Little-Known H-Bomb

Atolls Have A Place

In The Hall Of Fame

By Robert Langdon

Hao and Mururoa, two of the four little-known atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago which will figure in the French Government’s H-bomb plans, both have some sort of claim to fame in the history of the Pacific. The plans were announced in April.

[AO, which has guarded an intri l guing secret for 350 years, was : first atoll in the Tuamotus on ich Europeans are known to have de a landing; and Mururoa was scene of the first wreck of a fish merchant ship in the Pacific.

Tao is about 500 miles east of hiti, and Mururoa is about 775 south-east. 3ao was discovered on February 1606, by the Spanish navigator Iro Fernandez de Quiros while he 5 crossing the Pacific from Callao, u, to establish a settlement in the omons. Quiros named his dis ery San Pablo.

Vhen the Spaniards landed on the 11, they found the natives friendly I exchanged presents with them. ;y also noticed half of a cedar pole Peruvian or Nicaraguan style, and ’ an old woman wearing a gold I with an emerald. there is no record of any Euro n ships haying been among the imotu Archipelago before Quiros’ age, the presence of the ring, srald and cedar pole on the atoll puzzling, to put it mildly.

Andrew Sharp said in his book, ’ Discovery of the Pacific Islands, these articles were “relics, per s, of a vessel from Peru, not nec irily European, and not necessarily a two-way voyage”.

Ancient Cannon Found lowever, it seems almost certain : the ring, emerald and pole were 7s from a European ship because 929 an ancient cannon was found )edded in the reef on the eastern of Amanu atoll, nine miles th-east of Hao. he cannon was taken to Papeete the French Government schooner uette and placed in the local ieum. At the time of its discovery, vas supposed to be of Spanish

make, but no one could explain how it came to be at Amanu.

As far as I know, no one has man aged to explain its presence there yet; but there seems to be little doubt that it was from the same ship that brought the relics that Quiros saw to Hao.

Mururoa Atoll The unfortunate ship that had the distinction of being the first British merchant ship to be wrecked in the Pacific was the 450-ton whaler Matilda, which went aground on Mu ruroa in 1792.

The Matilda, under Captain Weatherhead, was one of the third fleet of ships that brought convicts from England to Australia. She reached Sydney on August 1, 1791, with 130 convicts, and, after discharg ing them, made an unsuccessful seal ing and whaling cruise off the coast of New South Wales with the ship Mary Ann.

On December 28, 1791, the two ships sailed from Sydney for the whaling grounds off the coast of Peru, and after calling at Tahiti for refresh ments in February, 1792, they parted company the masters agreeing to meet again in Latitude 10 degrees South.

A few days later, on the night of February 25, the Matilda piled up on Mururoa reef, which was then un charted.

The crew, which consisted of 28 men and boys, plus a Jewish convict who had stowed away in Sydney, escaped from the reef in the Matilda's four boats and made for Tahiti.

After a nine-day voyage, and hav ing been separated by a storm, the men landed at various parts of Tahiti, where the natives immediately dis possessed them of all they had salvaged from the wreck.

The greatest prizes fell in the hands

of the people of the Matavai district.

This made the people of neighbour ing Pare madly jealous. And the re sult was that the two districts declared war.

Three weeks later, the war was in terrupted by the arrival of the three masted schooner Jenny (Captain lames Baker) which was on her way from Bristol to the north-west coast 3f America to trade for furs.

The Jenny stayed at Matavai for >ix days, during which Captain Baker igreed to provide passages for Cap lain Weatherhead and four of his nen to the American coast.

The Jenny reached Nootka Sound n October, 1792, where she en countered three British Naval ships, 3MS Discovery, Chatham and Daedalus, under Captain George Van couver.

On hearing Weatherhead’s story of he loss of the Matilda, Vancouver >rdered the Daedalus, which was sail ng to Sydney for stores, to call at Tahiti to pick up the remaining sur vivors.

However, by the time the Daedalus cached Tahiti, in February, 1793, mly six Matilda men remained there, md these had acquired such import mt positions among the natives that hey could not be induced to leave.

Never Heard of Again Three of the others had left the sland for Sydney in one of the Matilda's boats which they had fitted vith a matting sail (they were never ieard of again); and the rest were aken off Tahiti by Captain Bligh.

Captain Bligh, in the ships Provid ence and Assistant, arrived at Matavai inly a few days after the departure if the Jenny to make a new attempt o transplant breadfruit to the West ndies, following the mutiny in the lounty.

He found that the people of Matavai and Pare were still fighting iver the Matilda men’s possessions, ,nd he was afraid, at first, that this yould prevent him from carrying out lis mission.

After four days, however, he told he chiefs firmly that he “would have 10 more fighting,” and went ashore o supervise the building of storage beds for his plants.

The collection of the breadfruit ilants occupied almost three months, luring which Bligh did his best to re rieve the articles stolen from the Aatildrfs men, but without much suc ess. The natives, who had acquired ibout 50 muskets and pistols, from r arious ships, were no longer intimi lated by white men’s threats.

On sailing from Tahiti in July, 792, Bligh took 13 men from the

Matilda in the Providence and two i] the Assistant. The remaining six, in eluding the Jewish convict, “wen bush” to avoid being taken off.

These men were still in the Societ; Islands when the Duff arrived a Tahiti in March, 1797, bringing th first London Missionary Societ missionaries to the South Pacific.

One of the men, a Swede call© Andrew Cornelius Lind, proved usefr to the missionaries as an interprete during their first days in Tahiti. Bu when the Duff was ready to retur: to England, via Canton, he prevaile on the captain to give him a passag back to Europe.

During the voyage across th Pacific, he apparently had se c o n < thoughts about going home, for whe: the Duff reached the Caroline Islands he asked to be put ashore on a smal island called Satawal. According t the Duff’s captain, the islanders re ceived him “with joy as a resident —and from that point on his nam passes from the pages of history.

History does not seem to recon what became of the other five Matild , men who were left in Tahiti, excep that one of them, an Irishman calld James Conner, was still there in 180 C With a daughter he had had by native woman, he was among thos who attended the missionaries’ firs chapel at Matavai.

Long Journey Home

Meanwhile, the Matilda’s mastei Captain Weatherhead, had made hi way home to England after a lon, land journey through California an( Mexico; and in England, he seem to have reported the presence o Mururoa to the authorities. At an; rate, in 1798, a map published b; the English cartographer Arrowsmiti showed an island called “Matilda’

Rocks” for the first time.

Twenty-eight years later, the Eng lish navigator Captain Beechey cam upon “Matilda’s Rocks” while search ing for Captain Carteret’s Osnaburgl Island. On landing on the reef, h< found “unequivocal signs” of ship wreck in the shape of a ship’s keel several broken casks, some staves hoops, copper and lead, some broke! harpoons, a small cannon, and i leaden pump bearing a crown am the date, 1790.

On the day after leaving Mururoa Beechey came to a small atoll abort 20 miles to the south-east, which h named Cockburn’s Island.

This was Fangataufa, the atoll oi which the French are to build at observation base for their H-boml explosions on Mururoa.