Goemulgaw Lagal: Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait Edited by Ian J. McNiven and Garrick Hitchcock MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM |CULTURE Volume 8 (2) Brisbane | June 2015 ISSN 1440–4788 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8 Part 2 Goemulgaw Lagal: Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait Edited by Ian J. McNiven and Garrick Hitchcock Minister: Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts CEO: Suzanne Miller, BSc(Hons), PhD, FGS, FMinSoc, FAIMM, FGSA , FRSSA Editor in Chief: J.N.A. Hooper, PhD Editors: Ian J. McNiven, PhD FSA FAHA and Garrick Hitchcock, PhD FLS FRGS Issue Editor: Geraldine Mate, PhD PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD 2015 © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone: +61 (0) 7 3840 7555 Fax: +61 (0) 7 3846 1226 Web: qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 VOLUME 8 IS COMPLETE IN 2 PARTS COVER Image on book cover: Pearlshelling station at Panay, Mabuyag, 1890s. Photographer unknown (Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: N23274.ACH2). NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the CEO. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project Design and Layout: Tanya Edbrooke, Queensland Museum Printed by Watson, Ferguson & Company CONTENTS SHEEHAN, C. Jean-Baptiste Desparmet’s account of the wreck of the Pauline-et- Victoire, Kuyku Pad (Jervis Reef), Mabuyag, September 1858 1-54 SHNUKAL, A. Aspects of early local administration, education, health and population on Mabuyag 55-125 SHNUKAL, A. A century of Christianity on Mabuyag 127-202 SHNUKAL, A. The LMS missionary B.T. Butcher on Mabuyag, 1905-1906 203-233 SHNUKAL, A. Marine industries and Mabuyag, 1870-1980 235-282 HARRIS, D.R. & GHALEB KIRBY, B. Mabuyag (Torres Strait) in the mid-1980s: archaeological reconnaissance of the island and midden excavations at Goemu 283-375 MCNIVEN, I.J., WRIGHT, D., SUTTON, S., WEISLER, M., HOCKNULL, S. & STANISIC, J. Midden formation and marine specialisation at Goemu village, Mabuyag, Torres Strait, before and after European contact 377-475 WRIGHT, D. & JACOBSEN, G. Convergence of ceremonial and secular: The archaeology of Dabangay village on Mabuyag in Western Torres Strait 477-495 BRADY, L.M. Rock-art from the Mabuyag Islands, Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) 497-530 GESNER, P. & HITCHCOCK, G. Two nineteenth century copper ingots from waters off Mabuyag, Torres Strait 531-569 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (2) 2015 | iii iv | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(2) 2015 Two nineteenth century copper ingots from waters off Mabuyag, Torres Strait, Queensland Peter GESNER, Garrick HITCHCOCK Gesner, P. & Hitchcock, G. 2015: Two nineteenth century copper ingots from waters off Mabuyag, Torres Strait, Queensland.Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 8(2):531-569. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788. In February 2006 two copper ingots were recovered from shallow waters near Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island) in Torres Strait and deposited in the Queensland Museum’s Townsville branch, the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Elemental analysis and archival research strongly suggests that the ingots originate from the jettisoned cargo of the ‘country vessel’ Hercules, which ran aground on or in the vicinity of the Orman Reefs in June 1822 en route to Calcutta from Chile, with a load of copper ingots. Many of the ingots were subsequently recovered by Goemulgal in 1887 and their sale funded the erection of the first modern church building on Mabuyag. Mabuyag, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, copper ingots, maritime archaeology, shipwrecks, salvage Peter Gesner Brisbane [email protected] Garrick Hitchcock School of Culture, History and Language The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia [email protected] Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (1) 2015 | 531 Gesner and Hitchcock FIG 1. Reported GPS location of the ingots (red triangle) in relation to Mabuyag and the Orman Reefs (inset: LandSat image of Mabuyag and Ngazi Reef). 