Nautilus (1868)

Driven into mangroves at Nickol Bay

The wreck of the Nautilus was the scene of the campsite where PC William Griffis, pearling worker George Breen, pearling master Henry Jermyn and Aboriginal police assistant Peter, were speared in retaliation for their arrest of Aboriginal men. As a result of their killings three Jaburura men were convicted and sentenced to death, commuted to twelve years imprisonment on Rottnest Island. With approval from Government Resident Scholl, local pearlers and pastoralists led a number of retaliatory expeditions against the Jaburura between February and May 1868, which led to the series of events known as the Flying Foam massacres, with estimates of between 15 and 150 Aboriginal people being killed. The Flying Foam massacres were a key factor in the population decline of the Jaburura people who previously lived among the islands of what is now known as the Dampier Archipelago.