Waitoa was part of a flotilla boats used by a pearl cultivation enterprise, run by Japanese investors in 1960’s. As time went on she became a ferry for Islanders working at Escape River to travel back and forth to TI. When an oil spill wiped out the cultivation business in 1970 we returned this lugger and few others to fishing for pearl shells, called mother-of-pearl, in the Torres Strait.

The sheets were inch thick manilla or sisal rope and there were no winches or cleats, just solid belaying pins. The enormous tiller was controlled by a rope bridle. There was no shelter for the helmsman from heavy weather although luggers built in following years had a small wheelhouse.

134 years ago today, on 22 April 1887, a cyclone struck the pearling fleet at Ninety Mile Beach near Broome claiming 140 lives. The storm was unexpected, as it was late into the season, so the fleet had very little warning of the approaching danger.