532 | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(2) 2015 Two Nineteenth Century copper ingots from waters off Mabuyag, Torres Strait, Queensland DISCOVERY OF THE INGOTS location of the ingots site. He subsequently reported the find as being at 9º 55’ 53.6” In February 2006 a resident of the island of South, 142º 13’ 40.0” East – a location Badu, central-western Torres Strait, recovered approximately 1 ¼ nautical miles north-east two ingots while diving in shallow waters of the channel through Ngazi Reef leading off nearby Mabuyag, seaward of the entrance to Mabuyag. In his report, the finder stated through Ngazi Reef, part of the Orman Reefs that the ingots were isolated finds, i.e. that (Figure 1).1 Initially the ingots were thought by there was nothing in their immediate vicinity the finder to be gold, which resurrected a local that indicated either a shipwreck location legend that would have it that a pile of ‘golden or associated material that may have been loaves’ – variously described as being a pirate’s jettisoned from a stranded ship. hoard, an admiral’s war booty or lost bullion It was determined that the ingots had – existed in Torres Strait waters. News of the been found and recovered from Australian ingot find came to the attention of the Badu waters and that the Commonwealth’s Community Police, who impounded the ingots Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 applied. As the in the local station, pending determination Queensland practitioner for the Act, the of metal type, provenance and ownership QM requested that the ingots be freighted (Anonymous, 2006). Because the ingots were from Badu to its Townsville branch, the found in the sea, they fell under one of two Museum of Tropical Queensland (MTQ), jurisdictions: the Commonwealth’s Historic for further investigation, including archaeo- Shipwrecks Act 1976 or the Queensland Heritage metric analysis, to ascertain, if possible, their Act 1992. Subsequently, as required by relevant provenance and cultural significance. legislation, the Queensland Museum (QM) – at that time the Commonwealth’s administrator of historic shipwreck matters in Queensland – AIMS OF ANALYSIS was notified of the find. The aims of the QM’s analysis were: Under the belief that salvage rights to the 1. Scientific identification of the ingots’ ingots could be obtained, the finder engaged major elements; a Victorian solicitor to act on his behalf. While the objects were at the Badu police station 2. An analysis of each ingot’s trace elements however, they almost immediately started to determine whether the two ingots to corrode, clearly indicating that they were were produced from the same ore body; not made of gold. The corrosion product took 3. Linking the ingots to a particular vessel on the typical verdigris sheen associated with and event in Torres Strait; corrosion of cupriferous objects. Regardless of 4. Determination of the cultural significance this appearance, however, the finder’s lawyer of the ingots. sought independent expert advice from a metallurgist to obtain a characterisation of the MULTI-ELEMENT ANALYSIS ingots, i.e. whether they were likely to be gold or to have a high gold content. The finder was METHODS. The objects were photographed, eventually reassured by his lawyer’s expert that measured and labelled at the MTQ’s the objects were not gold but mainly copper. conservation laboratory. The smaller ingot was The finder was contacted by QM’s Maritime numbered Unidentified 1 (Un-id1) and the Heritage Unit and requested to submit an larger, Unidentified 2 (Un-id2). The ingots can official wreck/isolated relic report, and a GPS be described as sand- or rough-cast, crude Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (2) 2015 | 533 Gesner and Hitchcock copper ingots, with round corners. Neither Each ingot was initially drilled to a depth ingot shows surface marks or identifying where pure metal was extracted. Following stamps (Figures 2-4). Measurements for the the removal of any possible surface corrosion ingots are as follows: product, the same hole was drilled into a second time with paper placed under the Un-id 1: 570 mm long x 290 mm wide x 85 drill bit to catch the drilling waste. Once mm thick, weight approximately 93 kg sufficient material for analysis was collected, Un-id 2: 620 mm long x 320 mm wide x 85 the drilling ceased and the metal waste was mm thick, weight approximately 98 kg poured into an appropriately marked sample container. Mass removed in this way from A 2.5 mm diameter steel drill bit was used to each object was: extract samples from the artefacts for further analysis using Inductively Coupled Plasma- Un-id 1 sample 0.497g Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) technology. Un-id 2 sample 0.716g FIG. 2. The two ingots 534 | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(2) 2015 Two Nineteenth Century copper ingots from waters off Mabuyag, Torres Strait, Queensland FIG. 3. Un-id 1. FIG. 4. Un-id 2. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (2) 2015 | 535 Gesner and Hitchcock Semi-quantitative multi-element analysis RESULTS. The ICP-MS analysis revealed that of the major and trace elements of Un-id1 both objects contain predominantly copper: and Un-id2 was undertaken at James Cook Un-id1 96.5% and Un-id2 94 %. Iron is the University’s Advanced Analytical Centre by only other significant element in weight ICP-MS using a Varian ICP-MS 820 series percentage, at 0.79 % and 2.57 % respectively instrument.