The 328-ton Marie Laure built in 1840 at Marie Laure, Bel Ombre, Mahé. She was one of the four ships that were built in Seychelles that ended in Australia. The others were Lancier, built on Mahé in 1834; Arpenteur, built on Praslin in 1839 and Joséphine Loizeau, built in 1840 on Mahé. The Marie Laure was the longest surviving ship ever built in the Seychelles. She lasted over 100 years!.
The barque Marie-Laure was built by Pierre Petit. She may have been named after Marie Laure Huteau, whose family owned the property around Marie-Laure estate. Marie Laure Huteau, who was about 10 when the ship was built and was related to Pierre Petit’s wife.
The ship’s first captain/owner was A. Payet (possibly Adolphe Payet), a merchant sea captain who was Marie Laure’s uncle. Marie Laure married Charles Michaud in 1848. She was 18 and he was 42. She died in 1860 aged 29 and had four children.
Marie Laure‘s successive owners in the Seychelles were: A. Desbleds, T. Lepoigneur and B. S. Houghton.
This photo is not of Marie Laure but used to illustrate how a barque looks like and how Marie Laure may have looked like
Marie Laure was a bark (barque) which is a sailing ship, typically with three masts, in which the foremast and mainmast are square-rigged and the mizzenmast is rigged fore and aft.
Marie Laure sailed to Australia
In 1849 she sailed to Australia and was registered in the Port of Hobart in Tasmania and used as a whaler. A whaler is a ship that is used mainly for the purpose of catching whales and then processing the required parts into appropriately useful commodities, mainly whale oil.
During the 1800s the port of Hobart was an international port with men coming from all over the world for the whaling industry.
Hobart Town in 1841
Whaling in Australian waters began in 1791 when five of the 11 ships in the Third Fleet landed their passengers and freight at Sydney Cove and then left Port Jackson to engage in whaling and seal hunting off the coast of Australia and New Zealand.
South Sea Whale Fishery,
lithographic print painted by Garnerey, engraved by E. Duncan, published 1835 by Randolph Ackermann,
Whaling History of Marie Laure
Below are some extracts from Australian Newpapers relating to the movements of Marie Laure and her catch:
Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) Sat 24 Feb 1855
PORT OF HOBART TOWN.
February 23.- Marie Laure, 330 tons, Captain Chamberlain . From South Seas with oil.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) View title info Tue 13 Dec 1870
The whaling brig Maid of Erin, Captain Smith, arrived in port yesterday, after an eight months’ cruise, with 31 tuns of sperm oil, the product of four whales, two of which were taken off Kangaroo Island, and two off the South West Cape. Captain Smith reports that the Marie Laure, Captain Chamberlain, was lying at Spring River when he left, still clean. He had not recently seen or spoken any other whalers.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) Thu 3 Mar 1881
The whaling barque Marie Laure sailed yesterday morning, for a cruise. She went into the channel at 4.35 p.m.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) Tue 20 Feb 1877 Page 2 SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
The whaling barque Marie Laure had been cruising off the S.W. Cape in company with the Aladdin but was not in sight from that vessel when the whale was taken. Captain Hill thought she had gone to the western grounds.
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) Wed 19 Feb 1879
There is nothing of importance to report as affecting this industry. The only change known to have taken place in the quantity of oil afloat is that the Marie Laure recently captured two whales off the South West Cape, bringing her take up to thirty tons of oil
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) Tue 23 Dec 1879
We append our usual report of oil afloat in Tasmania. Marie Laure, barque, 329 tons, Captain W. Smith, sailed on May 17, 1879 reported November 29, 1879, 18 tuns sperm.
Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) Sat 8 Jan 1881
The whaling bark Marie Laure has been reported from Recherche Bay with a seven tun whale, which makes her total take 48½ tuns. In ships from Hobart Town the “take” of oil was always measured by the “Tun,” and in American ships by the”Barrel.”
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954) Thu 16 Mar 1882
Boucher reports that he spoke the whaling barque Marie Laure off Maria Island on the 5th inst. Captain Smith stated that he captured a sperm whale on the 25th February, making his total yield 27 tuns sperm oil. He had spoken the barque Derwent Hunter on the Middle Grounds on the 19th February, with 3 tuns sperm oil. The Marie Laure intends cruising off S.W. Cape for some time.
Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) Sat 6 Mar 1886
March 5—Marie Laurie, whaling bark, 329 tons, Captain W. Smith, master, from a whaling cruise.
Caught In a Storm
On April 21 1901 just off the coast of Victoria the Marie Laure was struck by a severe storm and thick weather which lasted for two days. She had to shelter in Western Port after having its port bulwarks stove in, and was in distress during the period of the gales.
Captain William Smith or “Black Billy the Samoan”.
