pearlshelling

Pearling Luggers of the Torres Strait By Christina Ealing-Godbold, Research Librarian, Information Services | 19 November 2014 The luggers were gaff-rigged ketches constructed of wood, and many have continued to sail for more than 60 years. Typically measuring 15 to 20 meters in length, with low waists and bulwarks to assist diving, the two-masted pearling luggers were graceful with curved lines. They were a magnificent sight as they entered the open sea under full sail. There were many hundreds of luggers working across the north of Australia, from Thursday Island to Broome. Many of the luggers were built by Japanese shipwrights on Thursday Island. Indeed, by the turn of the century, the Japanese had a monopoly on the shipbuilding and slipways of the island. The Queensland Museum has examined the woods used in the luggers and has found that typically a mixture of native timbers was used, including melaleuca, turpentine, hoop pine, and sometimes imported timbers such as Oregon pine. The Queensland Maritime Museum at South Bank has restored a pearling lugger that was built on Thursday Island in 1907. Called Penguin, it was a working boat for more than 80 years. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/pearling-luggers-torres-strait

Queensland Places - Torres Strait - History of Pearling By JOL Admin | 25 June 2015 The first commercial pearling station in the Torres Strait area was established at Warrior Island in 1868, by Captain Banner, who was said to have identified large quantities of pearl shell whilst looking for beach-de-mer. As pearl shell was a more valuable commodity than beche-de-mer, news of the lucrative alternative soon spread. By 1876, more than a hundred boats were working in the industry, and more than a thousand men were employed. The pearl industry has often faced difficulties outside of its control, such as unpredictable price or demand fluctuations or shortages of suitable, skilled labor. For instance, in the ten-year period between 1881 and 1891 prices fell significantly, forcing many skilled operators to leave the industry. Japanese divers and other workers took their place and were to become a mainstay of the industry right through until the beginning of the Second World War. A further dislocation to the industry occurred in 1885 when a large part of the Torres Strait fleet moved to Western Australia to work the rich sources of pearl shell in the vicinity of Broome. A major calamity also struck the industry in 1899 when many luggers and workers were lost when two devastating cyclones hit Princess Charlotte Bay. The industry did recover to some extent in the late 1920s when there was a general boom in demand for a wide range of marine products, including pearls and pearl shells, but this was to be short-lived, with the industry declining again in the post Depression period of the 1930s. The beginning of the Second World War and the war with Japan had a devastating effect on the viability of the industry with this being exacerbated by the post-Second World War development and use of plastics, further dampening the demand for pearl shells. In the 1960s the industry revived due to the successful development of cultured pearls by the Japanese and the establishment of a number of cultured pearl farms at various locations throughout the Torres Strait. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/queensland-places-torres-strait-h...

The Thursday Island group comprising Thursday Island (TI), Horn Island, Prince of Wales, and Hammond Islands is uniquely diverse and multicultural compared to the other Island Clusters because of the colonial and historic influences of the pearling industry and the different cultures and people who have settled on these islands. The Thursday Islands Cluster has distinct cultural characteristics which define them as a region and people. The islands were an important strategic airbase in World War 2 with Horn Island being home to over 5000 troops. Today, with a population of 539, it is the air hub for the outer islands and the Cape. Prince of Wales Island is the largest of the group while TI (only 3km²) is the administrative capital, 30 km off the tip of mainland Australia. Although it lacks its own fresh water supply, the island was selected for its deep harbor, sheltered port, and proximity to major shipping channels. One of 17 inhabited islands in the straits, TI was once a major pearling center, resulting in today's cultural mix of Southeast Asians, Europeans, and Islanders. Hammond Island became the pearling station headquarters for a short time until its relocation to Thursday Island and early in the 20th-century gold was also mined. A cattle industry was set up later to supply the population of Thursday Island. In 1929 the need was seen to establish a Catholic Mission on Hammond Island for the children of the Filipinos and Malays whose forefathers were brought to the Torres Straits as indentured labor. Source: www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/torres-strait-islands-coll...

Lugger Ship type Article A lugger is a sailing vessel defined by its rig, using the lugsail on all of its one or several masts. They were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of France, England, Ireland, and Scotland. Luggers varied extensively in size and design. Many were undecked, open boats, some of which operated from beach landings (such as Hastings or Deal). Others were fully decked craft (typified by the Zulu and many other sailing drifters). Some larger examples might carry lug topsails.[1] Reaper, a Fifie, a type of sailing drifter built in the Northeast of Scotland Luggers were used extensively for smuggling from the middle of the 18th century onwards; their fast hulls and powerful rigs regularly allowed them to outpace any Revenue vessel in service. The French three-masted luggers also served as privateers and in general trade. As smuggling declined about 1840, the mainmast of three-masted luggers tended to be discarded, with larger sails being set on the fore and mizzen. This gave more clear space in which to work fishing nets.[2]: 15–19  Australia Some of the early pearling luggers used off the northern coastline of Australia from about the 1870s, often ship's boats, carried a lugsail, but the purpose-built boats that were used from the 1880s stopped using it over time. The majority of these were gaff-rigged ketches, although they continued to be called pearling luggers until the present day. Source: wikidocumentaries-demo.wmflabs.org/Q783186?language=en

In one of the South Pacific Studies titled: "A Fleeting Aquapelago: A Theoretical Consideration of the Japanese Presence in the Torres Strait The 1880s-1940s by HAYWARD Philip and KONISHI Junko The lugger Trenton was mentioned as a place for exchanging cultural traditions between Japanese and Torres Strait people between pearling sessions: One of our 1999 informants, Yuzuru Kuhara, from Izumo village in Wakayama (now part of Kushimoto city), recalled that a group of his fellow Izumo crew members working on the lugger Trenton made a point of learning Torres Strait songs and dances and even performed these at festivals in Japan in the late 1940s after their repatriation from Australia.