Pacific Ships

A Round Trip Cost £47:

There Was History In These Old

Written for Pacific Islands Monthly by “Supercargo”

I was very interested in “Toagoba’s” references to the pioneering work done for Australian trade among the South Pacific Islands by that outstanding patriot, James Burns, founder of Burns Philp & Cos. Ltd. As the decades pass, and the com mercial and strategic value to Australia of those Islands is more clearly seen, the service which James Burns rendered to “the Britain of the South” perhaps will be more widely acknowledged.

|T is over 40 years since I left the i service of the great pioneering firm. I saw some of the pioneer ing work done and, since then, I nave seen the results of it.

There have been those who have said more or less jokingly, that the letters “BP’s” stood for “Bloody Pirates”. I firmly believe that they more fittingly could be taken to mean “Blessed Philanthropists” and I personally saw many ex amples of their energy, enterprise and philanthropy, a half-century ago, when our world was young.

It is ’unfortunate that three vessels, which played an important part in that pioneering work, were omitted from “Toagoba’s” list. They were the schooner Ivanhoe and the steamers Ysabel and Titus. The Mambare should also be mentioned, although she made only 13 voyages to the New Hebrides, being wrecked on the fourteenth voyage.

In 75 years Burns Philp have been under three roofs.

From April, 1883, to April 18, 1885, their office was at No. 10, Mac quarie Place. From April, 1885, to 919, they were at No. 10 Bridge Street. Different departments were moved, from time to time, as space became available, to 7-9 Bridge Street. The final exodus took place after the North German Lloyd were closed up in the 1914-18 war, and when the Queensland Insurance Cos. moved to the corner of Bridge and Pitt Streets.

But it was not until 1919 that Colonel Burns, P. G. Black and Lewis Armstrong moved across to 7-9 Bridge Street.

Within three months of opening up in Sydney, BP secured the agency of the Queensland Steam Shipping Cos, Ltd., and the first steamer to their agency was the Corea, Captain James Lowrie. She was advertised to run from Sydney to Brisbane, Keppel Bay, Rock hampton (passengers only) Mackay, Bowen, Townsville, Port Douglas, Cooktown, Somerset and Thursday Is.

They were also, in 1883, charter ing schooners, barquentines and, in fact, anything that would sail, to

take coal to North Queensland ports and bring cargoes of sugar back to Sydney.

First NG Service

Their first connection with New Guinea, from Sydney, was in Aug ust, 1883, when they advertised; “Passengers and cargo can now be booked through from Sydney to Port Moresby, New Guinea, trans shipping from the steamers of Queensland SS Cos. at Thursday Island to the schooner-yacht Elsea”.

In 1884, it might be said, they first entered the tourist business, for in February of that year they advertised: NEW GUINEA Excursion Trip The “Elsea” will sail from Thursday Island about March 10 on an EXCURSION TRIP to NEW GUINEA, when the follow ing places will be visited: Darnley Island, Yule Island, Hall Sound, Port Moresby, Hula, Kerepuna and Aroma, returning to Thursday Island via Port Moresby.

The trip will occupy about 5 weeks, and the route chosen embraces about 250 miles of the most picturesque portions of the coast of New Guinea.

A short stay will be made at each of the above places, weather permitting.

FARES: From Thursday Island, the round trip and back £25; from Sydney, the 2 months’ trip, £47/10/-.

In November, 1884, Burns Philp advertised that the SS Victoria would take the place of the schooner-yacht Elsea on the Thurs day Island-New Guinea run.

When the Dutch Paid

In 1887, Burns Philp entered the whaling business. They purchaseo the barque Costa Rica Packet ano put Captain Carpenter (father of the late Sir Walter Carpenter) iu charge of her.

Many pages could be written about this craft, for it was the cause of the first International law case that Australia (or, rathen New South Wales) had.

It was a claim against the Dutch Government, for the seizure of the vessel and the imprisonment of the Captain, which occurred in 18911 and which was not settled unfit 1897, when the Captain was awardeo £3,150, officers and crew £1,600 owners £3,800, plus interest for all damages, at the rate of five cent, per annum from November 2 1891.

The above sums, together witl the cost of arbitration, fixed a* £250, were paid by the Netherlands Government.

