Damn Yankee Whalers

Whaling barque at Rockingham Jetty circa 1890s.

Forget for a moment it was Major Edmund Lockyer in 1826 the first white fellow to claim Western Australia on behalf of the British Empire, known then by the Dutch as New Holland, and who far back as 1627 mapped the WA coastline as an addition to their expanding empire. Before the Dutch it was claimed the Portuguese were WA’s first invaders, while still speculated by some historians, it may have been the Chinese. Next it was the French in 1792, in a race with the British to claim WA on behalf of their serial invader Napoleon Bonaparte. Anyway, imagine for a moment it had been the French and not the British to invade WA. Would us blow-ins now be speaking with a French accent, and instead of having porridge for breakfast, croissants, and rather than being referred to as ‘Aussies’, ‘Frozzies’? Then we Irish arrived, all dressed up in our

Catalpa at anchor in Koombana Bay Western Australia.

Damn Yankee Whalers! BY PETER MURPHY

convict suits and with nowhere to go, except on a chain gang toiling in the bush. I’ll come back to us Irish later. It must have been a sight for First Nations people to see ships from different countries arriving on their shores, and engage in donnybrooks over land they had occupied for over 50000 years, and if the invading parties had only bothered to ask were they willing to share their land, rather than take it by force, I’m sure they could have come to some arrangement. Little however is talked about those other invaders from the northern hemisphere, the Americans. That’s right, well before the French, English and Irish had set foot in WA, the Americans – since the mid-eighteen century - had been coming and going to WA faster than homesick Dubliners. Thing was about the Americans - unlike the Dutch, French and English - they weren’t in the least interested in invading WA and planting the Stars and Stripes, as the Dutch had with a plaque 100 years previous. They were more like Vikings, interested solely in plundering the riches of the surrounding seas, thereby leaving First Nations people not only bereft of their ocean resource such as fish, whales, seals, molluscs and mutton birds, but they also left a bloody stain still to be acknowledged and reconciled with. Evidence of American whalers visiting WA was first documented when two whaling barques, Asia and Alliance were spotted off Shark Bay in April 1792 by a British maritime expedition led by Captain George Vancouver, while the British military outpost established in King George Sound (Albany) in 1826 under the command of Major Lockyer reported the

Catalpa poster - Denver USA.

Sound was used largely by American whalers. Of course the Irish were never far from the fray around that period. Take for instance, Patrick Ryan, 33, sentenced to transportation in 1822 for horse stealing. Ryan, a sawyer by trade, was one of a group of 23 convicts sent to the Sound under the command of Lockyer to help build the military outpost. Ryan however had other ideas, and began to plot with his fellow convicts a rebellion to seize the outpost including its munitions. He began to make his move in January 1826 by having his fellow convicts down tools and refusing to work. Lockyer, aware of Ryan’s nefarious intention, quickly nipped the revolt in the bud by having the Irish rebel arrested, tied up and flogged. After receiving numerous lashes Ryan capitulated and promised he’d behave. Had Ryan’s little revolt succeeded it could have possibly changed the course of early European history in WA, and rather than being referred to as ‘Aussies’ or ‘Frozzies’, it may have been ‘Paddies’. Back to them damn ‘Yankee whalers’ as they were referred to by British settlers. Since mid-eighteen century, numerous American whalers plied the WA coast between King George Sound and Shark Bay in the hunt for whales, and with the Sperm Whale their preferred catch due to its blubber, said to produce the best quality oil used to flicker street lamps in the developing world. They had made the perilous three month voyage from faraway American eastern ports, such as New Bedford, New London, Nantucket and Sag Harbour, while it’s oft reported the Yankee whaling fleet at its peak during the early 1800s numbered up to 700 vessels, and 70000 men were engaged in the industry. It’s difficult to say what effect these Yankee whalers had on the overall lives and culture of First Nations people; however it has been widely reported there was a burgeoning trade between both parties, and with fresh drinking water, kangaroo and wallaby meat, along with certain bush medicines useful in combating Barque Catalpa (circa 1876) scurvy and dysentery in demand, and traded in return for sugar, flower, molasses and chocolate. Sadly there were reports of Yankee whalers kidnapping (black-birding) First Nations young men and women to be sold as slaves on cotton farms in America’s Deep South, and with some of the women used as sexual objects by crew members during the long seasonal whale hunt. A yarn with an Irish connection involving a sailor on a Yankee whaler is an interesting one to say the least. His name was William Amsley, aged 21, said to be a native of Cape Verde, off the West Coast of Africa. It’s doubted however that was his real name, as in those days it wasn’t unusual due to the number of desertions by crew members when visiting exotic ports, their identification papers were handed over to the next available (slave) man. William arrived in Koombana Bay (Bunbury) on the whaling barque North America in 1843.

