north side is; but south are Banks and Mulgrave Islands. As you come to North Island, there is a small reef, and that is all, excepting various sandbanks. secondly, why did he have boats out mark his way, considering he was working on a ground already marked out by Bligh in 1792. Flinders’ “Voyage to Terra Australis” was published in 1814. D’Urville left France over twenty years later. He mentions Bligh’s islands, named Warrior, Two Brothers, Jervis and many others. If he did pass through Bligh Channel, why did he not say so, as he makes use of Bligh’s other place names?

Napoleon Passage is very narrow, it is edged in by two big reefs, and it is very hard to penetrate. Very few use the passage, and only those very experienced in the reefs of Torres Strait. One is the captain (Mortensen) of the Government patrol ketch “Mel bidir.” At the western end stands Hamelin Boulders, named after Captain Hamelin of the “Naturaliste,” a French discovery ship.

Napoleon III was born in 1808 and died in 1873. D'Urville was there in June, 1840, and died in 1842. It thus seems highly probably that it was this famous French navigator who gave this intricate passage the name "Napoleon" and names the boulders "Hamelin" after a fellow countryman.

Perhaps it may be that some readers of the “Pacific Island Monthly” have information bearing upon this subject, which would do something to remove the uncertainty.