It was in 1887 that Burns PhiljJ first became connected with thr New Hebrides, when the AUSN Co (for which BP were agents) put on the SS Fijian; and in 1888 thr Gunga started a regular monthll service to Noumea, Aneityum am Havannah Harbour (in the Nct: Hebrides) thence to Suva am Levuka; for which service the Gow ernment paid a subsidy of £1,20 per annum.

It is not generally realised ths the little ships of Burns PhiljJ driving out of Sydney and out o the Queensland ports, with thi energy of founder James Burns b& hind them, were fighting for tracb in New Guinea before the German annexed the northeast corner; i

I have tried to keep my reminiscences to the South Seas vessels, in the period before World War I. Space and time do not permit the inclusion of the old Supercargoes of the Henderson Mac far Lane and Pacific Islands Company days—such as Ben Hird, who was buried on Funafuti, in the Ellice Islands.

Ben was a legend. He had a big black beard, and he very often went ashore smoking a pipe which had attached a very thin rubber tube. One end of this would he in his mouth. The tube then went through his beard, under his singlet and down the seam in the seat of his pants.

The natives of the Line Islands thought he really was wonderful, because he could make smoke come out of his rear.

Then there was poor old “Ding Dong” Bell, whose latter days were spent with Lever Bros. He walked off the “Kulambangra” in his sleep, at Savo, in the Solomons. Just as a boat was about to pull him out of the water, a shark got him.

Jim Mortison was another of the old ones. “Brickie” Danvers, who was blinded in New Guinea, was another.

There was another, whose name I cannot recall, who finished up at Suwarrow. He sat on a keg of gunpowder, smoking. It was thought he must have knocked his pipe out on the side of the keg for, when the noise had ceased and the smoke blown away, nothing much was found of him.

s Solomons long before the Briti took over, and while the Germs still claimed that archipelago; the New Hebrides long before e conflicting claims of Britain and France were compromised in > Condominium: and in the Gil- •t and Ellice Islands while that sa still was a No-mans-land. - . . M Coal to Noumea n 1889, BP had two steamers, Hesketh and the Mount Kembla, irtered, running coal to Noumea i returning with cargoes of ■ome ore. n 1890 thp Trunartivi wa<i run-

an inteV-island

v Hebrides, calling at 18 ports, nshipping to the AUSN steamers Aneityum, on their way from i to Sydney. t is interesting to note that Capi Davis, of HMS Royalist, hoisted British flag at Butaritari, Gilt Islands, on May 27, 1892; then oceeded to Jaluit, Marshall

Islands, to notify the Germans that he had done so.

The Ellice Islands were taken under British protection in 1886.

Later, the Gilberts and Ellice were joined under one protectorate and, very much later, became a Colony.

In January, 1887, some years after they had annexed northeast New Guinea, the Germans formally notified the British Secretary of State that they had acquired sov ereignty over the Solomon Islands, that the sale of arms and liquor to the natives was prohibited. How ever, that information from the Germans did not stop the British fla £ bein S hoisted in the Solomons ln June - 1893 - HMS In 1893, the Australian New Heb rides Company started running steamers to the New Hebrides. That Company was subsequently bought BP ’ about 190 °- 1895, the Kurrara, 386 tons, niade a trip to the Solomons under charter to BP.

In February of that year, BP ran

the Rob Roy, 400 tons, Captain D.

Reid, to the New Hebrides; and the Katoomba made several trips to Aneityum, Tanna, Erromanga and Vila.

When Britain Helped Australia

Twice, Great Britain —all-powerful prior to World War I—came to the aid of Australia in the Pacific when the high officials of other, and jealous, nations tried to hunt the traders of the Australian Burns Philp firm out of certain coveted territories.

One was the incident of the Costa Rica Packet, described above.

The second incident was part of the history of the steamer Ysabel, 524 tons, which was purchased from the German New Guinea Cos. in 1896, and which ran for a time in various services before, in 1899, she was put into the Cooktown-New Guinea run.

