The Lovely Schooner “Wanetta”

By Julien Durup a student of history

The sailing vessel (S V) Wanetta was built in 1898 by David Drake, in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. According to Lloyd’s Register ‘Navire à voiles’ 1930-1931, she was registered in Port Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles.

Schooner Wanetta at Thursday Island, Queensland, 1919 -Fryer Library Photograph Collection, UQFL477, Box 4, PIC305

In the Seychelles maritime annals, we found mostly the sturdy Seychellois built ships that ended in Australia, but rarely the opposite. It is worth mentioning that the following three Seychellois built ships that ended their lives in Australia: The first one was the 95-ton square brig Arpenteur, built at Praslin in 1839. She was wrecked in a strong gale under the command of Captain William Owen, at Cheynes Beach, Western Australia. The second was the 328-ton Marie Laure, built in 1840 at Marie Laure, Bel Ombre, Mahé, she was still in use in the late 1940s in Melbourne as a pontoon. The last one was the Josephine Loizeau, built at Mahé in 1841 and wrecked on the 10 July 1856 at Port Eliot, in South Australia.

David Drake the Boat Builder

David Drake the Boat Builder

David Drake was born in Leith, near Edinburgh, in Scotland; there he worked under his father who was a shipbuilder. In 1861, at the tender age of 23 years old as a marine carpenter, it is alleged that he boarded at Liverpool, the Champion of the Seas, a beautiful clipper of the Black Ball Line heading for Sydney, Australia. Soon after his arrival he started work on the Glebe Island wooden bridge and became a foreman in Chowno’s shipbuilding yards in Pyrmont, in New South Wales. In 1866, he started to build many ships, with the first being the schooner Annie D, followed by several more ships. He also built many large wooden ferry steamers, the last being the Bald Rock. She was later renamed Vaucluse and used as a tug and then later converted into a lighter (barge). David Drake died on Friday 18 of August 1922 at the ripe old age of 84 years old.

Technical details

The Wanetta, was a 121.8-ton, 2-masted topsail schooner, elliptical stern, billet head, carvel wood construction of 101 feet and 6 inches long, and a beam of 24 feet and 4 inches wide. She was first registered in Sydney on 23 of September 1898 and her first owner was James Clark a pearl dealer and pastoralist, of “Mascotte” New Farm Road, Brisbane, Queensland. Clark was a very heavy cigar smoker who was better known as the “Pearl King”.

Wanetta moved to Aru Island from Thursday Island

The Wanetta was the mother ship of the Wanetta Pearling Company. After the great cyclone of 1899 James Clark lost a lot financially, but soon swiftly recovered his fortunes. He became dissatisfied with the new Federal Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. And in 1905, he took 115 of his boats, including the Wanetta from Thursday Island to the Dutch-owned Aru Islands, where he received a concession and formed the Celebes Trading Company in 1904, with his partner S E Munro. In 1904 Clark was appointed Consul for the Netherlands in Queensland.

Wanetta returned to Thursday Island

On the 13 March 1906, he sold the Wanetta to a Dutch Company in the Aru Islands, and 8 years later the Dutch Company sold her to Reginald Augustus Charles Hockings, a pearl seller, of Thursday Island, and the Wanetta was re-registered on 6 May 1914, in Sydney. She was again sold on 1 May 1919, to another two pearl dealers, Vincent Jessup, and Ernest Naylor, both of Broome, Western Australia.

Wanetta sailed to Mauritius

On 1 December 1919, the two pearl dealers sold her to Joseph Rudolphe Closel, a merchant of Port Louis, Mauritius. The Wanetta sailed to Mauritius and was first registered there on the 28 January 1920.

Wanetta drifted to Seychelles!

In1930, according to Lloyd’s Register, the Wanetta was in the Seychelles, and registered in Port Victoria, Mahé, to Captain Felix Georges Joseph Lanier and Percival V Hunt, as Amateur. However, the Wanetta was in service in 1925, in the Seychelles for the same company that had not insured her with any insurance company.

Captain Georges Lanier- courtesy Marcel Lanier

The way Captain Georges Lanier acquired the Wanetta was a bit dubious. It was said, according to oral traditions, that the Wanetta was found adrift, much like the (brigantine Merchant ship Marie Céleste as mentioned by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle), a ghost ship, near one of the Seychelles outlying Islands. She was still in a seaworthy condition and was taken to Mahé, by Captain Georges Lanier. At Mahé, a certain Captain G C Jouanis a partner of Lanier, certified that the Wanetta was a wreck beyond repair and the port authorities informed the owner so.

Later, her former owner in Mauritius wanted to take legal action and Lanier coyly decided not to send her to Mauritius. On 17 September 1925, when she made her first trip to Nossi Be, Madagascar, under the command of Lanier, where she continued on her regular journey firstly to Madagascar, then on to Beira, Mombasa, and other Islands in the Seychelles, until 1948 when she had a major repair and had a new engine installed. She could now carry more cargo and became the most beautiful vessel in the Seychelles. She was then registered as Auxiliary Motor Vessel, (A M V) Wanetta. She was the last schooner with double square topsails in the Seychelles. She left the Seychelles on the 26 of November 1950 under the command of Captain Paul de Lafontaine for her last long journey (as the Wanetta) to Mombasa and other outlying islands including Farquhar. On the 20 of December 1950, she was wrecked ashore during a tropical cyclone on Farquhar Island.

