Rossel Island

Wrecks

Memories of "St, Paul"

Horror

'T'WO or three times, in recent years, the “PIM” has published half-for gotten details of the “St. Paul” horror— an incident of 1858, when the French ship was wrecked on Rossel Island (Eastern Papua) ; when her complement of Chinese labourers was seized by the natives and put in a compound; and when the Chinese were removed, at the rate of one or two per day, and killed and eaten.

We now have the following interesting letter from Mr. W. H. Osborne, now a resident of Rossel Island: — IAM interested in that tale of how the Chinese were eaten—how the natives always ate one a day. Once a year I make a feast, on my place, here. All the natives are invited, and about half the population turns up. All the flesh that is left from two bullocks, after a couple of hours, would not feed a pet magpie.

About 58 years ago I was about eight years of age, and living in a cedar-get ter’s camp, on the Daintree River. North Queensland.

I heard a white man there tell the Chinese cook that if he did not cook better food, he would send him to New Guinea, to the mialls to eat. I asked questions, and was told a gruesome story how a ship, with 300 Chinese, had been wrecked. The natives had built a pen, fattened the Chinese, and each day would pick out one of the fattest and eat him.

Since then, I have heard the story scores of times. People whom I have not heard of before send me clippings out of papers and magazines.

It is strange that in these later years my home should be about 12 miles from the scene of that wreck, on the opposite side of this island. All that remains of the wreck, now, are the anchors and chains, and pieces of iron which can be seen sticking out of the coral; the coral has grown over the wreck.

The “St. Paul” must have piled up on the reef when she struck, as she broke up and slipped back into deeper water. It is on the north side of the island, about three miles N.W. of Heron Island. The barrier reef is almost dry at low tide (the rise and fall in the tide is from three to five feet). Heron Island is about half a mile off Rossel, with a deep channel between, about 150 yards wide. It is the eastern entrance to Rossel Lagoon. The lagoon is about 40 miles long, and varying to five miles wide, and extends 25 miles to the west of Rossel.

In the south-east season, the “St.

Paul” wreck is on the lee side of the island. There would not be much sea when the wreck occurred and launching boats would have been simple. It would have been easy for some of the boats to have escaped and landed on the Queens land coast. There are big passages between here and the east end of Basilisk, where boats could have passed without being seen from any of the islands.

My brother Frank was the first white man to settle on the island, in 1902—he had been on visits to the island a couple of years earlier. Thirty-two Rossel natives were recruited for the Mambare (Gira) goldfield and only 12 returned.

The others died of dysentery or were killed by the Orakivas.

My brother was in charge of the boat

that landed the survivors, the first time he visited the island. He lived on the island for about 25 years—the first five years alone. He had a small cutter and used to visit Sudest to replenish his stores. But, although he understood the natives fairly well, he could not get any information about the Chinamen.

At the time my brother came to the island, all the reefs were owned by cer tain tribes, and anyone going round the island would have to get permission, or pay tolls. The boundaries were marked by bushes, stuck up in the coral; certain bushes used had a silver-coloured leaf.

When they were fishing, if a fish crossed the boundary, they had to let it go.

The Government now does not recog nise any boundary below high tide mark. Beche-de-mer and shelling boats, coming from other parts, broke up most of the boundaries. We bought a few of them out. Local boys would not pass over them, so we would have to look for the owner.

On occasions, ships came to take away the island’s produce. There are three wrecks on the barrier reef of Rossel. The “St. Paul” is about three miles N.W. of Heron Island, on the north side of Ros sel. The “Inhomaru” was wrecked on January 6, 1922. The crew of 41 Japan ese remained six days on board, await ing 'instructions from Japan; she was equipped with wireless. A Japanese pas senger steamer on her way to Japan from Brisbane called and picked up the crew.

This Japanese ship had struck the northern reef, about half-way between the east end of Rossel and Adele Island, on the extreme eastern point of Rossel Reef. She was bound to Wil liamstown (Victoria) to load 6,000 tons of wheat. There was a famine in Japan at the time, and a coal strike in Austra

lia, and she was carrying sufficient coal for the return journey. She struck the reef at 3.15 a.m. Visibility was bad, due to a haze on the water and a calm sea, and the strong current had set the ship 15 miles west of her course.

The other is an unrecorded wreck, on the south side of the reef, between Ros sel and Adele Island. Five anchors, heaps of chain, and a lot of iron remain.

She was a wooden ship. Copper nails and fastenings are lying about the reef —the copper sheathing was picked up years ago.

Years ago, every village on Rossel had heaps of enamel-ware, from dinner sets to bedroom utensils. It was heavy ware, blue and white. Natives said it was taken from the wreck on the southern reef.

I have the deep-sea lead out of the “St‘ Paul” on my boat; it weighs 72 lb.

I have heard there is a museum at Thursday Island that collects souvenirs from wrecks. If the trustees would care to have it, I will forward it to them, free of charge.

Mr. C. E. Mitchell, of Vilirupu, Papua, has succeeded Pastor W. N. Locke as head of the SDA Mission in the Territory. Mr.

Locke now is superintendent of the Mis sion in North Queensland, with head quarters at Townsville.

Mr. P. F. Wood, who had lived in Fiji for over 30 years, died recently at Waiyevo Cottage Hospital, Taveuni Island, aged 72. Before going to Taveuni, about 12 years ago, as Government Road Overseer, he was a well-known builder on Viti Levu —he was responsible for the con struction of Walu Bay Slip, Nadi Bridge, Garrick Hotel (Suva), and a number of Labasa buildings.