Experience (1942)

EXPERIENCE (1904-1942)
Official number: 119024 (B264)
Where built: Fremantle
Year built: 1904
Registered: Fremantle
Rig Type: Ketch
Hull: Wood
Length: Initial: 36.5 feet (11.1 m). After rebuild: 49 feet (14.9 m)
Breadth: 13 feet (4 m)
Depth: 4.75 feet (1.5 m)
Tonnage: Initial: 14.61 gross, 12.11 net. After rebuild: 30.0 gross, 24.08 net
Engine: 14 hp diesel engine by C.E. Heinke of England
Port from: Broome
Port to: Fremantle
Date lost: 28 June 1942
Location: South of Jurien Bay
Chart Number: Aus 333 & BA 1033
Significance criteria: 1
THE VESSEL
The Experience was built at Fremantle by Alfred Edmund Brown, and registered as number 47 of 1904. The owners at various times were Joseph John Eacott, Robison and Norman Ltd, Abraham Davies, Mark Rubin, Richard Richards, Mary Jane Tripp, William James Squire, Walter Clarke-Hall (owner in 1923), Alice Mary Edgar, Una May Clarke-Hall, Isobel Margaret Kennedy, Herbert Kennedy and the Commonwealth Government. The vessel was rebuilt in 1936, when it was also fitted with a 14 hp Heinke diesel engine. The registration had been allowed to lapse and it was not re-registered until 1941 as number 1 of 1941.
THE LOSS
During February 1942 the Royal Australian Navy requisitioned all the luggers in the north of Western Australia under Regulation 57 of the National Security (General) Regulations of the National Security Act 1939–1940, to prevent them possibly falling into the hands of the Japanese. This action was supposed to be temporary, but many requisitioned luggers were later purchased by the Commonwealth Government. Some 29 of the least seaworthy were destroyed, and, apart from two used by the army the remainder were sailed towards the south by naval personnel, leaving Broome around mid-March. On 25 March 1942 a cyclone struck that part of the fleet that had reached Port Hedland. Of the 21 vessels in port 15 were sunk, although ten were subsequently salvaged. Other losses occurred in Geraldton Harbour (see: 6 Requisitioned Luggers 1942).
Further south more luggers were wrecked around the end of June. The Bronlan is reported to have been wrecked north of Jurien Bay and the Experience wrecked either south of Jurien Bay (Lance, 2004) or at Scarborough (Dickson, 1996 & Straczek, 1996).
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
HISTORIC (1)
The requisitioning of small vessels is an important but little known event in the history of Western Australia during World War II. There are few references to the 44 luggers which the Royal Australian Navy tried to save by sailing them south from Broome in 1942.
REFERENCES
Dickson, R., 1996, Ships registered in Western Australia from 1856 to 1969: their details, their owners and their fate. Report—Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, No. 80.

Dickson, R., 1998, They kept this state afloat. Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia.

Dickson, R., 2002, The price of a pearl. Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia.

Lance, K., 2004, Redbill: from pearls to peace—the life and times of a remarkable lugger. Fremantle Arts Centre, Press, Fremantle, Western Australia.

Straczek, J.H., 1996, Royal Australian Navy A-Z: ships, aircraft and shore establishments. Navy Public Affairs, Sydney.

The register of Australian and New Zealand shipping 1947-48: first supplement to the 1946 register. The Marine Underwriters’ and Salvage Association of Victoria Ltd, Melbourne.