Barque Catalpa (circa 1876).

However, the barque had just arrived when a violent storm lashed the bay wrecking the barque. Destitute and with no means of support, William put himself forward to a local whaling merchant as a ‘gun’ Yankee whaler, and it wasn’t long before he was made master of a whaleboat, which would sustain him in wages, food and accommodation over a number of years. And although becoming a respected whaler and seaman in the Koombana Bay region, William ‘being a man colour’ would find it difficult to wed a woman of Anglo Saxon origin, and it was only when the 3 ‘Brideships’ arrived from Ireland in 1854 did William manage to secure the hand of one, Johanna Fennell. Several years later, William would take command of the 17-ton cutter Brothers which plied the Indian Ocean between Fremantle and King George Sound delivering mail and provisions to settlers, where in between, Joanna would give birth to several children. William would unfortunately pass away at the age of 51, thereby leaving Joanna to raise the children on her own. Struggling to make ends meet, she married a George Grant from Busselton. However, not long after that marriage, Grant deserted her leaving her again to struggle to care for her children. Joanna carried on best she could to raise her family, and with some of them later becoming prominent athletes in the district. She remained in Busselton until her death in 1890. Of course the Irish connection to Yankee whalers doesn’t end there. For it was the Yankee whaler Gazelle that plucked Irish political prisoner and poet, John Boyle O’Reilly, from a remote beach north of Bunbury in 1869 in a dramatic escape that would lead eventually to another Yankee whaler Catalpa being involved in the dramatic escape in 1876 of six of O’Reilly’s Fenian comrades still locked up in Fremantle prison, and like O’Reilly, were whisked safely to America. Ironically, O’Reilly, on the Gazelle, would find himself on the end of a harpoon in chase of whales, and where during one particular chase, found himself the hunted rather than the hunter after falling overboard. He would later pen a poem citing his experience on the Gazelle: ‘We were down in the Indian Ocean, after the Barque Catalpa (circa 1876).

Barque Catalpa (circa 1876) sperm, and three years out; The last six months in the tropics, and looking in vain for spout, Five men up on the yards, weary of straining their sight; And every day like its brother – just morning and noon and night –Nothing to break the sameness; water and wind and sun, Motionless, gentle and blazing – never a change in one.’ (Extract from ‘The Amber Whale’) It would take another 100 years before it was realized whales had been slaughtered almost to extinction, and with the last whaling station in WA at Albany hanging up its harpoons in the late 1970s. But who could ever imagine twenty years on, tourism in the form of ‘whale watching’ would generate far more income into the Albany community then was previously generated during the slaughter of these majestic mammals? As I wrote this Iceland decided to ban whaling within two years, thereby leaving Japan the only country in the civilized world to continue on with the slaughter. Note: Kings Cottage Museum (Bunbury) displays a number of artifacts salvaged from the Yankee whaler North America (see image attached). Peter Murphy is a member of the Fremantle Fenian Festival Committee, and author of two novels (Fenian Fear and Fenian 63) based on Fenianism in mid-nineteenth century Australia, and available for purchase at Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Arts Centre, and New Edition bookstore in High St, Fremantle, or by email: kiahcreek@bigpond.com.