Malabar 1847

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Richard Quartermaine

Michael, Malabar in Sydney is named after a Burns Philp Line vessel Malabar, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malabar,_New_South_Wales .
You might also be interested in the Merchant Navy link to Burns Philp I have on the Home page of Queensland Insurance Company Oldies
Good Luck, Richard

---

Just diverting off the main thread here to follow on Richard Q's post about the earlier 1925 MALABAR,which gave it's name to a Sydney suburb of Long Bay.

I read your interesting comments about Burns,Philps on your website Richard and was interested in Malabar's voyages.

The 1925 Clydebuilt m.v.Malabar,together with an earlier running mate, the 1916 German built s.s. MARELLA, maintained a six week round voyage between Melbourne/ Sydney and Singapore.
Sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef she called at Brisbane and Townsville,before negotiating the narrow Cook's Passage,a 1.5 mile opening near Lizard Is. to the north of Cape Tribulation to reach open water and clear Cape York to call at Thursday Island and then Darwin. She then sailed across the Timor Sea to pass Roti Is. to the south of Timor and then along the line of the' fire islands' with their smoking volcanoes-Sumba,Flores,Sumbawa,Lombok and Bali before arriving in the beautiful harbour of Surabaya in Java opposite Madura Is.Large Javanese fishing fleets were passed before calling at the sugar port of Semarang and the capital of Batavia (now Djakarta). A final passage along the Sumatra coastline clearing Bangka Is . ensued to Singapore for discharge and loading of cargo then embarking a new set passengers for return to Australia.

However it was the Malabar which grounded ,striking rocks in Long Bay,south of Port Jackson in 1931.It was allegedly due to a misunderstood change of course by the helmsman and the master,Capt.Leslie had his certificate of competency revoked.It was just six weeks later that Malabar's replacement arrived from Clydebank,the m.v.MACDHUI although she was put on the Port Moresby(PNG) service.
Malabar's place on the Singapore service alongside Marella was taken by another German built acquired vessel ,the m.v.MERKUR.

Port Swettenham and Penang were additional post war calls after Merkur was finally released from war service in 1949,and it was Merkur that performed the last one way closing service from Sydney to Singapore in November 1953,then proceeding to Japan for scrapping.Her illustrious running mate Marella had been sold at the end of 1948 to Greek,then Italian interests,ending her days scrapped at Ghent in 1955.

Re # 21 Just some more interesting reading.

Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site

FOURO.

That is very interesting Davey and I will respond more fully when I get back to normal with the time wasting password problems I have been experiencing this week.
I am familiar with the fire islands and the particularly spectacular Lombok mountain island rising out of the sea. When setting up a joint venture in Jakarta, Indonesia we opened a branch in Surabaya. As a steward on the Morinda and Bulolo I also I worked by in Sydney on the Merkur, reputed by some to be the Kaiser's Yacht in 1948.
I am currently involved in arranging a lunch at Moss Vale in our Southern Highlands in mid-November with JDO (David) Burns, the grandson of Sir James Burns who founded Burns Philp and then in turn Queensland Insurance in 1886. David was purser around that time on the Bulolo. What goes around comes around; in the 60s he would call on me when I ran QI in Fiji. He's got a couple of years on me so its quite a journey down Memory Lane.
Richard

#19, Thank you for trial details Michael what a sorry tale, simplistic times indeed, and yes would appreciate hearing your results.M

Looking for crew lists in this period is not easy as Guliver pointed out in an earlier thread. At this time an official number had not been allocated so records were filed by ship's names and ports of registry.

For MALABAR 1847 assuming she is the vessel with the London port of registry then have a look in BT 98/1323

For ROSEBUD 1855 Newcastle have a look in BT 98/4265

I read through some of the newspaper articles of the period and it seems like he was not the murderer and was aquitted. From other correspondece by the Superindendant he states he had evidence of his time at sea and that it may have been that he used an assumed name when signing on MALABAR.

Regards
Hugh

This thread is also of interest and some assistance to me, as I am looking for information regarding an ancestor that was also indentured into the Merchant Navy in 1947 and was also on the Malabar (although in the records it is spelt Mallabar).

My ancestor was Edwin Theodore Napoleon PEARCE and his ticket number was 386,334. I have found no information regarding his movements until he arrived in Fremantle Australia as a convict on the GUIDE in 1855. He was pardoned within a few months and then became a founding member of the Fremantle Water Police.

Further research indicates that he was court-martialled in Bombay in 1854 for insubordination, but I am unable to find any more detail about his case.

I would love to find out more about his time in the Merchant Navy and the circumstances regarding his court-martial.

