Toba (15/12/1933)

Peak Islet, Hamelin Bay

Toba was built by the Celebes Trading Company at the Aru Islands in the eastern part of what is now Indonesia, for Clark & Co. It had one deck, a straight stem and a counter stern. The joint owners of the vessel, and partners in the company, were James V. Clark, Robert Philp, Percival Pitman Outridge, Isabella Mitchell Campbell, all of Queensland, and one Western Australian, James Theodore Clewett McKenzie, from Broome. Clark & Co. owned over 200 schooners and luggers, most based at Thursday Island, but also some based at Dobo in the Aru Islands. It had been trying to gain entry to the Western Australian pearling industry for many years, a move resisted strongly by the Master Pearlers Association of Broome. However in 1916 Clark was given permission to bring 34 of his boats to Broome. Toba was one of these, and was registered at Fremantle as No. 4/1917 on 26 January 1917. Campbell died on 24 February 1918 but the remaining four partners retained joint ownership. When Philp died on 17 June 1922 the surviving three still remained joint owners. During 1930 the ketch was sold to Hagbarth ‘Albert’ Hansen. The registry was closed on 30 October 1930, and Toba was then re-registered by Hansen as a Geraldton fishing boat, with the registration number G29. It was locally known as ‘Number 29’.
Hansen, aged 34, lived in Marble Bar, and had purchased the Toba for use in the fishing industry, basing the vessel mainly in Fremantle. The four crewmen on this trip were named Martinsen (skipper), Hansen (almost certainly a brother of the owner), Landhurst and Jarlburg. They had been fishing in the Albany area, and had been away from Fremantle for about two weeks before returning to that port with a cargo of fish.
THE LOSS
A newspaper reported that the Toba had run ashore on Hamelin Island at about 8.00 p.m. on 15 December 1933, and had sunk in 20 ft (6.1 m) of water (West Australian 18 December 1933: 19c). This report appears to be in error as the wreck of the Toba lies very close to Peak Island, where it had presumably struck. The four men were picked up by a small fishing boat from Bunbury which landed them on the mainland at Hamelin Bay. A group settler named Jock O’Kane cared for them at Karridale until the lighthouse keeper at Cape Leeuwin took them to Perth by car on 20 December.
INITIAL SALVAGE
The crew of the Toba lost everything when the vessel went down, including the fish caught over the previous two weeks.
SITE LOCATION
The wreck of the Toba lies only 10 m south of Peak Island, hard up against the sloping reef in 7.6 m of water.
SITE DESCRIPTION
The wreck of the Toba was inspected by Michael McCarthy (Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum), on 2 February 1980. The wreckage is on an axis of 120º and lies down the slope of the reef. There is some timber, consisting of a few frames, planking and ceiling with a total thickness of 15 cm, together with ballast stones, a windlass and some 10 mm diameter fastenings. The windlass is a metre long by 0.8 m in diameter.
EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
During the 1960s a small compass bowl supported by three stylised dolphins was recovered from the site of the wreck of the Toba, along with some rubber diver’s hose, the latter recovered by E. Christiansen in 1965. A compass of a similar unusual design, but bigger, was recovered from the wreck of the Katinka, also lost in Hamelin Bay, and both are now on display at the Augusta Historical Museum. The rudder from the Toba is also on display at this museum.