["£4,000 Pearl Romance", Geraldton Guardian (WA), Tuesday 08 March 1932, page 6]
£4,000 PEARL ROMANCE.
TREASURE FIND NEAR BROOME.
CAPTAIN BARDWELL'S EXPERIENCE.
Four pearl shells were brought to the surface by the Japanese diver and thrown on the deck of the pearling lugger. They were the last of the day's catch, but the 'boss' felt like throwing them back into the sea. For over a week his boat had been working a new patch, and he had opened hundreds of shells without being rewarded by the sight of even a 'blister.'
A neat thrust of the opening knife, a deft turn of the wrist, and lo! glis- tening inside one of the shells was a huge pearl, the size of a man's thumb-nail. Quickly the boss slipped the precious prize into his mouth. He had no desire that his motley crew of Asiatics should know, until he was safely ashore, that he had a fortune in his possession.
The pearl was sold at Broome to a firm of Paris pearl buyers for £4,000, and the Japanese diver received £400, representing ten per cent commission, for bringing the treasure to the surface.
This was the happy experience of Capt. Beresford E. Bardwell, a son of Mr. E. H. Bardwell, formerly a well-known Geraldton solicitor, ex-officer of the A.I.F. and a well-known Perth man, one day in 1920 when he was pearl-fishing out of Broome in partnership with his brother, Bernard, who also was a captain in the A.I.F. They had been nearly two years in tbe pearl-fishing business when the £4,000 pearl was brought to light, and it ranks among the richest 'stones' ever found on the Australian coast. It was fished out of the sea off Depuche Island, near Cossack.
Captain Bardwell has been out of the pearling game for six or seven vears. He now occupies the position of harbour master at Broome, and is at present spending a holiday in Perth with his wife and two bonny boys. Even to this day, when he tells the story of the hiding of the £4,000 pearl he says he can still feel the leap of his heart and the thrill of the moment when his eyes feasted on the fortune.
...
