The 1880'S

Her Father Saw

That Wall In

By Robert Langdon

Further evidence in the case of the mysterious wall in the south-east corner of Big Bay,

Espiritu Santo, came to light in

Sydney in May.

THE wall has been featured in PIM in the last three issues. My theory is that it is a relic of the Quiros expedition of 1606, but other people have suggested that it is the remains of a sandalwooding station, a whaling station, various trade stores, a Melanesian Mission estab lishment, and a Presbyterian mission.

The latest evidence in the case came from a former New Hebrides resident, Mrs. Laura Askew, now of Sydney, who rang me after reading the April PIM in which an aerial photograph showing the location of the wall was published.

Mrs. Askew (who had not then seen the March or May issues, in which photographs of the wall were published) told me that she had seen the wall in 1910 or 1911, and that her father, the late Captain Frank Whitford, had seen it as far back as 1882 or 1883.

Mrs. Askew said that her father had called at Big Bay in 1882 or 1883

when he was serving in a Norwegian ship, and he had seen the wall on that occasion. He was then 17 or 18 years old.

The wall had intrigued him from then on, and he had visited it again a few years later after he had settled as a trader and planter in the New Hebrides.

Mrs. Askew said that her father first lived on Malekula. But after his marriage, he moved to Vanua Lava in the Banks Group. This was in 1893 when he was 28.

Captain Whitford had 10 children, and as they grew up, he frequently spoke of the strange wall at Big Bay which he thought was either of Spanish or Portuguese origin. About 1910, he took his whole family to the bay in his schooner Pearl to show it to them.

Mrs. Askew, who was then only 10 or 11, said she distinctly remem bered being taken to see the wall.

She also remembered being taken up the River Jordan in a boat and seeing pomelos for the first time . . .

If Mrs. Askew’s information about her father’s first sight of the wall is correct—and there appears to be no reason to doubt it—it completely dis poses of all trade store and mission establishment theories on its origin, as it is known that the first mision aries did not arrive in the bay until 1896, while the first trader did not come until 1900.

No evidence has been produced to support the sandalwooding station or whaling station theories, while there is strong documentary support for that on Quiros.