Sunday Times, Perth, 21 April, 1912.
The Bullarra's Fight With
the Cyclone Fiend.
- One of the marvels of the late
disastrous cyclone on the North-West
coast was the way in which the
steamer Bullarra came through the
fierce ordeal, and a talk with the man
who commanded her in that battle
with grim death is an experience.
Like all brave toilers of the sea,
Captain Harry Upjohn is modest and
therefore reticent. One has to tap
him.
"Look here," he protested. "I'd rather
not be Interviewed. I can't tell you
much," ...
If ever there was a loaded statement it was this. Captain Upjohn had a lot to share about the disaster (see link below of full Inquiry interview). He was in fact the key witness in terms of Koombana's departure from Port Hedland into uncertainty and he was the master who discovered the smoking gun, wreckage from Koombana associated with an oil patch, the outline of which indicated the spot where the wreck lay. His 'protest' strongly suggests that he was under advisement not to discuss too many details with the press.
Why?
https://koombanarevisited.blogspot.com/2019/09/revelations-and-contradictions.html
...so the penman urged him on the tack.
"Did I speak the Koombana off Bedout
Island. Oh! no. We were both in at Hedland
- I left about 20 minutes before the Koombana,
(the other way round, Koombana left ahead
of Bullarra) which steamed away easterly, while
the Bullarra went westerly. Of course I saw the
Koombana for a couple of hours - could see
the ship as well as her smoke. She had not
passed Bedout, which is, under ordinary
circumstances, somewhere about four
hours out from Hedland."
(averaging 12.5 knots)
There was no cyclone then?
"No. The weather was threatening but
nothing to cause alarm. About 5 p.m.,
however I found the conditions had
become so bad that I put out to sea on
the starboard tack."....
There is a tremendous amount of information yielded from the above extract, despite Captain Upjohn's protestations. It is critical to understand that Koombana was in sight for about two hours around noon (filling tanks) off Port Hedland. Koombana headed in a generally northeast direction for Broome and Bullarra in the opposite direction, southwest for Balla Balla. The weather was threatening, 'but nothing to cause alarm'. Bullarra ran into the cyclone around 5 p.m. (about 22 miles from Balla Balla) and Koombana could not have done the same thing heading in the OPPOSITE direction.
See details of the storm in the following post:
https://koombanarevisited.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-storm.html
..."the cyclone continued throughout the
night, and you can imagine us
drenched and battling with the fury of
wind and water. All deck fixtures, the
boats, and my cabin were bashed
about, and the bridge was damaged.
But the worst was experienced on the
next day between noon and 2 o'clock,
when the cyclone seemed to be lashed
into wild fury, and to be actually trying
to smother our efforts to keep
the ship afloat."...
..."We had 12 more hours
of it, for there was no sign of slacking
off until about midnight on Tuesday."
You must have been in the swirl of
the tempest?
"A good deal of the time. But in
between we were in the centre of the
cyclone. The wind was calm, while
the sea rose in great pinnacles that
toppled over on top of us. It was a
nasty sea. After the calm the wind
came from the west-south-west, and
the immense rolling seas swept over
us as before."...
Bullarra experienced the centre of the cyclone and survived.
...You didn't see anything of the
Koombana on the way up?
"No, although we kept a sharp look-
out. Of course we went out from
Broome to search for the missing
steamer. Subsequently I had a special
area allotted to me, and I found
a quantity of wreckage, including
part of the bow of the motor launch
which was on the Koombana."...
By this stage in the evolution of post-disaster circumstances Captain Upjohn said absolutely nothing about the oil patch discovery, its coordinates and the effort to secure a significant number of bottles of the oily water for analysis. It was clearly NOT information he was inclined to share.
Why?
...Say, captain, would you have had
any better chance if you had stayed
in Hedland?
"The policy is to put out to sea, like
the captain of the Calliope at Apia in
Samoa. If we had stayed and got
destroyed, people would have said,
why didn't they go out?"
And therein lies the crux of the matter. It was 'policy' to face storms out at sea rather than in port. Captain Allen was between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Being reluctant to go out one might assume his priority was more for human life than the ship itself.
Suppose you are a bit proud of the
Bullarra?
"She is a fine sea boat one of the
best. She has proved that by living
through that inferno."
Your crew?
"Worked splendidly. They are good
men, every one of them. Like the boat
they have had their test, and have
stood it. By the way they wouldn't
leave the Bullarra now for any other
ship on the sea. They are in love with
her."
Rather sentimental revealing that Captain Upjohn was ultimately a sensitive soul, placed in very difficult circumstances and whose job was at stake with a company less than forthcoming with the truth.
Well, captain, good men and a gallant
ship want a leader in a crisis.
"Oh! there are plenty. We are having the
steamer thoroughly overhauled. Good-bye.
I must go down and see her."
Captain Upjohn died in 1945.
Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales, 01 June, 1945
EE will (and codicil) of HARRY UPJOHN, late of Yetholme,
retired steamship captain, deceased.—Probate granted by
Supreme Court of New South Wales on 20th February, 1945.—
...the executrix and executor of the will of the said Harry Upjohn
who died on 1st "July, 1944, hereby give notice
—Dated 28th May, 1945. F. B. KENNY & SON & BAILLIE,
Proctors for the Executrix and Executor, Rural Bank Chambers,
William-street, Bathurst. By their Agents,—Jennings & Jennings,
Federal Mutual Chambers, 129 Pitt-street, Sydney.
 |
| courtesy Trove Captain Harry Upjohn. |
courtesy Trove
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