by David Jones Queensland Maritime Museum

No vessel embodies colour and raw drama in Queensland’s history more than the pearling lugger of Thursday Island.  There is romance in the image of pearling luggers cruising tropical seas searching for lustrous pearl shell on the frontiers of the state.  And there is excitement in the mixture of races coming together for pearling coupled with the hazards of deep water diving, coral reefs and cyclones.

Though traditional pearling has faded away in Queensland waters, a few old luggers still survive.  Now over a hundred years old, the lugger Penguin has been lovingly restored and is proudly displayed at the Queensland Maritime Museum.  Others, like the Waitoa which resides in Manly Boat Harbour, have been adapted to sail on more comfortable pursuits.

Most luggers followed a standard design, typified by Penguin and Waitoa, tried and tested over many years of hard work.  Australian pearling luggers did not carry lug sails as their name implies, but were gaff-rigged ketches, measuring around 15m in length.  Their timber hull lines were curved and graceful, with low waist and bulwarks to assist diving. Before the Second World War they worked solely under sail.  But since then small diesel engines were fitted and sail became secondary.

Pearling luggers operated as a platform for divers.  While some free diving was possible in shallow water, the majority was deeper diving using heavy diving suits and helmets.  An air pump in the lugger’s hold supplied divers with air through a hose, and the man who attended this pump held the diver’s life in his hands.

Gathering mother-of-pearl was not the luggers’ only pursuit.  Trochus shell and beche-de-mer were also sought, particularly when pearl shell was in short supply.  In their heyday the luggers ranged widely around Queensland’s tropical coast, occasionally reaching as far south as Mackay and Gladstone.

While Torres Strait islanders used pearl shell well before European settlement, organised pearling began in the Torres Strait around 1868.  The industry mushroomed as more and more companies and boats arrived to scoop quick profits from abundant shell fields.  But greed led to excess and the Queensland Colonial Government, concerned at the exploitation of both pearl beds and labour, passed laws in 1881 to regulate the pearling industry.

Even at this early stage the pearling grounds were being depleted.  From here on the industry swung between prosperity and hardship as new pearl beds were found and fished out, and at the whim of overseas markets.  1897 was a good year with 280 boats registered as well as 1,667 men indentured from seven major ethnic groupings.  Japanese predominated, as they did through most of Queensland’s pearling history.

On the down side, that same year 22 divers died while pearling.  The toll of lives remained high, despite the efforts of authorities to reduce risk and promote safety.  The greatest tragedy of all occurred on the night of March 4, 1899 – and it was not from diving.

It was a quiet Saturday evening and a large pearling fleet with over a hundred vessels rested in Bathurst and Princess Charlotte Bays.  During the night a cyclone struck the anchorage with unprecedented suddenness and ferocity, driving a 14.6m cyclonic surge five kilometres inland.  It was the largest storm wave ever recorded.

Caught completely by surprise, the pearling fleet did not stand a chance.  The eye of the cyclone passed directly over the bays just before dawn on Sunday morning, then hurricane winds returned with greater force in the opposite direction.  Torn from their moorings, vessels were driven by the elements, dismasted, flooded, and rolled over and over on the seabed, some being cast up far inland.  All the vessels in the fleet were wrecked with five large vessels and 54 luggers totally destroyed.  It was the deadliest cyclone in Australian history taking 307 lives in the fleet, along with an estimated 100 aborigines on shore.

Of an evening on board the luggers and ashore at Thursday Island, stories abounded.  There were tales of the Darnley Deep, with its fearful toll of divers, and divers surfacing white-faced and shaken, saying they had seen ghostly apparitions in the depths; ships under full sail beating along the seabed.  There were other stories such as diving being suspended at the full moon.  This at least has some substance as the high tides and races over a full moon stir up the sea floor making the water too murky for divers to work.

At the heart of life on Thursday Island luggers made a good excuse for a party.  They started at the beginning of the season when each lugger emerged taught and fresh from refit.  The lugger was blessed by the church, then cruised the harbour overhanging with family and friends, singing, drumming and drinking.  When all the luggers were ready in July, they joined in the annual lugger race covering a 50km course around Thursday Island.  No matter which boat may win, all joined in the accompanying singing, dancing and feasting.

Torres Strait islanders gained the chance of operating their own pearling luggers in 1935 when the Queensland Department of Native Affairs fitted out several vessels for their use.  This has proved a great success, harnessing the formidable seagoing talents of the islanders and building their financial independence.  Islanders and their luggers continued to make a strong contribution to the industry until its collapse in the early 1970s.

Pearling thrived for a while after the Second World War, but times were changing.  Synthetics were replacing mother-of-pearl in traditional markets such as buttons which were now being made of plastic.  New methods of diving were trialled.  The heavy and bulky diving suit was reduced and less cumbersome, but more dangerous, outfits adopted.  The final rig had no suit, only a helmet and weights.  Such dress was not for the faint hearted as a panicking diver could very easily throw off his helmet – with fatal consequences.

The greatest change after the war was the rise of the cultured pearl industry.  This was pioneered in Australia, with a Royal Commission as far back as 1908 recommending the scientific cultivation of mother-of-pearl.  But little had been done.  Japanese firms developed the technique and quickly monopolised production.  Australian shell was superior to that in Japan, so pearl culture farms multiplied across northern Australia during the 1960s.  By this time luggers were engaged solely in diving for fresh shell for the cultured pearl farms.

Twenty nine luggers were still working in 1967, but the end was nigh.  In March 1970 the tanker Oceanic Grandeur spilled oil into Torres Strait with disastrous results.  Soon afterwards much of the shell in nearby culture farms died, decimating the pearl industry in Torres Strait.  Now only a couple of pearl farms remain, and Torres Strait islanders have turned their maritime skills from pearling to catching crayfish.

The Queensland Maritime Museum has a range of displays celebrating the state’s pearling history.  As well as the lugger Penguin and a diving suit and pump, the museum is currently showing a photographic exhibition, ‘Pearling in the Torres Strait’, depicting activities of the Norna Pearling Company which operated in the early years of the 20th Century until 1911.  We encourage you to visit.

Sources include:

• Davenport, Winifred, Department of Harbours and Marine Queensland 1824-1985 (Dept of Harbours & Marine, Brisbane, 1986)
• Gantner, Regina, The Pearl-Shellers of Torres Strait (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1994)
• Holthouse, Hector, Cyclone (Rigby Limited, Brisbane, 1971)