Sunbeam

The Sunbeam was a steam yacht that had arrived in the North-West to take up a pearling venture in 1892. On 27 March 1892, while in Admiralty Gulf, the yacht developed a leak which was not able to be repaired. The Captain endeavoured to run ashore but the ship became stuck fast on a mudbank near Osborne Island. Captain and crew took to the ship’s boats and landed at Dicky Bay where a number of pearling schooners were stationed. The Captain then decided to go to Broome in the ship’s whaleboat taking nine of the crew, to inform the owners of the loss of the Sunbeam. This was against the advice from the other pearlers. On their way to Broome, at one stage they tried to go ashore, but they were chased off by spear waving Aborigines. This episode is interesting not just because of that contact incident, but the fact that there are two legends about the fate of the ship, one from a European point of view, and the other from the Aboriginal perspective. The European story is that the ship was elderly and the leak arose from corrosion in the hull. The Aboriginals have a different tale. In the pearling areas it was not uncommon for men on these ships to borrow or steal Aboriginal women. Prior to the loss of the ship, the Sunbeam crew had apparently been allowed some Aboriginal women for an agreed time which the crew ignored. The Aboriginal men were understandably angry about this and proceeded to “sing” the ship, to call upon serpent spirits to sink the ship. Thus the story of the Sunbeam entered Aboriginal legend.