THE PERILS OF PEARLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18544, 18 August 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

THE PERILS OF PEARLING.

East and West Meet in Broome, W.A.

“ THAWING” PARALYSED DIVERS BACK TO LIFE.

Written for tfie “ Star " by

Bernard C. D. Ryder,

(All Rights Reserved )

The common pearl button is so familiar to our daily life that we little think of the. dangers and hardships that are undergone to provide civilisation with this very necessary thing. My Ladve,” when she adorns her neck with a string of pearls, gives no thought of the matter in which they were won from the sea.

Tt may not be commonly known that \\ estern Australia supplies three-quar-ters of the world’s output of pearls, and that Broome, lying high near the Buccaneer -.Archipelago, is the source of the main supply. Broome boasts a population of about 2000, comprising Japanese, Malays, Koepangers, halfcastes of varying hue, Englishmen and Jews. It is a township typical of the East, and the languor that characterises Eastern ports pervades it. Over 1000 Japanese crowd into a space in the Japanese quarter that would house few more than a dozen r Europeans, and all the weird smells of the Orient assail the nostrils, and all i the jargon offends tHe ears in this little Japan. It is a strange picture, this, to be found in Australia, for down the coast the 'sands look white in the tropical sun, and camel teams, with their turbanned Afghan drivers, come rolling up with great bales of sandalwood for shipment to the East. The shop fronts are adorned with strange Japanese writings, and men come running up with that queer gait of the East, swinging baskets on a long pole, as they did in Japan hundreds of years ago. Along the road a group of aboriginal prisoners are working, guarded by a white policeman armed with a rifle. The prisoners are shackled together with chains and bars, like natives in the Congo. At the wharf are piled cases of pearl shell, and in the distance the pearling luggers can be seen combing the seabed for its shell. Strange trees and flowers grow’ in this forgotten corner, great baobab trees, like bottles, and multi-coloured flowers. A butcher-bird utters its tantalising call from a nearby tree, while a flock of white cockatoos scream as they fly overhead. On the mud flats luggers lie on their sides, with sea-birds resting on their rotting planking, and an aboriginal “ lubra ” drags her weary feet along the beach with a string of fish that she has caught. Yet pearling is one of the most important industries of the West. There are two fishing grounds—that of the north-west, extending from the vicinity of North-west Cape to beyond Ad? miralty pulf, and a smaller one at Shark Bay.

At the former the large white mo-ther-of-pearl shell, known scientifically as Margaretetifera, is taken by divers using modern equipment; but at Shark Bay the smaller and less valuable mo-ther-of-year shell oysters, known as M. imbricata, are gathered by dredges, or taken by* hand from the shallower banks.

- The industry dates back to the early* “fifties,” and during the past ten years pearls with a stated value of over £500,000 have been won, while the pearl shell fished was worth over £2,000,000.

Just now the industry is declining, and many of the. pearlers have literally abandoned their luggers, owing to the falling off in the demand. The price of mother-of-pearl has dropped to about £l6O a ion, which scarcely covers the cost of raising it, while the high cost of production, including the higher wages for divers and crew, leaves no margin of profit. The boats used are luggers, averaging from 10 to 15 tons, and are ketch rigged. The diving gear comprises two complete dresses, piping and air compressor driven by* a kerosene engine. The life of a pearler is hard, and he is often at sea in his lugger for weeks at a time, his only* companions being the Japanese divers and the aboriginal native labour. Sailing along the coast one may* see the divers at work, They are dragged along the sea bed until they reach a patch of shell, then the boat is signalled, and the “haul” raised. The shallow waters have been worked

F.R.G.S.

bare naturally, and the divers at times have to go to great depths for their hauls. There are dangers connected with deep working, and divers are often afflicted with paralysis, and sometimes brought to the surface in a state of collapse. If the diver is working at a distant spot the “compression” cure cannot be applied, and the treatment is remarkable. He is returned to the water, and lowered to the depth he was working at, and then gradually “staged” to the surface, the process often taking hours. Quite a number recover from the effects of the paraly*sis, but in Broome there is a cemetery where fie manv hundreds of such victims—row upon row of them, mostly Japanese, in theii early twenties! The compression chamber adjoins the hospital at Broome, and divers are rushed thither ♦when paralysis attacks them, should they b<3 near enough to port. They are placed in the chamber, and air is pumped in until it reaches the pressure at which they were working. Then the pressure i_s gradually eased, until the men can survive normal pressure. During the time they* are in the chamber food is passed in through an airtight door, and they lie there until the dangerous symptoms have passed. The cemetery at Broome is quaint, for on the graves are hundreds of sticks of incense, and saucers that had contained food. Some of the graves bear the photograph ©£ the unfortunate diver” while others may have a photograph of the lugger on which he worked. All are adorned with quaint

characters of the East, and surrounding the graves are usually hundreds of bottles.

One grave in Broome was erected to the memory of over 200 divers who lost their lives during a big blow some years ago. At one period of the year all the Japanese gather together and fashion little boats out of wood and paper, which they light with Japanese lanterns. They are then sent adrift at night, and make a wonderful picture as the hundreds of tiny craft sail away, the lights burning for some time. It is a pretty ceremony. There is occasionally a pleasanter side to pearling. Luggers often sail into a friendly bay, allowing the divers and others to land and replenish their larder with turtles and eggs. At the same time they may indulge in a little beachcombing. The vessels will often travel hundreds of miles along the coast in search of trocas and beche-de-mer (sea slug), which are greatly prized. But it is mostly a hard life, with an uncertain reward.