The Wanetta- wrecked in a cyclone

Le Revenant

When she was wrecked her owner had been Dr Paul Edouard Maxime Lanier. The same Dr Lanier,a young medical officer, later became the Chief Medical Officer of the Seychelles. Lanier resigned in 1924 and went to Switzerland to further his studies, in Lausanne, where he wrote his final well-known thesis (Envenimation et hypogliciéme) in 1928. He came back and worked in the Seychelles, and later left the Seychelles to retire in Lausanne, where he died. Dr Lanier was married to a rich lady from Mauritius, and they had one son and one daughter. Before his departure, he sold all his properties, including Farquhar Island to Mr. Paul Moulinié, who had been his driver, and who had to pay Lanier back in installments. During the cyclone the Wanetta was in the harbour at Farquhar Island under the command of Captain Delafontaine. He decided to keep her in the harbour with additional anchors; the hurricane was powerful enough to drag the Wanetta up above the high-water mark. During that time there had been another boat called the Charles Edward (named after Captain Charles Jouanis and Edward Lanier) from Mahé en route to Farquhar. (The Charles Edward was built at Praslin in 1930 by Captain G C Jouanis and Eugene Vidot and was later burned by accident in Mahé).

Wanetta on Firm Ground on Farquhar Island

The captain of the Charles Edward tried to avoid the storm by sailing north and encountered heavy seas, and three days later, while approaching Farquhar, they located the Wanetta and they had thought that she was safely anchored in the harbour. Paul Moulinié who was on board praised Captain Delafontaine for his fine insight. When they approached the harbour they saw to their dismay that Wanetta was in fact on terra firma. All the crew had remained on board the Wanetta and sadly we do not have all their names, however, we know of four of them, and one being Mr. Esmé Jumeau an ex-political minister, who was the mechanic, a certain Mr. Clement Delpech, also a mechanic with his son Clay who became a policeman and later went to South Africa; and the fourth name was, Nile Durup.

Arriving ashore, Paul Moulinié, was shocked to see the major devastation, most of the coconut and other trees had been uprooted. After his inspection, it is alleged that he told Mr. Price René, the manager of the island, to repair the damaged infrastructure and begin the replanting of coconuts and promised him a huge recompense. When it was done, René had not received any compensation. Interestingly in his correspondences, René always referred to the island as Juan de Nova (the former name of Farquhar Island). The island used to have two harvests of maize per year, and the 147-ton schooner Le Revenant used to leave the island fully loaded with maize for Mauritius.

Le Revenant

Wanetta had major repairs on the Farquhar Island, and when she was re-launched, she was renamed Le Revenant, on the 6 of November 1951, and was later referred to by the locals as, Le Revenant and Revenant Farquhar. Le revenant in French means ‘the one who returns after death’!

On 14 November 1951, she left the Seychelles under the command of Captain Joseph William Celtel for Madagascar as AMV Le Revenant.

Le Revenant under full sail with St. Anne Island in the background- Photo courtesy Seychelles Past Facebook

Captains and Master Mariners

Captain Jean Sauvage a former well known Port Officer began his seamanship on the Wanetta, and Captain Joseph William Celtel served on the Le Revenant and had also trained many Seychellois mariners. Captain Guy Adam of SEYPEC, also served his seamanship on the Le Revenant. Another Seychellois Captain Julien Joseph Robertson Durup, better known as Berty. Berty and his twin brother Jules Robert Durup served on the Wanetta under Captain Georges Lanier. They also served under Captain Raymond Parcou, the Seychelles only Extra Master Mariner; Raymond became Captain in Mauritius on 14 of February 1903 and passed his Extra Examination in Sydney, Australia, on 4 September 1943. Robert later died in Bombay and was buried in the Swri Christian Cemetery in Bombay (Mumbai). Berty later became Captain and was based mostly in Mauritius. During the Second World War, his main route was Port Louis to Hong Kong and vice versa.

Coxswain Japhet Grandcourt was also a novice on the Wanetta, however, he started his seamanship under Captain Thomas Voss on the three masted Diolinda (formerly the Annie Reece) built in 1909 in Appledore in the North of Devon, England. She was the first vessel with an engine in the Seychelles.

Le Revenant in Victoria Harbour

The Revenant was broken up in 1962, after 64 years’ service in Australia, Mauritius, and the Seychelles. Then her 160-horse powered Blackstone diesel engine was transferred to the 176-ton Isle of Farquhar. The latter was the last three-masted steel schooner in the Seychelles. She was built in Gröningen, Holland in 1909 and was known as R W Jönsson, Liunea, Kyllikki, Zeemeeuv, La Perle and finally Isle of Farquhar.

Le Revenant in Her Final Resting Place Mount Fleuri Circa. 1963 . Photo by Gordon C. Barker. Posted Peter Edward Gill.

Below is a link to an ultra-rare clip posted by Mike Butt on his Facebook page entitled: Seychelles c 1953, on board the Revenant, with Captain Willy Celtel: ~https://www.facebook.com/mike.butt.581/videos/10202451901362103?idorvanity=103476257305

An envelope from Finland!

For interest’s sake I have placed below an registered envelope sent to us from Jukka Holmstrom in Finland. This envelope is addressed to:

Sailor Donald Watson, Schooner Wanetta, Port Victoria.

The many stamps at the back of the envelope show how the post office at the time tried hard to locate the addressee. One can also read the message written in French ‘ a quitté voilier Elizabetha pour un vapeur Anglais’.