Gazing across the river and thinking that, had I been as lazy and devoid of all ambitions in 1977 as I am now, I'd never have left that easy job on soporific Thursday Island, I was awoken from my dreamlike ruminations when Padma called from the house, "Telephone for you!"
It was Hubert who had also worked on Thursday Island but, unlike me, had remained there for half a lifetime before retiring to Cooktown where he does beachcombing and boating and researches local history.
"I've just emailed you a historic document handwritten by Lieutenant Pascoe which I'm trying to decipher. You being a man of many words, could you help me with deciphering one particular one?" he asked me.
The word was ".ra.as" which, in the context of the whole sentence, turned out to be "... having been engaged in the fracas of the 13th Sept." and referred to the time when Lieutenant Pascoe, together with a detachment of twenty-five marines, in 1893 had been sent to the now long-abandoned settlement of Somerset on Cape York Peminsula.
Somerset was many things to many people. Its main purpose was humanitarian, to provide a harbour of refuge for mariners from the numerous ships which were wrecked in the perilous passage through Torres Strait. The British thought of Somerset as a strategic outpost to guard the important sea-lane which linked the Indian and Pacific oceans. The Queenslanders had visions of a busy commercial port and thought that Somerset would become a replica of Singapore.
Today Somerset is little more than a memory. The physical evidence of its former existence is the site of the magistrate's house, an old stone wall, and the graveyard close to the beach, for it was abandoned in 1877 as an official outpost. What buildings had survived the destructive erosion of white ants were removed to Thursday Island, which became the administrative centre for the Torres Strait islands. The scenery is as beautiful as ever but the human life has gone except for occasional visitors such as my friend Hubert who still fossicks for bits and pieces.
Well, Hubert, your call reminded me to read again Jack Mclaren's "My Crowded Solitude". I'm also glad we got those "fracas" (which is both plural and singular) out of the way, and thanks also for suggesting I should join the facebook group "SOMERSET - it's history and people".
I shall join them as soon as they've removed the offending apostrophe!