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Dean

Hi Dean, Welcome to the site:)
Tried to send you an email but it stated that the the address isn't formatted correctly!
Do you have a dob for Edwin and where in UK he was born?

Does below match your dates?
Birth: Oct - 1830 - Middlesex, England
Marriage: 1858 - Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
Death: 14 Oct 1919 - South Australia, Australia
Parents: Joseph Pearce
Spouse: Mary Ellen Loane

Do you have a "tree" on Ancestry already?

Dean, In 1948/49 I sailed out of Fremantle a couple trips on the Western Australian Shipping Service vessel MV Koolinda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koolinda .
There is a wonderful well written factual and dramatic account of some convicts around the time (not 1947) in a book entitled "Voyage of the Catalpa". It is in paperback. https://books.google.com.au/books?id...ir_esc=y&hl=en . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa_rescue
Regards, Richard

Hi Richard, I wrote about the Catalpa on a previous post I went to the Memorial near Rockingham with an old mate from Liverpool, Joe Finnegan who now lives there, not far from John Sabourn`s place, two years ago in 2014..............
......


The Great Escape from Australia

I was in Rockampton, Western Australia, 3 or 4 weeks ago, and on the beach was a Memorial of Wild Geese. depicting the escape of six Feinian Convicts in 1876
Very well planned escape.
from the Rockampton Bugle.

Escape of fenian Prisoners.
The rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle, Western ; Australia, on Easter ' Monday, April 17, created the greatest excitement in Western Australia. The plan of escape appears to have been well "matured, and to have been carried outlwith, much skill and daring. The following account is taken from the Perth Jagmrer ol May 17:
A Mr. Collins,' described -as an affable gentlemanly mau, of fair complexion, and with an English accent, arrived at Albany in November last, per steamer . from Melbourne, and came lo Fremantle
per Georgette as a first-class passenger. By the same mail a man named John- son, who possesses the characteristics of a thorough-going Yankee, arrived as a second-class passenger. Neither of. these persons appeared to know each
other. Collins stayed at the Emerald; '? Isle Hotel, Fremantle, where a stranger
. rejoicing in the patronymic of Jones was
also stopping, but seemed in .no manner to be connected with Collins. A man - named Taylor also. appears to be one of
the: -confedérate parry. Johnson occupied part of his time by working at his trade,; at Sloane's carriage-building factory, in this city. Once a week, and six ;pr -seven1 times during the fortnight . prior to the escape, Johnson had hired
Mr. Summers'waggonette, always paying for it the customary charge. On Good Friday he drove -out, returning the same evening, and on the following day again drove off, never to return. A similar arrangement was made by Collins with Mr. Albert,- of Fremantle, of whom he . hired a carriage and pair. . The men who
have escaped are Michael Harrington, James Wilson, Martin Hogan, Thomas Hassett, Thomas Darragh, and Robert Cranston. The two former were : working on the morning of their escape
{April 17) at the south jetty, with the -. party in charge of Warder Booler.
Hogan was painting at the comptroller's quarters. Darragh,-who was the Protestant chaplain's orderly - and Hassett were gardening outside the - prison, and Cranston, who was employed
as messenger, appears to have had free access in and out of the prison. On the morning in question the latter walked leisurely towards the south jetty, swinging a door key on his Anger, and asked the warder to allow Harrington and Wilson to assist him in removing some furniture from the official marine residence on the Hampton-road. The warder, unsuspectingly, allowed the men to go. The Fremantle prison com- mands a very fine view of the town, and the three men there employed could ' easily watch the movements of Cranston
and his two companions, and of the carriages which had preceded them along the Hanpton-road, and when all was safe, at a signal, the painter abandoned his brush, the gardeners dropped their spades, and, somewhere between 'the old Cemetery and the Piggery, took carriage and drove off tc Rockingham, distance about 14 miles, About 9 o'clock that morning, Mr. W. Bell, a settler at Rockingham, observed a whaleboat, manned by six coloured men and a white man of the Yankee type, , coming alongside the Jarrah Timber Company's landing. He immediately suspected something wrong, and watched. Presently he saw an outrider, followed by two carriages full of men. six of whom wore the convict dress dashing -along at full speed. They halted,: and immediately made for the boat, into which they jumped and wen pulled out to sea. Bell's suspicion: being aroused, he hastened to Fremantle, and gave information to the police of what he had witnessed. ' The water-police boat at once gave pursuit and on the evening of the same day the
Georgette was commissioned as a wai vessel by the authorities, and also des patched in pursuit of the fugitives. Tb instructions given to the commande were to overtake and go alongside the ship to which the whaleboats wen supposed to belong ; to ascertain if the absconders were on board ; and then demand their, surrender. No force was to be used, but the men on board were to be kept under arms as a means of defence. On the following morning the Georgette sighted a barque under light sail steering south. In about two hours time she was alongside, when the vessel turned out to be the Catalpa, of New Bedford, Captain Anthony, a whaler flying the American flag. This vessel had cleared out from Bunbury on the 38th March. It was noticed that he larboard boat was missing, and in reply to questions put by Mr. Stone (the superintendent of water police, who was in command of the steamer) the master after some hesitation, said the captain was in Fremantle, that no boat had been seen with prisoners in her, and that h was awaiting the return of his captain Mr. Stone then asked, "Can I boat your ship and search?" to which the mate cooly replied, "Don't know, ( i. no instructions, but guess you'd better not, anyhow." The Georgette being short of coal, Mr. Stone determine upon returning at once to Fremantle where she arrived about 5 o'clock About noon the Catalpa was observe by/those on board the police-boat 1
tack and stand to the north. The police-boat was then about two miles south, to the leeward of her. She took
similar course, and described a whale- boat ahead to the leeward. She gave full chase and gained upon her, hut her motions were observed by the Catalpa, which bore down under full sail, picked up the whaleboat, and stood away. The police-boat then passed the ship within 20 yards to leeward of her, and distinctly recognised the Fenians on board by their convict dress, and also Mr. Collins. Neither of the boats hailed
each other, and the police-boat returned to Fremantle, leaving the Catalpa steering south. The Georgette, having been supplied with coal, was again despatched by the Government in pursuit, and early next morning sighted the Catalpa bearing S.S.E. under sail On nearing her the steamer fired a gun under the vessel's stem, when she instantly hoisted the American flag, but took no further notice of the firing. Both vessels coming within hailing distance, Mr. Superintendent Stone, addressing the Captain of the Catalpa, demanded the six escaped convicts on board his ship. Captain Anthony replied he had no convicts in his vessel, nor would he allow the police to board her. The superintendent then said, " If you do not give them up I will fire Fix this text into yon, and sink or disable you." The captain, nothing daunted, retorted,
" I don't care what you do ; I am on the. high seas, and that flag (pointing to the stars and stripes) protects me." After some further parley, the steamer returned to Freemantle. During the whole of her cruise after the Catalpa the men on board were under arms, on the defensive, but Mr. Stone's orders were to threaten as much as he liked, but not to use any violence. It seems humiliating that a Yankee, with half a dozen coloured men, should be able to come into our waters and carry off six of the most determined of the Fenian convicts-all the unre- leased military prisoners-and then to laugh at us for allowing them to be taken away without any effort to secure them. But international law must be observed, and doubtless the Home Government will seek and obtain redress for this out- rage. It is evident that Collins came lo this colony with ample means as the agent of the American Fenian brother- hood, and that Jones, Johnson, and Taylor, were co-workers in furthering the escape of the prisoners. Immediately the Catalpa arrived at Bunbury Collins proceeded there, and doubtless
interviewed Captain Anthony, who1 shortly afterwards came to Freemantle under the plea of securing fresh charts, but in reality to reconnoitre


