pearlshelling

The administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands which have been part of Queensland since 1872, “T.I.” as it is usually known, is just over three square km in area and 39km off the tip of Cape York. The strait’s population of 25,000 live on more than 20 islands (around one-tenth of these live on Thursday Island), and is engaged mostly in fishing, prawning and a declining pearling industry. Thursday Island is now identified as one of the last great frontiers in Australia, as it holds some great Australian history. In 1880, Thursday Island acted as the defence centre for Australia and evidence of this still exists in that the cannons still remains in place. Although Thursday Island has lost its former importance as a stopping point for vessels, it’s still a popular pause for passing yachties. History: The island has been populated for thousands of years by the Melanesian Torres Strait Islanders, who named the island Waiben, thought to mean ‘no water or place of no water’, owing to the scarcity of fresh water on the island. It was named Thursday Island on 4th June 1789 by Captain William Bligh on his epic voyage of survival after being cast adrift in a longboat during the mutiny on HMS Bounty. He named it because the day he arrived and went ashore there was a Thursday. In 1877, an administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands was set up on the island by the Queensland Government. A lucrative pearling industry was founded on the island in 1885, attracting workers from around Asia, including Japan, Malaya and India, seeking their fortune. By 1883 over 200 pearling vessels were based on the island. Additionally, many south Pacific Islanders were also imported to work in the industry, many against their will. While the pearling industry has declined in importance, the mix of cultures is evident to this day. The pearling industry centred on the harvesting of pearl shell, which was used to make shirt buttons. Pearls themselves were rare and a bonus for the owner or crew. The boats used were a very graceful two-masted lugger with, in good times, a stern diver, one midship, and one diver off the bow. The fear of a Russian invasion lead to a fort on Battery Point being built in 1892 to protect the island. During World War II, Thursday Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a base for Australian and United States forces. As a result, the island was bombed by the Japanese in 1942, which saw the evacuation of civilians from the island. They did not return until after the end of the war. The island was mostly spared from bombing in World War II, due, it was thought, to it being the burial place of many Japanese pearl shell divers. However, neighbouring Horn Island was extensively bombed. It had an airbase there, used by the Allies to attack parts of New Guinea. Following the conclusion of the war, the island tradition of a no footwear policy was reinstated in respect for the ancient spirits believed to reside on the island. In the 1950s the CSIRO attempted to establish a cultured pearl industry and in the 1970s there was an attempt to farm green turtles. The Melanesian background of the Thursday Islanders became an issue in the 1970s when Papua New Guinea sought to include the Torres Strait Islands within its borders. The Torres Strait Islanders insisted that they were Australians, however, and after considerable diplomatic discussion all of the Torres Strait, including Thursday Island, remained part of Australia. Source: www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/north-queensland-21/

Only a handful of Torres Strait luggers remain From 1863 to the 1980s hundreds of pearling vessels worked the East and West coasts of Queensland, Torres Strait, and for some years in the Aru Islands of Indonesia. Of these, we believe that there are only 14 identified Torres Strait pearling luggers, 1 former pearl shell carrier, and 2 formers Torres Strait missionary vessels remaining. Recent losses include the 112-year-old Lugger GRAFTON A49 - the wreck of her hull removed from Port Douglas in February 2019 and FLORIA whose end is imminent. TORRES PEARL Formerly named SEDNEY, the Torres Pearl is currently located in Tasmania in private ownership. She has an aft-wheelhouse and those lugger lines. Source: pearlingluggers.com.au/last-of-the-luggers

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.