On her first trip on this run, the Ysabel broke her tailshaft the day after leaving Cooktown, and The

(Continued on page 97)

iney Morning Herald of June 30, ), gave prominence to the great done by her Captain in sailing vessel under jury rig to Redscar New Guinea. There the chief Lneer replaced the tailshafc and vessel continued her voyage to larai, etc. fter four years in Solomons and >ert and Ellice, the Ysabel, on ■ch 11, 1904, opened the Marshall Caroline Islands service, with tain Cable in command, and >d as Supercargo, ood had had long experience in Gilbert, Marshall and Caroline ices with Henderson Macfarlane, the Pacific Island companies, mr Hayes was transferred from ,g supercargo on the Solomon ice to the Gilbert & Ellice, with as his assistant. ithin six months, the German eminent officials in the Mar ls, whose headquarters were at it, drove BP out of the service iharging exorbitant and unlaw rates for the ship’s trading ice. irns Philp’s claim against the nan Government of the Mar l Islands was taken up by the ralian Government, which e a formal claim, through the ish Government, upon the Ger- Government in Berlin. In lary, 1907, Burns Philp received i the German Government 0 in full settlement of their >el claim.

New Hebrides Failure

*’s built the steamer Mambare, tons, and put her straight into Sydney-New Hebrides service 1 she arrived in 1900, in com -1 of Captain Carpenter. Cap- T. Williams commanded her on first five voyages then Captain 1 had her until she was ked. e made only 13 voyages before was wrecked at the south end anto in August, 1902; but her is notable because she carried ted new settlers from Aus i to land in the New Hebrides i them by Burns Philp. lonel James Burns made a : effort, in that decade, to tie New Hebrides permanently to •alia, by encouraging Australian ■ment there. His companies had red nearly 100,000 acres in the Hebrides: and, when he en tered political difficulties in his ment plan, he gave the land— e gift—to the then new Corn health Government of Aus i. e failure of that plan is an rtant —and not very creditable of Australian history, m afterwards, in 1906, the

Anglo-French Condominium was born.

In February, 1908, as Supercargo in the Gilbert & Ellice service, I was transferred from that monstrosity, the Malaita, to a fine httle steamer, the Muniara which had just arrived from England. Mr.

Adam Forsyth had bought her in England when she was the Volunteer and changed her name because it was then the policy of the Company to have all their vessels with seven-letter names beginning the ietter M.

That trip we picked up at Tarawa, under instructions from the Resident Commissioner (Mr. W. Telfer Campbell) two pirates, named Mortlemann and Skerrik, who had murdered the captain and mate of their little schooner, Nuevo Tigre, while running between Callao and Valparaiso Then they steered west for Queensiand, changed the name of the schooner to White Rose and, not being able to navigate, piled side of

£ llbe i; ts - ,

Handley (mur - ?n Pa f n vf 6 ’ at Tarawa ; A n h JJ? he . men U P inpk m hearing a hardluck story from them, and was taking them up to Tarawa when. cidpd g f/W ’ ort ; lemaßn de ' ; k VS™ dley S schooner ’ the Louise J. Kenny.

Piratp Lpn-lrnnpd nrare Leg ironed In the meantime, Skerrik had found that he came from the same county in England as Handley, and he warned Handley of Mortlemann’s plan. Handley at once locked Mortlemann up in a cabin and, on arrival at Tarawa, handed him oyer to George Murdock, the then District Officer.

In the Muniara we had Mortle-

mann leg-ironed in the after wheel house, and we landed both men at Suva on March 30, 1908 The rest of this story has been told before, so I need not repeat it, except to say that Mortlemann was, I believe, discharged from Maitland gaol in 1939 and deported to Belgium. Thus, he would have arrived there in time to be in a spot of bother with the Germans as he told me personally that he had deserted from the German army.

This very fine vessel Muniara which was never in any other trade than the Gilbert, Ellice and Mar shells, was eventually wrecked at Fbon, in the Marshalls When World War I came the BP steamer Induna, 703 tons, purchased from the South African coast in 1904, was running inter-island in the Marshalls (then German) She was seized by the Germans in Jaluit The supercargo, Mr. Hayes was asked by the German Commissioner at Jaluit to give his word that no attempt would be made to get the Induna away by stealth. Ind to report each morning at 11 a.m. at the Commissioner’s office, to join lilm there in a grlass of hppr Hayes lave his word No armed guard was put aboard. The Induna lay there until the Japanese entered World War x on the side Qf Britain Last Christmas (1957), in Graf ten, Nsw j saw some rusty metal sticking up out of the Clarence River mud. It was all that remained of the Induna, once a ship for which we had a considerable af fection. When she was no longer wanted in the BP services, she was sold to the NSW Government and altered to become a ferry for trains across the Clarence River; and after that she became derelict.