The Search For "Boussole"

There is always fascination in a treasure hunt anrt i one i" the South Pacific for a long time has been the hunt fT the^reatrf Shi P S Whkh disa in 1788 after leaving Botany has for 00ld ars la ' e t r ' wer ? f ,rared *« a reef at Vanikoro. The nunt has not been for gold but for information. "RIM" has told much or the stories of the two most recent French expeditions, of 1958 and of Jure this year, which uncovered information on the two ships, but in this repor* Reece exDTdihons 91 f ' tlo ' nformati <>" of interest. He has taken part in both Jh t JU k e eX P ed ' tlon was to tr y to locate La Perouse's second ship Boussole and to bring back some more relics from the "Astrolabe". "Boussole" was not found but there were strong clues to its whereabouts

From an account by Reece Discombe

After taking part in the two expeditions to Vanikoro in search of La Perouse’s vessels, and with the information and knowledge we have accumulated, it is my view that a third expedition should be sent to Vanikoro.

IF this expedition could be equipped with modern electronic detection devices, the task of finding the remaining vessel Boussole would be facilitated.

Vanikoro is the most southern island in the Santa CriTz group. It is administered by the Government of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

Vanikoro is over 400 miles due north of Vila and 400 miles south of Guadalcanal. The estimated population of the island during the time of La Perouse was 3,500 —the present native population has now dwindled to about 100. The only industry on the island is the cut ting of Kauri logs which are shipped to Australia by the Kauri Timber Co. About 12 Australians and some 150 natives recruited from outlying islands, are employed in

the industry. Owing to the amount of rainfall the vegetation is abun dant.

The island is surrounded by very dangerous coral reefs, which are only passable in three places. La Perouse met his fate trying to nego tiate one of the narrow passages of the reef, lying a mile from the island. Between the island and out lying reefs are numerous coral niggerheads which are treacherous to navigation and make night navi gation impossible.

Oldest Inhabitant

On June 6, we started our search for further information on the whereabouts of the other ship Boussole and the fate of its crew.

We decided to seek out the oldest native inhabitants of the islands and to question them concerning their knowledge of the fatal ex pedition.

Luck was with us when we found an old man aged between 70 and 80 years, named Brown, who was the oldest man on the island. He was visiting Peu, which was our headquarters.

After tactfully questioning him for about two hours he informed us that his father had told him, when he was a small boy, how the French ships had been lost while entering the reefs. He agreed to take us to the village of Tanema, where he was born, but which had been abandoned for about 60 years, where he claimed there were crude graves where his forefathers had buried some of the crew of the Boussole.

After a run of 11 hours along the coast in the Rocinante, we anchored off the former site of Tanema, and then made our way through man groves and jungle to the site of the village. The only remaining

of the former village were onch shells which the natives d on the graves of their dead ier with the bones and coral s which the wild pigs had since rooted out.

Heap of Stones

»ut 100 yards further on gh the jungle, Brown pointed i large heap of stones under i some of the murdered sea of the Boussole were buried, wn’s theory of the fated ex on was that the Boussole to enter the Makulumu pas and became stuck fast to the isole” Reef. The cannibal ;s, taking advantage of the ion, captured and killed the i crew. Those killed were even washed ashore among the roves where they were finally id with stones. i fate of the captured men can lagined, although it was not ted by Brown. i Boussole, he claims, refloated from the reef and drifted to become finally wrecked on laise Point on Tivai Island, •ing the next four days, we ntrated on the wrecked labe using explosives to blast heavily encrusted coral. After charge, various items of in such as cannon balls, anchors, rods, brass wire, broken ery and bottles, buttons, kegs ills, etc., etc., came to light, if which provided excellent *ial for filming.

Sunken Ship?

er Jack Barley and myself north to examine a smaller

reef which the natives claimed was a sunken ship completely encrusted with coral.

After a closer examination by diving, this story was proved un true, as the water surrounding it was too deep. Exploration of the Naun-ha Island, about h mile fur ther on, revealed a piece of iron 6 ft long, 1 inch in diameter, heavily encrusted with coral, it be ing of the same texture of the iron previously taken from the Astro labe.

More information from the village of Vanu revealed that crockery had been found on the beach after heavy seas, so following up this theory we set natives to work dig

ging the location wh/fre the crockery was found.

After several htfurs of digging, pieces of crockery were found, the design of which coincided with the design of the crockery found on the Astrolabe. The pieces of crockery and tie iron found on Naun-ha Island, indicate that Dil lon’s theory, thit the Boussole was wrecked on Vajiu, may be correct.

In the next few days, with the use of a barg« kindly loaned to us by the Kauri Timber Co., we anchored ov/r the scene of the Astrolabe wreck and with several boys began Hauling in various items which we had uncovered through dynamiting (ov er)

;se included anchors of two -the largest being 10 ft long weighing approximately three jrs of a ton, the smaller ones 8 ft long and weighing about i ton. Ballast blocks of about ; each and lead ingots, which have been used for melting and making shot for the muskets, were also found, latter showed an unusual ng of the arsenal factory— igure six and the letter A, stands for Astrolabe. non balls, three 6-inch copper s, lengths of copper piping, of lead, and various other items were collected.

Jungle Lookout

osite the wreck of the Astro it Ambi, on the side of a overlooking the whole of the rn coast of Vanikoro, is a ig surrounded by jungle which itives claim was the lookout >y survivors from the Astro- Dr passing ships, itive guide and myself landed ,r as we could to the clearing len proceeded to cut our way h the crocodile infested man and swamps, up the ridge 3 clearing which we found d by fern about 5 ft in make a closer investigation have required a number of ith knives to clear the under i. Unfortunately, owing to f time, we were not able to it. .825, Durmont d’Urville, was ut from France with an ex m in search of La Perouse, iched Vanikoro 37 years after appearance. In honour of the sxpedition, D’Urville erected a nent on the island of ai, amongst the mangroves, iturday, June 20, we decided to locate this monument, re reaching Manevai, we d at Mausoleum Bank and gated further the heap of in the clump of mangroves, in our last expedition re a very ancient copper coin had apparently been placed a monument as a good luck by D’Urville, Mausoleum Bank Island not the location as indicated in lie’s book, we crossed to ai Island and found what have been his monument. As iras running out, the location ot fully explored, and so we ed to Peu.

Inscription

he cross erected on the outer /as being badly damaged by ugh seas, we decided to erect monument in the village of 1 the honour of La Perouse. the necessary arrangements )een made for the site, we ucted a monument utilising

some of the materials taken from the Astrolabe. The plaque was con ducted from lead shooting and in scribed as follows (in French and English) : To

La Perouse

and his companions marines and scientists 1788 erected 27th June, 1959 on lead rescued from Astrolabe wreck.

We made a return trip, to the scene of the wreck, where con tinued dynamiting revealed three cannons of about three-quarters of a ton each, which we brought to the surface, with the aid of empty drums. In addition more anchors

anc * a Russian coin dated 1734, with Peter I stamped on one side.

There still remained one more village where we had not sought information. Dr. Haroun Tazzief and myself proceeded to this vil lage, Boma, where we met the oldest native woman on the island who was very reluctant to talk, However, she claims that there was a ship wrecked in the vicinity of Naun-ha Island.

We also learnt that the natives have a song of the wrecked ship, but to extract the words of the song is most difficult and one would have to live in the village several days to gain the confidence of the natives.