["In The Nor'-West", The West Australian, Tuesday 29 October 1907, page 5]
IN THE NOR'-WEST.
AMONG THE PEARLERS.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE PEARLING INDUSTRY.
BROOME AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.
(By Our Special Representative.)
Beautiful beyond compare is the Indian Ocean at Broome. Fickle and treacherous it may be, but during my 15 days' stay, it lay lazily basking in the dazzling sunshine, gemmed with jewels--voluptuous and languorous as Cleopatra herself. At low tide there is a creamy foreground of silt and sand extending far out to sea, then a broad ribbon of pale turquoise, gradually deepening to sapphire, with here and there flashes of the emerald. Encircling and canopying the ocean there is a cloudless sky of pearly bluish grey, and little specks of white are added by the flights of seagulls and the sails of luggers on the horizon. Broome has many attractions, and foremost amongst them is the Indian Ocean, but as pearlers grimly remind you, it is one thing to admire it when you have nothing to do in particular, but quite another matter when your existence depends upon it. There is a general impression that merely to be a pearler means the possession of unbounded wealth. Instances are recorded--mostly by London novelists--of pearls of fabulous value being found by divers of the amateur variety, and certainly the occupation is one that furnishes many romantic stories. Mr. Joe Eacott, pearler and pastoralist, whom I met, was pretty well stone broke when he found a pearl of great price. He was gathering shell off the Ninety-mile Beach, the waters of which are uncontaminated or rather not dis coloured by surface water washed down by floods. No rivers empty into the Ninety-mile stretch of clear white sand, and consequently pearl oysters have a real good time. They abhor muddy water, preferring the clear azure, stilly depths, where they can lie with their mouths wide open, absorbing the sunlight, and obtaining their food from the strong currents that go swirlinig through them. Mr. Eacott sold his pearl for £5,000, and promptly invested most of it in Frazier Downs Station, which he runs at present. He is a native of the State, stands over 6ft., and is in every respect a typical Nor'-Wester--hearty, hospitable, and as hard as nails. Brass plates are not displayed to any great extent in Broome, but the amount of wealth hidden behind mean looking corrugated iron frontages would astonish some of the great jewellers of London or Paris. One pearl dealer who also owns one of the largest pearling fleets in Australia was just leaving Broome on one of his periodical visits to Europe, with nearly £100,000 of pearls in his possession. Pearls do not take up much space, differing considerably from gold, without which, however, they would not be so valuable. In the palm of my hand were placed five pearls of exquisite lustre and perfect shape. The largest was no bigger than a pea, and certainly the whole five would just have fitted an ordinary pod without bulging it unduly. The most valuable--and it was not the biggest--was worth £2,500, the other four aggregating £5,000. And yet an ordinary pea-pod would have held the lot.
To the brothers Chamberlain--Alick and Gussons of the well-known Fremantle ship-builder, I am indebted for a most instructive and enjoyable trip to the pearling fleet, which is just now operating quite close to Broome. Over 350 luggers and schooners are registered at Broome alone, and their united crews form a substantial addition to the population at lay-up time, the season starting just before Christmas, and lasting 10 or 12 weeks. Broome itself although not so prolilic in shell as other parts of the coast, is a favourite ground for pearlers. The shell is of superior quality, and pearls, although not plentiful, are of higher value than those found elsewhere. The action of tides and currents, and a tricky bottom renders it impossible to work the ground, except for a few days in the year, so that the appearance of a fleet of over 100 vessels quite close inshore was a welcome surprise. A heavy dew had fallen during the night, and from the broad verandah water dripped as freely as though rain had fallen. A sea fog came up from the ocean and obscured objects ten yards away, but the sun soon took a hand, and by 7 o'clock the atmosphere was perfectly clear. The luggers, with their attendant schooners, were working in the form of a scimitar--many of them had main sails up, in order to assist drifting, and the sight was that of a vast winged crescent. With the aid of glasses men could be seen laboriously working the air pumps, obthers at the anchor windlass, and occasionally a diver would sprawl clumsily over the side and go down with a bit of a splash. Our schooner lay three or four miles out from the jetty and a smart sailing boat, formerly a Sydney flyer, was handled in good yachtsman style by Alick Chamberlain, to whom even riding race horses does not come amiss. We were soon aboard the schooner, and were shown the process of packing shell for the London market. Wood for the cases is imported from Singapore, a heavy kind of pine apparently, but not nearly so solid as jarrah. The wood is in sawn sections, and bundled in various sizes, 92 bundles forming 100 cases. By the time freight, duty, and other charges are paid, each case costs 4s. 6d., which, in itself, is a pretty stiff item, as seven cases or thereabout go to the ton of shell. From a neighbouring lugger a supply of freshly-raised shell was obtained, and lessons were freely given in the art of opening the big bivalves. By way of encouragement I was told to retain any pearls that I might find, but after attempting to break the record, my only trophy was a tiny Singapore potato, which was surreptitiousy introduced into the oyster, and hailed as a valuable brown pearl. A lady member of the party discovered a pink pearl, and went into ecstacies of delight, but on taking it from her purse a little later on, found only a damp flattened out patent pill, all the rosy tint having vanished. Little jokes of a similar character contributed to the fun of the outing, and we passed a good time before lunch. All around us lay luggers, on which divers were descending and ascending, bringing up their shell in bags: which were emptied on the deck. and subsequently transferred in deep circular baskets to the schooner. Of course, where a pearler runs his own lugger he opens the shell himself, and in nearly every case the opening is done by a white man, who receives £6 per month, all found, and a bonus of 10 per cent, on the value of all pearls found. The diver receives a small remuneration per month, usually £2, with a lay of £25 per ton on all shell raised. Putting the average at five tons for the year, the diver would be entitled to draw £125 over and above his wages, and should he raise a ton in a month he gets another £5. The divers are Malays and Japanese, but the latter are considered the more reliable, and are being more extensively employed. Two or three, years ago the percentage of Japanese to Malays was only three to one, but now they are three to two, and probably next year they will be equal. For obvious reasons, it is not desirable that all the skilled divers should be of one nationality, as the entire industry could be paralysed by concerted action, which is scarcely possible between Malays and Japs. Men who act as tenders on the luggers receive from £4 to £5, and pump hands get £2 10s. to £3 after the first year. Promotion to divers' rank is open to them, and every opportunity is afforded those willing to improve their position. In slack times they don the dress and go below in shallow water, picking un the points of gathering shell in quick time. Many young fellows from Fremantle are employed as shell-openers, and the life seems to agree with them. They are of robust appearance, bright-eyed, clear complexion, and altogether look fine specimens of muscular manhood. The life on board a lugger is naturally monotonous. Three or four months, rolling and tossing about on a 12-ton boat, with nobody to speak to save the coloured crew, and varied only by a Sunday or Saturday afternoon aboard a schooner miles away from anywhere is a bit trying. Something altogether different to town life, but those who stick to it have a big future before them. A lugger fully equipped and ready for the season, costs £750, and once that sum can be covered or raised somehow, the rest is comparatively simple. Luck, chance, good fortune, or whatever else it may be termed, enters largely into pearling. There is always the possibility of any pearlshell yielding a prize bigger than one of " Tattersall's" sweeps, and certainly the game of pearling is better than horseracing as an avocation. Pearlers themselves are good sports, and Broome races are equal to any outside the metropolitan or Kalgoorlie areas, but pearls of the sea are better than piles of sovs., either as stakes or wagers.
