Lily

Ah Wee purchased an old 27.5-ton cutter called Waterlily. The vessel worked hard in various roles in the fishing industries. In 1876 she was owned by the government for revenue work, superintended by Captain Walcott. Then she was pearling for the Miller Brothers, and the newspapers mention her catches. The next time we hear of Waterlily was 1888 when Millers sold her to Ah Wee, a Chinese merchant, for £140.

Ah Wee changed the boat’s name to Lily and put her to work fishing for beche de mer (also called trepang or sea cucumbers). He employed three Chinese deckhands. Their names remain unknown.

The Lily (ex-Waterlily) was a cutter, built in Fremantle in 1867 for John Lewis, as the representative of a conglomerate of seven merchants in Fremantle, Roebourne and Cossack. She was registered as No. 2 of 1867, and her official number was 52237. She was built for the pearling grounds at Roebuck Bay. Her dimensions were 48.85 long, 14.67 wide and her draft was 6.46 feet [14.9 x 4.47 x 1.99 metres]. There is no registration for her after 1882.

On 1 March 1889 the northwest coast was struck by a cyclone. Ah Wee was based in Cossack, which caught the brunt of the blow. Lily was working to the west of Cossack, and the wind was blowing westward. Lily parted her cables and was swept out to sea with Ah Wee and his three deckhands aboard. 

There was a period after the cyclone when boats washed up along the coastline. Some pearlers were found alive, other were not. Ah Wee and his crew on Lily simply washed out to sea, and was never seen again. Neither remains of the crew nor debris from the boat were seen. Newspapers reported Ah Wee and the three Chinese deckhands as “missing”. 

Now, the end of this story remains a mystery. The Lily was reported missing, however on 18 November 1889 a schooner called Lily anchored in Cossack harbour bringing news from the pearling grounds. There was word that the lugger Kate who was near Lily when the cyclone started, picked up a Chinese fisherman who spent 20 hours in the water after his boat had foundered. Was it one of Ah Wee’s crew? Or Ah Wee himself?

Another twist to the story is the presence of a grave site for “Ah Wee” at Cossack Cemetery. There is a death record for Ah Wee on 27 February 1887. The newspapers reported in the evening. Ah Wee was in the outer premises of the Northwest Mercantile Company, coming in from the Lily which was moored at Roebourne. His body was found there the next morning. An inquest on the 28 February resulted in a jury verdict that Ah Wee had died on natural causes. He was buried in Cossack Cemetery.

One solution to the conundrum is that there were two vessels named Lily. It is possible that the boat was refloated after the 1887 cyclone and put back to work. Wooden boats were repaired and refloated often in the northwest, and many luggers had multiple lives. There was another Chinese-owned pearling vessel called Sea Woh caught in the cyclone. She was later found in Hampton Harbour (Dampier).

There were many Chinese in Western Australia at the time Lily went fishing for trepang. Legislation was passed in 1886 limiting the number of Chinese entering Western Australia, however many had arrived already under the Imported Labour Registry Act of 1874, 1882 and 1884. Were there two men called Ah Wee in Cossack? That remains a mystery.