French explorers: Saint Aloüarn

Myra Stanbury
Western Australian Maritime Museum
Email: myra.stanbury@museum.wa.gov.au

The Dirk Hartog Island bottle

In November 1998, the bottle discovered earlier in the year at Dirk Hartog Island was finally opened. Computer Tomography (CT) scans had confirmed that there was a quantity of sand in the bottle and also revealed the presence of a 'scroll-type' object, with a density indicating an organic material, just protruding from the surface of the sand.

A CT scan of the bottle

A series of CT scans of the bottle: the pale area is sand
and the dark section within it organic matter.

A series of CT scans of the bottle

Computer enhanced CT images of the inside of the bottle:
the lower right image shows presence of a cork in the neck.

Preparations were made to remove the lead capsule from the bottle. A piece of lead from Cook's Endeavour served as a test sample to judge the effect of heat on the lead. The iron wire holding the cap in place was cracked at one point and was easily removed. The cap was gently heated with a domestic hair dryer to make is more malleable and it was gently prized off the neck of the bottle. A silver coin—a French écu with the date 1767—was firmly held in the top of the capsule. An in-situ cork was gently removed and showed signs of insect attack on the inner surface. The inside of the bottle was then examined.

The lead seal with coin

Red deposits on the cork, rim of the bottle and coin were analysed and found to contain cinnabar -a red pigment used to colour wax.

A conservator removes the cork

The procedure adopted was a 'first' for the Western Australian Museum Conservation Laboratory and aroused much interest. With the assistance of Chris Papadopulos and medical technicians from the Stryker Division, Stubber Medical Pty Ltd, and local surgeon, Dr Simon Turner, the operative procedure involved the examination of the inside of the bottle using a fine cystoscope.

This was connected via a digitally enhanced camera to a VCR unit, a Toshiba PC computer and colour video printer. The invited audience was able to watch the procedure on the video screen and images could be captured using Medimage-Image Capture software as required.

Conservators, Richard Garcia and Ulli Broeze-Hoernemann prepare to remove the cork from the bottle.

Unfortunately, the scroll-type object was not the annexation parchment we had hoped for, but rather a small section of tree root. Examination of the sand deposit under a high-powered microscope failed to identify any organic material of a parchment or paper nature. However, there were chitin remains, a few 'spore' type objects and a small number of pollen grains. Pollen analysis was carried out on one sample by Professor John Dodson of the Department of Geography, University of Western Australia, and 9 species of plants were identified which may be compared with Dampier and Phillip Parker King's accounts of the vegetation on Dirk Hartog Island prior to and soon after Saint Aloüarn's visit.

Examination of the inside of the bottle using a fine cystoscope

Dr Simon Turner using a cystoscope to examine the contents of the bottle.

Conservators examining the contents of the bottle

Examining the contents of the bottle

Surface deposits of orange matter from the cork, coin and lip of the bottle have been examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. All three samples contain cinnabar (HgS) which was most likely the pigment used in a wax seal, the same element being identified in a block of sealing wax recovered from the wreck of HMS Pandora.

The fact that these small deposits are the only remnants of a possible seal may be explained by the fact that wax-eating moths could have penetrated the gaps in the lead capsule and had a good feed on the wax seal covering the cork (Terry Houston, WAM Dept. Entymology, 1998, pers. comm.). Certainly, there is evidence to suggest that organisms have penetrated the bottle and likely devoured whatever organic material was inside.

The issue of how many bottles may have been left, and whether there is yet another (possibly containing the elusive annexation document) yet to be found is still questionable. However, research in France and London indicate that the placement of bottles or stone markers was a common method of identifying newly claimed lands and was a common practice among English and French explorers. Indeed, James Cook must have sent almost as many bottles ashore with Maundy, silver, two-penny pieces dated 1772 and annexation documents inside them as his French counterparts!

For those interested in searching for Cook's bottles the various locations are given in J.C. Beaglehole's The Journals of Captain James Cook on his voyages of discovery.

Perhaps some of Cook's bottles have already been located? Or even those left by Bougainville?

If so, I would be interested in knowing of their present whereabouts for comparison with the Dirk Hartog find.

This site on Dirk Hartog Island is protected under the State Maritime Archaeology Act 1973. Please enjoy the site but do not disturb.

Go to FRANCE AND AUSTRALIA THE "PRISE DE POSSESSION"

Return to the WA Museum