As a whaler, the Marie Laure was owned by William Sherwin of Hobart. From 18 September 1877 until 9 June 1884, she was under the command of Captain William Smith. He was born in 1840 at Navigators Islands (now Samoa Islands) and he was later known as “Black Billy the Samoan”. With a crew of twenty-five, Captain Smith plied the Marie Laure from Hobart to the whaling grounds of the Behring Sea for many periods of eighteen months.
Bering Sea
He did so until the decline of the whaling industry. Captain Smith’s last call was to save a stranded whale in Derwent River in Tasmania. After doing so he became ill and died at the age of 70. He is buried in the Cornelian Cemetery in Hobart.
Captain William Smith of the Marie Laure
William SMITH was listed as Master of the ship Marie Laure, 328 tons, Port of Registry- Hobart, owner William SHERWIN, from 18 September 1877 until 9 June 1884.
Details of his catch
Departure Hobart Town Cargo – whaling grounds Arrival Hobart Town
8 October 1877 sperm oil 19 April 1879
May 1879 55 tuns oil 13 January 1881
2 March 1881 61 tuns oil 14 August 1882
September 1882 60 tuns oil 22 May 1884
These records are found at MB 2/33/59, MB 2/39/36, MB 2/39/37 and MB 2/39/38 at the Archives Office of Tasmania.
whale chase
Below is an extract of an actual whale chase that Captain William took part in 1862 as recorded in the sites below: Much of the language for this was taken from a PDF document.
Smith, Stories Captain William Smith, whale
“Thar she blows.”
Captain William Smith was at the wheel of the whaling barque, Marie Laure. Below him, on the deck, he could see his brother-in-law, Domingo Jose Evorall, readying the small rowboat. William knew the danger involved in chasing and harpooning a sperm whale.
“Lines in the boats.”
William remembered a time many years previously when he and his fellow shipmates were putting the lines carefully in place, fixing the pins and adding the harpoons. Boats were lowered, swinging dangerously close to the side of the rolling barque. Near the waves, the boats were quickly unhooked, sailors got oars ready to push against the sides if they got too close to the barque. It was then that the dangerous work began.
William, as mate, had been in charge of the chase and kept watch for the whale. The oarsmen pulled steadily. No time to look over their shoulders. The green hands, on their first chase, were they frightened or excited? Spouts were seen close by.
“Heave to.”
The iron was thrown; the flukes suddenly hit the water and sprayed the sailors.
“Stern for your lives.”
Boatsteerer making sure the boat doesn’t overturn; harpooner ready with a knife to cut the slack line if needed; the whale sounding or diving deep. A drogue was now attached to the line to slow the speed of the diving whale. The line going slack but where is the big cetacean? Suddenly, great jaw open, he breaks the surface just in front of us.”
Rescuing Operations
Apart from her whaling activities Marie Laure was also involved in a few rescue operations.
In May 1857 she assisted in the rescue of the crew of the schooner Gem on the West Coast of Tasmania.
On 25 November 1870 she tried to assist the stricken brig Victoria off Breaksea Island in Tasmania.
Converted to a coal-Transport Vessel
In 1887 the Marie Laure was converted into a coal-transport vessel. Then she carried timber between Tasmania and Melbourne, after that a coal bunkers and later on a lighter. In the late 1940, during the end of her life, she was used as a pontoon for repairing ships in Melbourne, Australia.
Below are two articles about the Marie Laure: one is from The Argus and one from The Age of Melbourne Australia.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) Tue 21 Sep 1937 Oldest Ship In Floating Dock
Oldest Ship In Floating Dock -Former Whaler Built 97 Years Ago
THE oldest vessel in the Port of Melbourne, and one claimed to be the veteran of all shipping in the Southern Hemisphere, is in the floating dock at Williamstown for overhaul. The ship is the 278-ton wooden wool lighter Marie Laure, which is now owned by the Victorian Lighterage Co. Pty. Ltd. The lighter was built at the Seychelles Islands, in the Indian Ocean, in 1840, as a sailing whaler.
Her age of 97 years makes even the Edina appear young. The Marie Laure is being over-hauled by engineers of the Hobson’s Bay Dock and Engineering Co. Pty. Ltd., which owns the floating dock.
They reported yesterday that the hull is still in almost perfect condition. The seas of nearly a century have left little trace on the great baulks of timber which have ploughed through the ice-floes of Antarctica and the Behring Strait. Shipwrights and boat-builders have been interested in the planking of the vessel. The cutting and turning of the timbers have been done on a principle no longer known in ship-building, and almost identical with methods of construction in the time of Elizabeth.
For many years the Marie Laure sailed the northern grounds from Greenland to the Behring Strait in search of whales. She also traded as a whaler out of Hobart for many years, and in Melbourne she has for company the hulk Helen, which was the last sailing whaler to sail from Hobart.
The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954) Sat 28 Sep 1940 Centenary of a “Wooden Waller”
Centenary of a “Wooden Waller”
A wonderful old vessel the last of her kind in the world, the stout old Marie-Laure lies at the Melbourne waterfront. Few aware and fewer caring that this is her centenary. It is a centenary that marks a notable chapter in Australia’s maritime history, but that is not being celebrated even by giving her a fresh coat of British paint (coal tar).