The Great Escape from Australia-pictures-2014-cruise-1118-jpg the Monument is of Wild Geese, for the escaped convicts.

Last edited by Captain Kong; 13th March 2014

There is a good story of the scape on Wikipedia.
.........
Catalpa rescue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa_rescue‎CachedSimilar
The Catalpa rescue was the escape, in 1876, of six Irish Fenian prisoners from
what was then the British penal colony of Western Australia.
.
A couple of pictures of the Catalpa.


Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails The Great Escape from Australia-catalpa-jpg The Great Escape from Australia-catalpa-jpg

A fantastic true story, Brian. Here is a photo of Fremantle prison that is now a heritage site. In 1948 in Fremantle I was taken off the Adelaide Steamship's MV Manunda in an ambulance to Fremantle Hospital with malaria I had caught in Papua New Guinea when I was on Burns Philp's Bulolo earlier that year. When the quinine and atabrin did their job I did a couple of trips on the Koolinda until the Manunda later returned.

I liked Fremantle so much and being close to my work in Singapore we bought a house in Apple Cross, between Fremantle and Perth. When we decided to come back to Oz we moved there but eventually went back to my birth city, Sydney where our daughter had married and was starting a family.

Margaret and my doctor in Singapore's wife who also were moving down bought and operated a tea room in Fremantle called the Penny Café. That was in the 1980s.
Cheers, Richard