Stories Of

Fac I Mating

The Pacific

“New Caledonia is so called after an old name for Scotland, but it is a French island and convicts were once sent there to work the nickel mines. Later they were liberated from them, but could not leave the island. They settled down there and some married white women and some married Kanaka women. The Kanakas are a fine class of native with a beautiful bronze skin; the men are tall and powerful and wonderful swimmers. . . .

“The old Frenchman who acted as doctor, dentist and other things, had been sent there for murder.

While we were there I had to have a back tooth removed and I went to this old man who sat me in an ordinary chair. His ‘anaesthetist’ was a big Kanaka who put his arms around both me and the chair, and as I couldn’t move, the tooth had to come out. He gave me a glass of milky stuff which proved to be cognac, so I soon forgot all about the tooth. . . .

“He probed an abcess in the ear for me as well.

Donkey engine!

“Japanese were at this time (about 1915) employed in the nickel mines; the ore was loaded into barges and Kanakas brought the barges along side the ship and filled baskets which were hoisted on board by our donkey engine. The sand ballast had been discharged, some at sea, the rest in the deep part of the harbour.”

Intriguing? Many seadogs and historians will find these memories so, should they get hold of the latest Annual Dog Watch, a varied collec tion of pieces about ships and the sea published by the Shiplovers’

Society of Victoria.

As usual, the modest booklet is packed with reminiscences from all sorts of people about all sorts of ships and characters. Included is an excellent photo of the missionary vessel, John Williams 111 (formerly the Samoa), which in 1895 was re placed by another Williams vessel and sold to an Australian buyer who renamed her Kashgar.

For New Guineaites there is this account by Commander H. A.

Willian, of the troopship Berrima, of the Australian takeover of Rabaul from the Germans in 1914.

“We landed at Kaba Kaul on September 11, captured the wireless station at Bita Paka, and then 300

ratings and a handful of officers were sent to Herbertshoe to establish a garrison there, Herbertshoe, now Kokopo, is about 16 miles from Rabaul.

“At this time, back in Australia, there had been a general appeal for ‘Christmas Cheer’ for the force in New Guinea, and the response was splendid. This Christmas cheer and our own private parcels came up on a ship which arrived on December 20.

“The private parcels were sorted out there and the public gifts were divided up in proportion between Herbertshoe and Rabaul. I was detailed, with one petty officer and six ratings, to take the motor boat Sydney to Rabaul and bring the gifts back to Herbertshoe. I found my box of camera gear and put it in the first boatload. All our private parcels were put in the gunroom for safety and the four midshipmen agreed not to open anv narcels until

Christmas morning.”

Kmcg.

(The Annual Dog Watch 1969.

Shiplovers’ Society of Victoria. 80c.)