PEARLING IN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

PEARLING IN AUSTRALIA

Some Famous Finds

Pearls worth as much as £20,000 each have been found in Australian waters. Some of the more famous of these pearls are here described by Frank Reid. Pare and valuable pearls have been brought to the surface by divers on the pearling grounds in Torres Strait and north-west Australia.' Only recently it was announced in the Press that a mganificent pearl had been brought to Sydney. Weighing 103 grains, this gem was part of the haul of a native diver from an Australianowned lugger off Broome last year. It was sent to Paris, where it was valued at. £IO,OOO sterling. Although pearling in Torres Strait does not. go back much more than half a century, pearling vessels worked out of Sydney long before that period. In ISI3, William Campbell, who had discovered a rich pearling ground near Tahiti, and now known as the Paumotus, brought to Sydney a large baroque pearl weighing 1000 grains. It is not known what became of this rare gem. Three months later there was ex-

hibited in Sydney a large pear-shaped gem which had a tragic history. It was found by Michael Fodger, about GOO miles to the north-east of Tahiti, but, when he was about to return to Sydney in his brig, the Daphne, his divers, led by a Lascar named Amill. killed Fodger, and two seamen, also put eight Europeans ashore on the desolate island of Arava without even a fish-hook to help them get food. Then they compelled six other European members of the crew to take the vessel to Tahiti. There Theodore Walker, master of the Sydney brig Endeavour, recaptured her and hanged Amill from the. yardarm. However, Fodger seems to have been an utter scoundrel, and to have well deserved his fate. In ISI-1 a merchant, named Garnham Blaxell brought to Sydney from the Paumotus reefs two pearls, one of which weighed 26 carats, and was valued at £20,000. The smaller gem, which was valued at: £IO,OOO, was sent to England, and is now included in the Crown jewels. The following year be brought to Sydney a magnificent oval pearl which weighed 330 grains. It is said that this gem found its way to France, where it eventually adorned a tiara worn by Empress MarieLouise. Among the treasures of India are the pearls belonging to the Gaekwar of Baroda, and they are valued at £3,000,000. Amongst the collection is a rug, decorated with pearls, believed to have been destined to cover Mahomed's tomb. Others state it was intended for a beautiful woman. It has been claimed that the pearls which decorate this wonderful rug came from Australian waters over 100 years ago, and, if this is so. they must have been procured by Malays who were known to cross from .-Macassar in their proas and dive for pearls on our northern shores long before Captain Cook sighted our coasts. The famed Southern Cross pearl, found at Roebourne. Western Australia, in 1871, is probably the most remarkable pearl that nature lias ever produced, and, so far as is known, it occupies a unique position in the history of pearls. It was found by a man

named Clark. With his sou he was pearl-fishing in the schooner Ethel, but the owner of the boat was a Roman Catholic called '•Shiner" Kelly. When the opened shell disclosed the remarkable pearl-cross, all the men on board Hie schooner were tilled with amazement and awe.

Kelly regained tuv uAu«utu»uu«j pearl as a heaven-wrought miracle, and with a certain amount of superstitious dread he buried the gem. for how long is not known. Tills gem is a group of nine pearls in the shape of an almost perfect Latin cross. Seven pearls compose the .-diaft, which measures one inch and a half in length, while the two arms of the cross are formed of one pearl on each side, almost opposite to the second pearl, reckoning from the top downwards. The component pearls arc of line orient, and would be of good shape were it not that by natural compression during growth they have become slightly flattened on their opposite sides, while some of them, though round in front, are distorted at the back.

At first sight, it might be supposed that the pearls had been artificially joined together, and it. was also suggested that: a fragment of serrated seaweed might: have been the framework of the pearl. It is kndwii that the Chinese produce pearl deposits on wire artificially, but, iu this case, no such thread could be found. A number of scientists and experts were allowed to examine it closely with powerful magnifying glasses under a brilliant light, but the cross came out of the ordeal without a shadow of suspicion, and was pronounced to be a lustra natural of unique character.

During the late war. this pearl was in the possession of Mr. C. Peto Bennett, a timber merchant of Lombard Street, London. It was then valued ar £IO.OOO. and later Roman Catholics in England purchased it by means of shilling subscriptions, and presented it to the Pope. The north-western waters of Australia have given up many other remarkable, pearls, and there is the story of one found in 1916 in shallow depths by a black diver, which brought the phenomenal sum of £16.000. Then there was the well-known "Eacott” pearl. There has been some dispute as to the actual discoverer of this gem, but. the man who onwed the lugger, and consequently whose property it became, was a pearler named Joe Eacott, and the gem was called after him. It was sold for £IO,OOO.

Another fine pearl found in the same waters was the beautiful dropshaped gem weighing 100 grains, otherwise the size of a sparrow’s egg, which was found by one of the divers of James Clark's pearling fleet, near Broome, in 1918. This pearl, which became known as “The Star of the West,’ was valued at £IO,OOO. Another very remarkable pearl was found near Broome during the visit of the Prince of Wales, now Duke of Windsor, to Australia. It was named the "Prince Pearl,” after being inspected and admired by His Royal Highness, who expressed his pleasure at having the gem named after him. This beautiful pearl, which weighed 60 grains, was also drop-shaped, and was valued at, about. £2OOO.