To-day she is just a cargo lighter, just a grimy 300-ton, wooden hulk, white lettering on her bow proclaiming her name and avocation.
Lloyd’s Register records that in far away 1840 this old wooden waller was launched in Seychelles. Built of poon (a species old teak) and rigged as a barque, although only 114 feet long, the Marie Laure, as her name implies, was originally owned and sailed by the French.
By 1850 however, the tri-color had given place to the old “red duster- (British Ensign), for in the London newspapers of the day the British barque Marie Laure was advertised as receiving general cargo in the East India dock for historic St. Helena.
Ten years later she was in Australian waters, a fully equipped whaler, with Hobart Town as her port of registry. In charge of a Captain Kennedy with a crow’s nest at the main and four sleek whaleboats slung outboard in the big davits, the Marie Laure seeking the ‘big mammal’ cruised from the fringe of the Antarctic to as far north as the Behring Sea.
At this period to protect her sides from the chafing of Ice floes, she was sheathed with 3-inch kauri pine. Copper fastened, this planking to-day is still in good condition, a lasting tribute to the fine old Hobart shipwrights.
Returning to Hobart Town after an eight months’ cruise off Kangaroo Island, Great Australian Bight, and South-west Cape, Tasmania, eight whales; yielding 27 tuns (6800 gallons oil) were taken. “Cutting out” one of the monsters, a barnacle encrusted harpoon branded ‘Barhope 1861’ was recovered. The vessel of this name was a New Bedford U.S.A. whaler. What tragedy, perhaps, lay behind the story of that harpoon, and for how many years and how many thousands of miles had this monarch of the sea ‘carried the embedded “Iron” ?
Sailor by Instinct
In 1882 the Marie Laure– was in charge of Captain “Billy” Smith, a colorful personality in more ways than one. A half-caste Samoan “Black Billy” as he was affectionately known to all in Hobart Town, could neither read nor write. Yet, none knew the whaling grounds better than he and, what was more, he possessed a remarkable bump for locality. Observing to the helmsman that they would sight Lord Howe or the Three Kings. &c.. on a certain bearing at a stated time, his deduction was invariably correct. Like most, of the whaling skippers “Black Billy” carried what was termed a plotter.” Capable, in a crude way of determining the latitude, the plotter (usually an old sailor) relied en tirely on “dead reckoning” for longitude. How the old Marie Laure found her way safely across the island-studded Pacific is a mystery to present-day navigators. On one of her early voyages, while, wind-bound in the Carolines, her skipper, Captain Mansfield was challenged to a six-mile boat race by two American whalers, the Emily Morgan and the Mary Frasier. The challenge was accepted. The crew of six Hobart Town men, cool and confident, showed the Yanks the way, and when the six miles were covered, they were over mile in the lead.
The victory was celebrated that night in true whalemen fashion. Old Jamaica – flowed full and free in forecastle, galley and cuddy.
Anchoring in the Derwent in March 1886, the whaling days of the old vessel were over. Eighteen months out for only 17 tuns of oil, two boats smashed by “angry flukes”, fortunately the crews were rescued, and the vessel herself severely battered by winter gales, were the deciding factors in offering her for sale.
Disposing of her equipment, two beautifully modelled boats (how a museum would like one to-day) were sold for only £2 each, while a stack of harpoons, spades and lances was almost given away. There were no bids for the vessel until 1887. When she was converted to an ordinary trader, freighting “black diamonds” (coal) from Newcastle to New Zealand. and crossing the Tasman to Melbourne with kauri pine. What became of “Black Billy” is not recorded. but like the whaling days, those of the uncertificated masters were over too.
Her last years of “blue water” in charge successively of Captains Rapp, Chaplin and Delmar were spent freighting sawn hardwood from Adventure Bay, Tasmania, to the Yarra. The last voyage was in 1893 when she was converted into a Melbourne coal hulk. When men were unshipping the foremast a silver franc of 1835 was found in the step, the age-old custom of good luck. The bowsprit, massive spar, was found to be of valuable rose wood.
Bunkering “black diamonds” until the advent of the motor ship, the old “wooden waller” was reconditioned for cargo lightering. To-day the big deckhouse, which accommodated the whalemen, has long since gone, but the little “cuddy” (cabin) is still the same. No ornate brass rail leads down the companionway, but a sennit manrope cunningly fashioned by some sailorman now dead and gone still does service.
One hundred years,“running the Easting down” long before the Lightning James Baines, Thermopylae or Cutty Sark, and yet still in active, but lowly, service. In the Victoria Dock to-day, down to Geelong tomorrow, and breasting the seas off Point Cook, she labors on, perhaps dreaming of those years when from her “crow’s nest” came the welcome shout of “There she blows !”
Sources
Julien Durup
Argus Newspaper
The Age News paper
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