Japanese Diver

Cutty Sark was a schooner and mother boat to a fleet of six luggers. She was commanded by Captain Frederick Lee Parkes. Captain Parkes, his brother Herbert and Arthur Harding owned a large pearling company, of which this fleet was a part. They were all pearlers and based their fleets in Onslow.

The Cutty Sark was a 52.07 ton schooner with two masts. She was built in New Zealand in 1850. She was purchased by the Parkes in June 1892 and was towed from Darwin by the steamship Rob Roy and anchored in King Sound. She was not a “young” boat when she began her pearling life in the northwest of WA. She was 66 feet long and 17/8 feet wide. She drew 7.2 feet of water.

Captain Parkes did not register his schooner in WA until 1896. She was number 4 of 1896 and her official number was 78389. She was known as a “remarkably fast vessel” and could travel on a 309 knots per day.

Amid many adventures and misadventures Cutty Sarks was a “lucky boat”. She escaped cyclones by the narrowest of margins and avoided damage or sustained minimal damage in dangerous scrapes. Captain Parkes boats were always painted, neat and in working order. His crews were hard working and most stayed with him for long periods of time.

Captain Parkes’ fleet employed Japanese divers and Malay crews. His luggers were commanded by the Diver in Charge, with the tender as second in command.

Despite being a lucky boat, occasional losses occurred. Such as the loss of a Japanese diver from the Cutty Sark on 1 June 1895.

The diver was collecting shell in 10 fathoms of water in Barrow Passage when the pump hands noticed the airline was strained to the end of its length. They thought the diver must have stepped into a hole, something that happened. The tender then noted the lifeline was also stretched to its maximum tension. The diver was not responding to his signals.

A second diver was sent down to the bottom to find out what was wrong. He came up after only a minute or two and reported a large school of sharks and no sign of the first diver. The tender pulled up the lifeline and the pump hands wound in the air tube. They moved away from the area to avoid the sharks.

The next day Cutty Sark went back to the area and sent down a diver to recommence collecting the shells there. He found the first diver’s dress, torn open. He could not find the diver’s body anywhere. He found the diver’s helmet, which was also empty.

The situation was unusual, and the news soon spread through the larger fleet. Older divers said they had not seen anything like it before. Dive suits were usually bitten with the body inside, not torn apart.

There was nothing to be done. The diver was gone. Japanese divers gathered on their next layup and the divers name was added to a memorial stone at the cemetery. His name remains unknown amongst the list of names of lost Japanese divers.