Peggy

The Peggy was one of the pearling lugger vessels owned by Messrs Streeter and Male and left Fremantle for Broome on 4 February 1946 to re-enter the pearling industry which was interrupted when the Japanese entered the war.

Leonard (Len) Farmer, age 27, was in charge of taking the vessel to Broome under contract, supplying his own crew for the voyage. Charles Lyons, age 53, a plumber by trade was taking the trip as his first holiday in years.Both Alfred (Alf) Bromfield and Ronald (Ron) Stott were friends of Len Farmer, all ex-military and all three members of the Mount Lawley-Inglewood RSL sub-branch. Len Farmer served in WW11 as a Sergeant and during the war was a member of an Army Water Transport Unit. He was a very capable skipper and had previously taken boats up the north-west coast and was familiar with the route.

By 27 February 1946 inquiries at all ports along the north-west coast brought no news of the overdue lugger. It was now 24 days since the Peggy was last sighted. It was thought that the Peggy would call in at Onslow but the owners, Streeter and Male, stated that it was not instructed to call in but was expected to. Although no heavy weather had been experienced since the Peggy left Fremantle the Weather Bureau did issue a gale warning on 8 February, however a spokesperson, Mr Akeyrod, from the Weather Bureau stated on 27 February that the gale did not develop as expected although for some days moderate to rough seas were experienced at Geraldton and Shark Bay, while further out to sea conditions might have been worse.

If the Peggy had a radio receiver the gale warning may have been picked up which could have caused the lugger to take shelter along the coast or put further out to sea. Streeter and Male’s representative, R Shipway, could not say whether the lugger carried a radio receiver. So far as he knew they did not unless one of the crew took one with them.

For three days two RAAF Liberators and their crew patrolled the north-west coastline. Although they covered the coast from Geraldton to Broome three times between them not a single hopeful find was made. A private DH86 aircraft also joined in the search, again with no sighting of the missing vessel. Commissioner of Police, J Doyle, said that the RAAF could do no more at present unless some new evidence was brought to light. The air search was called off at dark on Saturday, 2 March and the two RAAF aircraft returned to Cunderdin. Meantime all pilots of the north-west air service were asked to keep a lookout along the coast for the overdue vessel along with vessels traveling the coast.

There were sightings of wreckage around the middle of March which were further investigated. The Fisheries Department launch Kooruldhoo searched for two days, about 10 miles off the coast and 40 miles north of Fremantle, for reported wreckage however returned to Fremantle on 14 March 1946 failing to locate any trace of the said wreckage.

Wreckage was also inspected which was found on the beach some 40 miles north of Fremantle near the mouth of the Moore River. On inspection by Streeter and Male’s representative, R Shipway, he confirmed that none of the items came from the Peggy.

Despite intensive aerial, sea and coastal searches nothing was ever heard or seen of the pearl lugger Peggy after she left Fremantle on 4 February 1946. In October, Mr. Keith Sheard from the Department of Biology, University of Western Australia, located some wreckage at Middle Head in Jurien Bay. At first it was thought to belong to the Mary which had sunk off Cervantes Island early in the month. On further enquiry, the portion of wreckage painted battleship grey or sky blue over red oxide was thought to belong to the Peggy.

Application was later made by the widows of Len Farmer of Richmond Street, North Perth and Ron Stott of Glebe Street, North Perth with an order being granted around 14 August 1946 giving leave to presume that their deaths occurred on or around 9 February 1946 off the WA coast.