SOMERSET AND ITS BACKGROUND 339 



(10) A series of Articles written by M. W. Shanahan for the Queenslander newspaper, 

 I /th April to 2nd October, 1897, entitled " With the Cape York Prospecting Party; 

 being an Account of a Trip from Cape York to the Carron Range, with Various 

 Peninsular Sidelights." 



(n) Official Reports and Articles in Queenslander by Archibald Meston. 



(12) Past and Present of Thursday Island and Torres Strait, by the Hon. John 

 Douglas. Outridge, Brisbane, 1900. 



In the first half of the nineteenth century, BOOBY ISLAND was 

 known to seafaring men as a refuge, house of call, post office and 

 club. 



In those days, when two ships met on the ocean, it was the 

 custom for each to record the date, the latitude and longitude, and 

 the name, port of origin and destination of the other. On reaching 

 port, each reported these particulars for the information of owners 

 and friends. The event was analogous to a social call in polite 

 society. In certain conventionally agreed upon localities, such as 

 Booby Island, a letter-box and visitors' book were kept. In the 

 former, letters were left to be taken up and " favoured " by the 

 next passing ship, and in the latter, such particulars were written 

 as the skipper might wish to communicate. The arrangement was 

 advantageous to all concerned, inasmuch as ships which had never 

 actually met might be deemed to have " spoken " one another. 



Apart, however, from the advantage derived from the oppor- 

 tunity afforded a ship of reporting its presence at a comparatively 

 frequented island on a given date, the necessity for HARBOURS OF 

 REFUGE grew with the increasing traffic in dangerous and practically 

 uncharted seas. A ship in distress could make for such a harbour 

 with a fair chance of meeting other ships or finding provisions. 

 Hence it became the custom for ships calling at such harbours to 

 leave what stores they could spare. It was something like paying a 

 premium of insurance. A ship might leave her surplus stores at 

 some harbour marking a stage in a prosperous voyage, while later 

 on the lives of her own crew might be saved by finding something 

 to eat at that or another harbour of refuge. 



BOOBY ISLAND * served its purpose for a time ; but at length the 

 PRINCE OF WALES and other ISLANDERS came to know of the existence 

 of stores of undefended valuables and got into the habit of making 

 periodical RAIDS, when they looted what suited them and destroyed 

 what they had no use for. Contributions to the stores naturally 

 ceased when it became evident that they would benefit murderous 

 savages instead of distressed mariners. There followed a period 

 when CASTAWAY CREWS were MURDERED WHOLESALE on the Peninsula 

 and the Islands. A particularly atrocious case was the massacre of 

 the entire castaway crew (23 men) of the " Charles Eaton, " wrecked 

 near the Sir Charles Hardy Islands, off Cape Grenville. 



For the remedy of this intolerable state of affairs, SIR GEORGE 



1 There is now a lighthouse on Booby Island, and another on Proudfoot Shoal 

 (141 28' E. ; io3i / S.). 



