LUGGER CAPTAIN'S STORY.

Daily Mercury, Mackay, 25 January, 1940.

Lugger Captain's Story.

In this regard it is interesting to

recall the story related by a rather

unnerved Japanese beche-de-mer

lugger captain who called into the

Pioneer River some years ago to

unload his cargo.

According to him, one of his "boys,"

when diving at a spot some 30-odd

miles E.S.E. of Cape Upstart, came

excitedly to the surface to report

"Big fella steamer longa bottom."

The captain himself went down to

Investigate, and finding himself on

the battered top deck of a large

steamer, commenced to explore it.

Walking along the sloping outer

walls of the cabins, he prized open

one of the doors, and up past him

shot a woman's body, her hair

streaming in the water as if wind

blown.

In terror the lugger skipper, too,

raced for the surface. As he toyed

with his chop-sticks and his small

bowl of rice and raw bream, the little

brown man made it plain that

nothing would induce him to go back

to that area. It amazed him considerably 

when he found his story doubted. 

"White man no savvy," he

said. "Bime-by, you see!"

But still the sea holds its secret,

Like the "Dorisina," which sailed

from here over a year ago..

The ESE is 'all over the place' and possibly reporting error, but the distance approximates the position of the Yongala wreck.

ESE is near Nares Rock in deep water.

courtesy Google Earth.

courtesy Trove
made port."