Jack, page 13
In 1938, the year in which Jack is set, the total number of divers licensed on Thursday Island was 246. Of these, 232 were Japanese and 14 of other races. Unlike Captain Jack Falconer, European pearl shellers were usually entrepreneurs who organised other divers from shore. Historically it also would have been unusual for a Japanese diver to work under the command of a European skipper who was also diving for shell Takemoto would have been far more likely to run his own lugger, or work as part of a wholly Japanese crew. Exceptions to these norms, however, were not by any means impossible.
Letters of Calling, mentioned in the monologue ‘At the Chandlery’, refer to the written nomination of Japanese recruits which was the prerogative of the head Japanese diver on a lugger. These new recruits (usually relatives of the diver) were brought out from Ehime and Wakayama Prefectures. ‘Oyakata’, to whom Takemoto refers in ‘Slipped Cog’, was the Japanese Master Pearler who would have nominated Takemoto as a new recruit from Japan, handled his wages (returning a large proportion of it home to the diver’s family), issued his work clothes, and generally acted in the role of a controlling father figure.
Recruiting of Torres Strait Islander, Papuan and Aboriginal labour on the luggers was subject to the Native Labourers’ Protection Act. This law required a lugger captain to sign crew members on, and pay them off after the trip, in front of the shipping master. The act required that indigenes of Australia and New Guinea be returned home after a maximum term of twelve months. Clive and Dickie, the Aboriginal boys in Jack, came from Lockhart River Mission on the northern coast of Queensland. This was a recruiting mission for the trochus and pearl shelling industries during the period in which the verse novel takes place. Many interviewees record Aboriginal crew members becoming homesick and running away from the harsh life on the luggers, frequently absconding with the dinghy and some provisions at night, and attempting to make their way back to their missions.
Pearl shell diving was a particularly dangerous profession. Fatal accidents were not uncommon. The bends, caused by surfacing too quickly (without preventative staging at different water pressures for set periods of time) was an occupational hazard. Even divers with mild bends suffered pains in the joints and distortion of the limbs that would cripple them with arthritis in later life. Today, the bends is treated in pressure chambers. In the 1930s, a diver with a serious case of the bends was resubmerged to the depth at which his symptoms first occurred, and kept there until the nitrogen bubbles in his bloodstream had dispersed. Having the diver sit underwater on the buoy anchor was one way to make sure he stayed submerged for the required length of time. This effective but primitive treatment could last for days.
Fatalities and injuries also resulted from shark or groper attacks, air lines snagging on coral or a passing whale’s fluke, or bursting of the air line underwater. To ease stress on the limbs and allow for greater mobility on the ocean floor, the Japanese introduced ‘half dress’, a full diving suit with the sleeves and pants cut off. This made the chance of injury higher. A further innovation, corselet and helmet diving (with no suit, only weights and helmet) was considered very dangerous. It was inadvertently the cause of many drownings, because a diver was able to ‘throw his helmet’ off if for some reason his air line fouled, or if he panicked.
Darnley Deeps was an infamous place for helmet throwing. Although the shell at this working ground was outstanding, most divers considered it too dangerous. Only the most accomplished divers attempted it, such as the Japanese men from the Shinomisaki area in the Wakayama prefecture. Officials closed Darnley Deeps several times over the years. The first closure, in 1893, was the result of 25 fatal diving accidents occurring in that year alone. At that time depths up to 20 fathoms were being worked. Later, as the shallower depths were worked out, divers went to 35 or even 40 fathoms at Darnley Deeps. Staging at that depth took 40 to 60 minutes, and the divers could only stay on the bottom for minutes at a time. Darnley Deeps also had a reputation for being haunted. It was referred to as the ‘Diver’s Graveyard’ because of all the fatalities that occurred there. Many divers reported apparitions or ghostly encounters at the site. Whether this was due to nitrogen narcosis because of the depths worked, or to other factors, is not known.
Diving was for the young. Very few men over forty could endure the conditions. The work was unthinkably hazardous by contemporary standards. Lingering health problems and reduced life expectancy were part and parcel of being an ex-diver.
The working grounds mentioned in Jack appear on the map of pearl shell and beche-de-mer stations on page vii. Luggers in the Torres Strait usually did not travel so far in such a short time as Matilda. There were instead established grounds which luggers tended to work for a set period, having to dive deeper or establish new grounds over the years as shallower grounds were worked out.
Although Jack Falconer is a fictional character, as are all the characters in the verse novel, many eccentric individuals are recorded as having skippered luggers in the heyday of the industry. Some of these reached almost legendary status, and are remembered by many. For example, Japanese Captain Kono, who reportedly couldn’t swim, nevertheless skippered luggers in the Torres Strait for many years, breaking fishing boundary laws, and taking his crews on hair-raising trips into forbidden waters. Other skippers were renowned for their harsh disciplinary measures and/or mental instability.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The development of this verse novel has been supported financially through the Literature Board of the Australia Council and by the Eleanor Dark Foundation in the form of a poetry residential mentorship at Varuna Writer’s Centre.
Special thanks to Dorothy Porter for being the supportive midwife to this project. Thanks also to Dr Regina Ganter for generous access to her transcripts and abstracts of pearl shellers in the Torres Strait. lowe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Rob Riel for unwavering support and editorial expertise.
The map on page vii of Torres Strait pearl-shell and beche-de-mer stations is taken from The Pearl Shellers of Torres Strait, by Regina Ganter, Melbourne University Press, 1994.
Judy Johnson, Jack
