Eleanor

On 11 May 1914 Eleanor B278 was working in 33 fathoms of water approximately 23 kms off Wallal in a fleet of 100 pearl boats. Another 100 boats were working off Mangrove Point. There was a southerly wind and a light tide when the boats started work. Eleanor’s master and shell opener was Richard Eliott Palmer Chapman. He had a Japanese diver and try diver, and seven Malay tenders aboard.

Eleanor was built in Fremantle in 1903 by WA Chamberlain for John Madden Archer. In 1908 John sold her to his brother Thomas. In 1910 she was purchased by Charles Blackman. She spent her life pearling on the northwest coast. She was a 12-ton two-masted schooner, registered in Fremantle as number 70 of 1903. Her official number was 118536. She was of the typical size for the work she did: 12 x 3.5 x 1.5 metres [36 x 8 x7 feet].

Towards the end of the day the wind swung to the southeast and clouds were scudding rapidly across the sky. Without time to run back into the shelter of Banningarra Creek, Eleanor began preparations to weather the coming storm.

Richard paid out more anchor chains, wrapping them in sacking to prevent chafing to the boat as the boat moved and pulled on the anchors. The crew lowered the sails and double-lashed them to the booms. All the tie-downs on deck were doubled and wrapped in sack if chafing was likely. The hatch was battened.

At 10pm the storm was raging, and it did not let up. Eleanor held out until 6am, when her forward anchor chain parted, and her bow swung broadside to the oncoming waves. Her dinghy was lashed right-side up and took on a ton of water. As the boat rolled in the waves, the water sloshed in the dinghy and Eleanor rolled onto her beam ends in a large wave. She started to sink.

The crew of ten grabbed anything that would float and jumped off the sinking vessel. As daylight crept in and the storm abated, it was clear that the try diver Kamika Akazaki had drowned. A Malay tender (unnamed) was also dead.

The men remained in the water for six hours until the storm ended. Captain Ancell sent his 3rd whaleboat to look for crew in the water. The men from Eleanor were picked up, and the body of their try diver was taken ashore.

Kamika Akazaki was 27. He had left a wife and family in Japan to dive for pearl on the northwest coast. His body was recovered, and he was buried in the Japanese Cemetery in Broome.

There is no mention of the Malay tender, either by his name or whether they recovered his body. It was common practice to bury indentured workers and non-European crew members (except divers) in the soft beach sand above the water line. The “graves” were not marked.

Eleanor was a total loss. She had an engine installed only a week earlier, adding to the overall loss to Charles Blackman.